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diff --git a/old/55124-0.txt b/old/55124-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 37e1267..0000000 --- a/old/55124-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13239 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de -Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to Engl, by François René Chateaubriand and Alexander Teixeira de Mattos - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England. Volume 6 (of 6) - Mémoires d'outre-tombe - -Author: François René Chateaubriand - Alexander Teixeira de Mattos - -Release Date: July 16, 2017 [EBook #55124] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF FRANÇOIS RENÉ *** - - - - -Produced by Laura Natal Rodriguez and Marc D'Hooghe at -Free Literature (online soon in an extended version, also -linking to free sources for education worldwide ... MOOC's, -educational materials,...) Images generously made available -by the Hathi Trust. - - - - - -THE MEMOIRS OF FRANÇOIS RENÉ - -VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND - -SOMETIME AMBASSADOR TO ENGLAND - -BEING A TRANSLATION BY ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS -OF THE MÉMOIRES D'OUTRE-TOMBE WITH ILLUSTRATIONS -FROM CONTEMPORARY SOURCES. In 6 Volumes. Vol. VI - - "NOTRE SANG A TEINT - LA BANNIÈRE DE FRANCE" - -LONDON: PUBLISHED BY FREEMANTLE -AND CO. AT 217 PICCADILLY MDCCCCII - - -[Illustration: Chateaubriand's tomb.] - - - - -CONTENTS - -VOLUME VI - -BOOK V 1-40 - -Journal from Carlsbad to Paris--Cynthia--Eger--Wallenstein--Weissenstadt ---Berneck--Memories--Bayreuth--Voltaire--Hollfeld--The -church--The little girl with the basket--The inn-keeper and his -maid-servant--Bamberg--The female hunchback--Würzburg: its canons--A -drunkard--The swallow--The inn at Wiesenbach--A German and his wife--My -age and appearance--Heidelberg--Pilgrims--Ruins--Mannheim--The -Rhine—-The Palatinate--Aristocratic and plebeian armies--Convent -and castle--A lonely inn--Kaiserslautern--Saarbrück--Metz--Charles -X.'s Council in France--Ideas on Henry V.--My letter to Madame la -Dauphine--Letters from Madame la Duchesse de Berry - -BOOK VI 41-76 - -Journal from Paris to Venice--The Jura--The Alps--Milan--Verona--The -roll-call of the dead--The Brenta--Incidental remarks--Venice--Venetian -architecture--Antonio--The Abbé Betio and M. Gamba--The rooms in the -Palace of the Doges--Prisons--Silvio Pellico's prison--The Frari--The -Academy of Fine Arts--Titian's _Assumption_--The metopes of the -Parthenon--Original drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo and -Raphael--The Church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo--The Arsenal--Henry -IV.--A frigate leaving for America--The Cemetery of San Cristoforo--San -Michele di Murano--Murano--The woman and the child--Gondoliers--Bretons -and Venetians--Breakfast on the Riva degli Schiavoni--The tomb of -Mesdames at Trieste--Rousseau and Byron--Great geniuses inspired by -Venice--Old and new courtezans--Rousseau and Byron compared - -BOOK VII 77-118 - -Arrival of Madame de Bauffremont in Venice--Catajo--The Duke of -Modena--Petrarch's Tomb at Arqua--The land of poets--Tasso--Arrival -of Madame la Duchesse de Berry--Mademoiselle Lebeschu--Count -Lucchesi-Palli--Discussion--Dinner--Bugeaud the gaoler--Madame de -Saint-Priest, M. de Saint-Priest--Madame de Podenas--Our band--I -refuse to go to Prague--I yield at a word--Padua--Tombs--Zanze's -manuscript--Unexpected news--The Governor of the Lombardo-Venetian -Kingdom--Letters from Madame to Charles X. and Henry V.--M. de -Montbel--My note to the Governor--I set out for Prague - -BOOK VIII 119-145 - -Journal from Padua to Prague, from the 20th to the 26th of -September 1833--Conegliano--The translator of the _Dernier -Abencerrage_--Udine--Countess Samoyloff--M. de La Ferronays--A -priest--Carinthia--The Drave--A peasant lad--Forges--Breakfast -at the hamlet of St. Michael--The neck of the Tauern--A -cemetery--Atala: how changed--A sunrise--Salzburg--A military -review--Happiness of the peasants--Woknabrück--Reminiscences of -Plancoët--Night--German and Italian towns contrasted--Linx--The -Danube--Waldmünchen--Woods--Recollections of Combourg -and Lucile--Travellers--Prague--Madame de Gontaut--The -young Frenchmen--Madame la Dauphine--An excursion to -Butschirad--Butschirad--Charles X. asleep--Henry V.--Reception -of the young men--The ladder and the peasant-woman--Dinner at -Butschirad--Madame de Narbonne--Henry V.--A rubber--Charles X.--My -incredulity touching the declaration of majority--The newspapers--Scene -of the young men--Prague--I leave for France--I pass by Butschirad -at night--A meeting at Schlau--Carlsbad empty--Hollfeld--Bamberg--My -different St. Francis' Days--Trials of religion--France - -BOOK IX 146-198 - -General politics of the moment--Louis-Philippe--M. Thiers--M. de La -Fayette--Armand Carrel--Of some women: the lady from Louisiana--Madame -Tastu--Madame Sand--M. de Talleyrand--Death of Charles X. - -BOOK X 199-225 - -Conclusion--Historical antecedents from the Regency to 1793--The -Past--The old European order expiring--Inequality of fortunes--Danger -of the expansion of intellectual nature and material nature--The -downfall of the monarchies--The decline of society and the progress of -the individual--The future--The difficulty of understanding it--The -Christian idea is the future of the world--Recapitulation of my -life--Summary of the changes that have happened on the globe during my -life--End of the _Mémoires d'Outre-tombe_ - -APPENDICES - -I. THE MORGANATIC MARRIAGE OF THE DUCHESSE DE BERRY 229-235 - -II. UNPUBLISHED FRAGMENTS OF THE _MÉMOIRES D'OUTRE-TOMBE_ 236-247 - -III. THE LAST YEARS OF CHATEAUBRIAND 248-264 - -IV. THE TRANSLATOR'S SECOND NOTE 265-266 - -INDEX 269-332 - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - -VOL. VI - - CHATEAUBRIAND'S TOMB - THE DUCHESSE DE BERRY - THE DUC AND DUCHESSE D'ANGOULÊME - LOUIS PHILIPPE - ADOLPHE THIERS - THE VICOMTESSE DE CHATEAUBRIAND - - - - -THE - -MEMOIRS OF CHATEAUBRIAND - -VOLUME VI[1] - - - - -BOOK V - - -Journal from Carlsbad to -Paris--Cynthia--Eger--Wallenstein--Weisaenstadt--Berneck--Memories ---Bayreuth--Voltaire--Hollfeld--The church--The little girl with -the basket--The inn-keeper and his maid-servant--Bamberg--The -female hunchback--Würzburg: its canons--A drunkard--The -swallow--The inn at Wiesenbach--A German and his wife--My age and -appearance--Heidelberg--Pilgrims--Ruins--Mannheim--The Rhine--The -Palatinate--Aristocratic and plebeian armies--Convent and castle--A -lonely inn--Kaiserslautern--Saarbrück--Metz--Charles X.'s Council in -France--Ideas on Henry V.--My letter to Madame la Dauphine--Letters -from Madame la Duchesse de Berry. - - -1 _June_ 1833, _evening._ - -The journey from Carlsbad to Elbogen, along the Eger, is pleasant. The -castle of this little town is of the twelfth century and keeps sentry -on a rock, at the entrance to the gorge of a valley. The foot of the -rock, covered with trees, is contained within a bend of the Eger: hence -the name of the town and the castle, Elbogen, the Elbow. - -The donjon was red with the last rays of the sun when I saw it from the -high-road. Above the mountains and woods hung the twisted column of -smoke of a foundry. - -I started at half-past nine from the Zwoda stage. I followed the road -along which Vauvenargues passed in the retreat from Prague, the young -man to whom Voltaire, in the _Éloge funèbre des officiers morts en -1741_, addresses these words: - -"Thou art no more, O sweet hope of my remaining days; -I have always beheld in thee the most unfortunate of men -and the most tranquil." - -From inside my calash, I watched the stars rise. - -Be not afraid, Cynthia,[2] it is but the whispering of the reeds bent -by our passage through their mobile forest. I have a dagger for jealous -men and blood for thee. Let not this tomb cause thee any alarm; it is -that of a woman once loved like thyself: Cecilia Metella lay here. - -How wonderful is this night in the Roman Campagna! The moon rises -behind the Sabine Hill to contemplate the sea; she causes to stand -forth from the diaphanous darkness the ashen-blue summits of Albano, -the more distant, less deeply-graven lines of Soracte. The long canal -of the old aqueducts lets fall a few globules of its waters through the -mosses, columbines, gilliflowers, and joins the mountains to the city -walls. Planted one above the other, the aerial porticoes, cutting into -the sky, turn in mid-air the torrent of the ages and the course of the -brooks. The legislatrix of the world, Rome, seated on the stone of her -sepulchre, with her robe of centuries, projects the irregular outline -of her tall figure into the milky solitude. - -Let us sit down: this pine-tree, like the goat-herd of the Abruzzi, -unfolds its parasol among ruins. The moon showers her snowy light upon -the Gothic crown of the tower of Metella's tomb and on the festoons of -marble that link the horns of the bucrania: a graceful pomp inviting us -to enjoy life, which speeds so soon. - -Hark! The nymph Egeria is singing beside her fountain; the nightingale -warbles in the vine of the Hypogeum of the Scipios; the languid Syrian -breeze indolently wafts to us the fragrance of the wild tuberoses. The -palm-tree of the abandoned villa waves half-drowned in the amethyst and -azure of the Phosbean light. But thou, made pale by the reflections of -Diana's purity, thou, O Cynthia, art a thousand times more graceful -than that palm-tree. The shades of Delia, Lalage, Lydia, Lesbia, -resting on broken cornices, stammer mysterious words around thee. Thy -glances cross those of the stars and mingle with their rays. - -[Sidenote: To Cynthia.] - -But, Cynthia, nothing is real except the happiness which thou canst -enjoy. Those constellations which shine so brightly on thy head -harmonize with thy bliss only through the illusions of a beguiling -perspective. O young and fair Italian, time is ending! On those flowery -carpets thy companions have already passed. - -A mist unfolds itself, rises and veils the eye of the night with a -silvery retina; the pelican cries and returns to the strand; the -woodcock alights in the horse-tails of the diamond-studded springs; -the bell resounds under the dome of St. Peter's; the nocturnal -plain-chant, the voice of the middle-ages, saddens the lonely monastery -of Santa-Croce; the monk chants Lauds upon his knees, on the calcined -columns of San Paolo; vestals prostrate themselves on the icy slab that -closes their crypts; the _pifferaro_ pipes his midnight lament before -the solitary Madonna, at the condemned gate of a catacomb. 'Tis the -hour of melancholy; religion awakens and love falls asleep! - -Cynthia, thy voice is weakening: the refrain which the Neapolitan -fisherman taught thee in his swift-sailing bark, or the Venetian -oarsman in his gondola, dies away on thy lips. Yield to the exhaustion -of thy sleep; I will watch over thy repose. The darkness with which thy -lids cover thy eyes vies in suavity with that which drowsy, perfumed -Italy pours over thy brow. When the neighing of our horses is heard in -the Campagna, when the morning-star proclaims the dawn, the herd of -Frascati will come down with his goats and I shall not cease to soothe -thee with my whispered lullaby: - - "A bundle of jasmin and narcissus, an alabaster Hebe but lately - emerging from the hollow way of an excavation, or fallen from the - frontal of a temple, lies on this bed of anemones: no, Muse, you - err. The jasmin, the alabaster Hebe is a Roman sorceress, born - sixteen months ago of May and the half of a spring, to the sound of - the lyre, at the rise of dawn, in a field of roses of Pæstum. - - "Winds from the orange-trees of Palermo that blow over Circe's - isle; breezes that pass to Tasso's tomb, that caress the nymphs - and Cupids of the Farnese; you that play in the Vatican among - Raphael's Virgins, among the statues of the Muses; you that dip - your wings in the cascades of Tivoli; genii of the arts that live - on master-pieces and flutter with the memories, come: you alone do - I permit to inspire Cynthia's sleep. - - "And you, majestic daughters of Pythagoras, Fates in your robes - of flax, inevitable sisters seated at the axle of the spheres, - turn the thread of Cynthia's destiny over golden spindles; make it - fall from your fingers and rise again to your hands with ineffable - harmony; immortal spinsters, open the gate of ivory to those dreams - which lie on a woman's breast without oppressing it! I will sing - thee, O canephor of the Roman solemnities, young Charite fed on - ambrosia in Venus' lap, smile sent from the East to glide over my - life, violet forgotten in Horace' garden...." - - -"Mein Herr, ten kreutzers vor de durnbike!" - -A plague upon you with your "crutches!" I had changed my sky! I was -just in the right mood! The Muse will not return! That accursed Eger, -to which we are coming, is the cause of my unhappiness. - -The nights are fatal at Eger. Schiller shows us Wallenstein, betrayed -by his accomplices, going to the window of a room in the fortress of -Eger: - - Am Himmel ist geschäftige Bewegung, - Des Thurmes Fahne jagt der Wind, schnell geht - Der Wolken Zug, die Mondeszichel wankt, - Und durch die Nacht zucht ungewisse Helle[3]. - -Wallenstein, on the point of being assassinated, expresses himself in -touching terms on the death of Max Piccolomini[4], beloved by Thekla[5]: - - Die Blume ist hinweg aus meinem Leben - . . . . . . . - Denn er stand neben mir, wie meine Jugend, - Er machte mir das Wirkliche zum Traum[6]. - -Wallenstein retires to his place of rest: - - Sieh, es ist Nacht geworden; auf dem Schloss - Ist's auch schon stille. Leucine, Kämmerling! - . . . . . . . - Ich denke einen langen Schlaf zu thun; - Denn dieser letzten Tage Qual war gross. - Sorgt, dass sie nicht zu zeitig mir erwecken[7]. - -The dagger of the murderers snatches Wallenstein from his dreams of -ambition, even as the voice of the turnpike-man put an end to my -dream of love. Both Schiller and Benjamin Constant, who gave proof of -a new talent by imitating the German tragic poet, have gone to join -Wallenstein, while I, at the gates of Eger, recall their treble fame. - -[Sidenote: Bavaria.] - -2 _June_ 1833. - -I passed through Eger and, on Saturday the 1st of June, at day-break, -entered Bavaria: a tall red-haired girl, bare-foot and bare-headed, -came to open the turnpike to me, like Austria in person. The cold -lasted: the grass in the moats was covered with a white hoar-frost; wet -foxes came out of the oat-fields; grey, zig-zag, wide-spreading clouds -hung across in the sky like eagles' wings. - -I arrived at Weissenstadt at nine o'clock in the morning; at the same -moment, a sort of gig was carrying away a young woman driving without a -hat; she looked very much like what she probably was: joy, love's short -fortune, then the hospital and the common grave. Strolling pleasure, -may Heaven not be too severe on your boards! There are so many actors -worse than yourself in this world! - -Before entering the village, I passed through "_wastes_:" this word -was at the point of my pencil; it belonged to our old Frankish tongue: -it describes the aspect of a desolate country better than the word -"_lande_," which means earth. I still know the song which they used to -sing in the evening when crossing the waste-lands: - - C'est le chevalier des Landes: - Malheureux chevalier! - Quand il fut dans la lande, - A ouï les sings sonner[8]. - -After Weissenstadt comes Berneck. On leaving Berneck, the road is lined -with poplar-trees, whose winding avenue filled me with an indescribable -sentiment of mingled pleasure and sadness. On ransacking my memory, -I found that they resembled the poplars with which the high-road was -formerly laid out at the entrance to Villeneuve-sur-Yonne on the Paris -side. Madame de Beaumont is no more; M. Joubert is no more; the poplars -are felled and, after the fourth fall of the Monarchy, I am passing at -the feet of the poplars at Berneck: - - "Give me," says St. Augustine, "a man who loves, and he will - understand what I say." - -Youth laughs at those disappointments; it is charming, happy: in vain -do you tell it that the time will come when it too will know a similar -bitterness; it thrusts you aside with its light wing and flies away in -search of pleasures: it is right, if it dies with them. - -Here is Bayreuth, a reminiscence of another sort. This town stands in -the middle of a hollow plain of crops mixed with meadow-land: it has -wide streets, low houses, a weak population. In the time of Voltaire -and Frederic II., the Margravine of Bayreuth was famous; her death -inspired the bard of Ferney with the only ode in which he displayed any -lyrical talent: - - Tu ne chanteras plus, solitaire Sylvandre, - Dans ce palais des arts, où les sons de ta voix - Contre les préjugés osaient se faire entendre, - Et de l'humanité faisaient parler les droits[9]. - -The poet here praises himself justly, were it not that there was no -one less solitary in the world than Voltaire-Sylvander. The poet adds, -addressing the Margravine: - - Des tranquilles hauteurs de la philosophie, - Ta pitié contemplait, avec des yeux sereins, - Les fantômes changeants du songes de la vie, - Tant de rêves détruits, tant de projets si vains[10]. - -[Sidenote: Bayreuth.] - -From the height of a palace, it is easy to look down with calm eyes -upon the poor devils who pass along the street; but those lines are -none the less mightily true.... Who could feel them better than myself? -I have seen so many phantoms defile through the dream of life! At -this very moment, have I not been looking on the three royal larvæ -in the Castle in Prague and on the daughter of Marie-Antoinette at -Carlsbad? In 1733, just a century ago, what was it occupied men's -minds? Had they the least idea of what is now? When Frederic was -married, in 1733, under the rough tutelage of his father, had he, in -_Mathew Laensberg_[11], seen M. de Tournon[12] Intendant of Bayreuth -and leaving his intendance for the "Prefectship" of Rome? In 1933, the -traveller passing through Franconia will ask of my shade if I could -have guessed the facts of which he will be a witness. - -While I was breakfasting, I read some lessons which a German lady, -young and pretty, of course, was writing to a master's dictation: - - "_Celui_ qu'il _est content, est riche. Vous et_ je _nous avons peu - d'argent; mais nous sommes_ content. _Nous sommes_ ainci _à mon - avis plus riches que tel qui a_ un _tonne d'or, et il est...._" - -That is true, mademoiselle, you and _je_ have little money; you are -satisfied, as it seems, and you laugh at a ton of gold; but, if, by -chance, I were not satisfied, you must agree that, for me, a ton of -gold might be rather pleasant. - -On leaving Bayreuth, one goes up. Slender pruned firs represented to -me the pillars of the mosque at Cairo or the Cathedral of Cordova, -but shrunk and blackened, like a landscape reproduced in the _camera -obscura._ The road runs on from hill to hill and valley to valley: the -hills wide, with a tuft of wood on their brows; the valleys narrow and -green, but badly watered. At the lowest point of these valleys, one -sees a hamlet marked by the _campanile_ of a little church. The whole -of Christian civilization was formed in this way: the missionary, -become a parish-priest, stopped; the Barbarians cantoned themselves -around him, like flocks gathering round the shepherd. In former days, -those remote habitations would have made me dream more than one kind of -dream; to-day, I dream not at all and am nowhere at ease. - -Baptiste, suffering from over-fatigue, compelled me to stop at -Hollfeld. While supper was being made ready, I climbed the rock which -overlooks a part of the village. Upon that rock rises a square belfry; -swifts screamed as they swept round the roof and fronts of the turret. -That scene consisting of a few birds and an old tower had not repeated -itself since the days of my childhood at Combourg; my heart was quite -oppressed by it. I went down to the church on a hanging ground towards -the west; it was surrounded by its grave-yard abandoned by the new -deceased. The old dead only marked out their furrows there: a proof -that they had tilled their field. The setting sun, pale and drowned, -on the horizon, in a fir-plantation, lit up the lonely refuge where no -other man than I stood erect. When shall I be recumbent in my turn? We -are beings of nothingness and darkness; our impotency and our potency -are strongly characterized: we cannot, at will, procure for ourselves -either light or life; but nature, by giving us eye-lids and a hand, has -put night and death at our disposal. - -Entering the church, whose door was half-open, I knelt down with the -intention of saying an _Our Father_ and _Hail Mary_ for the repose of -my mother's soul: a servitude of immortality laid upon Christian souls -in their mutual affection. Suddenly I thought I heard the shutter of a -confessional open; I fancied that Death, instead of a priest, was about -to appear at the penance grating. At that very moment, the bell-ringer -came to lock the door of the church: I had only time to leave. - -[Sidenote: The little basket-carrier.] - -Returning to the inn, I met a little basket-carrier: she had bare legs -and feet; her skirt was short, her bodice torn; she walked stooping and -with her arms crossed. Together we climbed a steep road; she turned her -sun-burnt face a little to my side; her pretty and dishevelled head -was glued against her basket. Her eyes were black; her mouth was half -open to facilitate her breathing; one saw that, under her burdened -shoulders, her young breast had as yet felt no other weight than the -spoils of the orchards. She tempted one to talk to her of roses: - -"Ρόδα μ'εἴ ρηχας[13]." - -I applied myself to casting the adolescent vintager's horoscope: will -she grow old at the wine-press, unknown and happy as the mother of a -family? Will she be carried off to the camps by a corporal? Will she -fall a prey to some Don Juan? The abducted village-girl loves her -ravisher as much with astonishment as with passion: he transports -her to a marble palace on the Straits of Messina, under a palm-tree -beside a spring, opposite the sea displaying its azure billows and Etna -belching flames. - -I had reached this point in my story, when my companion, turning to -the left in a wide open space, went towards some lonely dwellings. -As she was about to disappear, she stopped, cast a last look at the -stranger, and then, bowing her head to pass, with her basket, under a -low door-way, entered a cottage, like a little shy cat gliding into a -barn among the sheaves. Let us go on to find in her prison Her Royal -Highness Madame la Duchesse de Berry: - - Je la suivis, mais je pleurai - De ne pouvoir plus suivre qu'elle[14]. - -My host at Hollfeld is a curious man: he and his maid-servant are -inn-keepers with extreme reluctance; they abhor travellers. When they -espy a carriage from afar, they go to hide themselves, cursing those -vagabonds who have nothing to do but scour the high-roads, those idle -persons who disturb an honest publican and prevent him from drinking -the wine which he is obliged to sell to them. The old servant sees -that her master is being ruined, but she is waiting for a stroke of -Providence in his favour; like Sancho, she will say: - -"Sir, accept this fine Kingdom of Micomicon which falls from heaven -into your hand." - -Once the first movement of ill-humour is past, the couple, in the -interval between two bouts, put a good face on the matter. The -chamber-maid murders a trifle of French, squints for two and has an air -of saying to you: - -"I have seen finer sparks than you in Napoleon's armies!" - -She smelt of tobacco and brandy, like glory by the camp-fire; she ogled -me with a provoking and wicked glance: how sweet it is to be loved at -the very moment when one had given up all hopes of it! But, Javotte, -you come too late for my "broken and mortified temptations," as a -Frenchman of old said; my sentence is passed: - -"Harmonious veteran, take thy rest," M. Lerminier[15] has said to me. - -You see, fair and friendly stranger, I am forbidden to listen to your -song: - - Vivandière du regiment, - _Javotte_ l'on me nomme, - Je vends, je donne, et bois gaîment - Mon vin et mon rogomme. - J'ai le pied leste et l'œil mutin, - Tin tin, tin tin, tin tin, tin tin, - R'lin lin tin[16]. - -There you have another reason why I withstand your seductions; you are -frivolous; you would betray me. Fly away then, Dame Javotte of Bavaria, -like your predecessor, Madame Isabeau[17]. - -2 _June_ 1833. - -I have left Hollfeld, I am passing through Bamberg at night. All is -sleeping: I see only a tiny light whose feeble glimmer comes from the -back of a room to grow wan at a window. What is waking here: pleasure -or sorrow, love or death? - -At Bamberg, in 1815, Berthier, Prince of Neufchâtel, fell from a -balcony into the street[18]: his master was about to fall from a -greater height. - -_Sunday_ 2 _June._ - -At Dettelbach, reappearance of the vines. Four growths mark the limit -of four natures and four climates: the birch, the vine, the olive and -the palm, always going towards the sun. - -[Sidenote: The Hunchback.] - -After Dettelbach, two stages to Würzburg, and a female hunchback seated -behind my carriage; it was Terence's Andria: _Inopia.... egregia -forma.... ætate integra._[19] The postillion wanted to make her get -down; I objected, for two reasons: first, because I should have been -afraid lest that fairy should have thrown a spell over me; secondly, -because, having read in a biography of myself that I am a hunchback, -all female hunchbacks are my sisters. Who can satisfy himself that -he is not hunchbacked? Who will ever tell you that you are? If you -look at yourself in the glass, you cannot say at all; do we ever see -ourselves as we are? You will find a turn in your figure that suits you -to perfection. All hunchbacks are proud and happy; the advantages of -the hump are hallowed in song. At the entrance to a lane, my hunchback, -in her ragged finery, stepped majestically to the ground: carrying her -burden, like all mortals, Serpentina plunged into a corn-field and -disappeared among spikes taller than herself. - -At mid-day, on the 2nd of June, I had reached the top of a hill from -which one descried Würzburg: the citadel on a height, the town below, -with its palace, its steeples and its turrets. The palace, although -thick-set, would be handsome even in Florence; in case of rain, the -Prince could give shelter to all his subjects in his mansion without -giving up his own apartments. - -The Bishop of Würzburg was formerly the Sovereign Bishop: the -nomination was in the gift of the canons of the Chapter. After his -election, he passed, stripped to the waist, between his colleagues -drawn up in two rows, who scourged him. It was hoped that the princes, -offended at this manner of consecrating a royal back, would refrain -from presenting themselves as candidates. To-day this would be of no -avail: there is not a descendant of Charlemagne but would consent to be -whipped for three days on end to obtain the crown of Yvetot. - -I have seen the Emperor of Austria's brother Duke of Würzburg[20]; he -used to sing very prettily at Fontainebleau, in the Galerie de François -I<sup>er</sup>, at the concerts of the Empress Joséphine. - -They kept Schwartz two hours at the passport-office. Left with my -unharnessed carriage in front of a church, I went in: I prayed with -the Christian crowd which represents the old society in the midst of -the new. A procession went out and marched round the church: why am I -not a monk on the walls of Rome? The times to which I belong would be -realized in me. - -When the first seeds of religion budded in my soul, I opened out like -a virgin soil which, cleared of its brambles, bears its first harvest. -Came a dry and icy wind, and the soil was parched. The sky took pity -on it; it gave it its tepid dews; then the wind blew again. This -alternation of faith and doubt long made my life a mixture of despair -and unspeakable delights. O my good, sainted mother, pray Jesus Christ -for me: your son needs redeeming more than other men! - -I left Würzburg at four o'clock and took the Mannheim Road. I entered -the Grand-duchy of Baden; I found a village in a merry mood; a drunkard -gave me his hand, shouting: - -"Long live the Emperor!" - -Everything that has happened since the fall of Napoleon is null and -void in Germany. The men who rose to snatch their national independence -from Bonaparte's ambition dream only of him, so greatly did he stir the -imagination of the nations, from the Bedouins in their tents to the -Teutons in their huts. - -As I went towards France, the children became noisier in the hamlets, -the postillions drove faster, life sprang up once more. - -[Sidenote: The Swallow.] - -At Bischoffsheim, where I dined, a fair onlooker appeared at my state -banquet: a swallow, a real Procne, with a reddish breast, came to perch -at my open window, on the iron bar from which swung the sign of the -Golden Sun; then it warbled most sweetly, looking at me as though it -knew me and without showing the least alarm. I have never complained of -being awakened by the daughter of Pandion; I have never, like Anacreon, -called her a "chatterer;" I have always, on the contrary, hailed her -return with the song of the children of the isle of Rhodes: - - "She comes, the swallow comes, bringing good seasons and a joyful - time! Open the window, do not despise the swallow[21]!" - -"François," said my fellow-guest at Bischoffsheim, "my -great-great-grandmother used to live at Combourg, under the rafters -of the roof of your turret; you used to keep her company every year, -in autumn, in the reeds in the pond, when you went dreaming, of an -evening, with your sylph. She landed on your native rock, on the very -day when you embarked for America, and she followed your sail for some -time. My grandmother built her nest in Charlotte's window; eight years -after, she arrived at Jaffa with you: you have mentioned this in your -_Itinéraire?_[22] My mother, while twittering to the dawn, fell one day -into your room at the Foreign Office[23]; you opened the window for her. -My mother has had many children: I who am speaking to you am of her -last nest; I have met you before on the old Tivoli Road in the Roman -Campagna: do you remember? My feathers were so black and so glossy! You -looked at me sadly. Would you like us to fly away together?" - -"Alas, my dear swallow, who know my story so well, you are extremely -kind; but I am a poor moulting bird, and my feathers will never come -back; I cannot, therefore, fly away with you. And you could not carry -me: I am too heavy with sorrows and years. And then, where should we -go? Spring and beautiful climates are no longer of my season. For you, -the air and love; for me, the ground and loneliness. You are going -away: may the dew cool your wings! May a hospitable yard offer to your -tired flight, when you are crossing the Ionian Sea! May a peaceful -October save you from shipwreck! Greet the olive-trees of Athens and -the palm-trees of Rosetta for me. If I am no more when the flowers -bring you back, I invite you to my funeral banquet: come at sunset to -snap up the gnats on the grass of my grave; like you, I love liberty -and I have lived on little[24]." - - -3 _and_ 4 _June_ 1833. - -I set out myself by land, a few moments after the swallow had set sail. -The night was overcast; the moon hovered, weakened and wasted, among -the clouds; my eyes, half-asleep, closed as they looked at it; I felt -as though I were expiring in the mysterious light which illumines the -shadows: "I felt," says Manzoni, "I know not what peaceful depression, -the fore-runner of the last rest." - -I stopped at Wiesenbach: a solitary inn, a narrow, cultivated valley -between two wooded hills. A German from Brunswick, a traveller like -myself, hearing my name pronounced, came running up to me. He pressed -my hand, spoke to me of my works; his wife, he told me, was learning -to read French in the _Génie du Christianisme._ He did not cease to -express surprise at my "youth:" - -"But," he added, "that is the fault of my judgment; I ought to think -you, from your last works, as young as you look." - -[Sidenote: My age and appearance.] - -My life has been mixed up with so many events that, in my readers' -heads, I have the ancientness of those events themselves. I often speak -of my grey head; this is calculated vanity on my part, so that people -may exclaim, when they see me: - -"Ah, he is not so old!" - -A man is at ease with white hair: he can boast of it; to glory in -having black hair would be in bad taste: a fine matter for triumph, to -be as your mother made you! But to be as time, misfortune and wisdom -have dressed you, that is fine! My little artifice has succeeded -sometimes. Quite recently a priest asked to see me; he stood dumb at -the sight of me; at last recovering his speech, he cried: - -"Ah, monsieur, so you will be able to fight a long time yet for the -faith!" - -One day, as I was passing through Lyons, a lady wrote to me; she begged -me to give her daughter a seat in my carriage and take her to Paris. -The proposal struck me as singular; but, after all, having verified the -signature, I found my unknown correspondent to be a highly respectable -lady and I replied politely. The mother introduced her daughter to me, -a divinity of sixteen. No sooner had the mother set eyes upon me than -she blushed scarlet; her confidence forsook her: - -"Forgive me," she stammered; "I am none the less filled with esteem.... -But you understand the proprieties.... I made a mistake.... I am so -greatly surprised." - -I insisted, looking at my promised companion, who seemed amused at the -discussion; I was lavish with protestations that I would take every -imaginable care of that beautiful young person; the mother humbled -herself with excuses and courtesies. The two ladies departed. I was -proud of having frightened them so much. For some hours I thought -myself made young again by the Dawn. The lady had fancied that the -author of the _Génie du Christianisme_ was a venerable Abbé de -Chateaubriand, a tall, dry, simple old man, constantly taking snuff -out of a huge tin snuff-box, who might very well be trusted to take an -innocent school-girl to the Sacred Heart. - -They used to tell in Vienna, two or three lustres ago, that I lived -all alone in a certain valley called the Vallée-aux-Loups. My house -was built on an island; when people wanted to see me, they had to blow -a horn on the opposite bank of the river: a river at Châtenay! I then -looked out through a hole: if the company pleased me, a thing that -hardly ever happened, I came myself to fetch them in a little boat; -if not, not. In the evening, I pulled my boat on shore and nobody -was allowed to land on my island. In point of fact, I ought to have -lived in this way; this Viennese story has always charmed me: M. de -Metternich surely did not invent it; he is not sufficiently my friend -for that. - -I do not know what the German traveller will have told his wife -about me, nor if he went out of his way to undeceive her as to my -decrepitude. I fear that I possess the drawbacks of black hair and -white hair both and that I am neither young enough nor staid enough. -For the rest, I was hardly in the mood for coquetry at Wiesenbach; a -melancholy wind blew under the doors and through the passages of the -inn: when the breeze blows, I am in love with nothing else. - -From Wiesenbach to Heidelberg, one follows the course of the Necker, -cased by hills which carry forests on a bank of sand and red sulphate. -How many rivers I have seen flow! I met pilgrims from Walthüren: -they formed two parallel lines on either side of the high-road; the -carriages passed in the middle. The women walked bare-foot, beads in -hand, with a parcel of linen on their heads; the men bare-headed, also -carrying their beads in their hands. It was raining; in some places the -watery clouds crept along the sides of the hills. Boats loaded with -timber went down the river, others went up, under sail, or in tow. In -the broken places in the hills were hamlets standing among the fields, -in the midst of rich vegetable-gardens adorned with Bengal roses and -different flowering shrubs. Pilgrims, pray for my poor little King: he -is exiled, he is innocent; he is commencing his pilgrimage while you -are performing yours and I ending mine. If he is not to reign, it will -always be a certain glory to me to have fastened the wreck of so great -a fortune to my life-boat God alone sends the fair wind and opens the -harbour. - -[Sidenote: Heidelberg.] - -As one approaches Heidelberg, the bed of the Necker, strewn with rocks, -widens. One sees the wharf of the town and the town itself, which wears -a pleasant mien. The back-ground of the whole picture ends in a tall -earthly horizon: it seems to bar the stream. - -A red-brick triumphal arch marks the entrance to Heidelberg. To the -left, on a hill, stand the ruins of a medieval castle. Apart from -their picturesque effect and some popular traditions, the remains of -the Gothic period interest only the nations whose work they are. Does -a Frenchman trouble his head about the lords Palatine, the princesses -Palatine, plump, white and blue-eyed though they may have been? One -forgets them for St. Geneviève of Brabant[25]. Those modern ruins have -nothing in common with modern nations, excepting their outward aspect -of Christianity and their feudal character. - -It is different, leaving out the sun, with the monuments of Greece and -Italy; these belong to all nations: they commence their history; their -inscriptions are written in languages known to all civilized men. The -ruins even of renovated Italy possess a general interest, because they -are stamped with the seal of the arts and the arts come within the -public domain of society. A fresco by Domenichino[26] or Titian that -becomes obliterated, a palace by Michael Angelo or Palladio[27] that -crumbles throw the genius of all the centuries into mourning. - -At Heidelberg, they show a tun of inordinate proportions, a drunkards' -Coliseum in ruins: at least no Christian has lost his life in that -amphitheatre of the Vespasians of the Rhine; his reason, yes: that is -no great loss. - -At the outlet of Heidelberg, the hills to the right and left of the -Necker fall away, and one enters upon a plain. A winding embankment, -raised a few feet above the level of the corn-fields, is delineated -between two rows of cherry-trees harshly treated by the wind and of -walnut-trees "often by the wayfarers attacked[28]." - -At the entrance to Mannheim, one drives through hop-vines, whose long, -dry props were as yet decorated to only one third of their height -by the climbing creeper. Julian the Apostate wrote a pretty epigram -against beer; the Abbé de La Bletterie[29] imitated it with some -elegance: - - Tu n'es qu'un faux Bacchus ... - J'en atteste le véritable. - . . . . . . . - Que le Gaulois, pressé d'une soif éternelle - Au défaut de la grappe ait recours aux épis, - De Cérès qu'il vante le fils: - Vive le fils de Semèle[30]. - -A few orchards, some walks shaded by willow-trees of all sizes form a -verdant suburb to Mannheim. The houses in the town have often only one -storey above the ground-floor. The main street is wide and planted with -trees in the middle: one more down-fallen city. I do not like false -gold, and so I did not want any Mannheim gold; but I certainly have -"Toulouse gold[31]," to judge by the disasters of my life: yet who has -more than I respected the Temple of Apollo? - - -3 _and_ 4 _June_ 1833. - -I crossed the Rhine at two o'clock in the afternoon. At the moment of -passing, a steam-boat came up stream. What would Cæsar have said if he -had met such a machine while he was building his bridge? - -On the other side of the Rhine, opposite Mannheim, one finds Bavaria -again, as a result of the odious slashings and jobbings of the Treaties -of Paris, Vienna and Aix-la-Chapelle. Every one cut out his share with -scissors, without any regard for reason, humanity or justice, without -troubling about the slice of population that fell into a pair of royal -chops. - -[Sidenote: The Palatinate.] - -Driving through the Cisrhenan Palatinate, I reflected how this country -had once formed a department of France, how white Gaul was girt about -by the Rhine, the "blue sash" of Germany. Napoleon and the Republic -before him had realized the dream of several of our kings, above all -of Louis XIV. So long as we do not occupy our natural frontiers, there -will be war in Europe, because the interest of self-preservation drives -France to seize the boundaries necessary to her national independence. -Here we have planted trophies to claim back in due season. - -The plain between the Rhine and the Monts Tonnerre looks sad; earth and -men seem to say that their fate is not settled, that they belong to -no people; they appear to be expecting new invasions, as it were new -river-floods. The Germans of Tacitus devastated great spaces on their -frontiers and left them empty between these and their enemies. Woe to -the border populations that till the battlefields on which the nations -are to meet! - -As I approached ----, I saw a sad sight: a wood of young fir-trees, -five or six feet high, felled and bound into faggots, a forest mown -like grass. I have spoken of the cemetery of Lucerne, where the -children's burials throng on one side. I never felt more keenly the -need to end my wanderings, to die under the protection of a friendly -hand laid upon my heart to interrogate it, when they shall say: - -"It has stopped beating." - -From the edge of my tomb I would like to be able to cast back a glance -of satisfaction over my many years, just as a pontiff, on reaching the -sanctuary, blesses the long line of the priests who have served as his -retinue. - -Louvois[32] burnt down the Palatinate; unfortunately it was Turenne's -hand that held the torch. The Revolution laid waste the same country, -the witness and victim by turns of our aristocratic and plebeian -struggles. It is enough to name the warriors to judge of the difference -of the times: on the one side, Condé, Turenne, Créqui[33], Luxembourg, -La Force[34], Villars[35]; on the other, Kellermann, Hoche, Pichegru, -Moreau. Let us deny none of our victories; military glories especially -have known only enemies of France and held only one opinion: on the -battle-field, honour and danger level all ranks. Our fathers called -the blood that flowed from a non-mortal wound "volatile blood:" a -phrase typical of the contempt for death natural to Frenchmen in every -century. Institutions can alter nothing in this national genius. The -soldiers who, after the death of Turenne[36], said, "Let the _Pie_ -loose, we shall encamp where she stops," would have been quite as good -as Napoleon's grenadiers. - -On the heights of Dunkheim, the first rampart of the Gauls on that -side, one discovers the seats of camps and military positions to-day -empty of soldiers: Burgundians, Franks, Goths, Huns, Suevi, so many -waves of the Barbarian deluge, have by turns assailed those heights. - -Not far from Dunkheim, one sees the remains of a monastery. The monks -enclosed within that retreat had seen many armies passing round at -their feet; they had shown hospitality to many warriors; there some -crusader had ended his life, changed his helm for the frock; there were -passions which called for silence and rest before the last rest and the -last silence. Did they find what they sought? Those ruins will not tell. - -After the remnants of the sanctuary of peace come the fragments of the -lair of war: the demolished bastions, mantlets, curtains, trunnions of -a fortress. Ramparts crumble even as cloisters. The castle was ambushed -in a rugged path to close it to the enemy: it did not keep time and -death from passing. - -From Dunkheim to Frankenstein, the road pushes through a valley so -narrow that it will scarcely hold a carriage way; the trees descending -from two opposite slopes join and embrace in the ravine. I have -followed similar dales between Messenia and Arcadia, but for the good -road: Pan knew nothing about civil engineering. Flowering broom and a -jay carried me back to the recollection of Brittany; I remember the -pleasure which the cry of that bird gave me in the mountains of Judea. -My memory is a panorama; there the most varied sites and skies, with -their scorching sun or their foggy horizon, come to paint themselves on -the same canvas. - -The inn at Frankenstein is placed in a meadow in the mountains, watered -by a stream. The postmaster speaks French; his young sister, or his -wife, or his daughter is charming. He complains of being a Bavarian; he -busies himself with the cultivation of forests; to me he represented an -American planter. - -At Kaiserslautern, where I arrived at night as at Bamberg, I passed -through the region of dreams: what did all those sleeping inhabitants -see in their slumbers? If I had time, I would tell the story of their -visions. Nothing would have reminded me of earth, if two quails had -not called to one another from cage to cage. In the fields in Germany, -from Prague to Mannheim, one meets only carrion crows, sparrows and -larks; but the towns are full of nightingales, warblers, thrushes, -quails: plaintive prisoners, male and female, who greet you at the -bars of their gaol when you pass. The windows are decked with pinks, -mignonette, roses, jasmine. The northern nations have the tastes of -another clime; they love the arts and music: the Germans came to fetch -the vine in Italy; their sons would gladly repeat the invasion to -conquer birds and flowers in the same spots. - -[Sidenote: Prussia.] - -The change in the post-boy's jacket told me, on Tuesday the 4th of -June, at Saarbrück, that I was entering Prussia. I saw a squadron -of hussars ride past under the window of my inn; they looked very -spirited: I was as spirited as they; I would cheerfully have helped -to give those gentry a drubbing, even though a lively feeling of -respect makes me attached to the Prussian Royal Family, even though the -outbursts of the Prussians in Paris were but reprisals for Napoleon's -brutality in Berlin; but, if history has the time to enter into the -cold justice which connects consequences with their origins, the man -who witnesses living facts is carried away by those facts, without -going back to the past to seek the causes from which they sprang and -which excuse them. My country has done me great harm; but how gladly I -would offer up my blood for her! Oh, what strong heads, what consummate -politicians, above all, what good Frenchmen were those negociators of -the Treaties of 1815! - -A few hours yet, and my native soil will once more quiver beneath my -steps. What shall I hear? Since three weeks I have known nothing of -what my friends have been saying and doing. Three weeks! A long space -of time for man whom one moment carries away, for empires which three -days suffice to overthrow! And my prisoner of Blaye: what has become -of her? Shall I be able to convey to her the answer which she is -awaiting? If ever the person of an ambassador should be sacred, it is -mine; my diplomatic career was consecrated near the Head of the Church; -it has been completely sanctified near an unfortunate monarch: I have -negociated a new family compact among the children of the Bearnese; I -have carried and brought back its deeds from prison to exile and from -exile to prison. - - -4 _and_ 5 _June._ - -As I passed the border which separates the territory of Saarbrück from -that of Forbach, France did not show herself to me in a brilliant -manner: first, a cripple seated in a wooden bowl; then, another man -who crawled on his hands and knees, dragging his legs after him like -two crooked tails or two dead snakes; next, appeared, in a cart, two -swarthy, wrinkled old women, the van-guard of the women of France. It -was enough to make one go back again to the Prussian Army. - -But presently I found a handsome young soldier walking with a young -girl; the soldier was pushing the young girl's wheel-barrow before him -and she was carrying the trooper's pipe and sword. Further on, another -young girl holding the tail of a plough and an aged ploughman goading -the oxen; further on, an old man begging for a blind child; further on, -a cross. In a hamlet, a dozen children's heads, at the window of an -unfinished house, looked like a group of angels in a glory. Here is a -tiny girl of five or six, sitting on the threshold of a cottage-door, -with bare head, fair hair, a dirty face, pulling a little grimace -because of a cold wind blowing; with her two white shoulders peeping -from a torn frock, her arms crossed over her knees drawn up close to -her chest, looking at what was going on around her with the curiosity -of a bird, Raphael would have sketched her; as for me, I felt inclined -to steal her from her mother. - -[Sidenote: France.] - -At the entrance to Forbach, a troop of learned dogs appeared: the two -biggest harnessed to the costume-wagon; five or six others of different -tails, noses, sizes and colours followed the baggage, each with its -piece of bread in its mouth. Two grave instructors, one carrying a -big drum, the other carrying nothing, led the band. Go, my friends, -go round the world as I have done, in order to learn to know the -nations. You have your place in the world just as much as I; you are -quite as good as the dogs of my kind. Give a paw to Diane, to Mirza, -to Pax, with your hat on your ear, your sword by your side, your tail -sticking out like a trumpet between the skirts of your coat: dance for -a bone, or for a kick, as we men do; but do not go making the mistake -of jumping for the King! - -Reader, bear with these arabesques; the hand that traced them will -never do you any other harm: it is withered. Remember, when you see -them, that they are only the freakish scrolls drawn by a painter on the -vault of his tomb. - -At the custom-house, an elderly junior clerk made a pretense at -examining my calash. I had got a five-franc piece ready; he saw it in -my hand, but dared not take it, because of his superiors, who were -watching him. He took off his cap, on the pretext of searching me -better, laid it on the seat in front of me and said, in an under-tone: - -"In my cap, please." - -Oh, what a great phrase! It comprises the history of the human race; -how often have liberty, loyalty, friendship, devotion, love said: - -"In my cap, please!" - -I shall give that phrase to Béranger for the chorus of a song. - -I was struck, on entering Metz, by something which I had not noticed -in 1821; the modern fortifications surround the Gothic fortifications: -Guise and Vauban[37] are two names that go well together. - -Our years and our memories lie in regular and parallel strata at -different depths of our life, deposited by the waves of time that pass -over us in succession. It was from Metz, in 1792, that the column -issued which was engaged under the walls of Thionville with our little -corps of Emigrants. I am returning from my pilgrimage to the retreat of -the banished Prince whom I served in his first exile. I then gave him -a little of my blood; I have just been weeping with him: at my age, we -have little left but tears. - -In 1821, M. de Tocqueville[38], my brother's brother-in-law, was -Prefect of the Moselle. The trees, no thicker than laths, which M. de -Tocqueville planted, in 1820, at the gates of Metz now give shade. -There is a scale to measure our days by; but man is not like wine, -he does not improve when reckoned by vintages. The ancients used to -steep roses in their Falernian; when an amphora of a hundred-year-old -consulate was uncorked, it perfumed the banquet. The clearest -intelligence might be mingled with old years, and no one would be -tempted to get tipsy with it. - -I had not been a quarter of an hour in the inn at Metz, when behold -Baptiste coming in a great state of excitement: mysteriously he drew -from his pocket a white paper parcel, containing a seal; M. le Duc de -Bordeaux and Mademoiselle had charged him with that seal, telling him -to give it me "only on French soil." They had been very anxious the -whole night before my departure, fearing lest the jeweller would not -have time to finish the work. - -The seal has three faces: on one is engraved an anchor; on the second, -the two words which Henry said to me at our first interview: "Yes, -always!" on the third, the date of my arrival in Prague. The brother -and sister begged me to wear the seal "for love of them." The mystery -of this present, the order given by the two exiled children to hand me -the token of their memory "only on French soil" filled my eyes with -tears. The seal shall never leave me; I shall wear it "for love of -Louise and Henry." - -I would have liked to see, at Metz, the house of Fabert[39], the common -soldier who became a marshal of France and who received the collar of -the Orders, his nobility tracing its origin only to his sword. - -The Barbarians our fathers, at Metz, butchered the Romans[40] surprised -in the midst of the debauchery of a feast; our soldiers have waltzed, -in the monastery of Alcobaça, with the skeleton of Iñez de Castro[41]: -sorrows and pleasures, crimes and follies, fourteen centuries separate -you and you are all alike completely past. The eternity commenced just -now is as old as the eternity dating from the first death, the murder -of Abel. Nevertheless, men, during their ephemeral appearance on this -globe, persuade themselves that they are leaving some trace behind -them: why, good Heaven, yes, every fly has its shadow! - -I left Metz and passed through Verdun, where I was so unhappy and where -Carrel's lonely friend lives to-day[42]. I skirted the heights of -Valmy; I do not care to speak of it any more than of Jemmapes: I should -be afraid lest I should find a crown there. - -Châlons reminded me of a great weakness of Bonaparte, who banished -beauty there[43]. Peace be with Châlons, which tells me that I still -have friends! - -At Château-Thierry, I found my idol, La Fontaine. It was the hour of -the Angelus: Jean's wife was no longer there, and Jean had returned to -Madame de La Sablière[44]. - -As I grazed the wall of Meaux Cathedral, I repeated Bossuet's[45] own -words to him: - -"Man reaches his tomb dragging behind him the long chain of his hopes -deceived." - -[Sidenote: Back in Paris.] - -In Paris, I passed the quarters in which I had lived with my sisters in -my youth; next, the Palace of Justice, commemorative of my trial; next, -the Prefecture of Police, which served me as a prison. I have returned -at last to my hospice, thus winding off the skein of my days. The frail -insect of the sheep-folds drops at the end of a silken thread to the -ground, where the foot of some ewe will soon crush it. - - -PARIS, RUE D'ENFER, 6 _June_ 1833. - -On alighting from my carriage and before going to bed, I wrote a letter -to Madame la Duchesse de Berry to give her an account of my mission. -My return had put the police into a flutter; the telegraph announced -it to the Prefect of Bordeaux and the commandant of the fortress of -Blaye: orders were given to redouble the measures of supervision; it -appears even that Madame was put on board before the day fixed for her -departure[46]. My letter missed Her Royal Highness by a few hours and -was taken to her in Italy. - -If Madame had made no declaration; if even, after that declaration, she -had denied the consequences of it; much more if, on arriving in Sicily, -she had protested against the part which she had been compelled to -play in order to escape from her gaolers, France and Europe would have -believed her word, so greatly was Philip's Government under suspicion. -All the Judases would have suffered punishment for the spectacle which -they gave to the world in the smoking-room at Blaye. But Madame would -not consent to retain a political character by denying her marriage; -what one gains, by a lie, in reputation for cleverness one loses in -consideration: any former sincerity which you may have professed hardly -avails to defend you. When a man who enjoys public esteem demeans -himself, he is no longer sheltered within his name, but behind his -name. Madame, by her admission, escaped from the gloom of her prison: -the female eagle, like the male eagle, has need of liberty and sunlight. - -M. le Duc de Blacas, in Prague, had announced to me the formation of a -council of which I was to be the head, with M. the Chancellor[47] and -M. le Marquis de Latour-Maubourg: I was going to become alone (still -according to M. le Duc) the Council of Charles X., absent on some -business. I was shown a plan: the machinery was very complicated; M. -de Blacas' work retained a few arrangements made by the Duchesse de -Berry, when she, on her side, had laid claim to organizing the State by -coming madly, but bravely, to place herself at the head of her Kingdom -_in partibus._ The ideas of that adventurous woman were not at all -lacking in good sense: she had divided France into four great military -governments, chosen the commanders, appointed the officers, embodied -the soldiers and, without troubling whether all her people had joined -the flag, she would herself have hastened to carry it; she did not -doubt but that she would find in the fields St. Martin's[48] cope or -the Oriflamme, Galaor[49] or Bayard. Blows of battle-axes and bullets -from fire-locks, retreats into the forests, perils in the homes of a -few faithful friends, caves, castles, cottages, escalades: all this -suited and delighted Madame. There is something eccentric, original and -captivating in her character that will make her live. The future will -take her as it pleases, in spite of correct persons and sober-minded -cowards. - -[Sidenote: My plans for Henry V.] - -I should have brought to the Bourbons, if they had sent for me, the -popularity which I enjoyed by my two-fold claim as a writer and a -statesman. I could have no doubt of that popularity, for I had received -the confidences of every shade of opinion. People had not confined -themselves to generalities; each had pointed out to me what he desired -in case of eventualities; many had confessed their genius to me and -rendered obvious to me the place for which they were eminently fitted. -Everybody, friends and enemies alike, sent me to be about the person of -the Duc de Bordeaux. By the different combinations of my opinions and -my fortunes, by the ravages of death, which had successively carried -away the men of my generation, I seemed to be the only one left for the -choice of the Royal Family. - -I might feel tempted by the part awarded to me: there was something -calculated to flatter my vanity, as an unknown servant and rejected -by the Bourbons, in the idea of being the support of their House; -of holding out my hand to Philip Augustus, St. Louis, Charles V., -Louis XII., Francis I., Henry IV. and Louis XIV. in their tombs; of -protecting with my feeble renown the blood, the crown and the shades -of so many great men: I alone against faithless France and dishonoured -Europe. - -But to arrive at that what should I have had to do? What the commonest -mind would have done: fawn upon the Court of Prague, overcome its -antipathies, conceal my ideas from it until I was in a position to -develop them. - -And, certainly, those ideas went far: if I had been the young Prince's -governor, I should have striven to gain his confidence. If he had -recovered his crown, I should have advised him to wear it only to lay -it aside at the proper time. I would have liked to see the Capets -disappear in a manner worthy of their greatness. What a fine, what an -illustrious day that would have been when, after setting up religion, -perfecting the Constitution of the State, enlarging the rights of -citizens, breaking the last fetters of the press, emancipating the -commons, destroying monopoly, striking the balance between wages and -labour, consolidating property and restricting its abuses, reviving -industry, reducing taxation, re-establishing our honour among the -nations, extending our frontiers and thus securing our independence -against the foreigner; when, after accomplishing all these things, my -pupil would have said to the nation solemnly called together: - -"Frenchmen, your education is finished with mine. My first ancestor, -Robert the Strong[50], died for you, and my father asked for mercy for -the man who took his life. My sires raised and formed France through -barbarism; now the march of events, the progress of civilization compel -you to dispense with a protector. I am descending the throne; I confirm -all the benefits of my fathers, while releasing you from your oaths to -the Monarchy." - -Say if that end would not have surpassed all that is most wonderful in -that dynasty! Say if ever a magnificent enough temple could have been -raised to its memory! Compare that end with that which the decrepit -sons of Henry IV. would make, stubbornly pinning themselves to a throne -swamped by democracy, trying to preserve their power with the aid of -measures of police, measures of violence, methods of corruption, and -dragging on for a few short moments a degraded existence! - -"Let them make my brother King," said the child Louis XIII., after the -death of Henry IV., "I do not want to be King." - -Henry V. has no other brother than his people: let him make it King. - -To arrive at this resolution, chimerical though it may seem, one would -have to feel the greatness of one's race, not because one was descended -from an old stock, but because one was the heir of men through whom -France became powerful, enlightened and civilized. - -Now, as I have just said, the way to be called upon to set to work -on that plan would have been to wheedle the weaknesses of Prague, to -raise magpies with the child of the throne like Luynes[51], to flatter -Concini[52] like Richelieu. I had begun well at Carlsbad; a little -note of submission and gossip would have forwarded my business. To -bury myself alive in Prague was no easy matter, it is true; for not -only should I have had to overcome the repugnance of the Royal Family, -but the hatred of the foreigners as well. My ideas are odious to the -Cabinets; they know that I detest the Treaties of Vienna, that I would -make war at any price to give France the necessary frontiers and to -restore the balance of power in Europe. - -However, by giving signs of repentance, by weeping, by expiating my -sins of national honour, by beating my breast, by admiring for my -penance the genius of the blockheads who govern the world, I might -perhaps have been able to crawl into the Baron de Damas' place; then, -suddenly standing erect, I should have flung away my crutches. - -[Sidenote: Wherein I fail.] - -But, alas, where is my ambition? Where is my faculty of dissimulation? -Where is my art of enduring constraint and boredom? Where is my -capacity for attaching importance to anything whatsoever? I took up -my pen two or three times, I began to draft two or three letters in -obedience to Madame la Dauphine, who had ordered me to write to her. -Soon, revolting against myself, I wrote at one dash and after my own -manner the letter which was to break my neck. I knew it quite well; I -weighed the results quite well: it matters little. And to-day, now that -the thing is done, I am delighted at having sent the whole business to -the devil and flung my "governorship " out of so wide a window. I shall -be told: - -"Could you not have expressed the same truths by stating them less -crudely?" - -Yes, yes, by diluting, beating about the bush, employing honeyed words, -bleating, quavering: - - Son œil tout pénitent ne pleure qu'eau béniste[53]. - -I cannot do that. - -Here is the letter, abridged, however, by almost half its length, which -will make the hair of our drawing-room diplomatists rise up in dismay: -the Duc de Choiseul was somewhat of my humour; therefore he spent the -end of his end at Chanteloup: - - "PARIS, _Rue d'Enfer_, 30 _June_ 1833. - - "MADAME, - - "The most precious moments of my long career are those which Madame - la Dauphine permitted me to spend with her. It was in a humble - house at Carlsbad that a Princess who is the object of universal - veneration deigned to speak to me with confidence. Heaven has laid - at the bottom of her soul a treasure of magnanimity and religion - which the prodigality of misfortune has not been able to dry up. I - had before me the daughter of Louis XVI. exiled anew; that orphan - of the Temple whom the Martyr-King pressed to his heart before - going to gather the palm! God's name is the only name that one can - pronounce when one comes to plunge one's self in contemplation of - the impenetrable counsels of His Providence. - - "Praise is suspicious, when it is addressed to prosperity: with - the Dauphiness, admiration knows no embarrassment. I have said it, - Madame: your sorrows have attained so great a height, that they have - become one of the glories of the Revolution. I shall therefore, - once in my life, have met destinies so superior, so much apart, - that I can tell them, without fear of offending them or of being - misunderstood, what I think of the future state of society. One can - discuss the fate of empires with you, who would, without regretting - them, see pass at the feet of your virtue all those earthly - kingdoms, many of which have already flowed away at the feet of - your House. - - "The catastrophes of which you have been the most illustrious - witness and the sublimest victim, great though they appeared to - be, are, nevertheless, but the particular accidents of the general - transformation which is being operated in the human race; the - reign of Napoleon, which shook the world, is but a link in the - revolutionary chain. We must start from this truth to understand - the possibilities of a third Restoration and what means that - Restoration possesses of being included in the plan of social - changes. If it did not enter into it as an homogeneous element, it - would inevitably be rejected by an order of things contrary to its - nature. - - "Therefore, Madame, if I told you that the Legitimacy had a chance - of returning through the aristocracy of the nobles and clergy, with - their privileges; through the Court, with its distinctions; through - the Royalty, with its attractions, I should be deceiving you. The - Legitimacy, in France, is no longer a sentiment; it is a principle - in so far as it guarantees property and interests, rights and - liberties; but if it remained proved that the Legitimacy would - not defend or was powerless to protect that property and those - interests, those rights and those liberties, it would cease to be - even a principle. When any one puts forward that the Legitimacy - will necessarily come about, that it cannot be dispensed with, that - it is enough to wait, for France to come crying mercy to it on her - knees, he is putting forward an illusion. The Restoration may never - return, or may last for but a moment, if the Legitimacy seeks its - strength where it does not exist. - - [Sidenote: My letter to the Dauphiness.] - - "Yes, Madame, I say it sorrowfully, Henry V. might remain a foreign - and banished Prince: a young and new ruin of an edifice already - fallen, but, in short, a ruin. We old servants of the Legitimacy - will soon have spent the small stock of years that is left to us; - we shall shortly be resting in our graves, asleep with our old - ideas, like the ancient knights with their ancient suits of armour - into which rust and time have eaten, suits of armour which no - longer shape themselves to the figure nor adapt themselves to the - usages of the living. - - "All that was militating, in 1789, for the preservation of the - old order of things, religion, laws, manners, customs, property, - classes, privileges, corporations, no longer exists. A general - ferment has become manifest; Europe is hardly safer than - ourselves; no form of society is entirely destroyed, none entirely - established; all is worn or new, or decrepit or not yet rooted; all - has the weakness of old age or childhood. The kingdoms that have - sprung from the territorial limitations drawn by the last treaties - are of yesterday; love of country has lost its force, because the - country is an uncertain and fleeting thing to populations sold - by auction, dealt in like second-hand furniture, now allotted to - hostile populations, now handed over to unknown masters. Thus - dug up, furrowed, tilled, the soil is prepared to receive the - democratic seed which the Days of July have ripened. - - "The kings think that, by keeping sentry around their thrones, - they will stop the movements of intelligence; they imagine that, - by giving a description of the principles, they will have them - seized at the frontiers; they are persuaded that, by multiplying - customs-officers, gendarmes, police-spies, military commissions, - they will prevent them from circulating. But those ideas do not - travel on foot: they are in the air, they fly, we breathe them. The - absolute governments, which are establishing telegraphs, railways, - steam-boats and trying, at the same time, to keep men's minds on - the level of the political dogmas of the fourteenth century, are - inconsistent; at once progressive and reactionary, they are lost - in the confusion resulting from a contradiction of theory and - practice. It is impossible to separate the industrial principle - from the principle of liberty; one must needs stifle both or admit - both. Wherever the French language is understood, ideas come with - the passports of the age. - - "You see, Madame, how essential it is that the starting-point - should be carefully chosen. The child of hope under your guard, - innocence taking refuge under your virtues and misfortunes as under - a royal canopy: I know no more imposing spectacle; if there be a - chance of success for the Legitimacy, it is there in its entirety. - The France of the future will be able to bow, without descending, - before the glory of the past, to stand in emotion before that - great apparition in her history represented by the daughter of - Louis XVI. leading the last of the Henrys by the hand. As the - Queen-protectress of the young Prince, you will exercise over the - nation the influence of the immense memories mingled in your august - person. Who will not feel an unaccustomed confidence revive within - him when the orphan of the Temple watches over the education of the - orphan of St. Louis? - - "It is to be desired, Madame, that this education, directed by men - whose names are popular in France, should in a certain measure - become public. Louis XIV., who otherwise justifies the pride of his - motto[54], did a great injury to his House by isolating the Sons of - France behind the barriers of an Oriental education. - - "The young Prince appeared to me to be gifted with a quick - intelligence. He will have to complete his studies by travels - among the nations of the Old and even of the New Continent, so as - to become acquainted with politics and to be alarmed at neither - institutions nor doctrines. If he could serve as a soldier in some - far-off foreign war, one ought not to dread to expose him. He has a - resolute air; he seems to have in his heart the blood of his father - and of his mother; but, if he could ever experience anything but - the sense of glory in danger, let him abdicate: without courage, in - France, there is no crown. - - "Madame, on seeing me extend into a long future the thought of the - education of Henry V., you will naturally suppose that I do not - think him destined to ascend the throne so soon. I will endeavour - impartially to deduct the opposite reasons for hopes and fears. - - "The Restoration may take place to-day, to-morrow. There is - something so sudden, so inconstant observable in the French - character, that a change is always probable; it is always safe - to wager a hundred to one, in France, that any particular thing - will not last: it is at the moment when the Government appears - most firmly seated that it falls. We have seen the nation worship - Bonaparte and detest him, abandon him, take him back, abandon him - again, forget him in his exile, raise altars to him after his - death, and then relapse from its enthusiasm. That fickle nation, - which never loved liberty save by fits and starts, but which ever - dotes on equality; that multiform nation was fanatical under - Henry IV., factious under Louis XIII., grave under Louis XIV., - revolutionary under Louis XVI., gloomy under the Republic, warlike - under Bonaparte, constitutional under the Restoration: to-day it is - prostituting its liberties to the so-called Republican Monarchy, - perpetually varying its nature in the spirit of its leaders. Its - changefulness has increased since it has thrown off the habits of - the home and the yoke of religion. - - [Sidenote: On the prospects.] - - "Therefore, a chance may bring about the fall of the Government of - the 9th of August; but a chance may be delayed: an abortive child - has been born to us, but France is a sturdy mother; she may, with - the milk of her breast, be able to correct the vices of a depraved - paternity. - - "Although the present royalty does not seem as though it were - likely to live, I continue to fear that it may live beyond the - limit which one might assign to it. Since forty years, all - governments have perished in France by their own fault alone. Louis - XVI. could have saved his crown and his life twenty times over; - the Republic died only of the excesses of its furies; Bonaparte - was able to establish his dynasty, yet flung himself down from the - height of his glory; but for the Ordinances of July, the Legitimist - Throne would still be standing. The head of the present Government - will make none of those mistakes that kill; his power will never - commit suicide; all his cleverness is employed exclusively for his - preservation: he is too intelligent to die by an act of folly nor - has he enough in him to be guilty of the mistakes of genius or - the weaknesses of honour or virtue. He has felt that he might be - destroyed by war: he will not make war; it matters little to him, - whether France be degraded in the eyes of foreigners: publicists - will prove to him that disgrace is industry and ignominy credit. - - "The sham Legitimacy wants all that the Legitimacy wants, with - the exception of the Royal Person: it wants order; it can obtain - that through 'arbitrariness' more easily than the Legitimacy. To - perpetrate acts of despotism with words of liberty and pretended - royalist institutions, that is all that it wants; each accomplished - fact brings forth a recent right which combats an ancient right, - each hour commences a legality. Time has two powers: with one hand - it overthrows, with the other it builds up. Lastly, time acts - upon men's minds by the mere fact that it progresses; they sever - violently from those in power, attack them, sulk with them; then - lassitude supervenes; success reconciles people to its cause: soon - none remains outside, save a few lofty souls, whose perseverance - confounds those who have failed. - - "Madame, this long statement obliges me to make a few explanations - to Your Royal Highness. - - "If I had not raised a free voice in the day of fortune, I should - not have felt the courage to speak the truth in the time of - misfortune. I did not go to Prague of my own accord; I would not - have ventured to trouble you with my presence; the dangers of - devotion do not lie about your august person, they lie in France: - that is where I have sought them. Since the Days of July, I have - never ceased to fight for the legitimist cause. I was the first - to proclaim the kingship of Henry V. A jury of Frenchmen, which - acquitted me, left my proclamation in force. I long for nothing but - rest, the need of my years; yet I did not hesitate to sacrifice - it when the decrees extended and renewed the proscription of the - Royal Family. Offers were made to me to attach me to the Government - of Louis-Philippe: I had not earned that proof of good-will; I - showed how incompatible it was with my nature by claiming my share - in my old King's adversity. Alas, I had not brought about that - adversity and I had tried to prevent it! I am not recalling these - circumstances to give myself an importance or create for myself a - merit which I do not possess; I have done no more than my duty; I - am only explaining my position, in order to excuse the independence - of my language. Madame will pardon the frankness of a man who - would joyfully accept a scaffold to restore to her a throne. - - "When I appeared before Your Majesty at Carlsbad, I may say that I - had not the happiness to be known to you. You had scarcely done me - the honour to address a few words to me in my life. You were able - to see, in our solitary conversations, that I was not the man that - had perhaps been described to you, that the independence of my mind - did not take away from the moderation of my character and, above - all, did not break the chains of my admiration and respect for the - illustrious daughter of my Kings. - - [Sidenote: Of the Legitimate Monarchy.] - - "I again beseech Your Majesty to consider that the order of the - truths developed in this letter, or rather in this memorandum, - is what constitutes my strength, if I have any; it is that which - enables me to reach men of different parties and bring them back to - the royalist cause. If I had rejected the opinions of the age, I - should have had no hold upon my time. I am seeking to rally round - the ancient throne those modern ideas which, from being hostile, - become friendly in passing through my loyalty. If the liberal - opinions which abound ceased to be diverted to the profit of the - reconstructed Legitimate Monarchy, Monarchical Europe would perish. - It is a fight to the death between the two principles, monarchical - and republican, if they remain distinct and separate: the - consecration of a single edifice built up again out of the various - materials of two edifices would belong to you, Madame, to you who - have been admitted into the highest as into the most mysterious of - initiations, undeserved misfortune, to you who are marked at the - altar with the blood of the spotless victim, to you who, in the - contemplation attendant upon a saintly austerity, would open with a - pure and blessed hand the portals of the new temple. - - "Your sagacity, Madame, and your superior reason will throw light - upon and correct all that may be doubtful or erroneous in my - opinions touching the present state of France. - - "My emotion, as I end this letter, passes all that I can say. - - "And so the palace of the sovereigns of Bohemia is the Louvre of - Charles X. and of his pious and royal son! And so Hradschin is - young Henry's Pau Castle! And you, Madame: in what Versailles - do you live? With what can your piety, your greatnesses, your - sufferings be compared, if not with those of the women of the - House of David who wept at the foot of the Cross? May Your Majesty - see the Royalty of St Louis rise radiant from the tomb! May I - exclaim, recalling the century which bears the name of your - glorious ancestor; for, Madame, nothing becomes you, nothing is - contemporaneous with you but what is great and sacred: - - O jour heureux pour moi! - De quelle ardeur j'irais reconnaître mon roi[55]! - - "I am, Madame, with the most profound respect, - - "Your Majesty's most humble and most obedient servant, - - "CHATEAUBRIAND." - -After writing this letter, I resumed the habits of my life: I found -my old priests again, the lonely corner in my garden, which seemed to -me much finer than Count Chotek's garden, my Boulevard d'Enfer, my -Cimetière de l'Ouest, my Memoirs reminding me of my past days and, -above all, the select little society of the Abbaye-aux-Bois. The -kindness of a serious friendship makes the thoughts abound; a few -moments of the commerce of the soul suffice for the needs of my nature; -I afterwards make up for this expenditure of intelligence by twenty-two -hours of inaction and sleep. - - -PARIS, RUE D'ENFER, 25 _August_ 1833. - -While I was beginning to breathe, I saw one morning the traveller enter -my house who had handed a packet from me to Madame la Duchesse de Berry -at Palermo; he brought me this reply from the Princess: - -[Sidenote: Letter from Madame de Berry.] - - "NAPLES, 10 _August_ 1833. - - "I have written you a line, monsieur le vicomte, to acknowledge - the receipt of your letter, wishing to have a safe opportunity of - speaking to you of my gratitude for what you have seen and done - in Prague. It seems to me that they _let you see very little_, - but enough, however, to enable you to judge that, despite the - _methods_ employed, the result, in so far as our dear child is - concerned, is not what one might fear. I am very glad to receive - this assurance from you; but I hear from Paris that M. Barrande has - been sent away. What is to be done in this? How I long to be at my - post! - - "As to the requests which I asked you to make (and which were not - quite welcomed), they have proved by their action that they were no - better informed than I: for I was not in any need of what I asked, - having in no way lost my rights. - - "I am going to ask your advice to reply to the solicitations which - I receive from all sides. You will make such use of what follows - as, in your wisdom, you think proper. Royalist France, the people - devoted to Henry V. look to his mother, now at last free, to issue - a proclamation. - - "I left at Blaye a few lines which must be known to-day; they - expect more from me; they want to know the sad story of my - detention during seven months in that impenetrable fortress. It - ought to be made known in its fullest details; let the cause be - seen, in this story, of all the tears and griefs that have broken - my heart. Men will learn from it the moral tortures which I have - been made to suffer. Justice must be done in it to them to whom - it belongs; but also it must reveal the atrocious measures taken - against a defenseless woman, defenseless because she was always - refused a council, by a Government having her kinsman at its head, - in order to tear from me a secret which, in any case, could not - concern politics and the discovery of which ought not to change my - situation if I was an object of dread to the French Government, - which had the power of guarding me, but not the right, without a - trial which I claimed more than once. - - "But my kinsman, the husband of my aunt, the head of a family - which, in spite of the general and so justly wide-spread opinion - against it, I had allowed to hope for the hand of my daughter, - Louis-Philippe in short, thinking me to be with child and unmarried - (which would have decided any other family to open the doors of - my prison), had every form of moral torture inflicted on me to - force me to take steps by means of which he expected to be able to - establish his niece's dishonour. For the rest, if I am bound to - explain myself positively as to my declarations and their motives, - without entering into any details as to my private life, for which - I am accountable to no one, I will say in all truth that they were - torn from me by my vexations, my moral tortures and the hope of - recovering my liberty. - - "The bearer will give you details and tell you of the forced - uncertainty as to the moment of my journey and its destination, - which interfered with my wish to avail myself of your obliging - offer by inviting you to join me before I went to Prague, as I - have great need of your advice. To-day it would be too late, as I - wish to be with my children as soon as possible. But, as nothing - is certain in this world and as I am used to disappointments, if - my arrival in Prague should, _against my wish_, be delayed, I rely - surely upon seeing you at the place where I shall be obliged to - stop and will write to you from there; if, on the contrary, I reach - my son as soon as I hope, you know better than I if you ought to - come there. I can only assure you of the pleasure it would give me - to see you at all times and places. - - "MARIE CAROLINE." - - - NAPLES, 18 _August_ 1833. - - "Our friend has not been able to start yet and I have received news - of what is happening in Prague which is not of a nature calculated - to diminish my longing to go there, but which also makes the need - of your advice more urgent. If, therefore, you are able to proceed - to Venice without delay, you will find me there, or else letters - left at the post-office telling you where you can join me. I shall - travel part of the journey with some people for whom I entertain - feelings of great friendship and gratitude: M.[56] and Madame - de Bauffremont[57]. We often speak of you; their devotion to - myself and to our Henry makes them long to see you arrive. M. de - Mesnard[58] shares that longing." - -Madame de Berry refers in her letter to a little manifesto[59] which -was issued after she left Blaye and which was of no great value, -because it said neither yes nor no. The letter, on the other hand, is -curious as an historical document, since it reveals the feelings of -the Princess towards her kinsmen-gaolers and points to the sufferings -endured by her. Marie-Caroline's reflections are just; she expresses -them with spirit and pride. Again, one likes to see that courageous -and devoted mother, whether fettered or free, constantly occupied with -the interests of her son. There, at least in that heart, are youth -and life to be found. It cost me an effort once more to undertake a -long journey; but I was too much touched by the confidence of that -poor Princess to refuse to obey her wishes and to abandon her on the -high-road. M. Jauge came to the assistance of my poverty, as he had -done the first time. - -I took the field again with a dozen volumes scattered around me. -Now, while I was peregrinating _da capo_ in the Prince de Bénévent's -calash, he was eating in London in the manger of his fifth master, in -expectation of the accident which will send him, perhaps, to sleep at -Westminster, among saints, kings and wise men: a burial to which his -religion, fidelity and virtues have justly entitled him. - - - -[1] This book was written on the road from Carlsbad to Paris, from the -1st to the 5th of June 1833, and in Paris, in the Rue d'Enfer, from the -6th of June to the 25th of August 1833.--T. - -[2] The author addresses an imaginary Cynthia. Cynthia was one of the -surnames of Diana, from Mount Cynthus, where she was born.--B. - -[3] SCHILLER: _Wallenstein's Tod_, Act V. Sc. iii. - -[4] Max Piccolomini, son to Octavio Piccolomini, the famous Austrian -general.--T. - -[5] Thekla, Wallenstein's daughter.--T. - -[6] _Wallenstein: Tod_, Act V. Sc. iii.--T. - -[7] _Wallenstein's Tod_. Act V. Sc. v.--T. - -[8] - - "It is the knight of the Landes: - O unhappy knight! - Heard bells ring on every hand, - When crossing the waste at night."--T. - - -[9] VOLTAIRE: _Ode sur la mort de S. A. S. Mme. la princesse de -Bareith_, 141-144: - - "Lonely Sylvander, thou shalt sing no more - In this Art's palace, where thy voice did ban, - Loudly, the firm-set prejudice of yore - And made the world talk of the rights of man."--T. - -[10] _Ode sur la mort de S. A. S. Mme. la princesse de Bareith_, 91-94: - - "From philosophie heights, free from all strife, - Thy pity contemplated, with calm eyes, - The changing phantoms of the dreams of life: - So many a dream or plan in ruin lies."--T. - - -[11] Mathew Laensberg (_fl._ 17th Century) was supposed to be the -author of the famous _Almanack de Liège_, called by his name and first -published in 1636, containing prognostications in the manner of the -modern _Zadkiel_ or _Old Moore._--T. - -[12] The Comte de Toumon (_cf._ Vol. V., p. 258, n. 1) was appointed -Intendant of Bayreuth by Napoleon before being moved to Rome, as -Prefect, in 1809.--T. - -[13] ARISTOPHANES.--_Author's Note._ - -[14] VOLTAIRE: _Stances à madame la marquise Du Châtelet_, 29-36: - - "I followed her, but wept that now - I could not follow others as well." - -The poet is able to continue the pursuit of friendship, but must -abandon that of love.--T. - -[15] Jean Louis Eugène Lerminier (1803-1857), a liberal professor and -journalist. He had published, on the 15th of October 1832, an article -in the _Revue des Deux-Mondes_, entitled, _De l'Opinion légitimiste: M. -de Chateaubriand_, to which the author of the Memoirs alludes above.--B. - -[16] BÉRANGER: _La Vivandière_, 1-7, not quite correctly quoted. In the -original, the _vivandière_ is called "Catin:" Chateaubriand substitutes -"Javotte," a favourite name for an inn-servant in France, and alters -the last lines so as to avoid the rhyme to "Catin" at the end. To -attempt a rough translation: - - "I'm the vivandière so gay, - Javotte I'm called: that's handy; - I sell, I drink, I give away - My wine, my rum, my brandy. - I'm light of foot and I give a wink, - Chink chink, chink chink, chink chink, chink chink, - Clink, clink, chink."--T. - - -[17] Isabel, or Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen of France (_d._ 1435), -married in 1385 to Charles VI. She obtained the Regency when the King -became demented in 1392, favoured the enemies of France and, in 1420, -concluded the Treaty of Troyes, which placed the crown on the head of -Henry V. of England.--T. - -[18] _Cf._ Vol. III., p. 91, n. 3. Berthier was watching a Russian -regiment pass under his windows, on its way to the French frontier, -when he was seized with a sudden fit of madness and jumped from the -balcony to the pavement below (1 June 1815).--T. - -[19] _Andria_, Act. I. Sc. i. 44.45.--T. - -[20] Ferdinand III. Archduke of Austria, Grand-duke of Tuscany, later -Grand-duke of Würzburg (1769-1824), brother of the Emperor Francis I. -He was Grand-duke of Tuscany from 1790, but lost his States in 1796. -In 1805, the Bishopric of Würzburg was secularized and turned into a -grand-duchy, and the Archduke Ferdinand became its titulary. On the -fall of the Empire, Tuscany was restored to Austria and Ferdinand -reinstated. At the same time (1814), Würzburg was restored to -Bavaria.--B. - -[21] These lines are a translation from the χελιδονίζειν, recorded by -Athenæus.--B. - -[22] Chateaubriand writes, when describing his arrival at Jaffa, in the -_Itinéraire de Paris à Jerusalem_: - - "The wind fell, at mid-day. The calm continued for the rest of that - day and was prolonged till the 29th [of September 1806]. We were - boarded by three new passengers: two wagtails and a swallow." - -And then he refers again to the swallows at Combourg in his childhood -and to the swallows in America which, in their turn, reminded him of -the Combourg swallows.--B. - -[23] In the _Congrès de Vérone_ (Vol. II., p. 389), Chateaubriand, -writing of his dismissal from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (6 June -1824), begins with these charming lines: - - "On the 6th, in the morning, we were not sleeping; the dawn - murmured in the little garden; the birds twittered: we heard the - day break; a swallow fell down our chimney into our room; we opened - the window for it: if we could only have flown away with it!"--B. - - -[24] This reply to the swallow was written long before 1833. The -Comte de Marcellus relates, in _Chateaubriand et son temps_, how, in -the summer of 1822, he was walking with the Ambassador in Kensington -Gardens. Chateaubriand told him how, early that same morning, he had -imagined that he heard a swallow twittering outside his window. He -looked and saw a smoke and soot-blackened sparrow which might almost -be mistaken for a swallow; and he set himself to hold an imaginary -conversation with the swallow disguised as a sparrow. He handed -Marcellus a paper covered with the words which he had addressed to it -and which he had written down so soon as the light permitted. They -correspond literally with the above speech. - -Marcellus goes on to say that he clapped his hands with delight at -reading this inspiration in the manner of the ancients, until, at the -end of the paper and as though at the end of his enthusiasm, he began -to smile: - - "'What is it?' asked the poet, alarmed. 'Some slip?' - - 'Oh no,' I replied; 'only that "I live on little" troubles me, - although it suits the passage so admirably.' - - "'Well?' asked M. de Chateaubriand, with a certain animation. - - "'Why, have you so soon forgotten that the Duke of York is dining - with you to-night and that yesterday we drew up together, under the - dictation of our famous Montmirel, the fabric of the most splendid - banquet that ever perfumed the kitchens and honoured the annals of - diplomacy?' - - "M. de Chateaubriand replied: - - "'Ah, you are right; I did not think of that this morning.'"--B. - - -[25] St. Geneviève of Brabant (_fl._ 8th Century), the subject of a -number of romantic legends and adventures.--T. - -[26] Domenico Zampieri (1581-1641), known as Domenichino, a noted -Italian painter of the Eclectic-Bologna School.--T. - -[27] Andrea Palladio (1518-1580), the celebrated Italian architect.--T. - -[28] BOILEAU: _Épitres_, vi.--B. - -[29] Jean Philippe René de La Bletterie (1696-1772), a priest of the -Oratory, a native of Brittany like Chateaubriand and author of an -_Histoire de l'empereur Julien l'Apostat_ (1735).--T. - -[30] The following is John Duncombe's translation of Julian's Greek -Epigram on Barley-wine: - - "Who, what art thou? Thy name, thy birth declare: - Thou art no Bacchus, I by Bacchus swear. - Jove's son alone I know, I know not thee; - Thou smell'st like goats, but sweet as nectar he. - In Gallia, thirsty Gallia, thou wert born, - Scanty of grapes, but prodigal of corn. - Bromus, not Bromius, styl'd, thy brows with corn, - As sprung from Ceres, not from Jove, adorn." - - -[31] The common phrase is, "That's Toulouse gold, which will cost him -dear:" a reference to the gold stolen by the Romans at Toulouse, which -brought ill-luck, according to the legend, to all who possessed it.--T. - -[32] François Michel Letellier, Marquis de Louvois (1641-1691), the -organizer of the French standing army. Louvois was Minister of War -from 1666 to 1691; the Palatinate was burnt down in 1674 and again in -1689.--T. - -[33] François de Bonne de Créqui, Maréchal Duc de Lesdiguières (_circa_ -1687), one of the greatest French captains of the seventeenth century, -served gloriously under Louis XIV. in the campaigns of Flanders, Alsace -and Lorraine, from 1667 to 1678. He took Luxemburg in 1684.--T. - -[34] Armand Maréchal de La Force (_circa_ 1586-1675) served with -distinction in the Italian and German Wars.--T. - -[35] Louis Hector Maréchal Duc de Villars (1653-1734), Marlborough's -famous adversary.--T. - -[36] Turenne was killed by a cannon-ball while reconnoitering at -Sasbach (27 July 1675). The _Pic_ was his favourite piebald charger.--T. - -[37] François de Lorraine, Duc de Guise, successfully defended Metz -against Charles V. from October 1552 to January 1553; Vauban laid the -new fortifications, outside the old, in the reign of Louis XIV.--T. - -[38] The father of Alexis de Tocqueville.--_Author's Note. Cf._ Vol. -II., p. 295, n. 1.--T. - -The Comte de Tocqueville administered the Department of the Moselle -from February 1817 to June 1823.--B. - -[39] Abraham Maréchal Fabert (1599-1662), Governor of Sedan, son of -Abraham Fabert, the director of the ducal printing-works at Metz, was -the first commoner who became a marshal of France (1658).--T. - -[40] Metz was plundered by the Vandals in 406.--T. - -[41] Iñez de Castro (_d._ 1355), favourite and, later, wife of Peter of -Portugal, son of Alphonsus IV. The King had her murdered to prevent the -consequences of an unequal union. When Peter ascended the throne, as -Peter I., afterwards surnamed the Justiciary and the Cruel, he avenged -her death on her murderers by having their hearts torn out in his -presence at Santarem, in 1360. He caused Iñez to be exhumed and crowned -and showed her royal honours.--T. - -[42] _Cf._ Vol. V., p. 207, n. 1.--T. - -[43] Madame Récamier was banished to Châlons in September 1811.--T. - -[44] Madame de La Sablière (_fl._ 17th Century), wife of Antoine -Rambouillet de La Sablière, one of the ornaments of the seventeenth -century and immortalized by the hospitality which she accorded to La -Fontaine.--T. - -[45] Bossuet was Bishop of Meaux.--T. - -[46] The Duchesse de Berry embarked on the 9th of June 1833.--B. - -[47] The Marquis de Pastoret.--B. - -[48] St. Martin (_circa_ 316--_circa_ 397) Bishop of Tours (371). He is -honoured on the 11th of November.--T. - -[49] The brother of Amadis of Gaul.--T. - -[50] Robert Count of Paris (_d._ 866), surnamed the Strong, father -of Robert I. King of France and stock of the Capets, was killed at -Brissarthe, in Anjou, while giving battle to the Normans.--T. - -[51] Charles d'Albert, Connétable Duc de Luynes (1578-1621), was a page -of Henry IV. He curried favour with the Dauphin by his skill in raising -speckled magpies. When the latter succeeded as Louis XIII., he loaded -Luynes with favours and dignities, gave him his duchy and created him -Constable of France. Luynes was on the verge of being disgraced, when -he died, of purples, on the 15th of December 1621.--T. - -[52] Concino Concini, later Maréchal Marquis d'Ancre, Baron de Lussigny -(_d._ 1617), was a member of the Household of Marie de' Medici, wife -of Henry IV. After the King's death, he bought the Marquisate of Ancre -and was appointed Governor of Normandy and a marshal of France without -ever having drawn the sword. He was, at the same time, Prime Minister -of Louis XIII.; and he had Richelieu for his private secretary. The -Duc de Luynes contributed towards hastening his downfall and, at last, -the young King ordered his assassination, which took place in the -court-yard of the Louvre on the 14th of April 1617.--T. - -[53] MATHURIN RÉGNIER: _Sat._ XIII.; _Macette_, 30: - - "Her penitent eye sheds holy water and none other."--T. - - -[54] "_L'État c'est moi!_ The State is I!"--T. - -[55] RACINE: _Athalie_, Act I. Sc. i.: - - "O happy day for me! - How gladly would I go my King again to see!"--T. - - -[56] Théodore Demetrius Prince de Bauffremont-Courtenay (1793-1853).--T. - -[57] Anne Laurence de Montmorency, Princesse de Bauffremont-Courtenay -(1802-1860), married to Théodore Prince de Bauffremont on the 6th of -September 1819.--T. - -[58] Louis Charles Bonaventura Pierre Comte de Mesnard (1769-1842) -emigrated in 1791 and became attached to the person of the Duc -de Berry. The Duke, on his return to France, appointed him his -aide-de-camp and, in 1816, he was appointed First Equerry to the -Duchess, whom he had gone to Marseilles to meet. The Comte de Mesnard -was with the Duc de Berry at the moment of his assassination. He was -created a peer of France in 1823. In 1830, he accompanied the Duchesse -de Berry to England, returned with her to France in 1832, took part -in the attempted rising in the Vendée and was arrested with his royal -mistress at Nantes. He was tried and acquitted on the 15th of March -1833 and at once joined the Duchesse de Berry in Italy.--T. - -[59] The following is the text of this little manifesto, which the -newspapers of the day did not dare to publish and which has remained -comparatively unknown: - - "The mother of Henry V., I returned without other support than his - misfortunes and his good right to put an end to the calamities - which France is undergoing, by restoring lawful authority, order - and stability, pledges essential to the rest and peace of nations. - Treachery handed me over to our enemies. Kept a prisoner and long - oppressed by persons to whom I had shown nothing but kindness, I - have bewailed their ingratitude and suffered with resignation the - wrongs with which they have overwhelmed me; but I shall never cease - to protest against the usurpation of the rights of a child whom - justice, ties of blood, honour and faith obliged them to protect - and defend. - - "I thank the people of France for the man? marks of attachment - which they have given me; my heart will never lose the remembrance - of it. - - "I beg all those who have been persecuted for the sake of my - son and myself, those who have offered me advice of which I was - deprived, in spite of the sad situation to which I was reduced - and those who have protested, in France's name and mine, against - the sequestration and the moral sufferings which stifled my very - complaints, to receive the assurance that I shall never forget - their affection nor the pains which they have endured. - - "The reproaches which some have dared to attribute to me as having - been uttered against friends of whose devotion I was too sure to - accuse their conduct have offended me to the quick: I indignantly - deny those insulting suppositions. - - "Whatever may be the future which Providence has in store for my - son, to love France, to devote his cares and his life to repairing - her misfortunes, to hope that she may be happy, even if he were not - himself charged to make her happy: those will at all tunes be his - sentiments and his wishes, those will also always be mine. - - "The French have never enjoyed real liberty except under the - protection of their lawful Sovereign: it will behove the heir of - the name and, I hope, the virtues of Henry the Great to continue - his reign and to realize all that he promised to France. - - "MARIE-CAROLINE." - - "Blaye Citadel, 7 June 1833." - ---B. - - - - -BOOK VI[60] - - -Journal from Paris to Venice--The Jura--The Alps--Milan--Verona--The -roll-call of the dead--The Brenta--Incidental remarks--Venice--Venetian -architecture--Antonio--The Abbé Betio and M. Gamba--The rooms in the -Palace of the Doges--Prisons--Silvio Pellico's prison--The Frari--The -Academy of Fine Arts--Titian's _Assumption_--The metopes of the -Parthenon--Original drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo and -Raphael--The Church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo--The Arsenal--Henry -IV.--A frigate leaving for America--The Cemetery of San Cristoforo--San -Michele di Murano--Murano--The woman and the child--Gondoliers--Bretons -and Venetians--Breakfast on the Riva degli Schiavoni--The tomb of -Mesdames at Trieste--Rousseau and Byron--Great geniuses inspired by -Venice--Old and new courtezans--Rousseau and Byron compared. - - -7 _to_ 10 _September, on the road._ - -I left Paris on the 3rd of September 1833, taking the Simplon Road -through Pontarlier. - -Salins, lately burnt to the ground, had been built up again; I -preferred it with its Spanish tumble-down ugliness[61]. The Abbé -d'Olivet[62] was born on the banks of the Furieuse; Voltaire's first -master, who received his pupil at the Academy, had nothing in common -with the paternal stream. - -The great storm which caused so many shipwrecks in the Channel assailed -me on the Jura. I arrived at night on the "wastes" of the Lévier stage. -The caravanserai built of wooden planks, brilliantly lighted and filled -with travellers taking shelter suggested not a little the keeping of a -witches' sabbath. I refused to stop; they brought the horses. When it -came to closing the lanterns of the calash, a great difficulty arose; -the hostess, an extremely pretty young witch, lent a hand, laughing. -She took care to hold her candle-end, protected by a glass tube, close -up to her face, so as to be seen. - -At Pontarlier, my old host, a great Legitimist during his life-time, -was dead. I supped at the inn called the National: a good omen for the -newspaper of that name. Armand Carrel is the chief of those men who did -not lie during the Days of July. - -The Castle of Joux defends the approaches to Pontarlier; it has seen -two men succeed one another in its donjons, both of whom the Revolution -will bear in memory: Mirabeau and Toussaint-Louverture[63], the black -Napoleon, imitated and killed by the white Napoleon. - - "Toussaint," says Madame de Staël, "was brought to a French prison, - where he died in the most wretched manner. Perhaps Bonaparte does - not so much as remember this crime, because he has been less often - reproached with it than with the others." - -The hurricane increased: I encountered its greatest violence between -Pontarlier and Orbe. It increased the size of the mountains, rang the -bells in the hamlets, drowned the roar of the torrents in that of the -thunder, and swept down howling upon my calash, like a heavy squall on -the sail of a ship. When low-lying lightning-flashes cracked across the -heaths, one saw flocks of sheep stand motionless, their heads hidden -between their fore-feet, presenting their tails tucked in and their -shaggy quarters to the showers of rain and hail beaten up by the wind. -The voice of the man calling the time from the summit of a mountain -belfry sounded like the cry of the last hour. - -At Lausanne, all was smiling-again: I had often visited that town -before; I no longer know a soul there. - -At Bex, while they were harnessing to my carriage the horses which had -perhaps drawn the bier of Madame de Custine, I stood leaning against -the door of the house where my hostess of Fervacques died. She had been -celebrated before the revolutionary tribunal for her long hair. In -Rome, I have seen beautiful fair hair taken from a tomb. - -In the Rhone Valley, I met an almost naked little girl, dancing with -her goat; she asked for alms of a rich young man, well-dressed, who -was posting past with a laced courier in front and two footmen sitting -behind the glittering chariot. And you imagine that such a distribution -of property can exist? You think that it does not justify popular -risings? - -Sion brings back to me an epoch in my life: after being secretary of -embassy in Rome, I was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the Valais -by the First Consul[64]. - -At Brigg, I left the Jesuits struggling to raise up again what cannot -be raised up[65]: uselessly established at the foot of time, they are -crushed beneath its mass, like their monastery beneath the weight of -the mountains. - -This was the tenth time of my crossing the Alps: I had told them -all that I had to tell them in the different years and different -circumstances of my life. Ever regretting what he has lost, ever rapt -in memories, ever marching towards the grave in tears and isolation: -that is man. - -The images borrowed from mountain scenery have particularly sensible -relations with our fortunes: this one passes in silence, like the -outpouring of a spring; that one attaches a noise to his course, like -a torrent; that other flings away his existence, like a cataract that -appeals and disappears. - -[Sidenote: The Simplon.] - -The Simplon already wears an abandoned air, even as the life of -Napoleon; even as that life, it has nothing left but its glory: it -is too great a work to belong to the little States upon which it has -devolved. Genius has no family; its inheritance falls by right of -escheat to the common crowd, which nibbles at it and plants a cabbage -where a cedar grew. - -The last time that I crossed the Simplon, I was going as Ambassador -to Rome; I fell; the herds whom I had left on the top of the mountain -are there yet: snows, clouds, tumble-down rocks, pine-forests and the -turmoil of waters incessantly encompass the hut threatened by the -avalanche. The most living person in those chalets is the goat. Why -die? I know. Why be born? I cannot tell. Still, admit that the foremost -sufferings, moral sufferings, the torments of the mind are wanting -among the dwellers in the region of the chamois and the eagles. When I -went to the Congress of Verona, in 1822, the station on the peak of the -Simplon was kept by a Frenchwoman: in the middle of a cold night and of -a squall of wind which prevented me from seeing her, she talked to me -of the Scala in Milan; she was expecting ribbons from Paris: her voice, -the only thing about that woman that I know, was very sweet through the -darkness and the gale. - -The descent to Domo d'Ossola appeared to me more and more wonderful; -a certain play of light and shadow increased its magic. One was -caressed by a little breath which our old tongue called the _aure_: a -sort of early morning-breeze, bathed and scented with the dew. I once -more beheld the Lago Maggiore, on which I was so melancholy in 1828 -and of which I caught sight from the Valley of Bellinzona in 1832. -At Sesto-Calende, Italy presented herself: a blind Paganini sang and -played the fiddle at the edge of the lake as I crossed the Ticino. - -On entering Milan, I again saw the magnificent avenue of tulip-trees -of which no one speaks; the travellers apparently take them for -plane-trees. I protest against this silence, in memory of my savages: -it is surely the least that America can do, to give shade to Italy. -One might also plant magnolias at Genoa, mixed with palm-trees and -orange-trees. But who dreams of such a thing? Who thinks of beautifying -the earth? That care is left to God. The governments are occupied -with their fall, and men prefer a card-board tree on the stage of a -_fantoccini_ theatre to the magnolia-tree whose roses would scent the -cradle of Christopher Columbus. - -In Milan, the annoyance about the passports is as stupid as it is -brutal. I did not pass through Verona without emotion; it was there -that my active political career had its real beginning. My mind thought -on what the world might have become if that career had not been -interrupted by a contemptible jealousy. - -Verona, so lively in 1822, thanks to the presence of the sovereigns of -Europe, had, in 1833, returned to silence; the Congress had passed as -completely in its lonely streets as the Court of the Scaligers and the -Senate-house of the Romans. The arenas whose benches I had seen filled -with a hundred thousand spectators yawned deserted; the buildings which -I had admired under the illuminations embroidered on their architecture -wrapped themselves, grey and bare as they were, in an atmosphere of -rain. - -[Sidenote: The roll-call of the dead.] - -How many ambitions were stirring among the actors at Verona! How many -destinies of nations were examined, discussed and weighed! Let us call -the roll of those wooers of dreams; let us open the book of the Day of -Wrath: _Liber scriptus proferetur_[66]; monarchs, princes, ministers, -here is your ambassador, your colleague returned to his post: where are -you? Answer. - -The Emperor of Russia, Alexander? - -"Dead." - -The Emperor of Austria, Francis I.[67]? - -"Dead." - -The King of France, Louis XVIII.? - -"Dead." - -The King of France, Charles X.[68]? - -"Dead." - -The King of England, George IV.? - -"Dead." - -The King of Naples, Ferdinand I.? - -"Dead." - -The Duke of Tuscany[69]? - -"Dead." - -Pope Pius VII.? - -"Dead." - -The King of Sardinia, Charles Felix[70]? - -"Dead." - -The Duc de Montmorency, French Foreign Minister? - -"Dead." - -Mr. Canning, English Foreign Minister? - -"Dead." - -M. de Bernstorff, Prussian Foreign Minister? - -"Dead." - -M. de Gentz, of the Austrian Chancery? - -"Dead." - -Cardinal Consalvi, Secretary of State to His Holiness? - -"Dead." - -M. de Serre, my colleague on the Congress[71]? - -"Dead." - -M. d'Aspremont, my secretary of embassy? - -"Dead." - -Count Neipperg, the husband of Napoleon's widow? - -"Dead." - -Countess Tolstoi? - -"Dead." - -Her tall young son? - -"Dead." - -My host in the Lorenzi Palace? - -"Dead." - -If so many men inscribed with me on the roll of the Congress have had -their names inserted in the obituary; if nations and royal dynasties -have perished; if Poland has succumbed; if Spain is again annihilated; -if I have been to Prague to enquire after the flying remnants of the -great House whose representative I was at Verona: what, then, are -earthly things? No one remembers the speeches which we made round the -table of Prince Metternich; but, O power of genius, no traveller will -ever hear the lark sing in the fields of Verona without recalling -Shakespeare! Each of us, by digging to different depths in his memory, -finds another layer of dead, other extinct sentiments, other illusions -which uselessly he suckled, like those of Herculaneum, at the breast of -Hope. - -On leaving Verona, I was obliged to change my measure to compute the -time that was past; I was going back twenty-seven years, for I had -not made the journey from Verona to Venice since 1806. At Brescia, at -Vicenza, at Padua, I passed by the walls of Palladio, Scamozzi[72], -Franceschini, Nicholas of Pisa[73], Friar John. - -The banks of the Brenta disappointed my hopes; they had remained more -smiling in my imagination: the dykes raised along the canal conceal -the marches too much. Several villas have been demolished; but a -few very elegant ones still remain. There, perhaps, lives Signor -Pococurante[74], whom the city ladies with their sonnets disgusted, to -whom the two pretty girls began to grow very indifferent, to whom music -grew tiresome after half an hour, who thought Homer mortally tedious, -who detested the pious. Æneas, the boy Ascanius, the silly King -Latinus, the ill-bred Amata and the insipid Lavinia, who saw nothing -extraordinary in Horace' journey to Brundusium and his account of -his bad dinner, who declared that he never read Tully and still less -Milton, that barbarian who spoiled Tasso's hell and the devil. - - "'Alas!' said Candid softly to Martin, 'I am afraid this man holds - our German poets in great contempt[75].'" - -In spite of my semi-disappointment and many gods in the little gardens, -I was charmed with the mulberry-trees, the orange-trees, the fig-trees -and the softness of the air, I who, such a short time before, was -travelling through the fir-groves of Germany and over the mountains of -the Czechs, where the sun looks ill. - -[Sidenote: I arrive in Venice.] - -I arrived on the 10th of September, at break of day, at Fusina, which -Philippe de Comines[76] and Montaigne call "Chaffousine." At half -past ten, I had landed in Venice. My first care was to send to the -post-office: there was nothing addressed to me direct, nor indirectly -to Paolo; of Madame la Duchesse de Berry, no news at all. I wrote to -Count Griffi, the Neapolitan Minister in Florence, to ask him to let me -know the movements of Her Royal Highness. - -Having everything in order, I resolved patiently to await the Princess: -Satan sent me a temptation. I longed, at his diabolical suggestion, to -stay alone, for a fortnight, at the Hôtel de l'Europe, to the detriment -of the Legitimate Monarchy. I wished the august traveller bad roads, -without reflecting that my restoration of King Henry V. might be -delayed for half a month! Like Danton, I crave pardon for it of God and -men. - - -VENICE, HÔTEL DE L'EUROPE, 10 _September_ 1833. - - Salve, Italuni Regina.... - . . . . . - Nec tu semper eris[77]. - - O d'Italia dolente - Eterno lumine.... - Venezia[78]! - -In Venice, one can imagine one's self on the deck of a superb galley -lying at anchor, on the _Bucentaur_, where a feast is being given in -your honour and from whose side you see wonderful things all around. -My inn, the Hôtel de l'Europe, is situated at the entrance to the -Grand Canal, opposite the Dogana di Mare, the Giudecca and San Giorgio -Maggiore. When one goes up the Grand Canal, between its two rows of -palaces, so marked by their centuries, so varied in architectural -style, when one moves from the Piazza to the Piazzetta, when one -contemplates the basilica and its domes, the Palace of the Doges, the -Procuratie Nuove, the Zucca, the Torre dell' Orologio, the campanile -of St Mark's and the Column of the Lion, all mingled with the sails -and masts of the shipping, the movement of the crowd and the gondolas, -the azure of the sky and sea, the freaks of a dream or the frolics -of an Oriental imagination present nothing more fantastic. Sometimes -Cicéri[79] paints and collects upon a canvas, for the illusions of the -stage, monuments of all shapes, all times, all countries, all climates: -it is still Venice. - -Those double-gilt edifices, so profusely embellished by Giorgione[80], -Titian, Paul Veronese[81], Tintoretto[82], Giovanni Bellini[83], Paris -Bordone[84], the two Palmas[85], are filled with bronzes, marbles, -granites, porphyries, precious antiques, rare manuscripts; their -internal magic is equal to their external magic; and when, in the bland -light that illumines them, one discovers the illustrious names and -noble memories attached to their vaults, one cries with Philippe de -Comines: - -"'Tis the most triumphant city that ever I saw!" - -[Sidenote: The glories of Venice.] - -And yet it is no longer the Venice of the Minister of Louis XI.; the -Venice the Bride of the Adriatic and mistress of the seas; the Venice -that gave emperors to Constantinople, kings to Cyprus, princes to -Dalmatia, the Peloponnesus, Crete; the Venice that humiliated the -German Cæsars and received the Popes as suppliants at her inviolable -hearths; the Venice of whom monarchs esteemed it an honour to be the -citizens, to whom Petrarch[86], Pletho[87], Bessarion[88] bequeathed -the remnants of Greek and Latin literature saved from the shipwreck of -barbarism; the Venice, a republic in the midst of Feudal Europe, that -served as a buckler to Christianity; the Venice, the "setter-up of -lions," that trampled on the ramparts of Ptolemaïs[89], Ascalon[90], -Tyre[91] and overthrew the Crescent at Lepanto[92]; the Venice whose -doges were men of learning and whose merchants knights; the Venice -that laid low the Orient or bought its perfumes, that brought back -from Greece conquered turbans or recovered master-pieces; the Venice -that issued victorious from the ungrateful League of Cambrai; the -Venice that triumphed through her feasts, her courtezans and her arts, -as through her arms and her great men; the Venice that was at once -Corinth, Athens and Carthage, adorning her head with rostral crowns and -floral diadems. - -It is no longer even the city through which I passed when I went to -visit the shores that had witnessed her glory; but, thanks to her -voluptuous breezes and agreeable waters, she retains a charm: it -is especially to declining countries that a beautiful climate is a -necessity. There is civilization enough in Venice to lend a niceness to -existence. The seduction of the sky prevents one from requiring greater -human dignity: an attractive virtue is exhaled from those vestiges of -greatness, those traces of the arts which surround one. The ruins of an -old state of society which produced such things as these, while giving -you a distaste for a new state of society, leave you no desire for a -future. You love to feel yourself die with all that is dying around -you; you have no other care than to adorn what remains of your life -as it is gradually laid aside. Nature, which causes young generations -to reappear amongst ruins as quickly as it covers those ruins with -flowers, keeps for the most enfeebled races the habit of the passions -and the enchantment of pleasure. - -Venice never knew idolatry: she grew up Christian in the island where -she was reared, far from the brutality of Attila. The women descended -from the Scipios, the Pauli and the Eustochie escaped from Alaric's -violence in the Grotto of Bethlehem. Standing apart from all other -cities, the eldest daughter of ancient civilization without ever -having been dishonoured by conquest, Venice contains neither Roman -remains nor monuments of the Barbarians. Nor does one see there what -one sees in the north and west of Europe, in the midst of industrial -progress: I refer to those new structures, those whole streets built -in a hurry, in which the houses remain either unfinished or empty. -What could one build here? Wretched dens which would show the poverty -of conception of the sons after the magnificence of the genius of the -fathers; white-washed hovels which would not reach to the first storey -of the gigantic residences of the Foscaris and the Pesaros. When one -sees the trowel of mortar and the handful of plaster that have had -to be applied, for an urgent repair, against a marble capital, one -is shocked. Better the rotten planks boarding up Grecian or Moorish -windows, the rags hung out to dry on graceful balconies, than the -imprint of the mean hand of our century. - -[Sidenote: The view from my windows.] - -Why cannot I lock myself up in this town which harmonizes so well with -my destiny, in this city of poets, where Dante, Petrarch, Byron passed! -Why cannot I finish writing my Memoirs by the light of the sun that -falls upon these pages! At this moment the luminary is still burning my -Floridan savannahs and is setting here at the end of the Grand Canal. -I can no longer see it; but, through an opening in this wilderness -of palaces, its rays strike the ball of the Dogana, the lateen-sails -of the boats, the yards of the ships and the porch of the convent of -San Giorgio Maggiore. The tower of the monastery, changed into a rosy -column, is reflected in the waves; the white front of the church is -so brightly lighted that I can pick out the smallest details of the -chisel. The outlines of the shops of the Giudecca are painted with a -Titian light; the gondolas on the canal and the harbour are swimming in -the same light. Venice is there, seated on the shore, like a beautiful -woman about to die away with the day-light: the evening breeze lifts -up her balmy tresses; she dies saluted by all the graces and all the -smiles of nature. - - -VENICE, _September_ 1833. - -In Venice, in 1806, there was a young Signor Armani, the Italian -translator or a friend of the translator of the _Génie du -Christianisme._ His sister, as he said, was a nun: _monaca._ There was -also a Jew, on his way to the farce of Napoleon's Grand Sanhedrim[93], -who had his eyes on my purse; then M. Lagarde, the chief of the French -spies, who gave me dinner: my translator, his sister, the Jew of the -Sanhedrim are either dead or no longer live in Venice. At that time, -I was staying at the Hotel of the Golden Lion, near the Rialto; that -hotel has changed its position. Almost opposite my old inn is the -Palazzo Foscari, which is falling. Back, all that old lumber of my -life! I should go mad with ruins: let us speak of the present. - -I have tried to depict the general effect of the architecture of -Venice; in order to receive an impression of the details, I have been -up and down and again up the Grand Canal, I have visited and revisited -the Piazza San Marco. It would need volumes to exhaust that subject. -Count Cicognara's[94] _Fabbriche più conspicue di Venezia_ supply the -features of the monuments; but the exposition is not clear. I will -content myself with noting down two or three of the most frequently -recurring arrangements. - -From the capital of a Corinthian column is described a semicircle, the -point of which descends upon the capital of another Corinthian column: -exactly in the middle of those shafts rises a third, of the same -dimensions and the same order; from the capital of that central column -two epicycles spring to right and left, the ends of which also come -to lie upon the capitals of other columns. The result of this design -is that the arches, in crossing each other, give birth to ogives at -their point of intersection[95], so that a charming admixture is formed -of two architectural styles, the full Roman arch and the ogive of -Arab-Gothic or "Mediæval" origin; but it is certain that the latter -exists in the so-called Cyclopean monuments; I have seen very pure -specimens of it in the tombs of Argos[96]. - -The Ducal Palace presents twines reproduced in some other palaces, -particularly in the Palazzo Foscari: the columns support pointed -arches; those arches leave voids between them: between those voids the -architect has placed two roses. The rose depresses the extremity of the -two ellipses. Those roses, which meet at a point of their circumference -in the fore front of the building, become a kind of row of wheels upon -which the rest of the edifice is carried. - -In every structure, the base is commonly broad; the monument diminishes -in thickness as it encroaches on the sky. The Ducal Palace is the exact -opposite of that natural scheme of architecture: the base, pierced by -light porticoes surmounted by a gallery of arabesques indented with -four-leaved open trefoils, supports an almost bare square mass: one -would say it was a fortress built upon pillars, or rather an inverted -building planted on its light coping with its thick root in the air. - -Remarkable in the Venetian monuments are the architectural masks and -heads. In the Palazzo Pesaro, the entablature of the first storey, -of the Doric order, is decorated with heads of giants; the Ionic -order of the second storey is bound by heads of knights which stretch -horizontally from the wall, with their faces looking towards the -water: some are wrapped in a chin-piece, others have their visors -half-lowered; all wear helmets whose plumes bend round into ornaments -under the cornice. Lastly, on the third storey, of the Corinthian -order, we see heads of female statues with their hair differently -knotted. - -[Sidenote: Venetian architecture.] - -In St. Mark's, embossed with domes, encrusted with mosaics, loaded with -incoherent spoils of the East, I found myself at the same time in San -Vitale at Ravenna, in St. Sophia in Constantinople, in St. Saviour's in -Jerusalem and in those lesser churches of the Morea, Chios and Malta: -St. Mark's, a monument of Byzantine architecture, composite of victory -and conquest raised to the Cross, is a trophy, as is the whole of -Venice. The most remarkable effect of its architecture is its darkness -under a brilliant sky; but to-day, the loth of September, the deadened -light from the outside harmonized with the gloomy basilica. They were -completing the Forty Hours ordered to obtain fine weather. The fervour -of the faithful praying against rain was great: the Venetians look upon -a grey and watery sky as the plague. - -Our prayers were granted: the evening became charming; at night I went -for a walk on the quay. The sea lay smooth; the stars mingled with -the scattered lights of the boats and ships anchored here and there. -The cafés were full, but one saw no _Pulcinelli_, Greeks nor Moors: -everything comes to an end. A Madonna, brightly illuminated at the -crossing of a bridge, attracted the crowd: young girls were devoutly -telling their beads on their knees; they made the Sign of the Cross -with their right hand and stopped the passers-by with their left. -Returning to my inn, I went to bed and to sleep to the singing of the -gondoliers stationed under my windows. - -I have as my guide Antonio, the oldest and best-informed of the -_ciceroni_ of the place; he knows the palaces, statues and pictures by -heart - -On the 11th of September, I paid a visit to the Abbé Betio and M. -Gamba[97], the keepers of the Library: they received me with extreme -politeness, although I had no letter of recommendation. - -As one goes through the rooms of the Ducal Palace, one passes from -wonders to wonders. There the whole history of Venice unrolls itself, -painted by the greatest masters: their pictures have been described a -hundred times. - -Among the antiques, I remarked, like everybody else, the group of -_Leda and the Swan_ and the _Ganymede_ ascribed to Praxiteles. The -Swan is prodigious in its embrace and its voluptuousness; Leda is too -compliant. The eagle of the _Ganymede_ is not a real eagle; it looks -the best-tempered beast in the world. Ganymede, charmed at being -carried off, is enchanting: he talks to the eagle, which talks to him. - -Those antiques are placed at either end of the magnificent rooms of -the Library. I contemplated, with the sacred respect of the poet, a -manuscript of Dante's and gazed, with the greed of the traveller, upon -the map of the world of Fra Mauro[98] (1460). Africa, however, does not -appear to be traced upon it so correctly as they say. They ought, above -all, in Venice, to explore the archives: they would find invaluable -documents there. - -From the painted and gilded halls, I passed to the prisons and the -dungeons; the same palace presents the microcosm of society, joy and -sorrow. The prisons are under the leads, the dungeons on the level of -the water of the canal and on two storeys. A thousand tales are told -of strangulations and secret beheadings[99]; by way of compensation we -hear that a prisoner left those dungeons fat, plump and rosy, after -eighteen years spent in captivity: he had lived like a toad inside a -rock. All honour to the human race! What a fine thing it is! - -Plenty of philanthropic phrases stain the vaults and walls of the -underground cells, since the day when our Revolution, so adverse to -blood, - - . . . . . . . dans cet affreux séjour - D'un coup de _hache_ a fait entrer le jour[100]. - - -[Sidenote: The Venetian prisons.] - -In France, the gaols were crammed with victims who were got rid of by -cutting their throats; but, in the prisons of Venice, they set free the -shades of men who had, perhaps, never been there. The gentle butchers -who sliced the throats of children and old men, the kind spectators who -assisted at the guillotining of women were melted at the progress of -humanity, so well proved by the opening of the Venetian dungeons. As -for me, I have a hard heart; I am not like those heroes of sensibility. -No old headless ghosts appeared before my eyes in the Palace of the -Doges; only it seemed to me that I saw in the cells of the aristocracy -what the Christians saw when they shattered the idols: nests of mice -escaping from the heads of the gods. That is what happens to every -power that is disembowelled and exposed to the light: it lets out the -vermin which we used to adore. - -The Bridge of Sighs connects the Ducal Palace with the prisons of the -town; it is divided into two separate passages: through one of these, -the ordinary prisoners entered; through the other, the State prisoners -went before the tribunal of the Inquisitors or the Ten. This bridge -presents a graceful exterior, and the façade of the prison is admired: -beauty cannot be dispensed with in Venice, even for tyranny and -misfortune! Pigeons make their nests in the windows of the gaol; little -doves, all covered with down, flutter their wings and moan at the bars, -while waiting for their mother. In former days, innocent creatures used -to be cloistered almost on leaving the cradle; their parents never saw -them again except through the gratings of the parlour or the wicket of -the door. - - -VENICE, _September_ 1833. - -You can readily imagine that, in Venice, I necessarily thought of -Silvio Pellico[101]. M. Gamba had told me that the Abbé Betio was the -master of the Palace and that, by applying to him, I should be able to -make my researches. The excellent librarian, to whom I had recourse one -morning, took a big bunch of keys and led me, along several passages -and up various stair-cases, to the garrets of the author of _Le mie -Prigioni._ - -M. Silvio Pellico has made only one mistake; he has spoken of his gaol -as of one of those famous prison-cells high up in the air, marked by -their roofing _sotto i piombi._ Those prisons are, or rather were -five in number, in that portion of the Ducal Palace which adjoins the -Ponte della Paglia and the canal of the Bridge of Sighs. Pellico did -not dwell there; he was incarcerated at the other end of the Palace, -near the Ponte degli Canonici, in a building contiguous to the Palace, -which building had been transformed, in 1820, into a gaol for political -prisoners. However, he was also "under the leads," for a plate of that -metal formed the roofing of his hermitage. - -The description which the prisoner gives of his first and second room -is exact to the last particular. Through the window of the first room, -one looks out on the roof of St. Mark's; one sees the well in the inner -yard of the Palace, a corner of the Piazza, the different steeples of -the town and, beyond the lagoons, on the horizon, mountains in the -direction of Padua. The second room is recognised by its big window and -by another smaller and higher window: it was through the big one that -Pellico used to perceive his companions in misfortune in a detached -building opposite and, on the left, above, the dear children who used -to talk to him from their mother's casement. - -To-day all those chambers are deserted, for men remain nowhere, not -even in the prisons; the bars of the windows have been removed and the -walls and ceilings white-washed. The gentle and learned Abbé Betio, -living in this abandoned part of the Palace, is its peaceful and -solitary guardian. - -[Sidenote: Silvio Pellico.] - -The rooms which immortalize Pellico's captivity are lofty and airy; -they command a splendid view; they are the prison for a poet; there -would not be much to say about them, admitting the tyranny and -absurdity: but the death sentence for a speculative opinion! The -Moravian[102] dungeons! Ten years taken from life, youth and talent! -And the gnats, those nasty animals by which I myself am being eaten up -at the Hôtel de l'Europe, hardened though I be by the weather and the -mosquitoes of Florida! For the rest, I have often been worse lodged -than was Pellico in his belvedere in the Ducal Palace, notably in the -prefecture of the doges of the French Police, where I was obliged to -climb up on a table to enjoy the light. - -The author of _Francesca da Rimini_ thought of Zanze in his gaol; I, in -mine, sang of a young girl whom I had just seen die. I was very anxious -to know what became of Pellico's little guardian. I have set persons to -make researches: if I find out anything, I will tell you. - - -VENICE, _September_ 1833. - -A gondola landed me at the Frari, where we French, accustomed as we -are to the Grecian or Gothic exteriors of our own churches, are not -much struck by those outsides of basilicas in brick, ungrateful and -common to the eye; but, in the inside, the harmony of the lines and -the disposition of the masses produce a simplicity and a calmness of -composition that enchant one. - -The tombs in the Frari, placed in the lateral walls, decorate the -building without obstructing it The magnificence of the marbles blazes -forth on every side, charming foliage bears witness to the finish of -the old Venetian sculpture. On one of the squares of the pavement in -the nave are these words: - - HERE LIES TITIAN, THE RIVAL OF ZEUXIS AND APELLES - -This stone is opposite one of the painter's master-pieces. Canova -has his gorgeous sepulchre not far from Titian's flag-stone; this -sepulchre is the replica of the monument which he had conceived for -Titian himself and which he executed afterwards for the Archduchess -Maria Christina[103]. The remains of the sculptor of the _Hebe_ and the -_Magdalen_ are not all collected in this work: thus Canova inhabits the -representation of a tomb made by himself, not for himself, which tomb -is but his semi-cenotaph. - -From the Frari, I proceeded to the Manfrini Gallery. The portrait -of Ariosto is speaking. Titian painted his mother, an old matron of -the people, squalid and ugly: the artist's pride shows itself in the -exaggeration of this woman's years and poverty. - -At the Academy of Fine Arts, I hurried fast to the picture of the -_Assumption_, discovered by Cicognara[104]: ten large male figures at -the bottom of the picture; observe the man rapt in ecstasy on the left, -watching Mary. The Virgin, above this group, rises in the centre of a -semicircle of cherubs; there is a multitude of admirable faces in that -glory: a woman's head, on the right, at the point of the crescent, of -unspeakable beauty; two or three heavenly spirits flung horizontally -across the sky, in the bold, picturesque manner of Tintoretto. I am not -sure that a standing angel does not experience some feeling of a too -terrestrial love. The Virgin is largely proportioned; she is clad in -a red drapery; her blue scarf floats in the air; her eyes are raised -towards the Eternal Father, who appeared at the zenith. Four positive -colours, brown, green, red and blue, cover the picture: the aspect of -the whole is sombre, the character unideal, but of an incomparable -truth and natural vivacity. Nevertheless, I prefer the _Presentation of -the Virgin in the Temple_, by the same painter, which hangs in the same -room. - -Facing the _Assumption_ and very cleverly lighted is Tintoretto's -_Miracle of St. Mark_, a vigorous scene which seems dug out of the -canvas with the chisel and mallet rather than the brush. - -I went on to the plaster-casts from the metopes of the Parthenon; these -plasters had a three-fold interest for me: in Athens, I had seen the -voids left by the ravages committed by Lord Elgin[105] and, in London, -the kidnapped marbles of which I found the mouldings in Venice. The -roving destiny of those master-pieces was linked with mine, and yet -Phidias did not fashion my clay. - -I was unable to tear myself away from the original drawings by Leonardo -da Vinci, Michael Angelo and Raphael. Nothing is more interesting than -those sketches of genius abandoned alone to its studies and its whims: -it admits you to its intimacy; it initiates you into its secrets; -it informs you by what steps and by what efforts it has attained -perfection: one is enraptured at seeing how it was mistaken, how it -perceived its error and corrected it. Those pencil-strokes drawn on -the corner of a table on a wretched piece of paper retain a marvellous -richness and natural artlessness. When you reflect that Raphael's hand -has passed over those immortal scraps, you are angry with the glass -which prevents you from kissing those holy relics. - -[Sidenote: Santi Giovanni e Paolo.] - -I refreshed myself, after my admiration at the Academy of Fine Arts, -with an admiration of a different kind at Santi Giovanni e Paolo, even -as one rests one's mind by a change of reading. This church, whose -unknown architect followed in the foot-steps of Niccola Pisano, is rich -and spacious. The apse into which the high altar retires represents -a kind of erect shell; two other sanctuaries accompany this shell -laterally: they are tall and narrow, with many-centred vaultings, and -are separated from the apse by rabbeted channels. - -The ashes of the Doges Mocenigo[106], Morosini[107], Vendramin[108] -and several other heads of the Republic[109] rest here. Here also is -the skin of Antonio Bragadino[110], the defender of Famagusta, to -whom Tertulliano expression may be applied: "a living skin." Those -illustrious remains inspire a great and painful sentiment: Venice -herself, the magnificent catafalco of her warlike magistrates, the -two-fold coffin of their ashes, is now no more than a living skin. - -Stained-glass windows and red curtains, while veiling the light in -Santi Giovanni e Paolo, increase the religious effect. The numberless -columns brought from the East and from Greece have been planted in -the basilica, like avenues of exotic trees. A storm rose while I -was roaming in the church: when will the trumpets sound that shall -rouse all these dead? I said as much under Jerusalem, in the Valley -of Jehoshaphat. Returning to my hotel after those visits, I thanked -God for having transported me from the porkers of Waldmünchen to the -pictures of Venice. - - -VENICE, _September_ 1833. - -After my discovery of the prisons in which material Austria tries -to stifle Italian intellects, I went to the Arsenal. No monarchy, -however powerful it be or have been, has presented a similar nautical -compendium. - -An immense space, enclosed by crenellated walls, contains four docks -for large ships, yards for building those ships, establishments for all -that concerns the military and merchant navy, from the rope-yard to the -gun-foundry, from the work-shop where they carve the oar of the gondola -to that where they square the keel of a seventy-four, from the rooms -devoted to the old armour captured in Constantinople, in Cyprus, in the -Morea, at Lepanto to the rooms in which modern armour is exhibited: the -whole mingled with galleries, columns, works of architecture raised and -designed by the chief masters. - -In the naval arsenals of Spain, England, France, Holland, one sees only -that which is connected with the objects of those arsenals; in Venice, -the arts are allied to industry. The monument to Admiral Emo[111], by -Canova, awaits you beside the carcass of a ship; rows of guns meet your -eye through long porticoes: the two colossal lions from the Piræus -keep the gate of the dock from which a frigate is about to issue for a -world which Athens did not know and which was discovered by the genius -of modern Italy. - - -[Sidenote: The Arsenal.] - -In spite of those fine remains of Neptune, the Arsenal no longer -recalls those lines of Dante: - - In the Venetians' arsenal as boils - Through wintry months tenacious pitch, to smear - Their unsound vessels; for the inclement time - Sea-faring men restrains, and in that while - His bark one builds anew, another stops - The ribs of his that hath made many a voyage, - One hammers at the prow, one at the poop, - This shapeth oars, that other cables twirls, - The mizen one repairs, and main-sail rent[112]. - -All this animation is over: the emptiness of seven-eighths of the -arsenal, the extinct furnaces, the boilers gnawed with rust, the -rope-walks without wheels, the dock-yards without shipwrights bear -witness to the same death that has smitten the palaces. Instead of -the throng of carpenters, sail-makers, seamen, caulkers, ship's lads, -one sees a few galley-slaves dragging their fetters: two of them were -eating off the breech of a gun; at that iron table they could at least -dream of liberty. - -When formerly those galley-slaves rowed on board the _Bucentaur_, they -wore a purple tunic thrown over their branded shoulders, to make them -look like kings cleaving the waves with gilded paddles; they gladdened -their toil with the clank of their chains, even as in Bengal, at the -Feast of the Durga, the nautch-girls, dressed in gold gauze, accompany -their dances with the sound of the rings with which their necks, arms -and legs are adorned. The Venetian convicts married the doge to the sea -and themselves renewed their indissoluble union with slavery. - -Of those many fleets which bore the crusaders to the shores of -Palestine and forbade any foreign sail to be displayed to the winds -of the Adriatic, there remain a model of the _Bucentaur_, Napoleon's -cutter, a savages' canoe and some designs of ships drawn in chalk on -the black-board of the school of the Naval Guard. - -A Frenchman coming from Prague to Venice and expecting the mother of -Henry V. must needs be touched at seeing the armour of Henry IV. in -the Venice Arsenal. The sword which the Bearnese wore at the Battle of -Ivry[113] used to be joined to that armour: that sword is no longer -there. - -By a decree of the Grand Council of Venice, dated 3 April 1600: - - "_Enrico di Borbone IV., re di Francia e di Navarra, con li - figluoli e discenditi suoi, sia annumerato tra il nobli di questio - nostro maggior consiglio._" - -Charles X., Louis XIX. and Henry V., descendants of "Enrico di -Borbone," are therefore nobles of the Republic of Venice, which no -longer exists, even as they are Kings of France in Bohemia, even as -they are canons of St. John Lateran in Rome, and always by right of -Henry IV.; I have represented them in this last quality: they have lost -their president's cap and their amice, and I have lost my embassy. And -yet I was so well off in my stall in St. John Lateran! What a beautiful -church! What a beautiful sky! What admirable music! Those songs have -lasted longer than my grandeurs and those of my Canon-King. - -My glory annoyed me greatly at the Arsenal; it shines on my -forehead unknown to myself: Field-marshal Pallucci, Admiral and -Commandant-General of the Navy, recognised me by my horns of fire. He -hastened up to me, himself showed me several curiosities and then, -excusing himself for his inability to accompany me any longer, because -of a council over which he had to preside, he placed me in the hands of -a superior officer. - -We met the captain of the frigate which was on the point of sailing. -He accosted me without ceremony and said to me, with that sailor's -frankness which I like so much: - -"Monsieur le vicomte"--as though he had known me all his life--"have -you any message for America?" - -"No, captain: be sure to give her my compliments; it is long since I -saw her!" - -I cannot see a vessel without dying of longing to go with her: if I -were free, the first ship sailing for the Indies would have a chance of -carrying me away. How I regretted not to have been able to accompany -Captain Parry[114] to the Arctic regions! My life is at its ease only -in the midst of the clouds and the seas: I always cherish the hope that -it will disappear under a sail. The weighty years which we heave into -the waves of time are not anchors: they do not delay our course. - -[Sidenote: The Isola di San Cristoforo.] - -VENICE, _September_ 1833. - -In the Arsenal, I was not far from the Isola di San Cristoforo, which -serves to-day as a cemetery. This island used to contain a convent of -Capuchins; the convent has been pulled down and its site is nothing -more than a square enclosure. The tombs are not very many in number, or -at least they are not raised above the level and grassy ground. Against -the west wall are fixed five or six stone monuments; little black -wooden crosses, with a white date, are scattered about the enclosure: -that is how they now bury the Venetians whose forefathers rest in the -mausoleums of the Frari and Santi Giovanni e Paolo. Society, as it -grows larger, has humbled itself: democracy has overtaken death. - -On the edge of the cemetery, on the east side, one sees the vaults of -the Schismatic Greeks and those of the Protestants; they are separated -from each other by a wall and again separated from the Catholic burials -by another wall: sad dissents whose memory is perpetuated in the asylum -where all quarrels end! Close by the Greek cemetery is another recess -which protects a hole into which the still-born children are thrown -to Limbo. Happy creatures! You have passed from the darkness of the -maternal womb into everlasting darkness, without going through the -light! - -Near this hole lie bones dug into the ground like roots, as each new -grave is cleared: some, the older ones, are white and dry; others, more -recently disinterred, are yellow and damp. Lizards run about those -remains, glide in between the teeth, through the eyes and nostrils, -come out through the mouth and ears of the skulls, their houses or -nests. Three or four butterflies hovered over the mallow-flowers -entwined with those bones, an image of the soul under that sky which -resembles that under which the story of Psyche was invented. One skull -still had a few hairs of the same shade as my own. Poor old gondolier! -Did you at least steer your bark better than I have steered mine? - -A common grave remains open in the enclosure; they had just lowered -a physician beside his old practice. His black coffin was covered -with earth only at the top and its naked side awaited the side of -another dead man to warm it Antonio had stuffed his wife in there, a -fortnight ago, and it was the defunct doctor who had dispatched her: -Antonio blessed a requiting and avenging God and bore his misfortune -patiently. The coffins of private individuals are taken to that dismal -dwelling-place in private gondolas, followed by a priest in another -gondola. As the gondolas look like hearses, they suit the ceremony. A -larger wherry, an "omnibus" of Cocytus, performs the service of the -hospitals. Thus we find renewed the Egyptian burials and the fables of -Charon and his ferry-boat. - -In the cemetery beside Venice stands an octagonal chapel dedicated to -St. Christopher[115]. This saint, taking a child on his shoulders at -the ford of a river, found it heavy; now the child was the Son of Mary, -who holds the globe in His hand: the altar-picture represents this fair -adventure. - -And I too have tried to carry a child-king, but I did not perceive that -he was sleeping in his cradle with ten centuries: a load too heavy for -my arms. - -I observed in the chapel a wooden candle-stick: the taper was -extinguished; a holy-water font for blessing the burials; and a -little book: _Pars Ritualis Romani pro usu ad exsequianda corpora -defunctorum_; when we are already forgotten, Religion, our immortal and -never wearied kinswoman, mourns us and follows us: _exsequor fugam._ A -tinder-box contained a steel; God alone disposes of the spark of life. -Two quatrains written on common paper were fastened up on the inner -panels of two of the three doors of the building: - - Quivi dell' uom le frali spoglie ascoce - Pallida morte, O passegier, t'addita, etc. - -The only somewhat striking tomb in the cemetery was raised in advance -by a woman who subsequently delayed eighteen years in dying: the -inscription informs us of this circumstance; thus this woman for -eighteen years hoped in vain for her sepulchre. What sorrow nourished -this hope within her? - -On a little black wooden cross appears this other inscription: - - VIRGINIA ACERBI, ANNO 72, 1824. - MORTA NEL BACIO DEL SIGNORE. - -The years are harsh to a fair Venetian woman. - -[Sidenote: San Michele di Murano.] - -Antonio said to me: - -"When this cemetery is full, they will give it a rest and bury the dead -in the Isola di San Michele di Murano[116]." - -The expression was a correct one: when the harvest is gathered, one -lets the soil lie fallow and ploughs other furrows elsewhere. - - -VENICE, _September_ 1833. - -We have been to see that other field awaiting the Great Husbandman. -San Michele di Murano is a smiling monastery with a graceful church, -porticoes and a white cloister. The windows of the convent give a view, -over the porticoes, of Venice and the lagoons; a garden filled with -flowers meets the turf whose compost is still being prepared under the -fresh-coloured skin of some young girl. This charming retreat is given -over to Franciscans; it would better suit nuns singing like the little -pupils of Rousseau's _Scuole_: - - "How happy are they," says Manzoni, "who have taken the holy veil - before fixing their eyes on a man's face." - -Give me, I entreat you, a cell here in which to finish my Memoirs. - -Fra Paolo[117] is buried at the entrance to the church; that seeker -after noise must be very wroth at the silence that surrounds him. - -Pellico, when sentenced to death, was lodged at San Michele before -being transported to the fortress of the Spielberg. The president of -the tribunal before which Pellico appeared takes the poet's place at -San Michele; he is buried in the cloister; he will not leave that -prison. - -Not far from the tomb of the magistrate is that of a foreign woman -married at the age of twenty-two years, in the month of January; she -died in the month of February following. She did not want to go beyond -the honeymoon; her epitaph says: - - CI REVEDREMO. - -If it were true! - -Back, that doubt; back, the thought that no anguish rends annihilation! -Atheist, when death buries its nails into your heart, who knows but -that, in the last moment of consciousness, before the destruction -of the _ego_, you will feel an atrocity of pain capable of filling -eternity, an immensity of suffering of which a human being can have no -idea in the circumscribed limits of time! Ah yes, _ci revedremo!_ - -I was too near the island and town of Murano not to visit the factories -whence came the mirrors in my mother's room at Combourg[118]. I did not -see those factories, which are now closed; but they spun out before my -eyes, like the thread of our frail lives, a slender cord of glass: it -was of that glass that the bead was made that hung from the nose of the -little Iroquois at the Falls of Niagara: the hand of a Venetian girl -had rounded off the ornament of a savage girl[119]. - -I met a finer sight than Mila. A woman was carrying a swaddled child; -the delicate complexion, the captivating glance of that Muranese are -idealized in my memory. She looked sad and preoccupied. Had I been -Lord Byron, this would have been a favourable opportunity for making -an experiment with seduction on poverty; a little money goes a long -way here. Then I should have played the desperate solitary beside -the waves, intoxicated with my success and my genius. Love seems a -different thing to me: I have lost sight of René since many a year; but -I doubt if he sought the secret of his pains in his pleasures. - -Every day, after my excursions, I sent to the post, but there was -nothing there: Count Griffi did not reply from Florence; the public -papers permitted to exist in this land of independence would not -have dared to state that a traveller had alighted at the White Lion. -Venice, where the gazettes[120] were born, is reduced to reading the -placards which advertise on the same bill the opera of the day and the -Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. The Alduses[121] will not come -forth from their tombs to embrace, in my person, the defender of the -liberty of the press. I had therefore to wait Returning to my inn, I -dined and amused myself with the company of the gondoliers stationed, -as I have said, under my window at the entrance to the Grand Canal. - -[Sidenote: The gondoliers.] - -The gaiety of those sons of Nereus never forsakes them: clothed by -the sun, they are fed by the sea. They do not lie about idly like the -_lazzaroni_ in Naples: ever stirring, they are sailors who lack ships -and work, but who would still carry on the trade of the world and win -the Battle of Lepanto, if the days of Venetian liberty and glory were -not past. - -At six o'clock in the morning, they come to their gondolas, fastened -to posts with their prows aground. Then they begin to scrape and wash -their _barchette_ at the _Traghetti_, just as dragoons curry, brush and -sponge their horses on picket. The ticklish sea-horse is restive and -refuses to stand still under the movements of its horseman, who draws -water in a wooden vessel and pours it over the sides and into the well -of the craft. He several times repeats the aspersion, taking care to -discard the water from the surface of the sea in order to obtain the -cleaner water below. Then he scrubs the oars, polishes the brasses -and the glass of the little black deck-house, dusts the cushions and -carpets and rubs up the iron head of the prow. The whole is not done -without a few words of humour or affection addressed, in the pretty -Venetian dialect, to the skittish or docile gondola. - -When the gondola's toilet is completed, the gondolier proceeds to make -his own. He combs his hair, shakes out his jacket and his blue, red -or grey cap, washes his face, feet and hands. His wife, daughter or -mistress brings him a bowl containing a mess of vegetables, bread and -meat. Breakfast over, each gondolier awaits Fortune, singing: he has -her before his eyes, one foot in the air, holding out her scarf to the -wind and serving as a weather-cock, at the top of the monument of the -Dogana di Mare. Does she give the signal? The favoured gondolier, with -oar upraised, starts out at the back of his craft, even as Achilles -used to fly in former days, or as one of Franconi's[122] circus-riders -gallops to-day on the crupper of a fiery steed. The gondola, shaped -like a skate, glides over the water as over ice: "_Sia, stati! Sta -longo!_" that does for the whole day. Then night comes, and the _calle_ -will see my gondolier singing and drinking with his _zitella_ the -half-sequin which I leave him, as I go off most certainly to replace -Henry V. on the throne. - - -VENICE, _September_ 1833. - -I was trying to find out, when I woke, why I liked Venice so much, -when I suddenly remembered that I was in Brittany: it was the force of -kindred that found utterance within me. Was there not, in Cæsar's -time, in Armorica, a country of the Veneti[123]: _civitas Venetorum, -civitas Venetica?_ Has not Strabo "said that they said" that the -Veneti[124] were the descendants of the Veneti of Gaul? - -It has been contradictorily held that the fishermen of Morbihan were -a colony of the _pescatori_ of Palestrina: Venice, then, would be the -mother and not the daughter of Vannes[125]. One can reconcile this by -supposing, which for that matter is very probable, that Vannes and -Venice were mutually brought to bed of one another. I therefore look -upon the Venetians as Bretons; the gondoliers and I are cousins, sprung -from the horn of Gaul: _cornu Galliæ._[126] - -[Sidenote: On the Riva degli Schiavoni.] - -Delighted with this thought, I went to breakfast in a café on the -Riva degli Schiavoni. The bread was new, the tea scented, the cream -as in Brittany, the butter as in the Prévalais; for butter, thanks to -the progress of enlightenment, has improved everywhere: I have eaten -excellent butter at Granada. The bustle of a harbour always delights -me: barge-masters were picnicking; vendors of fruit and flowers offered -me lemons, grapes and nosegays; fishermen got ready their tartans; -naval cadets, stepping into a long-boat, went off to their lessons in -naval tactics on board the flag-ship; gondolas were taking passengers -to the Trieste steam-boat. Yet it was that same Trieste which was like -to have had me cut down on the steps of the Tuileries by Bonaparte, -as he threatened when, in 1807, I took it upon myself to write in the -_Mercure_: - - "It was reserved for us to find at the back of the Adriatic the - tomb of two king's daughters[127] whose funeral oration we had - heard delivered in an attic in London. Ah, at least the grave - that holds those noble ladies will have once heard its silence - broken; the sound of a Frenchman's foot-steps will have made - two Frenchwomen start in their coffins! The respects of a poor - gentleman, at Versailles, would have been nothing to princesses; - the prayer of a Christian, on foreign soil, will perhaps have been - agreeable to saints." - -Some few years, it seems to me, have passed, since I began to serve the -Bourbons: they have enlightened my fidelity, but they will not tire it -I am breakfasting on the Riva degli Schiavoni, while waiting for the -exile. - - -VENICE, _September_ 1833. - -From the little table at which I sit, my eyes wander over all the -roads: a breeze from the offing cools the air; the tide is rising; a -three-master is coming in. The Lido on one side, the Doge's Palace on -the other, the lagoons in the middle: that is the picture. It is from -this port that so many glorious fleets set sail; old Dandolo sallied -forth in all the pomp of naval chivalry, of which Villehardouin[128], -who began our language and our Memoirs, has left us a description: - -"And when the ships were laden with arms, and meats, and knights, and -sergeants, and the shields were arrayed all round in the form of a -frieze, and the banners waved, of which there were so many fair ones, -never did fairer fleets sail from any port." - -The morning scene in Venice also puts me in mind of the story of -Captain Olivet and Zulietta, which was so well told: - - "The gondola lay to, and I saw a dazzlingly beautiful young woman - step out, coquettishly dressed and very nimble. In three bounds - she was in the cabin and seated at my side, before I perceived - that a place had been laid for her. She was a brunette of twenty - years at the most, as charming as she was lively. She could speak - only Italian; her accent alone would have been enough to turn my - head. While eating and chatting, she fixed her eyes on me and then, - exclaiming, 'Holy Virgin! O my dear Brémond, how long it is since I - saw you!1 she threw herself into my arms, sealed her lips to mine - and pressed me almost to suffocation. Her large, black, Oriental - eyes darted shafts of fire into my heart; and although surprise - at first diverted my senses, my amorous feelings very rapidly - overcame me.... She told us that I was the image of M. de Brémond, - the director of the Tuscan custom-house; that she had been madly - in love with this M. de Brémond; that she was still madly in love - with him; that she had left him because she was a fool; that she - took me in his place; that she wanted to love me, since it suited - her; that, for the same reason, I must love her as long as it - suited her; and that, when she left me in the lurch, I must bear it - patiently as her dear Brémond had done. No sooner said than done.... - - "In the evening, we escorted her back to her apartments. While we - were talking, I noticed two pistols on her dressing-table. - - "'Ah, ah!' said I, taking one up, 'here is a patch-box of a new - construction; may I ask what it is used for?' - - "She said, with an ingenuous pride which made her still more - charming: - - "'When I am complaisant to those whom I do not love, I make them - pay for the weariness they cause me: nothing can be fairer; but, - although I endure their caresses, I will not endure their insults, - and I shall not miss the first man who shall be wanting in respect - to me.' - - 'When I left her, I made an appointment for the next day. I did not - keep her waiting. I found her _in vestito di confidenza_, in a more - than wanton undress, which is known only in southern countries and - which I will not amuse myself with describing, although I remember - it too well.... I had no idea of the delights that awaited me. - I have spoken of Madame de Larnage, in the transports which the - recollection of her still sometimes awakens in me; but how old, - ugly, and cold she was, compared with my Zulietta! Do not attempt - to imagine the charms and graces of this bewitching girl; you would - be too far from the truth. The young virgins of the cloister are - not so fresh, the beauties of the harem are not so lively, the - houris of paradise are not so piquant.[129]" - -This adventure ended with an eccentricity on the part of Rousseau and -Zulietta's phrase: - -"_Lascia le donne e studia la matematica._" - - -[Sidenote: Zulietta, Margherita Cogni.] - -Lord Byron also gave up his life to paid Venuses: he filled the -Mocenigo Palace with those Venetian beauties, who had " taken refuge," -according to him, "under the _fazzioli._" Sometimes, perturbed by a -feeling of shame, he fled, and spent the night on the water in his -gondola. He had, as his favourite sultana, Margherita Cogni, surnamed, -from her husband's condition, the Fornarina[130]: - - "Very dark, tall"--it is Lord Byron who speaks--"the Venetian face, - very fine black eyes. She was two-and-twenty years old.... - - "In the autumn, one day, going to the Lido... we were overtaken - by a heavy squall. . . . . . . ....On our return, after a tight - struggle, I found Margarita on the open steps of the Mocenigo - Palace, on the Grand Canal, with her great black eyes flashing - through her tears, and the long dark hair, which was streaming, - drenched with rain, over her brows and breast. She was perfectly - exposed to the storm; and the wind blowing her hair and dress about - her thin tall figure, and the lightning flashing round her, and - the waves rolling at her feet, made her look like Medea alighted - from her chariot, or the sybil of the tempest that was rolling - around her, the only living thing within hail at that moment except - ourselves. On seeing me safe, she did not wait to greet me.... but - calling out to me, '_Ah! can' della Madonna, ne este il tempo per - andar' al' Lido!_--Ah! dog of the Virgin, is this a time to go to - the Lido?' ran into the house," etc. - -In these two stories of Rousseau and Byron, one feels the difference -in social position, character and education between the two men. -Through the charm of the style of the author of the _Confessions_ peeps -something vulgar, cynical, in bad form, in bad taste; the obscenity of -expression peculiar to that period still further spoils the picture. -Zulietta is superior to her lover in elevation of feeling and in -habitual elegance: it is almost a fine lady smitten with the puny -secretary of a paltry ambassador[131]. The same inferiority appears -again when Rousseau arranges to bring up, with his friend Carrio, at -their common expense, a little girl of eleven years whose favours, or -rather whose tears, they were to share. - -Lord Byron bears himself differently: he shines forth with the manners -and the fatuousness of the aristocracy; a peer of Great Britain, -playing with the woman of the people whom he has seduced, he raises her -to himself by his caresses and the magic of his talent Byron arrived -in Venice rich and famous: Rousseau landed there poor and unknown; -everybody knows the palace that blabbed the errors of the noble heir of -the English commodore[132]: no _cicerone_ could point out to you the -house in which the plebeian son of the humble clock-maker of Geneva hid -his pleasures. Rousseau does not even speak of Venice; he seems to have -lived in it without seeing it: Byron has sung it admirably[133]. - -You have seen in these Memoirs what I have said of the relations -of imagination and destiny that seem to have existed between the -historian of _René_ and the poet of _Childe Harold._ Here I point to -another of those conjunctures so nattering to my pride. Does not the -dark-haired Fornarina of Lord Byron bear a certain family likeness to -the fair-haired Velléda of the _Martyrs_, her elder? - -[Sidenote: Velléda.] - - "'Hidden among the rocks, I waited some time, but nothing appeared. - Suddenly, my ear was struck by sounds which the wind carried to - me from the middle of the lake. I listened and distinguished the - accents of a human voice; at the same time I discovered a skiff - poised on the crest of a wave; it came down again, disappeared - between two billows, and then showed itself once more on the - summit of a heavy swell; it approached the shore. A woman was - steering; she sang as she struggled against the storm and seemed - to sport amidst the winds: one would have thought that they were - in her power, from the manner in which she seemed to defy them. I - saw her throw into the lake by turns, as a sacrifice, pieces of - linen, sheep's fleeces, cakes of wax and little gold and silver - grindstones. - - "Soon she touched land, sprang on shore, fastened her bark to the - trunk of a willow and darted into the wood, leaning on the poplar - oar which she held in her hand. She passed quite close to me - without seeing me. Her figure was tall; a dark, short, sleeveless - tunic scarce served to veil her nudity. She carried a golden sickle - slung from a brass girdle and her head was encircled with an oaken - branch. The whiteness of her arms and complexion, her blue eyes, - her rosy lips, her long fair hair that waved dishevelled in the - air bespoke the daughter of the Gauls and contrasted, by their - gentleness, with her proud and fierce gait She sang words full of - terror in a melodious voice, and her uncovered breast rose and fell - like the foam of the waves[134].'" - -I should blush to show myself between Byron and Jean-Jacques, without -knowing what place posterity will award me, if these Memoirs were to -appear during my life; but, when they see the light, I shall have gone -and for all time, like my illustrious predecessors, to a distant shore; -my shade will be delivered to the breath of opinion, vain and light -like the little that will remain of my ashes. - -Rousseau and Byron had one feature in common in Venice: neither showed -any feeling for the arts. Rousseau, who had wonderful gifts for music, -does not seem to know that, near Zulietta, there existed pictures, -statues, monuments; and yet with what charm do those master-pieces mate -with love, whose object they divine and whose flame they increase! As -to Lord Byron, he "loathes the infernal din" of Rubens' colours, he -"spits upon" all the pictures of saints with which the churches are -glutted; he never met a picture or statue coming within a league of -his thought. He prefers to those deceitful arts the beauty of a few -mountains, a few seas, a few horses, a certain Morean lion and a tiger -which he saw supping in Exeter Change. Is there not a little prejudice -in all this? - - Que d'affectation et de forfanterie[135]! - - -VENICE, _September_ 1833. - -But what, then, is this town in which all the lofty intelligences have -arranged to meet? Some have visited it themselves; others have sent -their Muses there. Something would have been lacking to the immortality -of those talents, if they had not hung pictures on that temple of -voluptuousness and glory. Without again recalling the great poets of -Italy, the geniuses of the whole of Europe placed their creations -there: there breathed Shakespeare's Desdemona, very different from -Rousseau's Zulietta and Byron's Margherita, that chaste Venetian who -declares her love to Othello: - - And bade me, if I had a friend that lov'd her, - I should but teach him how to tell my story, - And that would woo her[136]. - -There appeared Otway's[137] Belvidera, who says to Jaffeir: - - Oh smile, as when our loves were in their spring. - . . . . . . . . . - Oh lead me to some desert wide and wild, - Barren as our misfortunes, where my soul - May have its vent, where I may tell aloud - To the high heavens, and every list'ning planet, - With what a boundless stock my bosom's fraught; - Where I may throw my eager arms about thee, - Give loose to love, with kisses kindling joy, - And let off all the fire that's in my heart[138]. - -Goethe, in our time, has celebrated Venice, and the gentle Marot[139], -who first made his voice heard at the awakening of the French Muses, -took refuge in Titian's native place. Montesquieu wrote: - - "Although one had seen all the cities of the world, there might - still be a surprise in store for him in Venice[140]." - -When, in too undraped a picture, the author of the _Lettres persanes_ -depicts a Mussulman woman surrendered in Paradise to two "heavenly -men," does he not seem to have painted the courtezan of Rousseau's -_Confessions_ and her of Byron's Memoirs? Was not I, between my two -Floridans, like Anaïs between her two angels[141]? But the "painted -girls" and I were not immortal. - -[Sidenote: And Corinne.] - -Madame de Staël gives Venice over to the inspiration of Corinne: the -latter hears the sound of the cannon that announces "the obscure -sacrifice of a young girl[142] ...a solemn counsel, which a woman -resigned to her fate gives to those who still struggle with destiny." -...Corinne climbs to the top of the tower of St. Mark's, contemplates -the city and the waves, turns her eyes towards Greece "enveloped in -clouds;" at night she sees "nothing but the reflection of the lanterns -which light the gondolas:" they give her the idea of "spectres gliding -upon the water, guided by a little star[143]." - -Oswald departs; Corinne darts out of the room to recall him: "The rain -then fell in torrents, a most violent wind arose;" Corinne descends to -the banks of the canal: - - "The night was so dark that not a single bark was to be seen.... - Corinne called to the gondoliers, who took her cries for those - of some wretch drowning in the tempest; nevertheless none dared - approach to offer assistance, so formidable were the waves of the - Grand Canal[144]." - - -There again you have Lord Byron's Margherita. - -I find an unspeakable pleasure in meeting the masterpieces of those -great masters in the very place for which they were made. I breathe -freely in the midst of the immortal band, like a humble traveller -admitted to the hospitable hearth of a rich and beautiful family. - - - -[60] This book was written on the road from Paris to Venice, between -the 7th and 10th of September 1833, and in Venice, from the 10th to the -15th of September 1833.--T. - -[61] Salins suffered from a terrible conflagration in 1825. It was -rebuilt, with regular streets, by public subscription.--T. - -[62] Pierre Joseph Thoulier, Abbé d'Olivet (1682-1768) was born at -Salins, on the Furieuse, a tributary of the Loire. He first joined the -Jesuits, where he was known as the Père Thoulier, but soon left the -Company, in order to follow a literary career. Meantime Voltaire had -been his pupil at the college of Louis-le-Grand. He became a member of -the French Academy in 1723; Voltaire in 1746. D'Olivet is the author -of an _Histoire de l'Académie française_, up to 1700, and of several -important grammatical works and translations, and he worked much on the -Dictionary of the French Academy.--T. - -[63] Mirabeau was imprisoned in the Castle of Joux, at his father's -instance, in 1775; Toussaint-Louverture (_cf._ Vol. III., p. 191, -n. 3) died there on the 27th of April 1803, after a ten months' -confinement--T. - -[64] _Cf._ Vol. II., pp. 246-250.--T. - -[65] "When, on the 7th of August 1814, the Bull of _Sollicitudo -omnium ecclesiarum_, came to sanction the work of restoration of the -Company of Jesus, the primitive cantons of Switzerland did not remain -insensible to the joys of Catholicism. Ignace Brocard, Jacques Roh, -Gaspard Rothenflue and several of their fellow-countrymen enlisted -under the banner of the newly-reinstated Order. The Valais gave back to -the Jesuits their old college of Brigg." (CRÉTINEAU-JOLY, _Histoire du -Sunderbund_, Vol. I., p. 428.)--B. - -[66] _Dies Iræ_, Stanza 5: - - Liber seri plus proferetur, - In quo totum continetur, - Unde mundus judicetur.--T. - - -[67] Francis I. lived till 1835.--T. - -[68] Charles X. lived till 1836.--T. - -[69] Ferdinand III. Grand-duke of Tuscany (1769-1824). _Vide supra_ p. -12, n. 1.--T. - -[70] Charles Felix I. King of Sardinia (1765-1831) succeeded to the -throne on the abdication of his brother, Victor Emanuel I., in 1821, -the year before the Congress of Verona.--T. - -[71] Pierre François Hercule Comte de Serre (1777-1822). He died as -Ambassador to Naples.--T. - -[72] Vincenzo Scamozzi (1552-1616), the architect of many of the finest -buildings in North Italy.--T. - -[73] Niccola Pisano (_circa_ 1206-1278), one of the greatest Italian -architects.--T. - -[74] And not Signor Procurante, as the earlier editions of the Memoirs -have it.--T. - -[75] VOLTAIRE: _Candide, ou l'Optimisme_, Part I., Chap. XXV.: _Candid -and Martin pay a Visit to Seignor Pococurante, a Noble Venetian._--T. - -[76] Philippe de Comines (_circa_ 1445-1511), the statesman and -historian, author of the valuable _Cronique et hystoire faicte et -composée par messire Philippe de Comines._--T. - -[77] JACOPO SANNAZARO.--_Author's Note._ - -[78] GABRIELLO CHIABRERA, _Canzoni eroiche_, III.: _Per Vittorio -Cappello, Generale de' Veneziani nella Morea_, 10-12.--T. - -[79] Pierre Luc Charles Cicéri (1782-1868), a famous French -scene-painter, who executed numbers of stage-scenes for the Royal -Academy of Music, or grand Opera-house, in Paris.--B. - -[80] Giorgio Barbarelli (_circa_ 1477-1511), known as Giorgione, -the great Venetian colourist and pupil of Giovanni Bellini (_vide -infra._)--T. - -[81] Paolo Cagliari (1528-1588), of Verona, known as Paul Veronese, one -of the most celebrated painters of the Venetian School, went to Venice -in 1555 and remained there. He executed the decorations of the Library -of St. Mark in 1563 and the ceiling of the council-chamber in the -Palace of the Doges in 1577.--T. - -[82] Jacopo Robusti (1518-1594), called Tintoretto from the trade of -his father, a dyer, received his first important order in 1546, for the -decoration of Santa Maria dell' Orto. In 1560, he began to paint the -Scuola di San Rocco and the Doges' Palace and, in the same year, seems -to have taken Titian's place as Court painter to the Doges.--T. - -[83] Giovanni Bellini (_post_1427-1516), the founder of the Venetian -School of painting and the greatest of the fifteenth-century artists. -Titian and Giorgione were both his pupils.--T. - -[84] Paride Bordone (_circa_ 1500-1571), one of Titian's greatest -pupils.--T. - -[85] Jacopo Palma the Elder( _circa_ 1480-1528) and Jacopo Palma the -Younger (_circa_ 1544-1628), uncle and nephew.--T. - -[86] Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) settled in Venice and presented the -city with his library (1362).--T. - -[87] George Gemistus Pletho (_b._ 1390), the celebrated Byzantine -Platonic philosopher and scholar.--T. - -[88] Johannes Cardinal Bessarion (1395-1472), Archbishop of Nicæa -(1437), a cardinal (1439), Archbishop of Siponto and Bishop of Sabina -and Tusculum, and Patriarch of Constantinople (1463). Bessarion was a -disciple of Plethon and author of, among many other works of Platonic -philosophy, the famous _Adversus Calumniatorem Platonis_ (1469).--T. - -[89] Or Acre: 1104.--T. - -[90] 1176.--T. - -[91] 1124.--T. - -[92] 10 October 1571.--T. - -[93] The so-called Grand Sanhedrim of 1806 was a council summoned -by Napoleon for the 20th of October of that year, consisting of -representatives of the chief synagogues of France, Italy and Europe. -The object of its deliberations was to point out to the Government -means of enabling the Jews to participate in the civil and political -rights of England, by modifying such of their habits and doctrines as -kept them isolated from their fellow-citizens. The sittings of the -Grand Sanhedrim, which consisted of 71 members, opened on the 9th of -February and ended on the 9th of March 1807. The most notable clause, -from Napoleon's point of view, in the solemn public declaration issued -on the latter date, is that dispensing Jews who are performing military -service from all religious observances that are irreconcilable with -such military service.--T. - -[94] Leopoldo Conte Cicognara (1767-1834), a distinguished diplomatist -and antiquarian. He became President of the Academy of Fine Arts of -Venice in 1812. His principal work, the _Storia della Scultura_, was -published in 1813-1818.--T. - -[95] It is clear to my eyes that the ogive, whose so-called mysterious -origin men go so far to seek, was born casually of the intersection -of two semicircular arches; therefore it is found everywhere. Later -architects have done no more than release it from the designs in which -it originally figured.--_Author's Note._ - -[96] See the previous note.--_Author's Note._ - -[97] Bartolommeo Gamba (1780-1841), a learned Italian bibliographer and -biographer. His chief work is the _Serie dell' Edizioni dei Testi di -Lingua Italiana_ (1812-1828).--T. - -[98] Fra Mauro (_fl._ 15th Century), a monk of the Camaldule Order, who -drew his famous map of the world between 1457 and 1459.--T. - -[99] Here for instance, is Charles Dickens' lurid description of the -_Pozzi_, or Prisons, which he pretends to see in a dream: - - "I descended from the cheerful day into two ranges, one below - another, of dismal, awful, horrible stone cells. They were quite - dark. Each had a loophole in its massive wall, where, in the - old time, every day a torch was placed--I dreamed--to light the - prisoners within, for half an hour. The captives, by the glimmering - of these brief rays, had scratched and cut inscriptions in the - blackened vaults. I saw them. For their labour with the rusty - nail's point had outlived their agony and them, through many - generations. - - "One cell I saw in which no man remained for more than - four-and-twenty hours; being marked for dead before he entered - it. Hard by another, and a dismal one, whereto, at midnight, the - Confessor came--a monk brown-robed and hooded--ghastly in the day - and free bright air, but in the midnight of that murky prison, - Hope's extinguisher and Murder's herald. I had my foot upon the - spot where, at the same dread hour, the shriven prisoner was - strangled; and struck my hand upon the guilty door--low-browed - and stealthy--through which the lumpish sack was carried out into - a boat, and rowed away, and drowned where it was death to cast a - net." (_Pictures from Italy: An Italian Dream._)--T. - - [100] - - . . . . . . "Into that hideous den, - With one blow of the axe, admitted light again."--T. - - - [101] Silvio Pellico (1788-1854) was imprisoned in Milan and Venice - from 1820 to 1822 and at the Spielberg, near Brünn, from 1822 to - 1830. His _Mie Prigioni_ had only lately been published (1833) - and Chateaubriand was much struck with them. During his previous - journey to Italy, in a letter dated Basle, 17 May 1833, he wrote to - Madame Récamier: - - "Here I am at Basle, safe and sound. You have seen that fine river - pass which is going, for a moment, to bring news of me to you in - France. Travelling always gives me back my strength, sentiment and - thought; I am very busy writing _a new prologue to a_ BOOK. I nave - read the whole of Pellico, cursorily. I am delighted with it; I - should like to write an account of that work, the saintliness of - which will prevent its success with our revolutionaries, who are - free after Fouché's fashion. Are you not enchanted with _Zanze - sotto i Piombi?_ And the little deaf-and-dumb person? And Schiller, - the old gaoler, and the religious conversations through the - window, and our poor Maroncelli? And that poor young wife of the - _sopr'intendente_, who dies so sweetly? And the return to beautiful - Italy?"--B. - - -[102] Bruno, near which the Spielberg stands, is the capital of -Moravia.--T. - -[103] Maria Christina Josephs Johanna Antonia of Austria, Duchess of -Saxe-Teschen (1742-1798), married to Albert Duke of Saxe-Teschen in -1766. The Archduchess Maria Christina's monument, by Canova, is in the -church of the Augustines in Vienna.--T. - -[104] Titian's _Assumption_, one of the most renowned of existing -pictures, was discovered by Count Cicognara in the church of the Frari, -for which it had been painted as an altar-piece. It was restored and -removed to the _Accademia di Belle Arti_, where it still hangs.--T. - -[105] Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin and eleventh Earl of -Kincardine (1766-1841) was British Envoy to Constantinople from 1799 -to 1802. Between 1801 and 1803, he removed to England from Athens the -so-called Elgin marbles, comprising the bulk of the surviving plastic -decoration of the Parthenon, executed under the direction of Phidias -about 440 B.C. These stolen goods were purchased by the nation in 1816 -and are now in the British Museum.--T. - -[106] Tommaso Mocenigo, Doge from 1414 to 1423; Giovanni Mocenigo, Doge -from 1475 to 1485; and Luigi Mocenigo, Doge from 1570 to 1577, are all -buried in Santi Giovanni e Paolo.--T. - -[107] Michele Morosini, Doge of Venice for a few months in 1382.--T. - -[108] Andrea Vendramin, Doge of Venice (_d._ 1478), became Doge in -1476.--T. - -[109] Seventeen doges in all are buried in Santi Giovanni e Paolo or -"Zanipolo," as the Venetians pronounce it.--B.. - -[110] Marco Antonio Bragadino (_d._ 1571), flayed alive by the Turks -after his valiant defense of Famagusta, in Cyprus.--T. - -[111] Angelo Emo (1731-1792), the last of the Venetian admirals. He -bombarded Tunis and forced it to sign a truce with the Republic--T. - -[112] Cary's DANTE: _Hell_, Canto XXI. 7-15.--T. - -[113] Henry IV. defeated the Leaguers at Ivry-la-Bataille on the 14th -of March 1590.--T. - -[114] Sir William Edward Parry (1790-1855) started on his second polar -expedition in 1821 and his third in 1824. These two expeditions, -neither of which was specially successful, are referred to by -Chateaubriand on page 136 of Vol. I. of the Memoirs. A later -expedition, by way of Spitsbergen, was likewise unsuccessful. From 1823 -to 1829, Parry was Acting Hydrographer to the Navy. In 1852, he was -made a rear-admiral and, in 1853, Governor of Greenwich Hospital.--T. - -[115] St. Christopher (_fl._ 3rd Century) is said to have lived in -Syria and to have been of prodigious height and strength. As a penance -for having been a servant of the devil, he devoted himself to the -task of carrying pilgrims across a river where there was no bridge. -Christ came to the river one day in the form of a child and asked to be -carried over, but His weight grew heavier and heavier till His bearer -was nearly broken down in the midst of the stream. When they reached -the shore: - -"Marvel not," said the Child, "for with Me thou hast borne the sins of -the world." - -St. Christopher is usually represented as bearing the Infant Christ and -leaning upon a staff. He was martyred under the Emperor Decius _circa_ -250. The Church celebrates the Feast of St. Christopher on the 25th of -July.--T. - -[116] The Isola di San Michele contains the modern burying-ground of -Venice.--T. - -[117] Pietro Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623), known as Fra Paola and surnamed -Servita, a noted Venetian historian, entered the Order of the Servites -in 1565. In 1570, he was made professor of philosophy in the Servite -Monastery in Venice. He was distinguished, in the controversy with Pope -Paul V. (1606-1607), as the champion of free thought. His chief work is -the _Istoria del Concilio di Trento_, published in London in 1619. Fra -Paolo was a member of the Council of Ten and consulting theologian to -the Venetian Republic.--T. - -[118] _Cf._ VOL I., p. 76.--T. - -[119] _Cf._ Vol. I., p. 236.--T. - -[120] The _gazetta_ was a Venetian coin, worth about three farthings, -the sum charged for a reading of the first Venetian newspaper, a -written sheet which appeared about the middle of the sixteenth century -during the war with Soliman II.--T. - -[121] Aldus Manutius (_circa_ 1450-1515), the celebrated printer -and founder of the Aldine Press in Venice; his son, Paulus Manutius -(1511-1574); and the latter's son, Aldus Manutius the Younger -(1547-1597). All three were distinguished Classical scholars as well as -noted printers.--T. - -[122] Antonio Franconi (1738-1836), a native of Venice, began life as a -tumbler and travelling physician. Afterwards he instituted bull-fights -in Lyons and, later, at Bordeaux; and, lastly, went into partnership, -in 1783, with Astley, the English circus-proprietor, who had opened -a theatrical riding-school in Paris, and founded the circus which he -called the Cirque Olympique and which obtained a prodigious success.--T. - -[123] The Veneti were an ancient Celtic people living in Brittany, near -the coast of the Bay of Biscay. They were subdued by Cæsar, after a -severe maritime war, in 56 B.C.--T. - -[124] A people dwelling near the head of the Adriatic, between the Po -and the Adige.--T. - -[125] Vannes, or, in Breton, Gwened is the capital of the Department -of Morbihan and is the ancient Civitas Venetorum, the capital of the -Veneti.--T. - -[126] _Cornu Galliæ_, Cornouailles, Cornwall.--T. - -[127] Madame Adélaïde (1732-1800) and Madame Victoire (1733-1799), -daughters of Louis XV.--T. - -[128] Geoffroi de Villehardouin (_circa_ 1160--_circa_ 1215), -the author of a famous chronicle: _Histoire de la conquête de -Constantinople, ou Chronique des empereurs Baudouin et Henri de -Constantinople._ Villehardouin's Chronicle is not only trustworthy -from an historical point of view, but is even more deserving for -its literary excellence, while being one of the oldest monuments of -original French prose. The Fourth Crusade, in which Villehardouin took -part, left Venice in October 1203.--T. - -[129] ROUSSEAU: _Confessions_, Part I., Book VII.--T. - -[130] The baker's wife.--T. - -[131] M. de Montaigu.--T. - -[132] Hon. John Byron (1723-1786), second son of William fourth Lord -Byron and grand-father of the poet, entered the Navy as a boy. In 1764, -he was promoted to commodore and commanded two vessels in a voyage of -exploration round the world; he returned in 1766, having accomplished -little beyond some curious observations on the Indians of Patagonia -and the discovery of some small islands in the Pacific Ocean. He was -Governor of Newfoundland from 1769 to 1772; became a vice-admiral -in 1778; and on the 6th of July 1779 fought an engagement with the -French fleet off Grenada, in the West Indies, the result of which was -doubtful.--T. - -[133] _Cf._ BYRON, _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_, Canto IV.--T. - -[134] CHATEAUBRIAND, _Les Martyrs_, Book IX.: _The Story of -Eudorus._--T. - -[135] MOLIÈRE, _Tartufe_, Act III. Sc. ii.: - - "What affectation and blind real is this!"--T. - - -[136] SHAKESPEARE: _Othello, the Moor of Venice_, Act I. Sc. iii.--T. - -[137] Thomas Otway (1652-1685), the principal tragic poet of the -English classical school. The most famous of his tragedies, _Venice -Preserved_, from which the following quotation is taken, appeared in -1682.--T. - -[138] OTWAY: _Venice Preserved, or The Plot Discovered_, Act I. Sc. -i.--T. - -[139] Clément Marot (1497-1544), the poet, when compelled to fly from -France on account of his scandalous life, took refuge in Béarn (1535), -then at the Court of Ferrara, where he was secretary to Renée of -France, and, finally, in Venice (1536).--T. - -[140] MONTESQUIEU: _Lettres persanes._ Letter XXXI.: _Rhédi à Usbek, à -Paris._--T. - -[141] The incident of Anals will be found in the _Lettres persanes._ -Letter CXLI.: _Rica à Usbek à <sup>***</sup>_--T. - -[142] The cannon was fired when a nun took the veil.--T. - -[143] _Corinne_: Book XV., Chaps, VII. and IX.--T. - -[144] _Corinne_: Book XVI., Chap. III.--T. - - - - -BOOK VII[145] - - -Arrival of Madame de Bauffremont in Venice--Catajo--The Duke of -Modena--Petrarch's Tomb at Arqua--The land of poets--Tasso--Arrival -of Madame la Duchesse de Berry--Mademoiselle Lebeschu--Count -Lucchesi-Palli--Discussion--Dinner--Bugeaud the gaoler--Madame de -Saint-Priest, M. de Saint-Priest--Madame de Podenas--Our band--I -refuse to go to Prague--I yield at a word--Padua--Tombs--Zanze's -manuscript--Unexpected news--The Governor of the Lombardo-Venetian -Kingdom--Letters from Madame to Charles X. and Henry V.--M. de -Montbel--My note to the Governor--I set out for Prague. - - -_Between_ VENICE and FERRARA, 16 _to_ 17 _September_ 1833. - -There was an immense interval between those dreamings and the truths to -which I returned when calling at the Princesse de Bauffremont's hotel; -I had to jump from 1806, with the memories of which year I had been -occupied, to 1833, the year in which I found myself in reality: Marco -Polo[146] fell from China into Venice, after an absence of exactly -twenty-seven years. - -Madame de Bauffremont displays the name of Montmorency wonderfully in -her face and manner: she might very well, like that Charlotte, the -mother of the Grand Condé and the Duchesse de Longueville, have been -loved by Henry IV. The princess told me that Madame la Duchesse de -Berry had written me a letter from Pisa which I had not received: Her -Royal Highness was arriving at Ferrara, where she hoped to see me. - -It cost me a pang to leave my retreat; I needed another week to -complete my survey: I especially regretted that I was not able to carry -through the adventure of Zanze[147]; but my time belonged to the mother -of Henry V., and, whenever I am following a certain road, there comes a -jolt that flings me into another path. - -I departed, leaving my luggage at the Hôtel de l'Europe, counting on -returning with Madame. I found my calash at Fusina: they took it out of -an old coach-house, like a jewel from the Crown Wardrobe. I left the -bank which perhaps takes its name from the three-pronged fork of the -King of the Sea: _Fuscina._ - -On arriving at Padua, I said to the postillion: - -"The Ferrara Road." - -This road is charming, as far as Monselice: extremely graceful hills, -orchards of fig-trees, mulberry-trees and willows festooned with vines, -gay meadows, ruined castles. I passed the Catajo, all dressed out -with soldiers: the Abbé Lenglet[148], a very learned man otherwise, -mistook that manor-house for China. The Catajo does not belong to -Angelica[149], but to the Duke of Modena[150]. I ran plump up against -His Highness, who was deigning to go on foot along the high-road. This -Duke is the scion of the Princes invented by Machiavelli[151]: he has -the spirit not to recognise Louis-Philippe. - -The village of Arqua shows Petrarch's tomb, sung, together with its -site, by Lord Byron[152]: - - "Che fai, che pensi? che pur dietro guardi - Nel tempo, che tornar non pote omai, - Anima sconsolata?" - -[Sidenote: The poet's country.] - -All this country, within a diameter of forty leagues, is the -native soil of the writers and poets: Livy[153], Virgil[154], -Catullus[155], Ariosto[156], Guarini[157], the Strozzis[158], the -three Bentivoglios[159], Bembo[160], Bartoli[161], Bojardo[162], -Pindemonte[163], Varano[164], Monti[165] and a crowd of other -celebrated men owe their birth to this land of the Muses. Tasso himself -was of Bergamasque origin[166]. Of the later Italian poets, I have seen -only one of the two Pindemontes. I have known neither Cesarotti[167] -nor Monti; I should have been happy to meet Pellico and Manzoni, the -parting rays of Italian glory. - -The Euganean Hills, which I crossed, were gilded by the gold of the -setting sun with an agreeable variety of shapes and a great purity of -outline: one of those hills resembled the chief pyramid of Sakkarah, -when it imprints itself at sunset on the Libyan horizon. - -I continued my journey at night through Rovigo; a sheet of mist covered -the earth. I did not see the Po, except when crossing at Lagoscuro. -The carriage stopped; the postillion summoned the ferry-boat with his -bugle. The silence was complete; only, on the other side of the river, -the baying of a dog and the distant cascades, with their treble echo, -made answer to his horn: the proscenium of Tasso's Elysian empire, -which we were about to enter. - -A ripple on the water, through the mist and the darkness, announced the -coming of the ferry-boat; it glided along the towing-rope fastened to -boats at anchor. I reached Ferrara between four and five o'clock, on -the morning of the 16th; I alighted at the Three Crowns Hotel: Madame -was expected there. - - -_Wednesday_ 17. - -As Her Royal Highness had not arrived, I visited the church of San -Paolo: I saw nothing but tombs there; for the rest, not a soul, except -those of a few dead men and mine, which is hardly living. At the back -of the choir hung a picture by Guercino[168]. - -The cathedral is deceptive: you see a front and sides encrusted with -bas-reliefs representing sacred and profane subjects. Over this -exterior run other ornaments usually placed in the interior of Gothic -edifices, such as rudentures, Arab corbels, nimbused soffits, galleries -with small columns, pointed arches and trefoils, disposed in the -thickness of the walls. You enter, and you stand dumbfounded at the -sight of a new church with spherical vaults, with massive pillars. -Something of that incongruity exists in France, both physically and -morally: in our old castles, they are contriving modern closets, with -plenty of pigeon--holes, alcoves and clothes-presses. Break into the -souls of a good many of those men tabarded with historic names: what do -you find there? Backstair tendencies. - -I was quite abashed at the sight of that cathedral: it seemed to have -been turned, like a gown worn inside out; a burgess' wife of the time -of Louis XV. cloaked as a castellan's lady of the twelfth century[169]. - -[Sidenote: Ferrara.] - -Ferrara, formerly so much fretted by its women, its pleasures and its -poets, is almost uninhabited: in places where the streets are wide, -they are deserted and sheep could browse there. The dilapidated houses -do not gather fresh life, as at Venice, from the architecture, the -ships, the sea and the native gaiety of the place. Standing at the gate -of the so unfortunate Romagna, Ferrara, under the yoke of an Austrian -garrison[170], has something of the face of a persecuted victim: it -seems to wear everlasting mourning for Tasso; ready to fall, it is bent -like an old woman. As the only monument of the day, rises half from -the ground a criminal court, with unfinished prisons. Whom will they -send to those cells of recent construction? Young Italy. Those new -gaols, topped with cranes and bound with scaffoldings, like the palaces -in Dido's city, touch hands with the old cell of the singer of the -_Gerusalemme._ - - -FERRARA, 18 _September_ 1833. - -If there be a life that should make one despair of happiness for men -of talent, it is Tasso's. The beautiful sky upon which his eyes looked -when they opened to the light was a deceptive sky: - - "My adversities," he says, "began with my life. Cruel fortune - snatched me from my mother's arms. I remember her kisses moist with - tears, her prayers which the winds have carried away. I was not - again to press my face to her face. With an uncertain step, like - Ascanius or young Camillus, I followed my wandering and outlawed - father. I grew up in poverty and exile." - -Torquato Tasso lost Bernardo Tasso[171] at Ostiglia. Torquato has -killed Bernardo as a poet; he has made him live as a father. - -Drawn from obscurity by the publication of _Rinaldo_[172], Tasso was -summoned to Ferrara. He made his first appearance there amid the -festivals on the occasion of the marriage of Alphonsus II. with the -Archduchess Barbara. He there met Leonora, Alphonsus' sister: love and -misfortune ended in giving his genius all its beauty. - - "I saw," says the poet, describing, in _Aminta_[173], the first - Court of Ferrara, "I saw charming goddesses and nymphs, without - veils, without clouds: I felt the inspiration of a new virtue, of a - new divinity, and I sang of war and heroes." - -Tasso read the stanzas of the _Gerusalemme_, as he composed them, -to Alphonsus' two sisters, Lucrezia and Leonora. He was sent to the -Cardinal Ippolito of Este[174], who was settled at the Court of France: -he pawned his clothes and furniture to take that journey, while the -cardinal whom he was honouring with his presence made Charles IX. the -gorgeous present of one hundred Barbary horses with their Arab riders -superbly dressed. Left at first in the stables, Tasso was afterwards -presented to the Poet-King, the friend of Ronsard. In a letter which -has been preserved for us, he judges the French harshly. He wrote a few -verses of his _Gerusalemme_ in an abbey of men in France with which -Cardinal Ippolito was endowed; this was Châlis, near Ermenonville, -where Jean-Jacques Rousseau was to dream and die: Dante also had passed -obscurely through Paris. - -Tasso returned to Italy in 1571 and did not witness the Massacre of St. -Bartholomew[175]. He went straight to Rome and from there came back to -Ferrara. _Aminta_ was played with great success. Although he became -the rival of Ariosto, the author of _Rinaldo_ admired the author of -_Orlando_ to such a degree that he refused the homage of that poet's -nephew: - -[Sidenote: Tasso at Ferrara.] - - "This laurel which you offer me," he wrote, "the judgment of wise - men, of men of the world and my own judgment have laid on the head - of the man to whom you are bound by ties of blood. Prostrate before - his image, I give him the most honourable titles that affection and - respect are able to dictate to me. I will loudly proclaim him my - father, my lord and my master." - -This modesty, so little known in our time, did not disarm jealousy. -Torquato beheld the feasts given by Venice to Henry III. returning from -Poland, when a manuscript of the _Gerusalemme_ was printed by stealth: -the minute criticism of the friends whose tastes he consulted alarmed -him. Perhaps he showed himself too sensitive; but perhaps he had built -the success of his love-affairs on his hopes of fame. He imagined -himself set about by pitfalls and treasons; he was obliged to defend -his life. His stay at Belriguardo, where Goethe evokes his shade, -failed to calm him. Says the great German poet, who makes the great -Italian poet speak: - - Thus like the nightingale, conceal'd in shade, - From his love-laden breast he fills the air - And neighbouring thickets with melodious plaint: - His blissful sadness and his tuneful grief - Charm every ear, enrapture every heart[176]. - . . . . . . . . - And what is more deserving to survive, - And silently to work for centuries, - Than the confession of a noble love - Confided modestly to gentle song[177]? - -Says Goethe again, interpreting Leonora's sentiments: - - How charming is it in the mind's clear depths - One's self to mirror . . . . - . . . . . . . . - To feel his presence, and with him to near, - With airy tread, the future's hidden realm! - Thus should old age and time their influence lose. - . . . . . . . . - All that is transient in his song survives; - Still art thou young, still happy, when the round - Of changeful time shall long have borne thee on[178]. - -The singer of Erminia conjures Leonora (still in the lines of the poet -of Germania) to banish him to one of her loneliest villas: - - Oh, send me thither! There let me be yours! - And I will tend thy trees, construct the shed - That shields thy citrons from autumnal blasts, - Fencing them round with interwoven reeds! - Flowers of the fairest hues shall strike their roots, - And ev'ry path be trimm'd with nicest care[179]. - -The story of Tasso's loves was lost: Goethe found it again. - -The sorrows of the Muses and the scruples of religion were beginning to -impair Tasso's reason. He was subjected to a temporary confinement. He -escaped almost naked: wandering in the mountains, he borrowed the rags -of a shepherd and, thus disguised, arrived at his sister Cornelia's. -The caresses of this sister and the charms of his native country -allayed his sufferings for a moment: - - "I wanted," he said, " to retire to Sorrento, as to a peaceful - harbour: _quasi in porto di quiete._" - -But he could not remain where he was born. A spell drew him to Ferrara: -love is the real mother-land! Coldly received by Duke Alphonsus, he -withdrew once more; he wandered through the little Courts of Mantua, -Urbino, Turin, singing to pay for the hospitality shown him. He said to -the Metauro, Raphael's native stream: - - "Weak, but glorious child of the Apennines, I, a vagrant traveller, - come to seek safety and repose upon thy banks." - -Armida had passed to Raphael's cradle; she was to preside over the -enchantments of the Farnesina. - -Surprised by a storm in the neighbourhood of Vercelli, Tasso celebrated -the night which he had passed in a noble-man's house in the beautiful -dialogue known as the _Padre di famiglia._ At Turin, he was refused -admission at the gates, so wretched was his condition. Hearing that -Alphonsus[180] was about to contract a new marriage, he again took the -road for Ferrara. A divine spirit attached itself to the steps of this -god hidden under the garb of the shepherds of Admetus; he thought that -he saw and heard that spirit; one day, seated by the fire and seeing -the sun-light on the window: - -"_Ecco ramico spirito_," he said, "_che cortesemente è venuto a -favellarmi._" - -[Sidenote: Tasso in prison.] - -And Torquato conversed with a sun-beam. He re-entered the fatal city -even as the bird flings itself into the jaws of the serpent that -fascinates it. Disowned and spurned by the courtiers, taunted by the -servants, he launched out into complaints, and Alphonsus ordered him to -be locked up in a mad-house in the Hospital of Sant' Anna. - -Then the poet wrote to one of his friends: - - "Bowed down under the weight of my misfortunes, I have renounced - all thoughts of glory; I should think myself lucky if I could - only quench the thirst with which I am devoured....The idea of - an unlimited captivity and my indignation at the ill-treatment to - which I am subjected increase my despair. The filthiness of my - beard, hair and clothes renders me an object of disgust to myself." - -The prisoner implored the whole earth and even his pitiless persecutor; -he drew from his lyre accents which ought to have made the walls to -fall with which his wretchedness was girt about: - - Piango il morir; non piango il morir solo, - Ma il modo . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . - Mi saria di conforto, aver la tomba, - Ch' altra mole innalzar credea co' carmi. - -Lord Byron wrote a poem called the _Lament of Tasso_; but he cannot get -away from himself and substitutes himself everywhere for the persons -whom he sets before us; even as his genius lacks tenderness, his -"lament" is no more than an imprecation. - -Tasso addressed the following petition to the Council of the Ancients -of Bergamo: - - "Torquato Tasso, a Bergamasque not merely by origin, but by - affection, having first lost his father's inheritance and his - mother's dowry.... and (after the bondage of many years and the - fatigues of a very long period) having not yet lost, in the midst - of so much misery, the faith which he has in this city, ventures - to ask its assistance. Let it conjure the Duke of Ferrara, once - my benefactor and protector, to restore me to my country, my - family and myself. The unfortunate Tasso therefore beseeches Your - Lordships to send Monsignore Licino or some other to treat for my - deliverance. The memory of their kindness will not end until after - my life. - - _"Di VV. SS. affezionatissimo servidore_, - - "TORQUATO TASSO. - - "PRIGIONE E INFERMO NEL OSPEDAL DI SANT' ANNA IN FERRERA." - -Tasso was refused ink, pens, or paper. He had sung the "magnanimous -Alphonsus," and the magnanimous Alphonsus thrust into a madman's -cell him who had shed imperishable lustre on his ungrateful head. -In a most graceful sonnet, the prisoner beseeches a cat to lend him -the brightness of its eyes to replace the light of which he has been -deprived; a harmless raillery which proves the poet's gentleness and -the excess of his distress: - - Fatemi luce a scriver queste carmi. - -At night, Tasso imagined that he heard strange noises, the tolling of -funeral knells. Ghosts tormented him: - -"I am worn out," he cried, "I succumb!" - -Attacked by a serious illness, he thought that he saw the Virgin save -him by a miracle: - - Egrio io languiva, e d'alto, sonno avvinto. - . . . . . . . . - Giacea con guancia di pallor dipinta, - Quando di luce incoronata . . . - Maria, pronta scendesti al mio dolore. - -Montaigne visited Tasso reduced to this excess of adversity and showed -him no compassion. At the same time, Camoens was ending his life in an -alms-house in Lisbon: what consoled him, as he lay dying on a pallet? -The verses of the prisoner of Ferrara. The captive author of the -_Gerusalemme_, admiring the mendicant author of the _Lusiadas_, said to -Vasco de Gama: - - Tant' oltre stende il glorioso volo - Che i tuoi spalmate legni andar men lungo. - -Thus did the voice from the Eridanus resound on the banks of the Tagus; -thus did two illustrious sufferers of a like genius and a like destiny -congratulate each other across the seas, from hospital to hospital, -putting mankind to shame. - -How many kings, great men and fools, drowned to-day in oblivion, but -believing themselves, towards the close of the sixteenth century, -persons worthy of remembrance, were ignorant of the very names of -Tasso and Camoens! In 1754, for the first time, was read "the name -of Washington, in the account of an obscure combat delivered in the -back-woods between a troop of French, English and savages[181]: which -clerk at Versailles, which purveyor to the Parc-aux-Cerfs, which man, -above all, of the Court or the Academy would have cared, at that time, -to change names with that American planter[182]?" - - -FERRARA, 18 _September_ 1833. - -Envy hastened to spread its poison over open wounds. The Accademia -della Crusca declared that "the _Gerusalemme Liberata_ was a cold and -heavy compilation, obscure and unequal in style, full of ridiculous -lines and barbarous words, with no single beauty to redeem its -innumerable defects." - -A fanatical love for Ariosto dictated that verdict. But the shout of -popular admiration drowned the academic blasphemies: it was no longer -possible for Duke Alphonsus to prolong the captivity of a man who -was guilty only of singing that captivity. The Pope[183] claimed the -deliverance from the honour of Italy. - -[Sidenote: Tasso's release.] - -Tasso was released from prison[184], but none the happier for it -Leonora was dead. He dragged himself from town to town with his -sorrows. At Loretto, ready to die with hunger, he was on the point, -says one of his biographers, "of taking up the hand that had built -Armida's palace." - -In Naples, he experienced some of the sweet sentiment of country: - - E donde - Partii fanciullo, or dopo tanti lustri - Torno . . . . . . - Canuto ed egro alle native sponde. - -He preferred to sumptuous abodes a cell at the Convent of Montoliveto. -During a journey which he took to Rome, fever having laid hold of him, -a hospital was once more his refuge. - -Returning from Rome and Florence to Naples, laying the blame of his -ills on his immortal poem, he rewrote it and spoilt it. He commenced -his cantos, _Delle sette Giornato del Monde Creato_, a subject treated -by Du Bartas[185]. Tasso makes Eve issue from Adam's bosom, while God: - -. . . irrigò di placida quiete -Tutte le membra al sonnachioso ... - -The poet weakens the biblical image, and, in the gentle creations of -his lyre, woman becomes no more than man's first dream. The sorrow of -leaving uncompleted a pious work which he regarded as an expiatory hymn -decided Tasso to condemn his profane songs to destruction. - -Less respected by society than by the robbers, the poet received from -Marco Sciarra[186], the famous leader of _condottieri_, the offer of an -escort to take him to Rome[187]. He was presented at the Vatican, and -the Pope addressed him in these words: - -"Torquato, you do honour to the crown that honoured those who wore it -before you." - -Posterity has confirmed this eulogy. Tasso replied to the praises by -quoting this line from Seneca: - - Magnifica verba mors prope admota excutit. - -Attacked by an evil which he foresaw was to cure all the others, he -retired to the Convent of Sant' Onofrio, on the 1st of April 1595. He -climbed up to his last refuge during a tempest of wind and rain. The -monks received him at the gate where Domenichino's frescoes are fading -away to-day. He greeted the fathers: - -"I come to die among you." - -O hospitable cloisters, deserts of religion and poetry, you have lent -your solitude to outlawed Dante and to dying Tasso! - -[Sidenote: Tasso's death.] - -All succour was unavailing. On the seventh morning of the fever, the -Pope's[188] doctor declared to the patient that he had very little -hope. Tasso kissed him and thanked him for announcing such good news to -him. Next he looked up to the sky and, with an abundant outpouring of -the heart, gave thanks to God for His mercies. - -His weakness increased; he wished to receive the Eucharist in the -church of the monastery: he dragged himself there leaning on the monks -and returned carried in their arms. When he was stretched once more -upon his couch, the prior asked him as to his last wishes. - -"I have troubled very little about fortune's gifts during my life; I -care still less for them at my death. I have no will to make." - -"Where will you have your burying-place?" - -"In your church, if you will deign to do my remains so great an honour." - -"Will you dictate your epitaph yourself?" - -Thereupon, turning towards his confessor: - -"Father, write: I return my soul to God, who gave it me, and my body -to the earth, whence it came. I bequeath to this monastery the sacred -image of my Redeemer." - -He took in his hands a crucifix which the Pope had given him, and -pressed it to his lips. - -Seven more days passed by. The tried Christian having solicited the -favour of the Holy Oils, Cardinal Cintio arrived, bringing the blessing -of the Sovereign Pontiff. The dying man displayed great joy at this: - -"Here," said he, "is the crown which I came to Rome to seek; I hope to -triumph to-morrow with its aid." - -Virgil sent to beg Augustus to fling the _Æneid_ into the fire; -Tasso entreated Cintio to burn the _Gerusalemme._ Thereafter, he -desired to be left alone with his crucifix. - -The cardinal had not reached the door when his tears, till then -violently restrained, burst forth: the bell was tolled, and the monks, -chanting the prayers for the dead, wept and lamented in the cloisters. -At this sound, Torquato said to the charitable recluses, whom he seemed -to see wander around him like shadows: - -"Friends, you think you are leaving me; I am only going before you." - -Thenceforth, he held no converse except with his confessors and a few -fathers great in doctrine. When he was on the point of breathing his -last, they gathered this stanza from his lips, the fruit of his life's -experience: - -"If death were not, there would be nothing upon earth more miserable -than man." - -On the 25th of April 1595, about the middle of the day, the poet cried: - -"_In manus tuas, Domine...._[189]" - -The remainder of the verse was scarcely audible, as though it had been -uttered by a departing traveller. - -The author of the _Henriade_ expires at the Hôtel de Villette, on a -quay of the Seine[190], and rejects the aid of the Church; the bard of -the _Gerusalemme_ dies a Christian at Sant' Onofrio: compare and see -what beauty faith lends to death. - -All that is related of Tasso's posthumous triumph appears to me to be -open to suspicion. His ill-fortune was even more persistent than has -been supposed. He did not die at the hour indicated for his triumph: he -survived that projected triumph by twenty-five days. He did not lie to -his destiny: he was never crowned, not even after death; his remains -were not exposed at the Capitol in senator's robes amid the throng -and the tears of the people: he was buried, as he had ordered, in the -Church of Sant' Onofrio. The stone with which they covered him, again -according to his wish, bore neither date nor name; ten years later, -Manso, Marchese Della Villa[191], Tasso's last friend and Milton's host -composed the admirable epitaph: - - HIC JACET TORQUATUS TASSUS - -[Sidenote: Tasso's tomb.] - -Manso succeeded only with difficulty in having it carved; for the -monks, who religiously observed testamentary wishes, objected to any -inscription: and yet, without the _Hic jacet_ or the words, _Torquati -Tassi ossa_, Tasso's ashes would have been lost in the hermitage on the -Janiculum, as Poussin's have been at San Lorenzo in Lucina. - -Cardinal Cintio formed the plan of erecting a mausoleum to the singer -of the Holy Sepulchre; the plan was abortive. Cardinal Bevilacqua drew -up a pompous epitaph destined for the slab of another future mausoleum, -and the thing went no further. Two centuries later, the brother of -Napoleon thought about a monument at Sorrento: Joseph soon bartered -Tasso's cradle for the Cid's tomb. - -Lastly, in our own days, a grand funeral decoration has been begun in -honour of the Italian Homer, once poor and wandering like the Greek -Homer: will the work be completed? As for me, I prefer to any marble -tumulus the little stone in the chapel of which I spoke as follows in -the _Itinéraire_: - -"I looked[192] in a deserted church for the tomb of this last -painter[193], and I had some trouble in finding it: the same thing had -happened to me in Rome[194] with the tomb of Tasso. After all, the -ashes of a religious and unfortunate poet are not too ill-placed in a -hermitage. The singer of the _Gerusalemme_ seems to have taken refuge -in this unknown burying-place, as though to escape men's persecutions; -he fills the world with his fame and himself lies unrecognised under -the orange-tree[195] of Sant' Onofrio." - -The Italian committee entrusted with the necrolithic[196] labours asked -me to collect for them in France and to distribute the indulgences of -the Muses to every faithful donor of a few mites towards the poet's -monument. July 1830 came: my fortune and credit began to look like -the fate of Tasso's ashes. Those ashes seem to possess a virtue that -rejects any display of opulence, repels any lustre, shrinks from any -honours: little men want big tombs, big men little ones. - -The god who laughs at all my dreams, after hurling me from the -Janiculum with the old Conscript Fathers, has brought me back to Tasso -in another way. Here I am able to form a still better opinion of the -poet whose three daughters were born at Ferrara: Armida, Erminia and -Clorinda. - -Where is the House of Este to-day? Who thinks of the Obizzos[197], -the Nicholases[198], the Hercules[199]? Whose name lingers in those -palaces? Leonora's. What do we look for at Ferrara? Alphonsus' -dwelling-house? No; Tasso's prison. Whither do men go in procession -from century to century? To the sepulchre of the persecutor? No; to the -cell of the persecuted. - -Tasso, in these parts, obtains an even more memorable victory: he makes -us forget Ariosto; the stranger leaves the bones of the singer of -Orlando at the Museum and hastens in search of the cell of the singer -of Rinaldo at Sant' Anna. Seriousness befits the tomb: one abandons -the man who laughed for the man who cried. During life, happiness may -have its merit; after death, it loses its value: in the eyes of the -future, only unhappy existences are beautiful. To those martyrs of -intelligence, pitilessly immolated upon earth, their adversities are -reckoned to the increase of their glory; they sleep in the grave with -their immortal sufferings, like kings with their crowns. We vulgar -unfortunates are of too little account that our troubles should, among -posterity, become the ornament of our lives. Stripped though I be of -everything as I complete my course, my tomb will not be a temple, -but a cool place; Tasso's fate will not be mine; I shall deceive the -affectionate and harmonious predictions of friendship: - - Le Tasse, errant de ville en ville, - Un jour, accablé de ses maux, - S'assit près du laurier fertile - Oui, sur la tombe de Virgile, - Étend toujours ses verts rameaux, etc.[200] - -[Sidenote: A visit to Tasso's tomb.] - -I lost no time in carrying my homage to that son of the Muses, so -nobly consoled by his brothers: as a rich ambassador, I had subscribed -towards his mausoleum in Rome; as a poor pilgrim in exile's train, I -went to kneel in his prison at Ferrara. I know that fairly well-founded -doubts are raised as to the identity of the spots; but, like all true -believers, I set history at defiance: that crypt, whatever men may -say, is the very place in which the _pazzo per amore_ lived for seven -whole years; one had necessarily to pass through those cloisters; one -came to that gaol where the daylight stole in through the iron bars of -an air-hole, where the low-hanging vault that freezes your head drips -saltpetrous water on a damp soil that petrifies your feet. - -On the walls, outside the prison and all around the grating, one -reads the names of the worshippers of the god: the statue of Memnon, -quivering with harmony under the touch of dawn, was covered with the -declarations of the several witnesses of the prodigy. I did not daub my -_ex-voto_; I hid myself in the crowd, whose secret prayers must, by -reason of their very humility, be more acceptable to Heaven. - -The buildings in which Tasso's prison is enclosed to-day belong to -a hospital open to every infirmity; they have been placed under the -protection of the Saints: _Sancto Torquato sacrum._ At some distance -from the blest cell is a dilapidated yard; in the middle of that -yard, the porter cultivates a garden-plot surrounded by a hedge of -mallows: the pale-green palissade was loaded with large and beautiful -flowers. I gathered one of those roses, the colour of royal mourning, -that seemed to me to be growing at the foot of a Calvary. Genius is a -Christ: denied, persecuted, scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified by -men and for men, it dies leaving them the light and rises again to be -worshipped. - - -FERRARA, 18 _September_ 1833. - -I went out on the morning of the 18th and, on returning to the Three -Crowns, found the street blocked with people; the neighbours were -gaping at the windows. An escort of one hundred men of the Austrian and -Papal troops occupied the inn. The corps of officers of the garrison, -the magistrates of the town, the generals, the Pro-legate were awaiting -Madame, whose coming had been announced by a courier wearing the French -arms. The stair-case and drawing-rooms were decorated with flowers. -Never was finer reception arranged for an exile. - -When the carriages came in sight, the drums beat a salute, the music -of the regiments burst forth, the soldiers presented arms. Madame, in -the midst of the throng, was put to it to descend from her calash, when -it drew up in front of the hotel; I had hastened up; she recognised me -among the crowd. She held out her hand to me across the established -authorities and the beggars who flung themselves upon her, and said: - -"'My son is your King;' do help me to pass through." - -I did not find her very much changed, though she was thinner; she had -something of a sprightly, little girl. - -I walked in front of her; she gave her arm to M. de Lucchesi; Madame -de Podenas[201] followed her. We climbed the stairs and entered the -apartments between two rows of grenadiers, amid the clatter of arms, -the sound of trumpets, the cheers of the spectators. They took me for -the majordomo, they applied to me to be presented to the mother of -Henry V. My name was linked to those names in the minds of the crowd. - -[Illustration: The Duchesse of Berry.] - -[Sidenote: Arrival of Madame.] - -You must know that Madame was received with the same tokens of respect -from Palermo to Ferrara, notwithstanding the Notes of Louis-Philippe's -envoys. M. de Broglie had had the audacity to ask the Pope to send away -the outlaw; Cardinal Bernetti replied: - - "Rome has always been the asylum of fallen grandeurs. If the family - of Bonaparte, in its later days, found a refuge beside the Father - of the Faithful, with still greater reason must hospitality be - shown to the family of the Most Christian Kings." - -I am no great believer in this dispatch, but I was keenly struck by one -contrast: in France, the Government lavishes insults upon a woman of -whom it is afraid; in Italy, they remember only the name, the courage -and the misfortunes of Madame la Duchesse de Berry. - -I was obliged to accept my improvised role of First Lord of the -Bed-chamber. The Princess was very funny: she wore a gown of greyish -cloth, fitting close to her figure; on her head, a sort of little -widow's cap or the biggin of a child or naughty school-girl. She -ran here, there and everywhere, like a giddy goose; rushed about -heedlessly, in the midst of the curious throng, with an air of -assurance, just as she had sped through the woods of the Vendée. -She looked at no one, recognised no one; I was obliged to catch her -disrespectfully by her dress, or to bar her road, saying: - -"Madame, there is the Austrian Commandant, that officer. in white; -Madame, there is the commandant of the pontifical troops, that officer -in blue; Madame, there is the Pro-legate, that tall young priest in -black." - -She stopped, spoke a few words in Italian or French, not too -appropriate, but roundly, frankly, prettily, so that their very -unpleasantness was not displeasing. It was a sort of manner resembling -nothing that one had ever known before. It made me feel almost ill at -ease, and yet I had no anxiety as to the effect produced by the little -woman who had escaped from the flames and gaol. - -A comical piece of confusion followed. I must say one thing with -all modest reserve: the vain noise of my life grows in volume as -the real silence of that life increases. I am unable nowadays to -alight at an inn, either in France or abroad, without being at once -besieged. For old Italy, I am the defender of religion; for young -Italy, the defender of liberty; for the authorities I have the honour -of being _Sua Eccellenza_ GIA _Ambasciadore di Francia_ at Verona -and in Rome. Ladies, all doubtless of rare beauty, have lent the -language of Angelica and Aquilante il Nero to the Floridan Atala and -the Moor Aben-Hamet. I therefore see scholars arrive, old priests -with wide skull-caps, women, whom I thank for their translations and -their favours; next, _mendicanti_, too well-bred to believe that an -ex-ambassador is as poor a beggar as their lordships. - -Now, my admirers had hurried to the Hôtel des Trois-Couronnes, together -with the crowd attracted by Madame la Duchesse de Berry: they got me -up into a corner of a window and began to address me in an harangue -the end of which they went off to recite to Marie-Caroline. In their -mental confusion, the two troops sometimes mixed up the patron and the -patroness: I was greeted as "Your Royal Highness," and Madame told me -that she had been complimented on the _Génie du Christianisme_; we -exchanged our mutual fames. The Princess was charmed at having written -a work in four volumes, and I was proud to have been taken for the -daughter of kings. - -Suddenly, the Princess disappeared: she went off on foot, with Count -Lucchesi, to see Tasso's cell; she was a judge of prisons. The mother -of the banished orphan, of the child-heir of St. Louis, Marie-Caroline -leaving the Fortress of Blaye and seeking in the town of Renée of -France[202] only a poet's prison-cell is an unique thing in the history -of fortune and human glory. The venerables of Prague would have passed -through Ferrara a hundred times without taking such an idea into their -heads; but Madame de Berry is a Neapolitan and a country-woman of -Tasso, who said: - -"_Ho desiderio di Napoli, come l'anime ben disposte del paradiso._" - - -It was when I was in opposition and disgrace; the Ordinances were -secretly simmering at the Palace and still joyously lying at the bottom -of men's hearts. One day, the Duchesse de Berry saw an engraving -representing the singer of the _Gerusalemme_ at the bars of his cell: - -"I hope," she said, "that we shall soon see Chateaubriand like that." - -Words of prosperity, of which we must take no more notice than of a -rash word spoken in drunkenness. I was to join Madame in Tasso's very -dungeon, after suffering in the prisons of the police on her behalf. -What loftiness of sentiment it showed in the noble Princess, how great -a mark of esteem she gave me, when she applied to me in the hour of her -misfortune, after the desire that she had expressed! If her first wish -appraised my talents too highly, her confidence was less mistaken as to -my character. - - -FERRARA, 18 _September_ 1833. - -M. de Saint-Priest[203], Madame de Saint-Priest and M. A. Sala[204] -arrived. The latter had been an officer in the Royal Guards; he has -been substituted in my publishing arrangements for M. Delloye[205], a -major in the same guards. - -Two hours after Madame's arrival, I saw Mademoiselle Lebeschu[206], -my fellow-Breton; she hastened to tell me of the hopes that they were -good enough to place in me. Mademoiselle Lebeschu figures in the -_Carlo-Alberto_ trial. - -On returning from her poetic visit, the Duchesse de Berry sent for me: -I found her waiting for me with M. le Comte de Lucchesi and Madame de -Podenas. - -Count Lucchesi-Palli is tall and dark: Madame calls him a Tancred on -the distaff side. His manners towards the Princess his wife are a -master-piece of propriety: neither humble nor arrogant; a respectful -mixture of the authority of the husband and the submission of the -subject. - -Madame at once talked business with me; she thanked me for coming in -reply to her invitation; she told me that she was going to Prague, not -only to join her family, but to obtain her son's deed of majority: she -next declared that she was going to take me with her. - -This declaration, for which I was not prepared, struck me with -consternation: to return to Prague! I put forward the objections that -suggested themselves to my mind. - -If I went to Prague with Madame and she obtained her wish, the honours -of the victory would not belong wholly to the mother of Henry V., and -that would be a bad thing; if Charles X. persisted in refusing to grant -the deed of majority, I being present (and I was persuaded that he -would so persist), I should lose my credit. It seemed to me better, -therefore, that I should be kept as a sort of reserve force, in case -Madame should fail in her negociation. - -[Sidenote: Her Liveliness.] - -Her Royal Highness opposed these arguments: she maintained that -she would be able to put forth no strength in Prague, if I did not -accompany her; that I frightened her great relations; that she -consented to leave to me the glory of the victory and the honour of -linking my name with her son's accession. - -M. and Madame de Saint-Priest entered in the middle of this discussion -and laid great stress on the Princess's view of the matter. I persisted -in my refusal. Dinner was announced. - -Madame was very lively. She described to me, in the most amusing -fashion, her contests with General Bugeaud[207] at Blaye. Bugeaud used -to attack her on politics and lose his temper; Madame lost her temper -even more than he did his: they screamed like a pair of eagles and she -ended by turning him out of the room. Her Royal Highness kept back -certain details which she would perhaps have communicated to me if I -had remained with her. She gave Bugeaud no rest; she pulled him to -pieces finely: - -"You know," she said, "that I asked for you four times? Bugeaud passed -on my demands to d'Argout[208]. D'Argout sent back word to Bugeaud that -he was a fool, that he ought to have refused your admission at once -and on the face of it: he has such good taste, that M. d'Argout." - -Madame laid stress on the rhyme of those two words[209], with her -Italian accent. - -Meanwhile the rumour of my refusal had spread among our faithful -friends and was beginning to alarm them. Mademoiselle Lebeschu came, -after dinner, to read me a lecture in my room; M. de Saint-Priest, -an intelligent and sensible man, first sent M. Sala to me, and then -replaced him and urged me in his turn: "they had sent M. de La -Ferronnays on to Hradschin, in order to remove the first difficulties. -M. de Montbel had arrived; he had been told to go to Rome to obtain a -copy of the marriage-contract, which was drawn up in due and proper -form and which was in Cardinal Zurla's keeping[210]. - -"Supposing," continued M. de Saint-Priest, "that Charles X. should -refuse his consent to the deed of majority, would it not be well if -Madame were to obtain a declaration from her son? What should be the -nature of that declaration?" - -"A very short Note," I replied, "in which Henry would protest against -Philip's usurpation." - -M. de Saint-Priest conveyed my words to Madame. My resistance -continued to occupy the minds of the Princess's environment Madame de -Saint-Priest, with her nobility of sentiment, appeared to entertain -the keenest regret. Madame de Podenas had not lost the habit of that -serene smile which shows her beautiful teeth: her calm was the more -perceptible in the midst of our agitation. - -We were not unlike a strolling company of French actors playing at -Ferrara, by permission of the worshipful magistrates of the town, -in the _Fugitive Princess_ or the _Persecuted Mother._ The scene -represented, on the right, Tasso's prison; on the left, Ariosto's -house; at the back, the castle in which the feasts of Leonora and -Alphonsus took place. This royalty without a kingdom; those anxieties -of a Court contained in two wandering carriages and having the Hôtel -des Trois-Couronnes for its palace at night; those State councils held -in a room at an inn: all that completed the variety of the scenes of -my fortune. I put off my knight's helm in the wings and resumed my -straw hat; I travelled with the _de jure_ monarchy rolled up in my -portmanteau, while the _de facto_ monarchy flaunted its baubles at -the Tuileries. Voltaire calls upon all the royalties to spend their -carnival in Venice with Achmet III.[211]: Ivan[212] Emperor of All -the Russias, Charles Edward King of England, the two Kings of the -Polacks[213], Theodore[214] King of Corsica and four Serene Highnesses. - - "'Sire, Your Majesty's post-chaise is at Padua, and the bark is - ready.' - - "'Sire, Your Majesty may set off when you please.' - - "'Troth, Sire, they will trust Your Majesty no longer, nor myself - neither; and we may both of us chance to be sent to gaol this very - night.'" - -For myself, I will say with Candid[215]: - -"Gentlemen, how came you all to be kings? I must confess that neither -my friend Martin here nor myself have any such titles." - -It was eleven o'clock in the evening; I was hoping that I had won my -case and obtained my _exeat_ from Madame. I was very far out in my -reckoning! Madame does not so soon relinquish a wish; she had not -questioned me about France, because, preoccupied as she was with my -resistance to her plan, she was making that her business of the moment. -M. de Saint-Priest entered my room and brought me the rough draft of a -letter which Her Royal Highness proposed to write to Charles X.: - -[Sidenote: Her persistency.] - -"What!" I exclaimed, "Madame persists in her resolve? She wants me to -take that letter? But it would be impossible for me, even materially, -to cross Germany: my passport is only for Switzerland and Italy!" - -"You will accompany us as far as the Austrian frontier," replied M. de -Saint-Priest; "Madame will take you in her carriage; after crossing -the frontier, you will return to your calash and you will arrive -thirty-six hours before us." - -I hastened to the Princess; I renewed my insistence; the mother of -Henry V. said to me: - -"Do not desert me." - -This word put an end to the struggle; I yielded; Madame appeared -over-joyed[216]. Poor woman, she had wept so much! How could I have -held out against courage, adversity, fallen grandeur reduced to hide -themselves beneath my "protection!" Another Princess, Madame la -Dauphine, also had thanked me for my useless services: Carlsbad and -Ferrara were two places of banishment, under different suns, where I -had gathered the noblest honours of my life. - -Madame set out pretty early in the morning, on the 19th, for Padua, -where she arranged to meet me; she was to stop at the Catajo, at the -Duke of Modena's. I had a hundred things to see at Ferrara: palaces, -pictures, manuscripts; I had to be content with Tasso's prison. I -started a few hours after Her Royal Highness. I arrived at Padua at -night. I sent Hyacinthe to Venice to fetch my luggage, as scanty as a -German student's, and I went to bed sadly at the Golden Star, which has -never been mine. - - -PADUA, 20 _September_ 1833. - -On Friday 20 September, I spent a part of the morning in writing to -tell my friends of my change of destination. The persons of Madame's -suite arrived in succession. - -Having nothing left to do, I went out with a _cicerone._ We visited the -two churches of Santa Giustina and San Antonio di Padova. The first, -the work of Jerome of Brescia, is most majestic: from below, in the -nave, you do not see a single one of the windows, which are pierced -very high above, so that the church is lighted without your knowing -whence the light comes. This church contains many good pictures by Paul -Veronese, Liberi[217], Palma[218] and others. - -[Sidenote: Padua.] - -San Antonio di Padova, known as _Il Santo_, presents a Grecianized -Gothic monument, a style peculiar to the old churches of Venetia. The -Cappella del Santo is by Giacomo Sansovino[219] and Francesco[220] his -son: one perceives it at once; the ornaments and the form are in the -same manner as the _loggetta_ in the steeple of St. Mark. - -A _signora_, in a green gown and a straw hat covered with a veil, was -praying before the Cappella del Santo; a servant in livery was also -praying, behind her: I presumed that she was offering up her prayers -for the relief of some moral or physical ailment; I was not mistaken. I -saw her again in the street: she was a woman of about forty, pale and -thin, walking stiffly and with a look of suffering; I had guessed her -love or her paralysis. She had left the church with hope: during the -space of time while she was sending up her fervent orisons to Heaven, -did she not forget her pain, was she not really cured? - -Il Santo abounds in mausoleums, among which Bembo's is famous. In the -cloisters stands the tomb of young d'Orbesan, who died in 1595: - -Gallus eram, putavi, morior, opes una parentum! - -D'Orbesan's French epitaph ends with a line which a great poet would -like to have written: - - Car il n'est si beau jour qui n'amène sa nuit[221]. - -Charles Gui Patin[222] is buried in the cathedral: his wag of a -father[223] was no longer there to save him, he who had "treated a -gentleman of seven years old, who was bled thirteen times and cured in -a fortnight, as though by a miracle." - -The ancients excelled in funeral inscriptions: - - "Here lies Epictetus[224]," said his monumental pillar, "who was a - slave, disfigured, poor as Irus, yet a favourite of the gods." - -Camoens, among the moderns, composed the most magnificent of epitaphs, -that of John III. of Portugal[225]: - - "Who lies in this great sepulchre? What is he whom the illustrious - arms on this massive scutcheon indicate? Nothing! For that is what - all things come to.... May the earth lie as light on him now as he, - formerly, lay heavy on the Moor." - -My Paduan _cicerone_ was a chatterbox, very different from my Antonio -of Venice: he spoke to me at every turn of "that great tyrant -Angelo[226];" in the streets, he told me the name of every shop and -every café; at Il Santo, he would absolutely show me the well-preserved -tongue of the preacher of the Adriatic[227]. Might not the tradition -of those sermons come from the songs which, in the middle-ages, the -fishermen, following the example of the Ancient Greeks, used to sing to -the fishes to charm them? A few of these pelagic ballads still remain -to us, in Anglo-Saxon. - -Of Livy, no news; were he alive, I would gladly, like the inhabitant -of Gades, make the journey to Rome expressly to see him; I would -gladly, like Panormita[228], have sold my field to buy a few fragments -of the History of Rome, or, like Henry IV., promised a province for a -"Decade[229]." A mercer of Saumur did not go so far: having purchased a -manuscript of Livy's, by way of old papers, from the apothecary of the -convent of the Abbey of Fontevrault, he used it quite simply to make -drums for battledores. - -[Sidenote: Pellico's "Zanze."] - -When I returned to the Stella d'Oro, Hyacinthe was back from Venice. -I had charged him to call on Zanze to make my excuses for having gone -away without seeing her. He found the mother and daughter in a great -state of anger; she had just been reading _Mie Prigioni._ The mother -said that Silvio was a "villain:" he had allowed himself to write -that Brollo had pulled him, Pellico, by his leg when he, Pellico, had -climbed up on a table. The daughter exclaimed: - -"Pellico is a slanderer, and an ungrateful one to boot. After the -services which I have done him, he now tries to dishonour me." - -She threatened to have the work seized and to sue the author in the -law-courts; she had begun to write a refutation of the book: Zanze is -not only an artist, but a woman of letters. - -Hyacinthe asked her to give me the unfinished refutation; she hesitated -and then handed him the manuscript: she was pale and tired from her -labours. The old gaoler's wife still claimed to sell her daughter's -embroidery and mosaic work. If ever I go back to Venice, I will -discharge my debt better to Madame Brollo than I did to Abou Gosch, the -chief of the Arabs in the mountains of Jerusalem: I had promised him a -bale of rice from Damietta and I never sent it. - -Here is Zanze's commentary: - - "La Veneziana maravigliandosi che contro di essa vi sieno - persona che abbia avutto ardire di scrivere pezze di un romanzo - formatto ed empitto di impie falsità, si lagna fortemente contro - l'auttore mentre potteva servirsi di altra persona onde dar sfogo - al suo talento, ma non prendersi spasso di una giovine onesta di - educazione e religione, e questa stimatta ed amatta e conosciutta a - fondo da tutti. - - "Comme Silvio può dire che nella età ma di 13 anni (che talli - erano, alorguando lui dice di avermi conosciuta), comme può - dire che io fossi giornarieramente statta a visitarlo nella sua - abitazione? se io giuro di essere statta se non pochissime volte, - e sempre accompagnata o dal padre, o madre, o fratello? Comme può - egli dire che io le abba confidatto un amore, che io era sempre - alle mie scuolle, e che appena cominciavo a conoscere, anzi non - ancor poteva ne conosceva mondo, ma solo dedicatta alli doveri - di religione, a quelli di doverosa figlia, e sempre occupatta a - miei lavori, che questi erano il mio sollo piacere? Io giuro che - non ho mai parlatto con lui, ne di amore, ne di altra qualsiasi - cosa. Sollo se qualche volte io lo vedeva, lo quardava con ochio - di pietà, poichè il mio cuore era per ogni mio simille, pieno di - compazione; anzi io odiava il luogo che per sola combinazione mio - padre si ritrovava: perchè altro impiego lo aveva sempre occupatto; - ma dopo essere stato un bravo soldato, avendo bene servito la - repubblica e poi il suo sovrano, fù statto ammesso contro sua - volontà, non che di quella di sua famiglia, in quell' impiego. - Falsissimo è che io abbia mai preso una mano del sopradetto - Silvio, ne comme padre, ne comme frattello; prima, perchè abenchè - giovinetta e priva di esperienza, avevo abastanza avutta educazione - onde conoscere il mio dovere. Comme può egli dire di esser statto - de me abbraciatto, che io no avrei fatto questo con un fratello - nemeno; talli erano li scrupoli che aveva il mio cuore, stante - l'educazione avutta nelli conventi, ove il mio padre mi aveva - sempre mantenuta. - - "Bensi vero sarà che lui a fondo mi conoscha più di quello che io - possa conoscer lui, mentre mi sentiva giornarieramente in compagnia - di miei fratelli, in una stanza a lui vicina; che questa era il - luogo ove dormiva e studiava li miei sopradetti fratelli, e comme - mi era lecitto di stare con loro? comme può egli dire che io - ciarlassi con lui degli affari di mia famiglia, che sfogava il mio - cuore contro il riguore di mia madre e benevolenza del padre, che - io non aveva motivo alcuno di lagnarmi di essa, ma fù da me sempre - ammatta? - - "E comme può egli dire di avermi sgridatta avendogli portato un - cativo caffè? Che io non so se alcuna persona posia dire di aver - avutto ardire di sgridarmi: anzi di avermi per solla sua bontà - tutti stimata. - - [Sidenote: Zanze's manuscript.] - - "Mi formo mille maraviglie che un uomo di spirito e di tallenti - abbia ardire di vantarsi di simile cose ingiuste contro una giovine - onesta, onde farle perdere quella stima que tutti proffessa per - essa, non che l'amore di un rispetoso consorte, la sua pace e - tranquilità in mezzo il bracio di sua famiglia e figlia. - - "Io mi trovo oltremodo sdegnatta contro questo auttore, per avermi - esposta in questo modo in un publico libro, di più di tanta - prendersi spaso del nominare ogni momento il mio nome. - - "Ha pure avutto riguardo nel mettere il nome di Tremerello in - cambio di quello di Mandricardo; che tale era il nome del servo che - cosi bene le portava ambaciatte. E questo io potrei farle certo, - perchè sapeva quanto infedelle lui era ad interessato: che pur per - mangiare e bevere avrebe sacrificatto qualunque persona; lui era - un perfido contro tutti coloro che per sua disgrazia capitavano - poverie e non poteva mangiarlo quanto voleva; trattava questi - infelici pegio di bestie. Ma quando io vedeva, lo sgridava e lo - diceva a mio padre, non potendo il mio cuore vedere simili tratti - verso il suo simile. Lui ero buono sollamente con chi le donava - una buona mancia a bene le dava a mangiare: il ciclo le perdoni! - Ma avrà da render conto delle suo cattive opere verso suoi simili, - e per l'odio cho a me professava e per le coressioni che io le - faceva. Per tale cativo sogetto Silvio a avutto riguardo, e per - me che non meritava di essere esposta, non ha avutto il minimo - riguarde. - - "Ma io ben saprò ricorere, ove mi verane fatta una vera giustizia, - mentre non intendo ne voglio esser, ne per bene ne malle, nominatta - in publico. - - "Io sono felice in braccio a un marito che tanto mi amo, e eh' - è veramente e virtuosamente coriposto, ben cognoscendo il mio - sentimento, non che vedendo il mio operare: e dovrò a cagione di un - uomo che si è presso un punto sopra di me, onde dar forza alli suoi - mal fondati scritti, essendo questi posti in falso! - - "Silvio perdonerà il mio furore; ma doveva lui bene aspetarselo - quando al chiaro is era dal suo operatto. - - "Questa è la ricompensa di quanto ha fatto la mia famiglia, - avendolo trattato con quella umanità, che merita ogni creatura - cadutta in talli disgrazie, e non trattata come era li ordini! - - "Io intanto faccio qualunque giuramento, che tutto quello che fù - detto a mio riguardo, dà falso. Forse Silvio sarà statto malie - informato di me; ma non può egli dire con verità talli cose non - essendo vere, ma sollo per avere un più forte motivo onde fondare - il suo romanzo. - - "Vorei dire di più; ma le occupazioni di mia famiglia non mi - permette di perdere di più tempo. Sollo ringraziarò intanto il - Signor Silvio col suo operare e di avermi senza colpa veruna posto - in seno una continua inquietudine e forse una perpetua infelicità." - -TRANSLATION - - "The Venetian girl is astonished that some one should have had - the courage to write against her two scenes of a novel built up - and filled with impious falsehoods. She complains bitterly of the - author, who might have made use of another person to give scope - to his talent and not made a plaything of an honest young woman - of education and religion, known to all and universally loved and - esteemed. - - "How can Silvio say that, at my age of 13 years (which was my - age at the time when he says that he knew me), how can he say - that I used to go daily to see him in his abode, when I swear - that I went there only a very few times and always accompanied - by my father, mother, or brother? How can he say that I confided - a love to him, when I was always at my classes, and when I had - hardly begun to know anything, and could know nothing of love or - the world, being devoted only to the duties of religion, to those - of a dutiful daughter, and occupied with my studies, which were - my only pleasures? I swear that I never spoke to him of love, - nor of anything else whatsoever. Only, if sometimes I saw him, I - looked upon him with eyes of pity, because my heart was full of - compassion for my fellow-creatures, and I hated the place in which - my father by ill-chance found himself: he had always occupied - another position; but, after being a brave soldier and well serving - the Republic and, afterwards, his Sovereign, he was given this - employment against his will and that of his family. - - "It is most false (_falsissimo_) to say that I ever took the hand - of the aforesaid Silvio, either as a father's or a brother's; - first, because, although very young and without experience, I - had had enough education to know my duties. How can he say that - I kissed him, I who would not have done that even to a brother: - so great were the scruples imprinted in my heart by the education - which I had received in the convents, where my father had always - kept me? - - [Sidenote: The manuscript translated.] - - "Truly he must have known me more thoroughly than I could know him! - I remained daily in the company of my brothers in a room next to - his own, which was the place where my aforesaid brothers slept and - studied: now, since I was free to remain with them, how can he say - that I talked to him of the affairs of my family, that I relieved - my heart about my mother's severity and my father's kindness, when - I had no motive whatever to complain of the former, but always - loved her? - - "And how can he say that he shouted at me for bringing him bad - coffee? I know of no one who can say that he dared to shout at me, - all having shown their esteem for me by their kindness alone. - - "It is a thousand wonders to me that a man of spirit and talent - should have dared unjustly to boast of such things against an - honest girl, which might make her lose the esteem which all profess - for her, not to say the love of a respectable husband and her peace - and tranquillity in the arms of her family and her daughter. - - "I am immeasurably indignant with this author for exposing me in - this way in a public book and for taking so great a liberty as to - mention my name every moment. - - "And yet he took care to put the name of Tremerello in place of - that of Mandricardo, which is the name of him who so well carried - his messages. And this one I could have made known to him for - certain, because I knew how unfaithful he was to him and how much - interested: for the sake of eating and drinking, he would have - sacrificed any-body; he was perfidious towards all those who, - to their misfortune, came to him poor and were unable to make - him eat as much as he liked: he treated those unfortunates worse - than beasts. But, when I saw him, I reproached him and told my - father, my heart not being able to endure such treatment of my - fellow-creatures. He was good only to those who gave him _una - buona mancia_[230] and gave him plenty to eat: Heaven forgive - him! But he will have to account for his evil actions towards his - fellow-creatures and for the hatred which he bore me because of the - remonstrances which I made him. For so wicked a man Silvio showed - a regard, and for me, who did not deserve to be exposed, he did - not show the slightest regard. - - "But I shall surely know where to go to find real justice, for I - will not, nor do I intend to be mentioned in public. - - "I am happy in the arms of a husband who loves me so well and who - is truly and virtuously repaid, well-knowing not only my conduct - but my sentiments: and then, because of a man who thinks fit to - exploit me in the interest of his ill-founded writings, which are - full of falsehoods...! - - "Silvio will forgive my anger: but he must surely have expected it - when I came clearly to realize his conduct towards me. - - "This is the reward for all that my family has done, having treated - him with the humanity which every creature deserves that has fallen - into such misfortune, and not having treated him according to - orders. - - "I however take oath that all that has been said in respect of me - is false. Perhaps Silvio was misinformed about me; but he cannot - say such things, which are untrue, in order to tell the truth, but - only to have a stronger motive on which to base his novel. - - "I should like to say more; but the occupations of my family do - not permit me to waste more time. Only I thank Signor Silvio for - his work and for having punished me, who am innocent of guilt, by - filling my breast with constant disquiet and perhaps with perpetual - unhappiness." - -This literal translation is far from rendering the feminine animation, -the foreign grace, the spirited simplicity of the text; the dialect -which Zanze employs exhales a raciness of the soil which it is -impossible to transfuse into another language. The _apologia_, with its -incorrect, nebulous, unfinished phrases, like the vague extremities of -a group by Albani[231]; the manuscript, with its defective or Venetian -spelling, is like a Greek woman's monument, but of those women of the -time when the Bishops of Thessaly[232] sang the loves of Theagenes and -Chariclea. I prefer the two pages of the little gaoler's daughter to -all the dialogues of the great Isotta[233], although she pleaded for -Eve against Adam as Zanze pleads for herself against Pellico. My fair -Provençal country-women of other days still more recall the daughter of -Venice by the idiom of those intermediary generations, among which the -language of the vanquished is not yet entirely dead and the language of -the victor not yet entirely formed. - -[Sidenote: Zanze _v._ Pellico.] - -Which is in the right: Pellico or Zanze? What is the matter in dispute? -A simple confidence, a doubtful kiss, which, in effect, was perhaps not -meant for him who received it. The angry bride refuses to recognise -herself in the delicious growing child pictured by the captive; but she -contests the fact with so much charm that she proves it while denying -it. The portrait of Zanze in the plaintiffs memorial is so like that -we find it again in the defendant's rejoinder: the same sentiment of -religion and humanity, the same reserve, the same note of mystery, the -same soft and tender unconstraint. - -Zanze is full of power when she avers, with passionate candour, that -she would not have dared to kiss her own brother, much less M. Pellico. -Zanze's filial piety is extremely touching, when it transforms Brollo -into an old soldier of the Republic, reduced to the gaoler's state _per -sola combinazione._ - -Zanze is quite admirable when she makes this observation: Pellico -concealed the name of an unprincipled man and was not afraid to reveal -that of an innocent creature who showed compassion for the sufferings -of the prisoners. - -Zanze is not enticed by the idea of being immortal in an immortal work; -that idea does not even occur to her mind: she is struck only by a -man's indiscretion; that man, if we are to believe the person offended, -sacrifices a woman's reputation to the sports of his talent without -giving a care to the harm that he may cause, thinking only of writing -a novel to benefit his reputation. A visible dread governs Zanze: will -not a prisoner's revelations rouse a husband's jealousy? - -The outburst that ends the _apologia_ is pathetic and eloquent: - - "I thank Signor Silvio for his work and for having punished me, who - am innocent of guilt, by filling my breast with constant disquiet - and perhaps with perpetual unhappiness: _una continua inquietudine - e forse una perpetua infelicità._" - -On these last lines, written with a tired hand, the trace of a few -tears is visible. I, no party to the trial, wish to lose nothing. I -therefore hold that the Zanze of _Mie Prigioni_ is the Zanze according -to the Muses and that the Zanze of the _apologia_ is the Zanze -according to history. I wipe out the little defect of figure which -I thought that I had seen in the daughter of the old soldier of the -Republic; I was mistaken: the Angelica of Silvio's prison is shaped -like the stem of a rush, like the trunk of a palm-tree. I declare -to her that no person in my Memoirs pleases me so much as she, not -excepting my sylph. Between Pellico and Zanze herself, with the aid of -the manuscript of which I am the depositary, it will be a great wonder -if the _Veneziana_ does not go down to posterity! Yes, Zanze, you will -take your place among the shades of women that spring up around the -poet, when he dreams to the sound of his lyre. Those delicate shades, -orphans of an expired harmony and a vanished dream, remain alive -between earth and Heaven and inhabit at one time their two-fold country: - -"Fair Paradise would not have its complete charms, if thou wert not -there," said a troubadour to his mistress absent through death. - - -PADUA, 20 _September_ 1833. - -History has again come to strangle romance. I had hardly finished -reading Zanze's defense at the Stella d'Oro, when M. de Saint-Priest -entered my room, saying: - -"Here's something new." - -A letter from Her Royal Highness informed us that the Governor of the -Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom had presented himself at the Catajo and -announced to the Princess his inability to allow her to continue her -journey. Madame desired my immediate departure. - -At that moment, an aide-de-camp of the Governor's knocked at my door -and asked me if it was convenient for me to receive his general. I -replied by at once repairing to the apartments of His Excellency, who -had alighted, like myself, at the Stella d'Oro. - -[Sidenote: The Austrian Governor.] - -The Governor was an excellent man: - -"Imagine, monsieur le vicomte," he said, "that my orders against Madame -la Duchesse de Berry were dated 28 August. Her Royal Highness had -sent word to me that she had passports of a later date and a letter -from my Emperor[234]. And see, on the 17th of this month of September, -I receive an express in the middle of the night: a dispatch, dated -the 15th, from Vienna, charges me to carry out my first orders of the -28th of August and not to allow Madame la Duchesse de Berry to advance -beyond Udine or Trieste. See, my dear and illustrious viscount, what -a misfortune for me! To arrest a Princess whom I admire and respect, -if she refuses to comply with my Sovereign's wishes! For the Princess -did not give me a good reception: she told me that she would do what -she pleased. My dear viscount, if you could only prevail on Her Royal -Highness to remain in Venice, or at Trieste, pending new instructions -from my Court! I will endorse your passport for Prague; you can go -there at once, without meeting with the slightest obstacle, and arrange -all this; for certainly my Court has done nothing but yield to demands. -I beg of you to do me this service." - -I was touched by the noble officer's candour. On comparing the date -of the 15th of September with that of my departure from Paris, on the -3rd of the same month, I was struck with an idea: my interview with -Madame and the coincidence of Henry V.'s majority might have alarmed -Philip's Government. A dispatch from M. le Duc de Broglie, handed in a -note from M. le Comte de Sainte-Aulaire[235], had perhaps decided the -Vienna chancery to renew the prohibition of the 28th of August. I may -be making a false conjecture and the fact which I suspect may not have -taken place; but two "men of quality," both peers of France of Louis -XVIII.'s creation, both violators of their oaths, were, after all, -quite worthy of being the instruments of so generous a policy against a -woman, the mother of their lawful King. Need we be astonished if France -to-day is more and more confirmed in the high opinion that she has of -the people of the Court of former times? - -I was careful not to betray the depth of my thoughts. This persecution -had altered my frame of mind on the subject of the journey to Prague; I -was as desirous now of taking it alone in the interests of my Sovereign -as I had been opposed to doing so with her when the roads were open to -her. I dissimulated my real feelings and, wishing to keep the Governor -to his good intentions of giving me a passport, I increased his loyal -anxiety; I replied: - -"Monsieur le gouverneur, you are suggesting a difficult thing to me. -You know Madame la Duchesse de Berry; she is not a woman to be led as -one pleases: if she has made up her mind, nothing will make her change -it. Who knows? Perhaps it suits her to be arrested by the Emperor of -Austria, her uncle[236], even as she was put in gaol by Louis-Philippe, -her uncle! The legitimate kings and the illegitimate kings will be -acting alike; Louis-Philippe will have dethroned the son of Henry IV., -Francis II. will prevent the meeting of mother and son; M. le Prince de -Metternich will relieve M. le Général Bugeaud at his post: that will be -perfect!" - -The Governor was beside himself: - -"Ah, viscount, how right you are! That propaganda, why, it's -everywhere! That youth no longer pays any attention to us! Not even so -much in the Venetian States as in Lombardy and Piedmont!" - -"And the Papal States!" I exclaimed. "And Naples! And Sicily! And the -banks of the Rhine! And the whole world!" - -"Ah, ah, ah!" cried the Governor. "We can't remain like this, always -sword in hand, with an army under arms, without fighting. France -and England an example to our peoples! A Young Italy now, after the -_Carbonari!_ Young Italy! Who ever heard of such a thing?" - -"Monsieur," I said, "I will make every effort to persuade Madame to -give you a few days; you must be so good as to grant me a passport: -that concession alone can prevent Her Royal Highness from following her -first resolve." - -[Sidenote: The Deputy of Padua.] - -"I will take it upon myself," said the reassured Governor, "to allow -Madame to pass through Venice on her way to Trieste; if she loiters a -little along the roads, she will reach the latter town at just the same -time as the orders which you are going to fetch, and we shall be saved. -The Deputy of Padua will give you your _visa_ for Prague, in exchange -for which you will leave a letter declaring Her Royal Highness' resolve -not to go beyond Trieste. What a time! What a time! I congratulate -myself upon being an old man, my dear and illustrious viscount, so -that I cannot see what is going to happen." - -While insisting on the passport, I inwardly reproached myself for -perhaps somewhat abusing the Governor's perfect straightforwardness; -for he might be held more guilty for allowing me to go to Bohemia -than he would have been had he yielded to the Duchesse de Berry. My -sole dread was lest some sly-boots of the Italian Police should put -obstacles in the way of the _visa._ When the Deputy of Padua came -to me, I found that he had a secretarial mien, a clerkly bearing, a -prefect's air, like a man brought up in the French civil service. -This bureaucratic capacity made me tremble. As soon as he had assured -me that he had been a commissary in the Army of the Allies in the -Department of the Bouches-du-Rhône, my hope revived: I attacked my -enemy by taking straight aim at his self-respect I declared that the -discipline of the troops stationed in Provence had been remarked upon. -I knew nothing about it, but the Deputy, replying with an overflow of -admiration, hastened to finish my business: I had no sooner obtained my -_visa_ than I ceased to care. - - -PADUA, 20 _September_ 1833. - -The Duchesse de Berry returned from the Catajo at nine o'clock in the -evening: she appeared very much excited; as for me, the more peaceful I -had been before, the more eager I now was for the fray: we were being -attacked, we must needs defend ourselves. I proposed to H.R.H., half in -jest, to take her in disguise to Prague and, between the "two of us," -carry off Henry V. It was a question only of knowing where we should -deposit our plunder. Italy would not do, because of the weakness of her -Princes; the great absolute monarchies must be discarded for a thousand -reasons. There remained Holland and England: I preferred the former -because she had not only a constitutional government, but a clever King. - -We postponed these extreme measures; we decided on the most reasonable, -which laid the burden of the affair on my shoulders. I was to set out -alone with a letter from Madame: I was to ask for the declaration of -majority; on receiving the reply of the great kinsmen, I was to send -a messenger to H.R.H., who would await my dispatch at Trieste. Madame -added to her letter for the old King a note for Henry: I was to give it -to the young Prince only according to circumstances. The superscription -of the note was by itself a protest against the mental reservations of -Prague. Here are the letter and the note: - - "FERRARA, 19 _September_ 1833. - - "MY DEAR FATHER, - - "At a moment so decisive as the present for Henry's future, allow - me to address you with all confidence. I have not relied upon my - own judgment in so important a matter; I wished, on the contrary, - in this grave circumstance, to consult the men who had shown me the - most attachment and devotion. M. de Chateaubriand was naturally at - the head of these. - - "He has confirmed what I had already heard, namely, that all the - Royalists in France look upon a deed setting forth Henry's rights - and majority as indispensable for the 29th of September. If loyal - M. ---- is with you at present, I draw for his evidence, which I - know to agree with what I am stating. - - "M. de Chateaubriand will lay before the King his ideas on the - subject of this deed. He says rightly, so it seems to me, that - it should simply declare Henry's majority and not put forward a - manifesto: I think that you will approve of this view. In short, - my dear Father, I leave it to him to draw your attention and bring - about a decision on this essential point. I am much more occupied - with it, I assure you, than with what concerns myself, and my - Henry's interest, which is that of France, goes before my own. I - have proved to him, I think, that I was able to expose myself to - dangers for his sake and that I drew back before no sacrifice; he - will find me always the same. - - "M. de Montbel handed me your letter on his arrival; I read it with - lively gratitude: to see you again, to set eyes once more on my - children will always be my fondest prayer. M. de Montbel will have - written to you that I had done all that you asked; I hope that you - have been satisfied with my eagerness to please you and to prove to - you my respect and my love. I now have only one longing, to be in - Prague for the 29th of September, and, although my health is very - much impaired, I hope to arrive. In any case, M. de Chateaubriand - will go before me. I beg the King to receive him with kindness and - to hear all that he will say to him from me. - - "Believe, my dear Father, in all the sentiments, etc. - - "_P.S._ PADUA, 20 _September. _ My letter was written, when I was - shown the order not to continue my journey: my surprise equals - my sorrow. I cannot believe that an order of this kind can have - emanated from the heart of the King; only my enemies can have - dictated it. What will France say? And how Philip will triumph! I - can but hasten the Vicomte de Chateaubriand's departure and charge - him to tell the King that which it would be too painful for me to - write to him at this moment." - - - (_Addressed_) "TO HIS MAJESTY HENRY V., MY DEAREST SON, PRAGUE - - "PADUA, 20 _September_ 1833. - - "I was about to arrive in Prague and embrace you, my dear Henry, - when an unexpected obstacle stopped me on the road. - - "I am sending M. de Chateaubriand in my place to discuss your - business and mine. Have confidence, dear, in what he will tell you - from me and be sure to believe in my fond affection. - - "I embrace you and your sister and I am - - "Your affectionate mother and friend, - - "CAROLINE." - -[Sidenote: The Comte of Montbel.] - -M. de Montbel fell from Rome upon Padua in the midst of our pother. The -little Court of Padua was cool with him; it blamed M. de Blacas for the -orders from Vienna M. de Montbel, a very moderate man, had no other -resource than to seek refuge with me, although he feared me; when I saw -that colleague of M. de Polignac's, I explained to myself how he had -written the History of the Duc de Reichstadt and admired the Archdukes, -all, without his perceiving it, at sixty leagues from Prague, the Duc -de Bordeaux's place of exile; if he, M. de Montbel[237], was suited to -throw the Monarchy of St. Louis and the monarchies of this base world -out of window, it was a little accident of which he had not thought. -I behaved graciously to the Comte de Montbel; I talked to him of the -Coliseum. He was returning to Vienna to place himself at the disposal -of the Prince de Metternich and to serve as an intermediary for the -correspondence of M. de Blacas. - -At eleven o'clock, I wrote the Governor the letter agreed upon; I -respected Madame's dignity, made no engagements on her behalf and -reserved her power of action: - - "PADUA, 20 _September_ 1833. - - "MONSIEUR LE GOUVERNEUR, - - "H.R.H. Madame la Duchesse de Berry is quite _willing, for the - moment_, to comply with the orders that have been sent you. Her - intention is to go to Venice and thence to Trieste; there she will - act on the information which I shall have the honour to address to - her and will take a final resolve. - - "Pray accept my sincerest thanks and the assurance of the high - regard with which I am, - - "Monsieur le gouverneur, - - "Your most humble and most obedient servant, - - "CHATEAUBRIAND." - -The Deputy, when he read this letter, was very much pleased with it. -Once Madame had left Venetian Lombardy, he and the Governor ceased to -be responsible; the Duchesse de Berry's doings at Trieste concerned -only the authorities of Istria or Friuli; each vied with the other to -rid himself of misfortune, as, in a certain game, every player hastens -to pass a little piece of paper on to his neighbour. - -At ten o'clock, I took leave of the Princess. She placed her fate and -that of her son in my hands. She made me King of France after her -fashion. In a Belgian village, I once received four votes to raise me -to the throne occupied by Philip's son-in-law[238]. I said to Madame: - -"I submit to Your Royal Highness' wishes, but I fear that I shall -deceive your hopes. I shall do no good in Prague." - -She pushed me towards the door: - -"Go, go, you can do everything." - -I stepped into my carriage at eleven o'clock: it was a rainy night. It -seemed to me as though I were going back to Venice, for I followed the -Mestre Road: I felt more inclined to see Zanze again than Charles X. - - - -[145] This book was written at Ferrara, between 16 and 18 September -1833, and at Padua, on the 20th of September.--T. - -[146] Marco Polo (1254-1324) joined his father, Niccolo Polo, and his -uncle, Maffeo Polo, at Acre, in 1269. They set out for China in 1271 -and, after a protracted stay, left for home, in 1292, and reached -Venice in 1295.--T. - -[147] _Vide_ Zanze's manuscript, _infra._--T. - -[148] Abbé Nicolas Lenglet-Dufresnoy (1674-1755), a man of very great -learning but no critical taste. He was several times sent to the -Bastille, under Louis XV., for the boldness of his writings, and died, -at last, of an accident, having fallen into the fire before which he -was reading. His chief works are _De l'usage des romans, avec une -bibliothèque des romans_ (1734), his _Histoire justifiée contre les -romans_ (1735), un _Histoire de la philosophie hermétique_ (1742) and a -_Traité sur des apparitions_ (1751). His _Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_ was -published in 1753, two years before his death.--T. - -[149] A character in Bojardo's _Orlando Innamorato_ and Ariosto's -_Orlando Furioso_, and daughter of Galaphron King of Cathay (Catajo, -not Marco Polo's Cathay, as the Abbé Lenglet seems to have thought).--T. - -[150] Francis IV. Duke of Modena (1799-1847) was the grandson of the -Empress Maria Theresa and nephew of Marie-Antoinette. The Congress of -Vienna, in 1815, reinstated him in his Duchy, of which his grandfather, -Hercules III., had been dispossessed by the French in 1797. He married -Mary Beatrice, daughter of King Victor Emanuel I. of Sardinia and -Heiress in Line of the Stuarts, who is known to Legitimists as Mary -III. Queen of England (_Cf._ Vol. IV., p. 251, n. 1). Francis IV. -was almost the only European potentate who refused to recognise the -sovereignty of Louis-Philippe. On the 14th of November 1846, his -daughter, Maria Theresa, married the Comte de Chambord (King Henry V. -of France).--T. - -[151] Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), author of the _Principe_ and -other works of state-craft.--T. - -[152] _Cf._ BYRON: _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_, Canto IV., Stanzas -XXX-XXXIV.--T. - -[153] Titus Livius (59 B.C.--17 A.C.), the historian, was born at -Padua,--T. - -[154] Publius Virgilius Maro (70 B.C.--19 B.C.) was born at Urbino.--T. - -[155] Caius Valerius Catullus (_circa_ 87 B.C.--_circa_ 54 B.C.) was -born at Verona.--T. - -[156] Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) was born at Reggio di Modena.--T. - -[157] Giovanni Battista Guarini (1 537-1612), the noted diplomatist and -poet, author of the _Pastor fido_, was born at Ferrara.--T. - -[158] Tito Vespasiano Strozzi (1422-1501) and his son, Ercole Strozzi -(1471-1508), the Latin poets, were both born at Ferrara.--T. - -[159] Ercole Bentivoglio (_circa_ 1512-1573), the poet and diplomatist, -was born at Bologna; Guido Cardinal Bentivoglio (1579-1644), Nuncio -to Flanders (1607) and France (1617) and author of _Della Guerra di -Flandra_ (1633-1639), Letters (1631) and Memoirs (1648), was born at -Ferrara, as was Cornelio Cardinal Bentivoglio, Archbishop of Carthage -(1668-1732), Nuncio to France and the author of some sonnets and a -translation of Statius' _Thebais._--T. - -[160] Pietro Cardinal Bembo (1470-1547), born in Venice, created a -cardinal in 1539 and Keeper of the Library of St. Mark. He was the -author of poems, letters, a History of Venice in Latin, and the -_Asolani_, a series of dialogues on the nature of love.--T. - -[161] Daniello Bartoli (1608-1685), born at Ferrara, Rector of the -College of Jesuits in Rome, and author of an important _Istoria della -Compagnia di Gesù_ (1653-1675) and various physical treatises.--T. - -[162] Matteo Maria Bojardo, Conte di Scandiano (_circa_ 1434-1494), -born at Reggio di Modena, author of _Orlando Innamorato_ (1495), of -which Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_ is the continuation.--T. - -[163] Ippolyto Pindemonte (1753-1828), the poet, and Giovanni -Pindemonte (1751-1812), his brother, the dramatist, were both born at -Verona.--T. - -[164] Alfonso Marchese di Varano (1705-1788), the poet, was born at -Ferrara.--T. - -[165] Vincenzo Monti (1754-1828), born at Fusignano, near Ravenna, -author of the _Bassevilliana_(1793), directed against the French -Revolution, and a number of other poems, tragedies and translations. -Monti was Historiographer to the Court of Italy under Napoleon and a -member of the Italian Institute.--T. - -[166] Torquato Tasso (1544-1595) was a native of Sorrento, but his -father, Bernardo Tasso, was a North Italian, having been born in Venice -in 1493.--T. - -[167] Melchiore Cesarotti (1730-1808), born at Padua, a poet and -miscellaneous writer. His translation of Ossian (1763) is his finest -work, but he is also known for his _Saggio sulla Filosofia delle -Lingue_ (1785) and a number of prose and metrical translations besides -that mentioned.--T. - -[168] Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591-1666), known as Guercino, or -the Squintling, from an accident which distorted his right eye in -babyhood: a well-known painter of the Eclectic-Bologna School.--T. - -[169] Ferrara Cathedral was consecrated in 1136; the interior was -spoilt in the seventeenth century.--T. - -[170] Ferrara was handed back to the Papal States in 1814, but the -Austrians retained the right to keep a garrison there.--T. - -[171] Bernardo Tasso (1493-1569), Torquato Tasso's father, author of -the _Amadigi di Francia_ (Amadis of Gaul, 1560) and a quantity of other -poems, died at Ostiglia on the 14th of September 1569.--T. - -[172] _Rinaldo_ was published in 1562, while Tasso was a youth of -eighteen studying law at Padua.--T. - -[173] Produced at Ferrara in 1573.--T. - -[174] Ippolito of Este, Cardinal of Ferrara, Archbishop of Milan, Lyons -and Narbonne (1509-1572), uncle of Alphonsus II. and a favourite of the -Court of France of that time.--T. - -[175] 24 August 1572.--T. - -[176] Anna Swanwick's GOETHE: _Torquato Tasso_, Act I. Sc. i.--T. - -[177] _Ibid._, Act II. Sc. i.--T. - -[178] _Ibid._, Act III. Sc. iii.--T. - -[179] Anna Swanwick's GOETHE: _Torquato Tasso_, Act V. Sc. iv.--T. - -[180] Alphonsus II. married three times: first, Lucrezia de' Medici; -secondly, Barbara of Austria, daughter of the Emperor Ferdinand I.; -thirdly, Margherita di Gonzaga, daughter of William Duke of Mantua.--T. - -[181] George Washington, in command of the English and native troops, -defeated the French in the Battle of Great Meadows on the 28th of May -1754. He was subsequently besieged at Fort Necessity in Pennsylvania -and, on the 4th of July 1754, surrendered to the French, who allowed -him and all his troops to march back to Virginia.--T. - -[182] My _Études Historiques.--Author's Note._ - -[183] Sixtus V.--T. - -[184] In July 1586, after a confinement of more than seven years.--T. - -[185] Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (1544-1590), author of, among -other poems, the _Semaine, ou La Création en sept journées_, which was -published in 1579 and passed through thirty editions in a few years. -Writing of Du Bartas, Professor Saintsbury, in his _Short History of -French Literature and French Lyrics_, says: - - "All that was wanting to make Du Bartas a poet of the first - rank was some faculty of self-criticism; of natural verve and - imagination as well as of erudition he had no lack, but in critical - faculty he seems to have been totally deficient. His beauties, rare - in kind and not small in amount, are alloyed with vast quantities - of dull absurdity." - -Du Bartas' fellow-countrymen entertain a similar view, and Bouillet, -in his _Dictionnaire universel d'histoire et de géographie_, expresses -himself in almost the same words when he writes that "_ce poète avait -de la verve et de l'imagination, mais manquait de goût._"--T. - -[186] Marco Sciarra (_fl._ 1592), a celebrated bandit chief, long -devastated the Papal States. Neither Sixtus V. nor Clement VIII. was -able to subdue him and his band; but he was so hotly pursued by the -latter Pope that he left the country and entered the service of the -Venetians, who employed him against the Uskoks, the piratical refugees -from the north-western provinces of Turkey. The Venetian Government -eventually caused Sciarra to be assassinated, upon the repeated demands -of Clement VIII. for his extradition.--T. - -[187] Samuel Rogers introduces this incident into his description of -the "wild life, fearful and full of change," of the "mountain-robber:" - - Time was, the trade was nobler, if not honest; - When they that robb'd were men of better faith - Than kings or pontiffs; where such reverence - The poet drew among the woods and wilds, - A voice was heard, that never bade to spare, - Crying aloud, "Hence to the distant hills! - Tasso approaches; he, whose song beguiles - The day of half its hours; whose sorcery - Dazzles the sense, turning our forest glades - To lists that blaze with gorgeous armoury, - Our mountain-caves to regal palaces: - Hence, nor descend till he and his are gone. - Let him fear nothing!" - -(ROGERS, _Italy: Banditti_, 5-17).--T. - -[188] Ippolito Aldobrandini, Pope Clement VIII. (1536-1605), elected -Pope in 1592.--T. - -[189] LUKE, XXIII., 46.--T. - -[190] Now the Quai Voltaire.--T. - -[191] Giovanni Battista Manso, Marchese Della Villa (1561-1645). Milton -was ambitious of his acquaintance, as the friend of Tasso, and was -introduced to him in Naples in 1638. To him Milton addressed his Latin -epistle, _Ad Mansum_; Tasso had addressed his dialogue on Friendship -to him and complimented him in the twentieth canto of the _Gerusalemme -Conquistata_, as the introduction to _Ad Mansum_ shows: - - "Joannes Baptista Mansus, Marchio Villensi, vir ingenii laude, turn - literarum studio necnon et bellica virtute, apud Italos clarus in - primus est; ad quern Torquati Tassi Dialogus extat di Amicitia - scriptus; erat enim Tassi amicissimus; ab quo etiam inter Campanile - principes celebratur, in ilio poemate cui titulus 'Gerusalemme - Conquistata,' lib. 20. - - Fra cavalier magnanimi, è cortesi - Risplende il Manso. - - "Is auctorem Neapoli commorantem summa benevolentia prosecutus est, - multaque ei detulit humanitalis officia: ad hunc itaque hospes - ille, antequam ab ea urbe discederet, ut ne ingratum se ostenderet - hoc carmen misit."--T. - - [192] In Venice, in 1806.--_Author's Note._ - - [193] Titian.--_Author's Note._ - - [194] In 1803.--_Author's Note._ - - [195] I was right in saying the orange-tree: it is an orange-tree - that stands in the convent-yard of Sant' Onofrio.--_Author's Note_ - (Paris, 1840). - - [196] This is one of several cases in which the author coins a - word: his expression, _nécrolithe_, is not known in the French - dictionaries.--T. - - [197] Obizzo I. first Marquis of Este (_fl._ 1180); Obizzo II. - Marquis of Este and Lord of Ferrara and Verona (_d._ 1293) added - Modena and Reggio to his dominions.--T. - - [198] Nicholas III. Marquis of Este (_d._ 1471) was the father of. - - [199] Hercules I. first Duke of Ferrara (_d._ 1505), the father of - Alphonsus I.--T. - - [200] FONTANES (_Cf._ Vol III., p. 10): - - "Tasso, wandering from town to town, - One day, by his evils overcome, - Sat down by the sumptuous laurel-trees - Which spread out for ever to the breeze - Their green branches over Virgil's tomb," etc.--T. - - - [201] The Marquise de Podenas, _née_ de Nadaillac, was - lady-in-waiting to the Duchesse de Berry.--T. - - [202] Renée of France, Duchess of Ferrara (1510-1575), second - daughter of Louis XII., married, in 1528, Hercules II. Duke of - Ferrara, protected letters, science, art and Lutheranism, sheltered - Calvin, and had Clemont Marot as her secretary. She returned to - France in 1560, after the Duke's death, and settled at Montargis, - ostentatiously proclaiming her Protestantism.--T. - - [203] Emmanuel Louis Marie Guignard, Vicomte de Saint-Priest, - Duque de Almazan (1789-1881), was taken to St. Petersburg by his - family during the Emigration and, in 1805, entered the Russian - Army, where he served until the fall of Napoleon. He was made a - colonel in 1814 and was taken prisoner; Napoleon's orders to have - him shot were intercepted by the Cossacks. Saint-Priest escaped, - served the cause of the Kings Government with ardour, endeavoured - to raise the populations of the South during the Hundred Days, - took ship eventually at Marseilles, was captured by a Tunisian - corsair and, after a few weeks' captivity, succeeded in reaching - Spain and returning to France at the Second Restoration. He - was then appointed a brigadier-general, a lord-in-waiting to - the Duc d'Angoulême and an inspector of infantry. In 1823, he - took part in the Spanish Expedition and earned his promotion to - lieutenant-general. He became Ambassador to Berlin in 1825 and to - Madrid in 1827. In August 1830, he sent in his resignation, and - Ferdinand VII. created him a grandee of Spain and Duque de Almazan. - Saint-Priest became one of the Duchesse de Berry's advisers, was - one of the principal organizers of the royalist attempt of 1822 and - sailed with the Princess in the _Carlo-Alberto._ He was arrested at - the moment of landing and indicted at the assizes at Montbrison. - Together with his co-accused, he was acquitted, on the 15th of - March 1833, and at once joined the Duchesse de Berry in Italy. - Under the Second Empire, Saint-Priest was one of the most zealous - and intelligent servants of the Comte de Chambord, who, in 1867, - wrote him a letter on the political situation that made a great - noise at the time.--B. - - [204] _Cf._ Vol. V., p. 101, n. 2.--T. - - [205] Major H. D. Delloye had been dismissed the service in 1830 - and had turned publisher. He very rightly published only royalist - works. In 1836, when Chateaubriand was in the greatest difficulties - for money, he was able to arrange a combination of a satisfactory - character for the interests and intentions of the illustrious - writer. The company formed by M. Delloye guaranteed M. and Madame - de Chateaubriand a respectable annuity, supplied them with the sums - required for their immediate necessities, and postponed to a remote - date the publication of the _Mémoires d'Outre-tombe_, the _Congrès - de Vérone_ and other works to which the author might be disposed to - devote his leisure. - - On the 30th of June 1836, Chateaubriand addressed the following - letter to his honourable publisher: - - "To Monsieur H. D. Delloye, retired lieutenant-colonel, Knight of - the Royal Order of St. Louis and of the Legion of Honour. - - "PARIS, 30 _June_ 1836. - - "And so, monsieur, our business is fairly started: so soon as I - had finished the _Milton_, I resumed work on the Memoirs and I - have begun to have that portion copied which I am to deliver to - you in the early months of the coming year. I congratulate myself, - monsieur, on having met a gallant and loyal officer of the Royal - Guard who has brought to a conclusion a piece of business which, - but for him, might never have been finished. It is, therefore, to - you, monsieur, that I shall owe the repose of my life and, what is - more important to me, that of Madame de Chateaubriand. With God's - help, the rest will go of itself and I hope that neither you nor, - when the time comes, the Shareholders, will have reason to regret - becoming the owners of my Memoirs. - - "Believe, monsieur, I beg, in my sincere devotion and accept the - assurance of my most distinguished consideration. - - "CHATEAUBRIAND."--B. - - [206] Mademoiselle Mathilde Lebeschu, a former woman of the - Bed-chamber to Madame la Duchesse de Berry, had accompanied the - Princess into exile and sailed with her, in the _Carlo-Alberto_, on - the 21st of April 1832. She was tried, together with the Vicomte de - Saint-Priest and M. Sala, and, with them, acquitted, at Montbrison, - on the 15th of March 1833.--B. - - [207] Thomas Robert Bugeaud de La Piconnerie, Maréchal Duc d'Isly - (1784-1849) fought throughout the campaigns of the Empire, winning - his promotion from private to colonel on the battle-field. He - retired at the Restoration. He was recalled to active employment - in 1830, suppressed the Paris insurrections in 1832 and 1834 and, - in 1832, as Commandant of Blaye, was charged with the safe keeping - of the Duchesse de Berry. His behaviour on this occasion provoked - a challenge to a duel, in which he killed his adversary, a deputy - named Dulong, on the 27th of January 1834. In 1836, he was sent - to Algeria and defeated Abd-el-Kader, but made terms with him and - was severely criticized in consequence; he became Governor-general - in 1840 and, on the 14th of August 1844, defeated the troops of - Morocco at Isly, by which title he was forthwith created a duke, - having received his marshal's baton in the previous year. In 1847, - he resigned, but was placed in command of the troops in Paris - in 1848 and exerted himself, but without success, to suppress - the Revolution of February. The Prince-President Louis Napoleon - made him Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Alps, but he died - of cholera, on the 10th of June 1849, soon after taking up his - appointment.--T. - - [208] _Cf._ Vol. V., p. III., n. 2.--T. - - [209] "_Il est de bon_ goût, _ce M. d'Argout._"--T. - - [210] _Cf._ Appendix I.: _The Morganatic Marriage of the Duchesse - de Berry._--T. - - [211] Achmet III. Sultan of Turkey (1673-1736) succeeded on the - deposition of his brother Mustapha II. in 1703. He was deposed by - the janissaries in 1730 and assassinated, by poison, in 1736.--T. - - [212] Ivan VI. Emperor of All the Russias(1740-1764) succeeded - his aunt, the Empress Anne, as an infant of three months, but was - deposed in the course of the following year by Elizabeth, the - laughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I. He was murdered in - prison at the age of twenty-three, under the reign of Catherine - II.--T. - - [213] Frederic Augustus I. Elector of Saxony, later Augustus II. - King of Poland (1670-1733), surnamed the Strong, elected King - of Poland in 1697, deposed in 1704, and reinstated in 1709; and - Stanislaus I. Leczinski (1677-1766), elected King of Poland in - 1704, crowned in 1705, obliged to leave Poland in 1709: he was - again a candidate in 1733, on the death of Augustus II., and - formally abdicated in 1735.--T. - - [214] Theodore King of Corsica (_circa_ 1686-1756) was a German - adventurer, Theodor Baron von Neuhof. He aided the Corsicans - against the Republic of Genoa in 1735 to 1736; was proclaimed and - crowned King of Corsica in 1736; and was driven out by the Genoese - in 1738. An attempt made to recapture his power in 1743 failed. - Theodore withdrew to London, where his person was seized by his - creditors, and he was kept in prison for debt for seven years.--T. - - [215] VOLTAIRE: _Candide, ou L'Optimisme_, Part I., Chap. XXVI.: - _Candid and Martin sup with six Strangers; and who they were._--T. - - [216] Chateaubriand wrote the next day to Madame Récamier: - - "_Thursday_ 19 _September_ 1833. - - "All is changed. _They_ absolutely want me to go to the end of the - journey, where _they_ dare not arrive without me. All my resistance - was unavailing; I had to resign myself. So I am leaving. This will - prolong my absence another month. I am going to send Hyacinthe to - Paris; he will bring you a long letter and details. Nothing in my - life ever cost me a greater pang than this last sacrifice, unless - it be that attached to my resignation of Rome.--B. -] - - [217] Pietro Liberi (1605-1687), born and died at Padua, a - religious and historical painter of the Venetian School.--T. - - [218] Jacopo Palma the Younger (_circa_ 1544-1628), a painter - of the Venetian School, distinguished for the freshness of his - colouring.--T. - - [219] Giacomo Tatti (1479-1570), known as Sansovino, a noted - Florentine sculptor and architect, held by some to be second, as - a sculptor, to Michael Angelo alone. Sansovino is the architect - of the Mint, the Library of St. Mark and the Palazzo Cornaro in - Venice.--T. - - [220] Francesco Sansovino (1521-1586), son of the above, is better - known as a man of letters and grammarian than as an artist.--T. - - [221] "For there's no day so fair but its night follows after."--T. - - [222] Charles Patin (1633-1693) was a physician, like his father, - but was distinguished especially for his antiquarian knowledge. - He was sentenced to the galleys for distributing some copies of - a lewd libel which he had been charged to suppress and fled from - France. Eventually he settled in the Venetian States and, in 1677, - was appointed Professor of Medicine at Padua. Charles Patin left - several important numismatical works.--T. - - [223] Gui Patin (1601-1672), the famous doctor and wit, earned - an extraordinary reputation by his caustic sallies and eccentric - habits. He was the author of a treatise on the _Conservation de la - santé_(1632) and of Letters published nearly fifty years after his - death. A collection of his _bons mots_ was published, under the - title of Patiniana, in 1703.--T. - - [224] Epictetus (_fl._ 1st Century), of Hierapolis, the Stoic - philosopher, was born a slave. When his master, Epaphroditus, who - subsequently freed him, broke his leg for him, he was content to - observe: - - "I told you you would break it" - - Epictetus was driven from Rome, with the other philosophers, by - the Emperor Domitian; he returned later and won the esteem of the - Emperors Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius.--T. - - [225] John III. King of Portugal (1502-1557) succeeded his father, - Emanuel I., in 1521. He established the Inquisition in 1526.--T. - - [226] Angelo Malipieri, Podesta of Padua. Two years after the above - was written, Victor Hugo produced his tragedy of _Angelo_, of which - Malipieri is the hero, at the Théâtre-Français (28 April 1835).--B. - - [227] St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231), monk of the Order of - St. Francis and a native of Lisbon. He was wrecked on the coast - of Italy when on his way to Africa to convert the infidels. St. - Anthony is said one day to have preached to a school of fishes and - to have been heard with attention.--T. - - [228] Antonio Beccadelli Panormita (1394-1471), of Palermo, a - distinguished man of letters of his day.--T. - - [229] Livy, who was born and died at Padua, divided his History of - Rome into 425 books, of which only 35 have been preserved. These - books were contained in "Decades," or groups of ten books each. The - late Benjamin Jowett used to long for the recovery of the missing - books of Livy more than for that of any other lost specimens of - literature.--T. - - [230] Good drink-money or "tips."--T. - - [231] Francesco Albani (1578-1660), surnamed the "Painter of the - Graces" and the "Anacreon of Painting," the great painter of the - Bologna School.--T. - - [232] Heliodonis Bishop of Tricca, in Thessaly (_fl._ 4th Century), - was the author of the earliest Greek romance, the _Æthiopica,_ - which relates the loves and adventures of Theagines and - Chariclea.--T. - - [233] Isotta Nogarola (_d._ 1466), a great and learned lady of - Verona, famous for her beauty, her knowledge and her poetic talent. - She was the author of the _Dialogus quo utrum Adam vel Eva magis - peccaverit, quæstio satis nota, sed non adeo explicata, continetur_ - (Florence: 1563).--T. - - [234] Francis I. Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Bohemia, the - Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, etc. (1768-1835).--T. - - [235] The Comte de Sainte-Aulaire (_cf._ Vol. V., p. 161, n. 2) - had been appointed Ambassador to Vienna earlier in that same year - 1833.--T. - - [236] The Duchesse de Berry's mother was Clementina Queen of the - Two Sicilies, daughter of Leopold II. Emperor of Germany, and - sister of Francis I. Emperor of Austria.--T. - - [237] _Cf._ Vol., V., p. 81, n. 5. The Comte de Montbel's _Notice - sur le Duc de Reichstadt_ had appeared in that year 1833. The Duke - had died at Schonbrünn, three miles from Vienna, the residence of - the Austrian Archdukes, on the 22nd of July; the distance is about - 180 miles from Vienna to Prague, where Charles X. and his little - Court took up their residence.--T. - - [238] Leopold I. King of the Belgians (1790-1865) was the youngest - son of Francis Duke of Saxe Saalfeld-Coburg when he was elected - to the Belgian Throne in 1831. He was married first, in 1816, - to Charlotte Princess Royal of England, who died in 1817. In - 1832, Leopold married Louise Princesse d'Orléans, daughter of - Louis-Philippe.--T. - - - - -BOOK VIII[239] - - -Journal from Padua to Prague, from the 20th to the 26th of -September 1833--Conegliano--The translator of the _Dernier -Abencerrage_--Udine--Countess Samoyloff--M. de La Ferronays--A -priest--Carinthia--The Drave--A peasant lad--Forges--Breakfast -at the hamlet of St. Michael--The neck of the Tauern--A -cemetery--Atala: how changed--A sunrise--Salzburg--A military -review--Happiness of the peasants--Woknabrück--Reminiscences of -Plancoët--Night--German and Italian towns contrasted--Linx--The -Danube--Waldmünchen--Woods--Recollections of Combourg -and Lucile--Travellers--Prague--Madame de Gontaut--The -young Frenchmen--Madame la Dauphine--An excursion to -Butschirad--Butschirad--Charles X. asleep--Henry V.--Reception -of the young men--The ladder and the peasant-woman--Dinner at -Butschirad--Madame de Narbonne--Henry V.--A rubber--Charles X.--My -incredulity touching the declaration of majority--The newspapers--Scene -of the young men--Prague--I leave for France--I pass by Butschirad -at night--A meeting at Schlau--Carlsbad empty--Hollfeld--Bamberg--My -different St. Francis' Days--Trials of religion--France. - - -I was greatly distressed, when passing by Mestre, towards the end of -the night, not to be able to go down to the shore: perhaps a distant -beacon in the furthermost lagoons would have shown me the fairest -of the islands of the Old World, even as a tiny light revealed to -Christopher Columbus the first island of the New World[240]. It was at -Mestre that I landed from Venice, at the time of my first journey in -1806: _fugit ætas._ - -I breakfasted at Conegliano; I there received the compliments of -the friends of a lady who had translated the _Abencerrage_ and who -doubtless resembled Bianca: - - "He saw a young woman come out, attired much after the fashion - of those Gothic queens sculptured on the monuments of our old - abbeys... a black mantilla was thrown over her head; with her left - hand she held the ends of this mantilla crossed and drawn up close - like a veil over her chin, so that nothing was seen of her whole - face but her large eyes and rosy mouth." - -I pay my debt to the translator of my Spanish reveries by reproducing -her portrait here. - -When I climbed back into my carriage, a priest harangued me on the -_Génie du Christianisme._ I was crossing the scene of the victories -which led Bonaparte to encroach upon our liberties. - -Udine is a beautiful town: I noticed a portico copied from the Palace -of the Doges. I dined at the inn, in the room lately occupied by Madame -la Comtesse de Samoyloff; it was still quite full of her disorder. Is -that niece of the Princesse Bagration, "another injustice of years," -still as pretty as she was in Rome, in 1829, when she used to sing so -wonderfully at my concerts? What breeze had blown that flower once -again under my feet? What wind impelled that cloud? O daughter of the -North, you enjoy life; make haste: harmonies that used to delight you -have already ceased; your days will not have the length of the arctic -day. - -[Sidenote: My second journey to Prague.] - -In the visitors'-book of the hotel I read the name of my noble friend, -the Comte de La Ferronnays, who was returning from Prague to Naples, -in the same way as I was going from Padua to Prague. The Comte de La -Ferronnays, who is my fellow-countryman in more than one respect, since -he is both a Breton and a Malouin, mingled his political destinies -with mine: he was Ambassador in St. Petersburg when I was Minister of -Foreign Affairs in Paris; he occupied this latter office, and I, in my -turn, became an ambassador under his direction. I was sent to Rome, -and resigned on the accession to power of the Polignac Ministry; La -Ferronnays succeeded to my embassy. He is M. de Blacas' brother-in-law, -and is as poor as the latter is rich; he resigned the peerage and the -diplomatic service at the time of the Revolution of July; every one -esteems him and no one hates him, because of the genuineness of his -character and the moderation of his mind. In his last negociation in -Prague, he allowed himself to be overreached by Charles X., who is -approaching the end of his days. Old people take pleasure in secret -practices, having nothing to show that is any good. Excepting my old -King, I would like every one to be drowned who is no longer young, -myself first of all, together with a dozen of my friends. - -At Udine, I took the Villach Road; I was going towards Bohemia by way -of Salzburg and Linz. Before attacking the Alps, I heard bells pealing -and saw an illuminated _campanile_ in the plain. I had the postilion -questioned through the intermediary of a German from Strasburg, my -Italian _cicerone_ in Venice, whom Hyacinthe had brought me to act -as my Slav interpreter in Prague. The rejoicings about which I was -asking were taking place on the occasion of the promotion of a priest -to Holy Orders; he was to say his first Mass on the morrow. How often -will those bells, which to-day are proclaiming the indissoluble union -between a man and his God, summon that man to the sanctuary, and how -soon will those same bells ring out for his funeral? - - -22 _September._ - -I slept almost through the night, to the sound of the torrents, and -awoke at day-break, on the 22nd, among the mountains. The Carinthian -valleys are pleasant, but present no striking characteristics: the -peasants have no distinctive dress; a few women wear furs, like the -Hungarian women; others have white hoods set on the back of their -heads, or blue woollen caps with a padded edging, half way between the -Osmanli's turban and the bonze's skull-cap with the button at the top. - -I changed horses at Villach. On leaving that stage, I followed a wide -valley on the banks of the Drave, a new acquaintance: by dint of -crossing rivers, I shall end by reaching my last shore. Lander[241] -has just discovered the mouth of the Niger; the daring traveller -surrendered his life to Eternity at the very moment when he taught us -that the mysterious African stream discharges its waters into the Ocean. - -At nightfall, we were nearly stopped at the village of St. Paternion: -the carriage wanted greasing; a peasant screwed the nut of one of -the wheels in the wrong direction, with so much force that it was -impossible to remove it. All the clever people in the village, with the -blacksmith at their head, failed in their attempts. A boy of fourteen -or fifteen years of age left the band, returned with a pair of -pincers, thrust aside the workers, wound a brass wire round the bolt, -twisted it with his plyers and, bearing with his hand in the direction -of the screw, removed the nut without the slightest effort, amid -general cheering. Might not that child be a budding Archimedes? The -queen of an Esquimaux tribe, the same woman who drew for Captain Parry -a chart of the polar seas, used attentively to watch sailors welding -pieces of iron at the forge and outstripped all her race through her -genius. - -During the night of the 22nd, I passed through a thick mass of -mountains; their confusion continued before me as far as Salzburg: and -yet those ramparts did not protect the Roman Empire. The author of the -_Essayes_, speaking of the Tyrol, says, with his ordinary vivacity of -imagination: - - "It resembles a gown that we only see plaited up, but that, if it - were spread out, it would form a very large country[242]." - -The mounts among which I wound were like a landslip from the upper -chains, which, covering a vast ground, had formed little Alps -presenting the different accidental features of the great ones. - -Cascades rushed down from every side, leaping over beds of stones, -like the torrents in the Pyrenees. The road passed through gorges -hardly open to the gauge of the calash. In the neighbourhood of Gmünd, -hydraulic forges mixed the echo of their stamps with that of the -sluices; from their chimneys, columns of sparks escaped amid the night -and the dark forests of pine-trees. At each blow of the bellows on the -hearth-stone, the open roofs of the factory lit up suddenly, like the -dome of St. Peter's in Rome on a holiday. - -In the Karch Range, they added three couple of oxen to our horses. Our -long team, on the torrent waters and in the flooded ravines, looked -liked a living bridge. The chain opposite the Tauern was draped in snow. - -[Sidenote: St. Michael.] - -On the 23rd, at nine o'clock in the morning, I stopped at the -pretty hamlet of St. Michael, at the bottom of a valley. Some tall, -good-looking Austrian girls served me with a very clean breakfast -in a little room whose two windows looked out over meadows and -the village-church. The grave-yard, which surrounded the church, -was separated from me only by a rustic yard. Wooden crosses, with -semicircular inscriptions and with holy-water fonts hanging from them, -rose above the grass of the old tombs: five graves as yet unturfed -proclaimed five new resting-places. Some of the graves, like the -borders of kitchen-gardens, were adorned with marigolds in full yellow -flower; wag-tails chased grass-hoppers in this garden of the dead. A -very old lame woman, leaning on a crutch, crossed the cemetery and -brought back a cross that had fallen down: perhaps the law permitted -her to pilfer that cross for her tomb; dead wood, in the forests, -belong to him who picks it up. - - Là dorment dans l'oubli des poètes sans gloire, - Des orateurs sans voix, des héros sans victoire[243]. - -Would not the child of Prague sleep better here, without a crown, than -in the chamber in the Louvre where his father's body was laid in state? - -My solitary breakfast, taken in the company of the satisfied travellers -lying under my window, would have been to my taste if I had not been -afflicted by too recent a death: I had heard the screams of the chicken -served at my banquet. Poor young bird! It had been so happy, five -minutes before my arrival! It was wandering among the grasses, the -vegetables and the flowers; it was running about among the troops of -goats come down from the mountain; to-night it would have gone to roost -with the sun, and it was still small enough to sleep under its mother's -wing. - -When the calash was put to, I climbed in, surrounded by the women, -and the waiters of the inn accompanied me to the carriage-door; they -seemed glad to have seen me, although they did not know me and were -never to see me again: they gave me so many blessings! I do not tire -of this German cordiality. You never meet a peasant but takes off -his hat to you and wishes you a hundred good things: in France we -salute only death; insolence is accounted as liberty and equality; -there is no sympathy between man and man; to envy whoever travels a -little comfortably, to stand with one arm akimbo, ready to draw the -sword on any one who wears a new coat or a white shirt: those are the -characteristic signs of our national independence, always provided that -we spend our days in the antechambers accepting the rebuffs of some -upstart clodhopper. This does not take away from our high intelligence, -nor prevent us from triumphing with arms in hand; but manners cannot -be made _à priori_: for eight centuries we have been a great military -nation; fifty years have not been able to change us: we have not been -able to acquire a genuine love for liberty. So soon as we have a -moment's rest under a transitory government, the Old Monarchy shoots up -again on its stock, the old French spirit reappears: we are courtiers -and soldiers, nothing more. - - -23 _and_24 _September_ 1833. - -The last range of mountains shutting in the Province of Salzburg -commands the arable region. The Tauern has glaciers; its table-land -resembles all the table-lands of the Alps, but more particularly that -of the Saint-Gotthard. On this table-land, crusted over with reddish, -frozen moss, stands a Calvary: an ever-ready consolation, an eternal -refuge for the unfortunate. Around that Calvary are buried the victims -who perish amid the snows. - -What were the hopes of the travellers passing, like myself, through -this spot when the snow-storm surprised them? Who are they? Who has -wept for them? How do they rest there, so far from their kindred, their -country, hearing each winter the roar of the tempests whose breath -carried them off the earth? But they sleep at the foot of the Cross; -Christ, their sole companion, their only friend, nailed to the sacred -wood, leans towards them, is covered with the same hoar-frost that -whitens their graves: in the celestial regions, He will present them to -His Father and warm them in His breast. - -The descent of the Tauern is long, bad and dangerous; I was delighted -with it: it reminds one, at one time by its cascades and its wooden -bridges, at another by the narrowness of its chasm, of the Valley of -the Pont-d'Espagne at Cauterets or the Domo d'Ossola slope of the -Simplon; but it is far from leading to Granada or Naples. We find no -gleaming lakes, no orange-trees at the bottom: it is unprofitable to -give one's self so much trouble to come to some potato-fields. - -At the stage, half-way down the descent, I found myself among my family -in the room of the inn: the walls were hung with the Adventures of -Atala, in six prints. My daughter did not suspect that I should pass -that way, nor had I hoped to meet an object so dear to me on the brink -of a torrent called, I believe, the Dragon. Poor Atala! She had grown -very ugly, very old; she was greatly changed! She wore big feathers -on her head and a short, tight skirt round her hips, like the lady -savages of the Théâtre de la Gaîté. Vanity turns everything into money; -I carried my head high before my works in the depths of Carinthia like -Cardinal Mazarin before the pictures in his gallery. I felt inclined to -say to mine host: - -"I made that!" - -I had to separate from my first-born, although with less difficulty -than on the island in the Ohio. - -As far as Werfen, nothing attracted my attention, unless it were the -manner in which they put the second crop of grass to dry: they drive -stakes of fifteen to twenty feet in height into the ground; they roll -the unbleached grass round those stakes, not too tightly: it dries -there and blackens. At a certain distance, those columns look just like -cypress-trees or like trophies planted in memory of the flowers mown -down in those dales. - -[Sidenote: Salzburg.] - - -24 _September, Tuesday._ - -Germany was determined to revenge herself for my ill-humour against -her. In the Salzburg Plain, on the morning of the 24th, the sun -appeared to the east of the mountains which I had left behind me; some -rocky peaks on the west lit up with its first softest rays. Darkness -still hovered over the plain, half green, half tilled, whence rose a -smoke, like the steam of man's sweat. Salzburg Castle, raising the -summit of the hill that commands the town, encrusted the blue sky with -its white surface. With the ascending sun, there rose, from out of the -bosom of the cool exhalation of the dew, avenues, clusters of wood, -red-brick houses, cottages rough-plastered with gleaming white lime, -mediæval towers slashed and pierced, old champions of time, wounded -in the head and breast, left standing alone on the battle-field of the -centuries. The autumnal light of the scene had the violent tint of the -colchicums which blossom at this season of the year and with which the -meads along the banks of the Salza were strewn. Flights of crows left -the creepers and holes of the ruins and descended upon the fields; -their gleaming wings were glazed with rose in the reflection of the -dawn. - -It was the Feast of St. Rupert[244], the Patron of Salzburg. The -peasant-women were going to market, decked out in the fashion of -their village: their fair hair and snowy foreheads were enclosed in a -sort of helmet of gold, well suited to women of Germania. When I had -passed through the town, which is clean and handsome, I saw two or -three thousand foot-soldiers in a field; they were being reviewed by a -general, accompanied by his staff. Those white lines cutting into the -green grass, the glitter of arms at sunrise formed a stately display -worthy of those peoples depicted or rather sung by Tacitus: Mars the -Teuton was offering a sacrifice to Aurora. What were my gondoliers -doing at that moment in Venice? They were sporting like swallows, after -the night was past, in the returning dawn and preparing to skim over -the surface of the water; next would come the joys of the night, loves -and barcarolles. Every nation has its lot: this one enjoys strength; -that one, pleasures: the Alps make the division. - -From Salzburg to Linz, a fertile country-side; the horizon on the right -denticulated with mountains. Forests of pines and beeches, wild and -similar oases, are surrounded by a skilful and varied cultivation. -Herds of all kinds of cattle, hamlets, churches, oratories, crosses -furnish and enliven the landscape. - -After we had passed the radius of the festival of St. Rupert (festivals -do not last long with men, nor do they go far), we found all the people -in the fields, busy with the autumnal sowing and the potato-harvest. -Those rustic populations were better clad, more polite, and appeared -happier than our own. Do not let us disturb the order, the peace, the -simple virtues which they enjoy, under the pretext of substituting for -them political boons which are neither conceived nor felt in the same -manner by all, whereas the whole of mankind understands the joys of the -home, family affection, the abundance of life, simplicity of heart and -religion. - -The Frenchman, who is so much in love with women, is very well able to -dispense with them in a number of cares and works; the German cannot -live without his mate: he employs her and takes her with him wherever -he goes, to the battle-field as to the plough-field, to feasts and -funerals alike. - -In Germany, the very animals partake of the temperate character of -their sober-minded masters. It is interesting, when travelling, to -observe the physiognomy of the brute beasts. We can judge beforehand -of the manners and passions of the inhabitants of a country by the -gentleness or wickedness, the tameness or wildness, the cheerfulness or -sadness of that living part of creation which God has subjected to our -sway. - -[Sidenote: Woknabrück.] - -An accident to the calash obliged me to stop at Woknabrück. As I roamed -about the inn, I came upon a back-door which let me out on a canal. -Beyond it lay meadows striped with pieces of brown holland. A river, -inflected under wooded hills, served as a belt for those meadows. -Something, I know not what, reminded me of the village of Plancoët, -where happiness had appeared to me in my childhood. O shades of my old -kinsfolk, I did not expect to find you on these shores! You are drawing -nearer to me, because I am drawing nearer to the grave, your shelter; -we are going to meet again there. My kind aunt, do you still sing your -ballad of the Sparrow-hawk and the Warbler[245] on the banks of Lethe? -Have you met the fickle Trémigon[246] among the dead, just as Dido saw -Æneas in the region of the shades? - -The day was drawing to a close when I left Woknabrück; Sol transferred -me to his sister's hands: a double light of undefinable hue and -fluidity. Soon Luna reigned alone: she was inclined to renew our -conversation of the forests of Haselbach[247]; but I was not in the -mood for her. I preferred Venus, who rose at two o'clock on the morning -of the 25th; she was as beautiful as amid those dawns in which I used -to contemplate and invoke her on the seas of Greece. - -Leaving many mysteries of woods, streams and valleys to the right and -left, I passed through Lambach, Wels and Neuban, quite new little -townships, with flat-roofed houses, as in Italy. In one of those -houses, they were making music; there were young women at the windows: -things were different in Maroboduus'[248] time. - -In the towns of Germany, the streets are wide, drawn up in line like -the tents of a camp or the files of a battalion; the market-places -are spacious, the drill-grounds extensive: the people want sun, and -everything happens in public. - -In the towns of Italy, the streets are narrow and winding, the -market-places small, the drill-grounds cramped: the people want shade, -and everything happens in secret. - -At Linz, my passport was endorsed without difficulty. - - -24 _and_25 _September_ 1833. - -I crossed the Danube at three o'clock in the morning: I had said to it -in the summer what I could no longer find to say to it in the autumn; -its waters were no longer the same and I was there at a different hour. -Far on my left, as I passed, lay my good village of Waldmünchen, with -its droves of pigs[249], Eumaus the shepherd[250] and the peasant-girl -who looked at me over her father's shoulder[251]. The dead man's grave -in the cemetery was filled up by now[252]; the deceased had been eaten -by some thousands of worms for having had the honour of being a man. - -M. and Madame de Bauffremont, who had arrived at Linz, were a few hours -ahead of me; they themselves were preceded by some Royalists, bearing a -message of peace, who believed Madame to be travelling quietly behind -them: and I came after them all, like Discord, with news of war. - -The Princesse de Bauffremont, _née_ de Montmorency[253], was going to -Butschirad[254] to congratulate the Kings of France, _née_ Bourbons: -what could be more natural? - -On the 25th, at nightfall, I entered some woods. Carrion-crows flew -screaming through the air; their thick flights whirled above the trees -whose tops they were making ready to crown. Behold me returning to my -early youth: I saw once more the crows in the Mall at Combourg[255]; -I imagined myself renewing my family life in the old castle[256]: O -memories, you pierce the heart like a sword! O Lucile[257], we are -parted by many years: now the crowd of my days has passed and, in -dispersing, allows me to see your image more clearly! - -I reached Thabor at night: its square, surrounded by arcades, struck me -as immense; but the moonlight is deceptive. - -On the morning of the 26th, a mist wrapped us in its boundless -solitude. At about ten o'clock, it seemed to me that I was passing -between two lakes. I was now only a few leagues from Prague. - -[Sidenote: Prague.] - -The fog lifted. The approaches by the Linz Road are livelier than by -the Ratisbon Road; the landscape is less insipid. One sees villages, -country-houses with woods and ponds. I met a woman with a resigned and -pious face, going bent under the weight of an enormous basket; two old -market-women with apples spread out for sale beside a ditch; a young -girl and a young man sitting on the grass, the man smoking, the girl -glad, spending the day beside her friend and the night in his arms; -children at a cottage-door playing with cats or driving geese to the -common; turkeys in coops going to Prague, like myself, for Henry V.'s -coming of age; next, a shepherd blowing his horn, while Hyacinthe, -Baptiste, the Venetian _cicerone_ and My Excellency jolted along in our -patched calash: such are the destinies of life. I would not give a doit -for the best of them. - -Bohemia had nothing new to show me: my ideas were fixed on Prague. - - -PRAGUE, 29 _September_ 1833. - -The second day after my arrival in Prague, I sent Hyacinthe to take a -letter to Madame la Duchesse de Berry, whom, according to my reckoning, -he ought to meet at Trieste. This letter informed the Princess that -"I had found the Royal Family leaving for Leoben; that some young -Frenchmen had arrived for the coming of age of Henry V. and that the -King was avoiding them; that I had seen Madame la Dauphine; that she -had bidden me to go at once to Butschirad, where Charles X. still was; -that I had not seen Mademoiselle, because she was a little unwell; -that I had been admitted to her room, where the shutters were closed, -and that she had held out to me her hot hand in the dark and asked me -to save them all; that I had gone to Butschirad, seen M. de Blacas -and talked with him about the declaration of the majority of Henry -V.; that I had been taken to the King's room and found him asleep -and that, after I had subsequently handed him Madame la Duchesse de -Berry's letter, he had appeared to me to be very much incensed against -my august client; that, otherwise, the short deed drawn up by me on the -subject of the coming of age had seemed to be to his liking." - -My letter concluded with the following paragraph: - - "And now, Madame, I must not conceal the fact from you that there - is a great deal amiss here. Our enemies would laugh if they saw us - contending for a kingship without a kingdom, a sceptre which is - merely the stick with which we assist our steps on the pilgrimage, - perhaps a long one, of our exile. All the drawbacks lie in your - son's education, and I see no prospect of its being changed. I am - returning to the midst of the poor whom Madame de Chateaubriand - provides for; there I shall always be at your orders. If ever you - become Henry's absolute mistress, if you continue to think that - that precious trust might safely be placed in my hands, I shall - be as happy as I shall be honoured to devote the rest of my life - to him; but I could not undertake so terrible a responsibility - except on the condition of remaining entirely free, subject to - your advice, in my selections and ideas and of being placed on an - independent soil, outside the circle of the absolute monarchies." - -The letter enclosed the following copy of my draft for the declaration -of majority: - - "We, Henry V., having attained the age at which the laws of the - Realm settle the majority of the Heir to the Throne, do ordain that - the first act of that majority shall be a solemn protest against - the usurpation of Louis-Philippe Duc d'Orléans. Wherefore, and by - the advice of Our Council, We have drawn up this present Act to - maintain Our rights and the rights of Frenchmen. - - "Given on the thirtieth day of September in the Year of Our Lord - one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three." - - -PRAGUE, 30 _September_ 1833. - -My letter to Madame la Duchesse de Berry described the general facts, -but did not enter into details. - -When I saw Madame de Gontaut, surrounded by half-packed trunks and -open boxes, she threw herself on my neck and, sobbing: - -"Save us!" she said. "Save us!" - -"And what am I to save you from, madame? I have just arrived, I know -nothing about anything." - -Hradschin was deserted; one would have thought that we were in the -midst of the Days of July and the flight from the Tuileries, as though -revolutions had become attached to the footsteps of the outlawed House. - -[Sidenote: The young men from France.] - -Young men were coming to congratulate Henry on the day of his attaining -his majority[258]; several were under penalty of death: some of them, -who had been wounded in the Vendée[259], almost all of them poor, -had been obliged to club together in order to enable them to go to -Prague and give voice to their loyalty. Forthwith an order closed -the frontiers of Bohemia to them. Those who succeeded in reaching -Butschirad were received only after making great efforts; etiquette -barred their way, even as Messieurs the lords of the Bed-chamber -defended the door of Charles X.'s closet at Saint-Cloud, while the -Revolution entered by the windows. The young men were told that the -King was going away, that he would not be in Prague on the 29th. The -horses were ordered, the Royal Family packed up bag and baggage. -When the travellers at last obtained leave to pronounce some hurried -compliments, they were listened to in fear and trembling. Not so much -as a glass of water was offered to the faithful little band; they -were not bidden to the table of the orphan whom they had come to seek -from so far away; they were driven to drink to the health of Henry V. -in a tap-house. Men fled before a handful of Vendeans, even as they -scattered before five score heroes of July. - -And what was the pretext for this stampede? They were going to meet -the Duchesse de Berry, they were going to make an appointment with the -Princess on the high-road in order stealthily to show her her daughter -and her son. Was she not very guilty? She persisted in claiming an -empty title for Henry. And, in order to extricate themselves from the -simplest position, they displayed before the eyes of Austria and France -(always presuming France to notice such pin-points) a spectacle which -rendered the Legitimacy, already too much disparaged, the despair of -its friends and an object of calumny to its enemies. - -Madame la Dauphine realized the disadvantages of the education of Henry -V., and her virtues ran over in tears, even as at night the skies fall -in dew. The brief audience which she granted me did not give her time -to speak of my letter of the 30th of June from Paris; she wore an air -of concern when she looked at me. - -A means of safety seemed to lie hidden in the very rigours of -Providence: the orphan's expatriation separated him from that which -threatened to ruin him at the Tuileries; in the school of adversity, -he might have been brought up under the guidance of a few men of the -new social order, qualified to instruct him in the new theories of -kingship. Instead of adopting those masters of the moment, so far from -bettering Henry V.'s education, they made it more fatal by the intimacy -produced by the constricted family-life: during the winter evenings, -old men, stirring up the centuries by the fireside, taught the child -about days the light of which nothing will ever bring back; they -transformed the Chronicles of Saint-Denis[260] into nursery-tales for -his benefit: surely the two First Barons of the modern era, Liberty -and Equality, would know how to force Henry "Lackland" to grant a Great -Charter! - -[Illustration: The Duc and the Duchesse d'Angoulême.] - -[Sidenote: I go to Butschirad.] - -The Dauphine had urged me to take the trip of Butschirad. Messieurs -Dufougerais[261] and Nugent[262] escorted me on my embassy to Charles -X. on the evening of my arrival in Prague. They were at the head of the -deputation of the young men and were going to complete the negotiations -which had been entered into on the subject of the presentation. The -former of the two, who had been implicated in my trial before the -Assize-court, had pleaded his case with great intelligence; the -second had just finished a term of imprisonment of eight months for a -royalist newspaper offense. The author of the _Génie du Christianisme_, -therefore, had the honour of going to wait on the Most Christian King -seated in a hired calash between the author of the _Mode_ and the -author of the _Revenant._ - - -PRAGUE, 30 _September_ 1833. - -Butschirad is a villa belonging to the Grand-duke of Tuscany at -about six leagues from Prague, on the road to Carlsbad. The Austrian -Princes have their ancestral possessions in their own country and are -merely owners for life on the other side of the Alps: they hold Italy -on lease. Butschirad is reached by a triple avenue of apple-trees. -The villa makes no show; with its out-houses, it looks like a fine -farm-house: it stands in the middle of a bare plain and the view -commands a hamlet with green trees and a tower. The inside of the house -is an Italian misconception, in the latitude of 50 degrees: large -living-rooms without stoves or chimneys. The apartments are enriched in -a melancholy fashion with the spoils of Holyrood. The palace of James -II., which Charles X. refurnished[263], has supplied Butschirad, by the -removal, with its carpets and chairs. - -[Sidenote: Charles X. asleep.] - -The King had a touch of fever and had gone to bed when I arrived at -Butschirad at eight o'clock in the evening, on the 28th. M. de Blacas -introduced me into Charles X.'s bed-room, as I wrote to the Duchesse de -Berry. A little lamp was burning on the mantel-piece; in the silence -of the darkness, I heard only the loud breathing of the thirty-fifth -successor of Hugh Capet. O my old King, your sleep was painful; time -and adversity, those heavy nightmares, were seated on your breast! A -young man might approach the bed of his young bride with less love than -I felt respect as I stepped with stealthy tread towards your lonely -couch. At least, I was not a bad dream like that which woke you to go -to see your son die! I inwardly addressed you with these words, which I -could not have uttered aloud without bursting into tears: - -"May Heaven protect you against all ills to come! Sleep in peace during -these nights adjoining your last sleep! Long enough have your vigils -been vigils of sorrow. May this bed of exile lose its hardness while -awaiting the visit of God: He alone can make the foreign earth lie -light upon your bones!" - -Yes, I would joyfully have given all my blood to make the Legitimacy -possible for France. I had imagined that it would be with the Old -Royalty as with the dry rod of Aaron: when taken away from the Temple -of Jerusalem, it was budded, and the buds swelling it had bloomed -blossoms, which, swelling the leaves, were formed into almonds, a -token of the renewal of the covenant. I do not study to stifle my -regrets, to keep back the tears with which I would like to wash out the -last trace of the royal sorrows. The impulses which I experience in -different directions with respect to the same persons bear witness to -the sincerity with which these Memoirs are written. In Charles X., the -man moves me to pity, the Sovereign offends me: I give way to these two -impressions as they succeed one another, without seeking to reconcile -them. - -On the 28th of September, after Charles X. had received me in the -morning by his bed-side, Henry V. sent for me: I had not asked to see -him. I spoke a few serious words to him on his coming of age and on the -loyal Frenchmen whose ardour had led them to offer him a pair of golden -spurs. - -For the rest, it was impossible to be better treated than I was. My -arrival had given alarm; they dreaded the report of my journey in -Paris. For me, therefore, every attention; all the rest were neglected. -My companions, scattered, dying of hunger and thirst, wandered about -the passages, the staircases, the court-yards of the _château_, amid -the scare of the occupiers and the preparations for their escape. - -The Austrian guards wondered at these individuals in mustachios and -mufti; they suspected them of being French soldiers in disguise, -thinking of taking Bohemia by surprise. - -During this storm without, Charles X. was saying to me indoors: - -"I am busy correcting the act establishing my 'Government' in Paris. -You will have M. de Villèle as your colleague, as you asked, and the -Marquis de La Tour-Maubourg and the Chancellor[264]." - -I thanked the King for his goodness, while wondering at the illusions -of this world. Society crumbles to pieces, monarchies come to an end, -the face of the earth is renewed, and Charles in Prague establishes a -"government" in France, after "taking the opinion" of his Council! Let -us not jeer overmuch: which of us but has his delusions? Which of us -but feeds his budding hopes? Which of us but has his "government _in -petto_," after "taking the opinion" of his passions? Raillery would ill -beseem me, the man of dreams. These Memoirs, which I scribble as I run, -are not they my "government," after "taking the opinion" of my vanity? -Do not I think that I can speak very seriously to the future, which is -as little at my disposal as France is at the orders of Charles X.? - -Cardinal Latil, wishing to escape the hubbub, had gone to spend a -few days with the Duc de Rohan[265]. M. de Foresta[266] passed by -mysteriously with his portfolio under his his arm; Madame de Bouille -made me deep courtesies, like a party-person, with lowered eyes that -tried to see through their lids; M. La Villate was waiting to receive -his dismissal; there was no longer any question of M. Barrande, who -cherished the hope of being restored to favour and was living in a -corner in Prague. - -[Sidenote: The Dauphin.] - -I went to pay my court to the Dauphin. Our conversation was brief: - -"How does Monseigneur find himself at Butschirad?" - -"Getting oldish." - -"We're all doing that, Monseigneur." - -"How's your wife?" - -"Monseigneur, she has the tooth-ache." - -"Inflammation?" - -"No, Monseigneur: age." - -"You're dining with the King? We shall meet again." - -And we parted. - - -PRAGUE, 28 and 29 _September._ - -I found myself free at three o'clock: they dined at six. Not -knowing what to do with myself, I went for a walk through avenues -of apple-trees worthy of Normandy. The fruit-crop from those mock -orange-trees in good years amounts to the value of eighteen thousand -francs. The calvilles are exported to England. They are not made into -cider, as the Bohemian beer-monopoly is opposed to it. According to -Tacitus, the Germans had words to express spring, summer and winter, -but none for autumn, of which they knew neither the name nor the gifts: -_nomen ac bona ignorantur._ Since Tacitus' time, a Pomona has come to -dwell among them. - -Feeling very tired, I sat down on the steps of a ladder leaning against -the trunk of an apple-tree. I was there in the Œil-de-bœuf of -the _château_ of Butschirad or at the railing of the Council-chamber. -Looking at the roof which covered the three generations of my Kings, I -called to mind the complaint of the Arab Maoual: - - "Here we saw vanish below the horizon the stars which we love to - see rise under the sky of our country." - -Full of these melancholy ideas, I fell asleep. A gentle voice woke me. -A Bohemian peasant-woman came to gather apples; throwing forward her -breast and lifting her head, she made me a Slav bow with a queenly -smile: I thought I should fall from my roosting-place; I said to her in -French: - -"You are very beautiful; I thank you!" - -I saw from her look that she had understood me: apples always play a -part in my encounters with "Bohemians[267]." I climbed down from my -ladder like one of those condemned men of feudal times delivered by the -presence of a young woman. Thinking on Normandy, Dieppe, Fervacques, -the sea, I resumed my way to the Trianon of Charles X.'s old age. - -We sat down to table, namely, the Prince and Princesse de Bauffremont, -the Duc and Duchesse de Narbonne, M. de Blacas, M. de Damas, M. -O'Heguerty, I, M. le Dauphin and Henry V.: I would rather have seen -the young men there than myself. Charles X. did not come in to dinner: -he was nursing himself, in order to be able to start on the morrow. -The banquet was noisy, thanks to the young Prince's prattle: he never -ceased talking of his ride on horseback, his horse, his horse's pranks -on the grass, his horse's snorting in the ploughed fields. This -conversation was most natural, and yet it grieved me; I liked our old -talk on travels and history better. - -The King came and chatted to me. He complimented me again on the note -on the majority: it pleased him because it left the abdications on one -side as an accomplished thing, required no signature except Henry's -and revived no sores. According to Charles X., the declaration would -be sent from Vienna to M. de Pastoret before my return to France; I -bowed with an incredulous smile. His Majesty, after striking me on the -shoulder according to his custom, asked: - -"Chateaubriand, where are you going now?" - -"Quite foolishly to Paris, Sire." - -"No, no, not foolishly," replied the King, seeking, with a sort of -uneasiness, to discover what was at the back of my thought - -The newspapers were brought in; the Dauphin took possession of the -English journals; suddenly, amid profound silence, he translated aloud -the following passage from the _Times_: - - "The Baron de--- is here; he is four feet high, seventy--five years - old and as brisk as though he were fifty." - -And Monseigneur said nothing more. - -The King retired; M. de Blacas said to me: - -"You ought to come to Leoben with us." - -The proposal was not seriously meant. Besides, I was not at all anxious -to be present at a family scene; I wished neither to divide relations -nor to meddle with dangerous reconciliations. When I half saw a chance -of becoming the favourite of one of the two powers, I shuddered; the -post did not seem fast enough to take me away from my possible honours. -I trembled before the shadow of fortune even as the Philistines -trembled before the shadow of Richard's horse. - -On the next day, the 28th, I locked myself up at the Bath Hotel and -wrote my dispatch to Madame. That same evening, Hyacinthe set out with -the dispatch. - -On the 29th, I went to see the Comte and Comtesse de Chotek; I found -them confounded by the uproar at the Court of Charles X. The Grand -Burgrave sent by means of expresses to recall the orders which were -delaying the young men at the frontiers. For the rest, those who were -to be seen in the streets of Prague had lost none of their national -characteristics: a Legitimist and a Republican, politics apart, are -the same man. What a noise they made, what joking, what merriment! -The travellers came to see me to tell me their adventures. M.---- had -visited Frankfort with a German guide, who delighted in the French; -M.---- asked him the reason; the guide answered: - -"De Vrench gome to Frankfort; dey trink de vine und mague loff to de -breddy vifes of de cidicens. Cheneral Aucherau lay a dax of vorty-vun -millions on de Down of Frankfort." - -Those are the reasons why the French were so much loved in Frankfort. - -[Sidenote: Breakfast of the young men.] - -A great breakfast was served at my inn; the rich paid the scot of the -poor. They drank champagne on the banks of the Moldau to the health of -Henry V., who was covering the roads with his grandfather, for fear -of hearing the toasts proposed to his crown. At eight o'clock, having -arranged my business, I drove off, hoping never to return to Bohemia in -my life. - -It has been said that Charles X. had intended to retire to the altar: -he had precedents for such a plan in his family. Richer, monk of -Senones, and Geoffroy de Beaulieu, confessor to St. Louis, narrate that -that great man had thought of shutting himself up in a convent, when -his son should have reached an age to take his place on the throne. -Christine de Pisan[268] says of Charles V.: - - "The wise King[269] had deliberated within himself that, if he - could live so long that his son was of age to wear the crown, he - would relinquish the Kingdom to him... and turn priest." - -Such princes as these, if they had laid down the sceptre, would have -been missed as guardians to their sons; and still, by remaining kings, -did they make their successors worthy of them? What was Philip the -Bold[270] beside St. Louis? All Charles V.'s wisdom turned into madness -in his heir[271]. - -I passed at ten o'clock in the evening in front of Butschirad, in the -silent fields, brightly lit by the moon. I saw the huddled mass of -villa, hamlet and ruin inhabited by the Dauphin: the rest of the Royal -Family were travelling. Such profound isolation came upon me with a -shock; that man, as I have already told you, possessed virtues: he -was moderate in politics, he entertained few prejudices; he had only -a drop of the blood of St. Louis in his veins, but he had that; his -uprightness was unequalled, his word as inviolable as God's. Gifted -by nature with courage, he was undone at Rambouillet by his filial -piety. He showed himself brave and humane in Spain, and had the glory -of restoring a kingdom to his kinsman, but was not able to save his -own. Louis-Antoine, since the Days of July, thought of asking a shelter -in Andalusia: Ferdinand would doubtless have refused it to him. The -husband of Louis XVI.'s daughter was languishing in a village in -Bohemia; a dog whose voice I heard was the Prince's only guard: thus -Cerberus barks at the shades in the regions of death, silence and -darkness. - -I was never able, in the course of my long life, to revisit my paternal -hearth; I was not able to settle down in Rome, where I so greatly -longed to die; the eight hundred leagues which I was now completing, -including my first journey to Bohemia, would have taken me to the most -beautiful sites in Greece, Italy and Spain. I have covered all this -distance and spent my last days to return to this cold, grey land: what -have I done to Heaven to deserve this? - -I entered Prague on the 29th, at four o'clock in the evening. -I alighted at the Bath Hotel. I did not see the young Saxon -servant-girl[272]; she had gone back to Dresden to console the banished -pictures of Raphael with the songs of Italy. - -[Sidenote: I leave Bohemia.] - -29 _September to_ 6 _October_ 1833. - -At Schlau, at midnight, a carriage was changing horses in front of the -post-office. Hearing French spoken, I put my head out of the calash and -said: - -"Gentlemen, are you going to Prague? You will not find Charles X. -there; he has gone away with Henry V." - -I mentioned my name. - -"What, gone?" exclaimed several voices together. "Go ahead, postillion, -go ahead!" - -My eight fellow-countrymen, after being stopped at Eger, had obtained -permission to continue their journey, but under the care of an officer -of police. It was curious, in 1833, to meet a convoy of servants of -the Throne and the Altar, dispatched by the French Legitimacy and -escorted by a policeman! In 1822, at Verona, I had seen cages full -of _Carbonari_ pass, accompanied by gendarmes. What is it that the -sovereigns want? Whom do they recognise as friends? Do they fear the -too-great crowds of their partisans? Instead of being touched by their -fidelity, they treat men devoted to their crowns as propagandists and -revolutionaries[273]. - -The post-master at Schlau had just invented the accordion[274]: he sold -me one; the whole night I played upon its bellows, the sound of which -carried away for me the memories of this world. - -Carlsbad, through which I passed on the 30th of September, was -deserted, like an opera-house after the performance. I met at Eger the -extortioner who had made me tumble from the moon where I was spending -the month of June with a lady from the Roman Campagna[275]. - -At Hollfeld, no swifts[276], no little girl with her basket[277]; -this saddened me. Such is my nature: I idealize real personages and -impersonate dreams, making matter and mind change places. A little girl -and a bird to-day swell the crowd of the beings of my creation with -whom my imagination is peopled, like those day-flies which sport in a -ray of the sun. Forgive me, I am speaking of myself: I notice it when -it is too late. - -Here is Bamberg. Padua reminded me of Livy[278]; at Bamberg, Father -Horrion recovered the first portion of the third and of the thirtieth -books of the Roman historian. While I was supping in the birthplace -of Joachim Camerarius[279] and Clavius[280], the librarian of the -town came to greet me on account of my fame, the greatest in the -world, according to him, which warmed the marrow of my bones. Next, -a Bavarian general came running up. At the door of the inn, the crowd -surrounded me when I made for my carriage. A young woman had climbed -upon a mile-stone, as did the Sainte-Beuve to see the Duc de Guise go -by. She laughed: - -"You are laughing at me?" I asked. - -"No," she replied, in French, with a German accent, "it is because I am -so glad!" - -[Sidenote: And return to France.] - -From the 1st to the 4th of October, I saw again the places which I had -seen three months before. On the 4th, I reached the French frontier. To -me St. Francis' Day is, every year, a day for examining my conscience. -I turn my eyes upon the past; I ask myself where I was, what I was -doing on each previous anniversary. This year 1833 found me wandering, -a slave to my roving destinies. At the end of the road I saw a cross; -it stood in a cluster of trees which silently dropped a few dead leaves -upon the Man-God crucified. Twenty-seven years before, I spent St. -Francis' Day at the foot of the real Golgotha. - -My Patron Saint also visited the Holy Sepulchre. Francis of -Assisi[281], the founder of the Mendicant Orders, by virtue of that -institution caused the Gospel to take a great step forward: a fact that -has not been sufficiently remarked upon. He achieved the introduction -of the people into religion; by clothing the poor in a monk's frock, -he forced the world to charity, raised the beggar in the eyes of the -rich and, in a Christian proletarian army, established the model of -that brotherhood of men which Christ had preached, a brotherhood which -will be the fulfilment of that political side of Christianity as yet -undeveloped, without which there will never be complete liberty and -justice upon earth. - -My Patron extended this brotherly love to the very animals, over whom -he appeared to have reconquered by his innocence the empire which -man exercised over them before his fall; he spoke to them as if they -understood him; he gave them the name of "brothers" and "sisters." Near -Baveno, as he was passing, a multitude of birds gathered around him; he -greeted them and said: - -"My winged brothers, love and praise God, for He hath clothed you with -feathers and given you the power to fly in the sky." - -The birds of the Lake of Rieti followed him. He rejoiced when he met -flocks of sheep; he had a great compassion for them: - -"Brothers," he said to them, "come to me." - -Sometimes he would give his clothes in exchange for a sheep which was -being led to the butcher's; he remembered a very meek Lamb, _illius -mentor agni minissimi_, offered up for the salvation of mankind. A -grass-hopper lived on the bough of a fig-tree near his door at the -Portiuncula; he called it to him; it came to lie upon his hand and he -said to it: - -"Sister grasshopper, sing God thy Creator." - -He did the same by a nightingale and was beaten at the concerts by -a bird which he blessed and which flew away after its victory. He -was obliged to have the little wild animals which ran up to him and -sought shelter in his breast carried far away into the woods. When -he wished to pray in the morning, he ordered silence of the swallows -and they were dumb. A young man was going to Siena to sell some -turtle-doves; the servant of God begged him to give them to him, so -that doves, which, in the Scriptures, are the symbol of innocence and -candour, might not be killed. The saint carried them to his convent -at Ravacciano: he planted his stick at the door of the monastery; the -stick changed into a tall evergreen oak; the saint let the turtle-doves -go to it and commanded them to build their nest in its branches, which -they did for many years. - -Francis dying wished to leave the world naked, as he had entered it; -he asked that his stripped body might be buried in the spot where the -criminals were executed, in imitation of Christ, whom he had taken for -his model. He dictated a will which was wholly spiritual, for he had -nothing to leave to his brethren except poverty and peace: a sainted -woman laid him in his tomb. - -[Sidenote: Back in Paris.] - -I received, from my Patron, poverty, the love of the small and humble, -compassion for animals; but my barren stick will not change into an -evergreen oak to protect them. I ought to think myself lucky to have -trodden French soil on my saint's-day; but have I a country? Have I -ever, in that country, enjoyed a moment of rest? On the 6th of October, -in the morning, I returned to my Infirmary. The gale of St. Francis was -still blowing. My trees, the budding refuges of the miseries collected -by my wife, bent before the anger of my Patron. In the evening, through -the branchy elms of my boulevard, I saw the hanging street-lamps shaken -to and fro, their half-extinguished lights flickering like the little -lamp of my life[282]. - - - - [239] This book was written on the road from Padua to Prague, from - 20 to 26 September 1833, and on the road from Prague to Paris, from - 26 September to 6 October.--T. - - [240] Columbus first touched land in America at Guanahani, one of - the Bahama Islands, on the 12th of October 1492. The island is - called "Watling's Island" on the English maps: it is possible to - vulgarize most things; Christopher was content to christen it San - Salvador.--T. - - [241] Richard Lemon Lander (1804-1834) made several journeys of - discovery in Africa, penetrated to the mouth of the Niger in 1831 - and settled the question of its course and outlet. He returned to - the Nun mouth in 1833, when he was fired upon by the natives and - struck by a musket-ball in the thigh. He was removed to Fernando - Po, where he died in February 1834.--T. - - [242] Hazlitt's MONTAIGNE: _A Journey into Italy._--T. - - [243] Chateaubriand: _Tombeaux champêtres_, 52-53, imitated from - Gray's _Elegy written in a Country Church-yard. Cf._ 57-60: - - "Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast - The little Tyrant of his fields withstood, - Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, - Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood."--T. - - -[244] Saint Rupert Bishop of Worms (_fl. circa_ 700), known as the -Apostle of the Bavarians from his missionary labours at Ratisbon, -Salzburg, etc.--T. - -[245] _Cf._ Vol. I., p. 21.--T. - -[246] _Ibid._--T. - -[247] _Cf._ Vol. V., p. 354.--T. - -[248] Maroboduus, or Marbod, King of the Marcomanni (_b._ 18 B.C.), -mentioned in Tacitus.--T. - -[249] _Cf._ Vol. V., p. 346.--T. - -[250] _Ibid._, p. 347.--T. - -[251] _Ibid._, p. 353.--T. - -[252] _Ibid._, p. 350.--T. - -[253] _Cf._ p. 38, n. 2, _supra._--T. - -[254] During the summer and part of the autumn, the Royal Family used -to live at Butschirad, a lonely and gloomy residence, situated in a -dull and desolate country, about five hours' drive from Prague.--B. - -[255] _Cf._ Vol. I., p. 88.--T. - -[256] _Ibid._, pp. 74 _et seq._--T. - -[257] _Ibid._, pp. 81 _et seq._--T. - -[258] By the old laws of the Monarchy, the majority of the Kings of -France was fixed at the commencement of their fourteenth year. The -memory of this law determined several hundreds of Frenchmen to go -together to visit the Elder Branch of the Bourbons, at fifteen hundred -miles from their country. This manifestation carried with it a certain -hostility to the new Dynasty. The Government of July, accordingly, -did not fail, naturally enough, when all is said and done, to put -some petty annoyances in the way of the travellers. It prevailed upon -the Austrian Government to turn a large number of them back at the -frontiers. In Frankfort and Munich, King Louis-Philippe's _chargés -d'affaires_ refused to give the necessary _visas_; several were -detained at Pilsen and Waldmünchen, _as_ also at Mayence and Eger. - -Moreover, this little manifestation was looked upon almost as -unfavourably in Prague as in Paris. King Charles X. and his son, the -Dauphin, had abdicated at Rambouillet, and they had no thought of -withdrawing their respective abdications; only, in order to keep up -the moral absence of responsibility of the Duc de Bordeaux and also -to facilitate the relations between the exiles and the Cabinets, -particularly the Cabinet of Vienna, they wished to retain, while on -foreign soil, a title which seemed to them inseparable from that of -heads of the Bourbon Family. The journey of the young Frenchmen who -were coming to greet Henry of France on the day of his entering upon -his fourteenth year might upset those private arrangements of the -exiled Family. It was therefore not calculated to please the old King -and his son. Hence the little incidents which the author of the Memoirs -will presently describe to us.--B. - -The Duc de Bordeaux was born on the 29th of September 1820, seven and -a half months after his father's assassination, and therefore attained -his majority, according to the laws of the French Monarchy, on the 29th -of September 1833--T. - -[259] "Among the visitors to Prague were Vendeans whose wounds were not -yet closed and as many as eight persons who had been sentenced to death -in their absence and who had saved their heads by flight." (ALFRED -NETTEMENT: _Henri de France_, Vol. I, p. 264).--B. - -[260] The _Chroniques de Saint-Denys_ or _Grandes chroniques de -France_ were chronicles compiled from the earliest times of the French -Monarchy by the Benedictines of Saint-Denis and kept in the treasury -of the abbey. The Abbot of Saint-Denis used to appoint a monk as -historiographer whose duty it was to follow the Court in order to -collect and write down events as they occurred. On the death of the -king, a history of his reign was drawn up from these notes, and this -history, after being submitted to the Chapter, was incorporated in the -_Grandes chroniques._ Suger, who became Abbot of Saint-Denis in 1122, -collected all the chronicles compiled from the commencement of the -Monarchy and himself wrote those of his own time. After the discovery -of printing, an abstract of the _Grandes chroniques_ was prepared and -published by Jean Chartier, the Benedictine, in 1476, under the title, -_Chroniques de France depuis les Troiens jusqu'à la mort de Charles -VII._, in 3 volumes 4to. They constitute the first French book known to -have been printed in Paris. These three volumes, which brought up the -History of France to 1461, were reprinted, with a continuation to 1513, -in 1514. A more recent edition appeared in Paris in 1836 to 1841, in 6 -volumes 8vo.--T. - -[261] Alfred Xavier Baron Dufougerais (1804-1874), a member of a -royalist family, was a barrister in Paris when, in 1828, he became -one of the proprietors and one of the editors of the _Quotidien._ In -April 1831, he bought the _Mode, revue du monde élégant_ from Émile -de Girardin, its founder, and turned it into a political organ. He -kept the fashion article and plates, so as to justify the title and -retain the advantages attaching to the speciality; but at the same -time the paper, in his hands, became a formidable weapon against the -Monarchy of July. Without being exactly a writer, Alfred Dufougerais -possessed the journalistic instinct to a high degree, and, under his -management, the _Mode_ soon took the leading place in the van-guard -of the royalist press. In September 1834, the state of his health -obliged him to transfer the ownership of his paper to other hands. -Alfred Dufougerais, who was gifted with a genuine talent for speaking, -preferred the contests of the bar to those of the press. He appeared in -all the leading newspaper trials and soon became standing counsel to -the royalist journals both in the provinces and in Paris. Among other -feats, he thrice obtained the acquittal of the _Indépendant de l'Ouest_ -at Laval. In 1849, Dufougerais was elected by the Department of the -Vendée to the Chamber of Deputies, where he constantly voted with the -Right until the _coup d'État_ of 2 December 1851, when he retired into -private life.--B. - -[262] Charles Vicomte de Nugent, poet and prose-writer and a member of -the editorial staff of the _Revenant_ and the _Mode._--B. - -[263] The modern apartments at Holyrood Palace were quite bare, when -they were lent to Charles X. in 1830, and almost uninhabitable. The -Wellington Administration, which made great difficulties about lending -the palace to the King and his family at all, did so only on the -express and almost barbarous condition that, "if there was a nail to be -knocked in, they would have to do it at their own expense." In short, -the unfortunate French exiles were allowed to arrive in Edinburgh, -during a Scotch winter, to take possession of a lodging in which the -very essentials of comfort were lacking, in which there was little -but the four walls of each room: and these, the Duchesse de Gontaut, -in 1831, informed M. P. J. Fallon, whose interesting little volume, -_Voyage à Holyrood pendant l'automne de_ 1831, is my authority, were, -in the case of Mademoiselle's apartment, so cold and damp that at first -they gave up the idea of occupying it. The state of the chimneys was -such that it was impossible to warm the rooms without being stifled -with smoke. M. Fallon gives a few details of the furniture supplied by -Charles X. The throne-room or picture-gallery was left empty, but for -a small table supporting an old lamp. The room before it was turned -into a chapel, in which Mass was said daily: Charles X. used to hear -Vespers at three o'clock on Sundays in the Catholic chapel next to the -Adelphi Theatre. The large drawing-room leading out of the throne-room -was fully but very simply furnished and contained a sofa with a back -about four feet high: the little Duc de Bordeaux used to amuse himself -by vaulting over it with one hand resting on the kick of it. The room -leading out of this drawing-room, on the left, was almost empty; it -contained a picture, by M. d'Hardivilliers, representing the landing -of Charles X. at Leith. Next to this was the closet of Charles X., a -large room completely furnished. The Dauphin and Dauphiness at first -occupied a little eight-roomed house at 34 Regent's Terrace, in the New -Town, at a rental of £80 a year, and did not move into Holyrood until -October 1831. M, Fallon adds a further anecdote typical of the timorous -policy of the Duke of Wellington's Ministry. So long as it remained in -power, no guard was placed at the palace gate. Later, when the duke -was succeeded by Earl Grey (November 1830), sentries were posted in -the entrance-hall and at the foot of the two towers. But they were -considered to be a guard of protection or convenience, not of honour, -and they received no orders to present arms when the members of the -Royal Family passed them.--T. - -[264] The Marquis de Pastoret (_Cf._ Vol. V., p. 303, n. 2). He -succeeded Dambray in 1829 as Chancellor of France and, although he -resigned all his functions after the Revolution of July, he always -remained the "Chancellor" to Charles X. In 1834, he became tutor to the -children of the Duchesse de Berry, a charge to which he applied himself -with great devotion, in spite of his advanced years: he was born in -1756.--B. - -[265] _Cf._ Vol. V., p. 187, n. 4 and p. 188, n. 1.--T. - -[266] Marie Joseph Marquis de Foresta (_d._ 1858) was prefect of -different departments, under the Restoration, and an honorary lord of -the Bed-chamber to the King. He had a cultured, nice and penetrating -mind and had given proof of his literary talents at an early age, -having dedicated to the Duchesse de Berry two charming and ingenious -volumes entitled, _Lettres sur la Sicile_ and published when he was -only twenty-two. He remained attached to the person of the Comte de -Chambord until his death (11 February 1858). The Marquise de Foresta -was the finished type of a Christian gentleman.--B. - -[267] _Bohémiennes_: gipsy-women. _Cf._ Vol. II., p. 55, where -Chateaubriand, suffering from smallpox and starving, meets a -gipsy-woman who gives him an apple.--T. - -[268] Christine de Pisan (1363-1415), born in Venice, came to the Court -of France with her father, Thomas de Pisan, who had been appointed -astrologer to Charles V. She married a Frenchman of good family, was -left a widow at an early age, and devoted herself to literature for -her consolation. She left ballads, lays, virelays, rondeaus and short -poems, such as the _Débat des deux amants_, the _Chemin de longue -étude_, etc., and a number of prose works, including the _Vision de -Christine de Pisan_ and the work from which the above quotation is -taken, entitled, the _Livre des faiets et bonnes mœurs de Charles V._ -Some of her works were translated from the Romance language into French -and published separately, in Paris, in 1522, 1536, 1549 and later -years.--T. - -[269] King Charles V. of France was surnamed the "Wise."--T. - -[270] Philip III. King of France (1245-1285), surnamed the Bold, -succeeded St. Louis IX., in 1270. He was a gallant King and would have -cut a fine figure beside any other than his glorious father.--T. - -[271] Charles VI. (1368-1422), surnamed the Well-Beloved, succeeded -his father in 1380 and lost his reason in 1392 (_Cf. supra_ p. 10, n. -3).--T. - -[272] _Cf._ Vol. V., p. 392.--T. - -[273] I received from Périgueux, on the 14th of November, the following -letter, which, leaving the praises of myself on one side, states facts -as I have told them: - - PÉRIGUEUX, 10 _November_ 1833. - - "MONSIEUR LE VICOMTE, - - "I cannot resist the wish to tell you of my disappointment when - I was told, on Monday the 28th of October, that you were away. I - had called on you to have the honour of paying you my respects and - exchanging a few words with the man to whom I have devoted all my - admiration. Obliged as I was to leave Paris that same night, where - perhaps I shall not return again, it would have been very pleasant - for me to have seen you. When, in spite of my family's moderate - means, I undertook the journey to Prague, I had placed among the - Dumber of my hopes that of introducing myself to you. And yet, - monsieur le vicomte, I cannot say that I have not seen you: I was - one of the eight young men whom you met in the middle of the night - at Schlau, not far from Prague. We arrived after having, for five - mortal days, been the victims of the intrigue that has since been - revealed to us. That meeting, at that place and hour, has something - odd about it and will never be effaced from my memory, any more - than will the image of him to whom royalist France owes the most - useful services. - - "Pray accept, etc. - - "P. G. JULES DETERMES."--(_Author's Note_). - - -[274] The accordion appears to have been invented really by Damian, in -Vienna, in the year 1829.--T. - -[275] _Cf. supra_, p. 4.--T. - -[276] _Cf. supra_, p. 8.--T. - -[277] _Cf. supra_, p. 8.--T. - -[278] _Cf. supra_, p. 105.--T. - -[279] Joachim Liebhard (1500-1574), known as Camerarius, because -several members of his family had been chamberlains, a native of -Bamberg, a learned scholar, a friend of Melanchthon. Camerarius was the -author of valuable Latin translations of many of the Greek classics, -published editions, with commentaries, of many of the Latin classics, -edited Melanchthon's Letters and left a Life of Melanchthon, Letters, -Fables, etc. - -[280] Christopher Clavius (1537-1612), a native of Bamberg and a great -Jesuit mathematician, was sent to Rome, where Gregory XIII. employed -him on the reform of the Calendar.--T. - -[281] Giovanni Francesco Bernardone (1182-1226), canonized by Pope -Gregory IX., in 1228, as St. Francis of Assisi, founded the Order of -the Franciscans, or Mendicant Friars, in 1208: their rule was confirmed -by Pope Honorius III. in 1223. St. Francis visited the Holy Land in -1219. In 1224, two years before his death, he received the Stigmata, on -the heights of Monte La Verna, on the morning of the 14th of September, -the Feast of the Exaltation of Holy Cross.--T. - -[282] The above page was written on the 6th of October 1833. Those -which follow were begun in 1837. In September 1836, Chateaubriand -wrote, at the Château de Maintenon, a chapter which was intended for -his Memoirs, but not included in the earlier editions. This short -chapter has been recovered by M. Biré and it will be found at the end -of this volume as Appendix II.: _Unpublished Fragments of the Mémoires -if Outre-tombe._--T. - - - - -BOOK IX[283] - - -General politics of the moment--Louis-Philippe--M. Thiers--M. de La -Fayette--Armand Carrel--Of some women: the lady from Louisiana--Madame -Tastu--Madame Sand--M. de Talleyrand--Death of Charles X. - - -When, passing from the politics of the Legitimacy to general politics, -I re-read what I wrote on those politics in the years 1831, 1832 and -1833, I find that my previsions were fairly correct - -Louis-Philippe is a man of intelligence whose tongue is set in movement -by a torrent of commonplaces. He pleases Europe, which reproaches us -with not knowing his worth; England is glad to see that, like herself, -we have dethroned a king; the other sovereigns forsake the Legitimacy, -which they did not find obedient. Philip has lorded it over the men -who have come closer to him; he has made game of his ministers; he has -employed them, dismissed them, reemployed them, dismissed them afresh, -after compromising them, if anything can compromise one nowadays. - -Philip's superiority is real, but it is only relative; place him in -a period when society still retains some life, and his mediocrity -shall come to the surface. Two passions spoil his good qualities: -his exclusive love for his children and his insatiable eagerness to -increase his fortune; on those two points his eyes will always be -dazzled. - -Philip has not that feeling for the honour of France which the elder -Bourbons had; he has no occasion for honour: he fears nothing except -popular risings, even as the nearest relations of Louis XVI. feared it. -He is sheltered by his father's crime; the hatred of what is good does -not weigh heavy on him: he is an accomplice, not a victim. - -Having realized the lassitude of the times and the vileness of men's -souls, Philip has made himself at home. Laws of intimidation have -come to suppress our liberties, as I foretold at the time of my -farewell speech in the House of Peers, and not a thing has stirred; the -Government has resorted to arbitrary measures; it has murdered people -in the Rue Transnonain, shot them down in Lyons, instituted numerous -newspaper prosecutions; it has arrested private citizens, has kept them -for months and years in prison without trial, and has been applauded -for doing so. The exhausted country, which no longer understands what -is happening, has suffered all. There is hardly a man whom it is not -possible to face with his own past. From year to year, from month -to month, we have written, said and done the exact opposite of what -we used to write, say and do. By dint of having cause for blushing, -we have ceased to blush; our inconsistencies escape our memory, so -numerous have they become. To have done with it, we adopt the course -of declaring that we have never changed, or that we have changed only -through the progressive transformation of our ideas and our enlightened -apprehension of the times. Events so rapid have aged us so speedily -that, when men remind us of our doings of a past period, it seems to us -that they are talking of some other man than ourselves: and besides, to -have changed is to have done what everybody does. - -[Sidenote: Louis-Philippe.] - -Philip did not think it necessary, as did the Restored Branch, to be -the master in every village in order to reign; he considered that it -was enough to hold sway in Paris: therefore, if ever he could turn the -Capital into a warlike town, with an annual roll of sixty thousand -pretorians, he would think himself safe. Europe would let him alone, -because he would persuade the sovereigns that he was acting with a -view to stifling the revolution in its old cradle, while leaving the -liberties, independence and honour of France as a pledge in the hands -of the foreigners. Philip is a policeman: Europe can spit in his -face; he wipes himself, gives thanks and shows his patent as a king. -Moreover, he is the only Prince whom the French would, at present, be -capable of supporting. The degradation of the elected Head constitutes -his strength; we momentarily find in his person enough to satisfy -our monarchical habits and our democratic leanings; we obey a power -which we believe ourselves to have the right to insult; that is all -the liberty that we require: on our knees as a nation, we slap our -master's face, re-establishing privilege at his feet, equality on his -cheek. Crafty and guileful, a Louis XI. of the age of philosophy, the -monarch of our choice dexterously steers his ship over a liquid mire. -The Elder Branch of the Bourbons is dried up, save one bud alone; the -Younger Branch is rotten. The Head inaugurated at the town-hall has -never thought of any one but himself: he sacrifices Frenchmen to what -he believes to be his security. When men argue about what would be -fitting for the greatness of the country, they forget the nature of the -Sovereign: he is persuaded that he would be undone by methods which -would be the saving of France; according to him, that which would give -life to the Royalty would be the death of the King. For the rest, none -has the right to despise him, for every one is on the same contemptible -level. But, whatever may be the prosperity that forms the object of -his dreams, in the last result, either he or his children will fail to -prosper, because he abandons the people, from whom he holds all. On the -other hand, the legitimate kings, abandoning the legitimate kings, will -fall: principles are not denied with impunity. Though the revolutions -may, for a moment, have been diverted from their course, they will none -the less come to swell the torrent which is under-mining the ancient -edifice: none has played his part, none shall be saved. - -Since no power among us is inviolable, since the hereditary sceptre has -fallen four times within thirty-eight years, since the royal diadem -fastened by victory has twice slipped from the head of Napoleon, since -the Sovereignty of July has been incessantly attacked, we must conclude -from this that it is not the Republic which is impossible, but the -Monarchy. - -France is under the dominion of an idea hostile to the throne: a diadem -of which men at first recognised the authority, which they next trod -under foot, then picked up, only to tread it under foot again, is -merely a useless temptation and a symbol of disorder. A master is set -over men who seem to call for him by their memories and who no longer -support him by their manners; he is set over generations which, having -lost the sense of moderation and social decency, know only how to -insult the royal person or to replace respect by servility. - -Philip has within him the wherewithal to delay the march of destiny, -but not to stop it. The Democratic Party alone is progressing, because -it is advancing towards the world of the future. Those who refuse to -admit the general causes of destruction where monarchical principles -are concerned in vain look to be delivered from the present yoke by -a motion of the Chambers; the latter will never consent to reform, -because reform would be their death. The Opposition, on its side, which -has become an industrial Opposition, will never give the death-thrust -to the King of its own making, as it gave it to Charles X.: it makes -a disturbance in order to obtain places, it complains, it is peevish; -but, when it finds itself face to face with Philip, it draws back; for, -though it wishes to have the handling of affairs, it does not wish to -overthrow that which it has created nor that by which it lives. Two -fears stop it: the fear of the return of the Legitimacy, the fear of -the reign of the people; it clings to Philip, whom it does not love, -but whom it looks upon as a safeguard. Stuffed full of offices and -money, abdicating its own will, the Opposition obeys what it knows to -be fatal and goes to sleep in the mire, which is the down invented by -the industry of the age: it is not so pleasant as the other, but it is -cheaper. - -[Sidenote: Philip's turpitude.] - -All these things notwithstanding, a sovereignty of a few months, of a -few years, even, if you wish, will not change the irrevocable future. -There is hardly any one now but confesses the Legitimacy to have been -preferable to the Usurpation, in so far as security, liberty, property -were concerned, and also our relations with foreign Powers, for the -principle of our present Sovereignty is hostile to that of the European -sovereignties. Since he was pleased to receive the investiture of the -Throne at the good pleasure and with the certain knowledge of the -democracy, Philip missed his opportunity at the start: he ought to -have leapt on horseback and galloped to the Rhine; or rather, he ought -to have resisted a movement which was carrying him without conditions -towards a crown: more durable and more suitable institutions would have -arisen from that resistance. - -It has been said that "M. le Duc d'Orléans could not have refused the -crown without plunging us into dreadful troubles:" this is the argument -of cowards, dupes and cheats. No doubt, conflicts would have ensued; -but they would have been swiftly followed by a return to law and order. -What has Philip done for the country after all? Would there have been -more blood shed by his refusing the sceptre than flowed because of the -acceptance of that same sceptre in Paris, Lyons, Antwerp, the Vendée, -without reckoning those streams of blood spilt, as a consequence of our -Elective Monarchy, in Poland, Italy, Portugal, Spain? Has Philip, in -compensation for these misfortunes, given us liberty? Has he given us -glory? He has spent his time in begging for his legitimation among the -potentates, in degrading France by making her the handmaid of England, -by giving her as a hostage; he has tried to make the age come to him, -to make it old with his House, not wishing to become young himself with -the age. - -Why did he not marry his eldest son[284] to some fair commoner of his -country? That would have meant wedding France: those nuptials of the -people and the Royalty would have made the Kings repent; for those -Kings, who have already taken advantage of Philip's submissiveness, -will not be content with what they have obtained: the might of the -populace which appears through our Municipal Monarchy terrifies them. -The Potentate of the Barricades, to become completely agreeable to the -absolute potentates, ought above all to destroy the liberty of the -press and abolish our constitutional institutions. At the bottom of -his soul, he detests them as much as they, but he has to keep within -bounds. All this remissness offends the other sovereigns; the only way -to make them have patience is to sacrifice everything to them abroad: -in order to accustom us to becoming Philip's liegemen at home, we are -commencing by making ourselves the vassals of Europe. - -I have said a hundred times and I repeat again, the old society is -dying. I am not easy-going enough, nor quack enough, nor sufficiently -deceived by my hopes to take the smallest interest in that which -exists. France, the ripest of the present nations, will probably be -the first to go. It is likely that the Elder Bourbons, to whom I shall -die attached, would not even to-day find a lasting shelter in the Old -Monarchy. Never have the successors of an immolated monarch worn his -torn mantle long after him: there is distrust on both sides; the prince -dares not rely upon the nation, the nation refuses to believe that -the reinstated family is capable of forgiving it. A scaffold raised -between a people and a king prevents them from seeing each other: there -are tombs that never close. Capet's head was so high that the little -executioners were obliged to strike it off to take its crown, even as -the Caribbees used to cut down the palm-tree in order to gather its -fruit. The stem of the Bourbons had propagated itself in the different -trunks which, bending down, took root and rose again as haughty shoots; -that family, after being the pride of the other royal Houses, seems to -have become their fatality. - -[Illustration: Louis Philippe.] - -[Sidenote: Prospects of the Usurpation.] - -But would it be more reasonable to think that the descendants of Philip -would have more chances of reigning than the young heir of Henry IV.? -It is vain to contrive different combinations of political ideas: the -moral verities remain unchangeable. There are inevitable reactions, -instructive, magisterial, avenging. The Monarch who initiated us -into liberty, Louis XVI., was made to expiate in his own person the -despotism of Louis XIV. and the corruption of Louis XV.: and shall it -be said that Louis-Philippe, he or his line, shall not pay the debt of -the depravity, of the Regency? Was that debt not contracted anew by -"Égalité" at the scaffold of Louis XVI., and did Philip his son not -increase the paternal contract when, a faithless guardian, he dethroned -his ward? "Égalité" redeemed nothing by losing his life; the tears -shed with the last breath redeem nobody: they only wet the breast and -do not fall upon the conscience. If the Orleans Branch were able to -reign by the right of the vices and crimes of its ancestors, where, -then, would Providence be? Never would a more terrible temptation have -disquieted the good man. What deludes us is that we measure the designs -of Eternity by the scale of our short life. We pass away so quickly -that God's punishment cannot always fall within the short moment of our -existence: the punishment descends when the time comes; it no longer -finds the original culprit, but it finds his House, which leaves room -for action. - -Rising up in the universal order of things, this reign of -Louis-Philippe's, however long it last, will never be anything but an -anomaly, a momentary breach of the permanent laws of justice: those -laws are violated in a restricted and relative sense; they are followed -in an unlimited and general sense. From an enormity that has received -the apparent consent of Heaven, we must draw a loftier conclusion: we -must deduce from it the Christian proof of the abolition of the Royalty -itself. It is this abolition, and not any individual chastisement, -that will become the expiation of the death of Louis XVI.; none will -be admitted to gird on the diadem, after that just man: as witness -Napoleon the Great and Charles X. the Pious. To render the crown -completely hateful, it will have been permitted to the son of the -regicide to stretch himself for a moment, as a false king, in the -blood-stained bed of the martyr. - -For the rest, all these arguments, just though they be, will never -shake my loyalty to my young King: were none but myself to remain in -France, I shall always be proud to have been the last subject of him -who was to be the last king. - - -The Revolution of July has found its King: has it found its -representative? I have, at different times, described the men who, -from 1789 to this day, have appeared upon the scene. Those men were -more or less connected with the old race of mankind: we had a scale of -proportion to measure them by. We have now come to generations that -no longer belong to the past; studied under the microscope, they do -not seem capable of life, and yet they combine with elements in which -they move; they are able to breathe an air which we cannot breathe. -The future will perhaps discover formulas to calculate the laws of -existence of those beings; but the present has no means of appreciating -them. - -Without, therefore, being able to explain the changed species, we -notice, here and there, a few individuals whom we are able to grasp, -because of their peculiar failings or distinctive qualities which make -them stand out from among the crowd. M. Thiers, for instance, is the -only man that the Revolution of July has produced. He has founded the -school that admires the Terror, a school to which he himself belongs. -If the men of the Terror, those deniers and denied of God, were such -great men, the authority of their judgment ought to carry weight; but -those men, reviling one another, declare that the party whose throats -they are cutting is a party of rascals. See what Madame Roland says -of Condorcet, what Barbaroux[285], the principal actor of the 10th -of August, thinks of Marat, what Camille Desmoulins writes against -Saint-Just[286] Are we to appreciate Danton according to Robespierre's -opinion, or Robespierre according to Danton's? When the Conventionals -have so poor a notion of one another, how can we, without failing in -the respect which we owe them, entertain an opinion different from -theirs? - -With its material mind, Jacobinism does not perceive that the Terror -failed from not being capable of fulfilling the conditions of its -continuance. It was unable to achieve its aim, because it was unable -to cut off enough heads: it would have needed four or five hundred -thousand more; now time was wanting for those long massacres; nothing -remains but unfinished crimes whose fruit cannot be gathered, because -the last sun of the storm did not ripen it sufficiently. - -[Sidenote: The French revolutionaries.] - -The secret of the inconsistencies of the men of the day lies in the -privation of moral sense, the absence of any fixed principle and the -worship of force: whoever goes to the wall is guilty and without merit, -at least without that merit which assimilates with events. Behind -the liberal phrases of the devotees of the Terror, you must see only -what lies hidden there: the deification of success. Do not adore the -Convention except in the manner in which one adores a tyrant. When -the Convention is upset, go over with your baggage of liberties to -the Directory, then to Bonaparte, and that without having a suspicion -of your metamorphosis, without thinking that you have changed. Sworn -dramatist that you are, while looking upon the Girondins as poor -wretches because they have been "beaten," nevertheless draw a fantastic -picture of their death: they are beautiful young men marching, crowned -with flowers, to the sacrifice. The Girondins, a cowardly faction, -who spoke in favour of Louis XVI. and voted for his execution, did -wonderfully, it is true, on the scaffold; but who did not, in those -days, run full butt at death? The women were distinguished for their -heroism: the young girls of Verdun climbed the steps of the altar -like Iphigenia; the artisans, about whom we are prudently silent, -those plebeians of whom the Convention reaped so large a crop, braved -the steel of the executioner as resolutely as our grenadiers braved -the steel of the enemy. For one priest and one noble, the Convention -offered up thousands of workmen taken from the lowest classes of the -population[287]: this is what we always refuse to remember. - -Does M. Thiers set store by his principles? Not in the least: he has -cried up massacre and he would preach humanity in quite as edifying -a manner; he gave himself out as a bigot for liberty, and he has -oppressed Lyons, shot people down in the Rue Transnonain, and upheld -the September Laws against all men: if he ever reads this, he will take -it for a panegyric. - -Since he became President of the Council and Minister for Foreign -Affairs[288], M. Thiers is enraptured with the diplomatic intrigues -of the Talleyrand School; he runs the risk of being taken for a -buffoon-in-waiting, for lack of equilibrium, gravity and silence. One -can turn up one's nose at earnestness and greatness of soul: but it -does not do to say so, before one has brought the subjugated world to -take its seat at the orgies of Grand-Vaux[289]. - -For the rest, M. Thiers combines with inferior manners an instinct for -higher things; while the feudal survivors have become misers and turned -themselves into stewards of their own land, he, M. Thiers, a great lord -by second birth, travels like a new Atticus[290], purchases works of -art on the roads and revives the prodigality of the old aristocracy: -this is a distinction; but, if he sows as easily as he reaps, he ought -to be more cautious of the intimacy of his old habits: consideration is -one of the ingredients that go to make the public man. - -[Sidenote: Adolphe Thiers.] - -Stirred by his mercurial nature, M. Thiers has pretended that he was -going to kill, in Madrid, the anarchy which I had overthrown there in -1823: a project all the bolder inasmuch as M. Thiers was struggling -with the opinions of Louis-Philippe. He may suppose himself to be a -Bonaparte; he may think that his pen-cutter is but an elongation of the -Napoleonic sword; he may be persuaded that he is a great general, he -may dream of the conquest of Europe, by reason that he has constituted -himself its historian[291] and that he is very inconsiderately bringing -back the ashes of Napoleon[292]. I acquiesce in all these pretensions; -I will only say, as for Spain, that, when M. Thiers thought of invading -her, he was deceived in his calculations; he would have ruined his -King in 1836, and I saved mine in 1823. The essential thing, then, -is to do in the nick of time what one wants to do; there are two -forces, the force of men and the force of things: when these two are -in opposition to one another, nothing is accomplished. At the present -moment, Mirabeau would rouse nobody, even though his corruption would -do him no harm; for, just now, none is cried down because of his vices: -one is slandered only for his virtues. M. Thiers must make up his mind -to one of three courses: to declare himself the representative of the -republican future[293], or perch himself upon the counterfeit Monarchy -of July like a monkey on a camel's back, or revive the imperial order -of things. This last would be to M. Thiers's taste; but the Empire -without an emperor: is that possible? It is more natural to believe -that the author of the _Histoire de la Révolution_ will allow himself -to be absorbed by a vulgar ambition: he will want to remain in power -or return to it; in order to keep or recover his place, he will recant -anything that the moment or his own interest will seem to him to -require[294]; to strip one's self before the public, there is audacity: -but is M. Thiers young enough for his beauty to serve him as a veil? - -Putting Deutz[295] and Judas on one side, I recognise in M. Thiers a -supple, prompt, shrewd and malleable mind, perhaps the heir to the -future, capable of comprehending everything, except the greatness that -comes from moral order. Free from jealousy, pettiness and prejudice, he -stands out against the tame and obscure background of the mediocrities -of the time. His excessive pride is not yet odious, because it does not -consist in despising others. M. Thiers possesses resources, variety, -fortunate gifts; he troubles little about differences of opinion, -bears no malice, is not afraid of compromising himself, does justice -to a man, not for his probity or for what he thinks, but for what he -is worth: which would not prevent him from having us all strangled, in -case of need. M. Thiers is not what he is able to be: years will modify -him, unless the elation of self-love should place obstacles in the way. -If his brain stands firm and he is not carried away by some headstrong -act, public life will reveal unheeded superior qualities in him. He -must soon rise or fall; the chances are that M. Thiers will either -become a great minister or remain a marplot. - -[Sidenote: Lost opportunities.] - -M. Thiers has already been wanting in resolution at a time when he -held the fate of the world in his hands: if he had given the order -to attack the English Fleet, with the superior force that we had in -the Mediterranean, our success was assured; the Turkish and Egyptian -Fleets, lying together in the harbour of Alexandria, would have come to -swell our fleet; a success obtained over England would have electrified -France. We should have at once found 150,000 men to enter Bavaria and -fling themselves upon some point in Italy, where nothing was prepared -in prevision of an attack. The whole world might once more have changed -its aspect. Would our aggression have been a just one? That is another -affair; but we could have asked Europe whether it had acted loyally -towards us in the treaties, or whether, abusing their victory, Russia -and Germany had enlarged their territory beyond measure, while France -had been reduced to her old clipped frontiers. Be this as it may, M. -Thiers did not dare play his last card; looking upon his life, he did -not think himself sufficiently supported, and yet it was because he -was staking nothing that he might have played for all. We have fallen -under the feet of Europe; such an opportunity to recover ourselves will -perhaps not occur for long. - -[Illustration: M. Thiers.] - -In the last result, M. Thiers, in order to save his system, has reduced -France to a space of fifteen leagues which he has made to bristle with -fortresses; we shall soon see if Europe is right in laughing at this -piece of child's play on the part of the great thinker. - -And this is how, allowing my pen to run away with me, I have devoted -more pages to a man of uncertain future than I have given to persons -whose memory is assured. It is a misfortune to live too long; I -have come to a period of sterility in which France sees only lean -generations run: _Lupa carca nella sua magrezza._[296] These Memoirs -diminish in interest with the days that have supervened, diminish by -what they were able to borrow from the greatness of events: they will -end, I fear me, like the daughters of Achelous[297]. The Roman Empire, -so magnificently proclaimed by Livy, contracts and goes out dimly in -the accounts of Cassiodorus. You were more fortunate, O Thucydides -and Plutarch, Sallust and Tacitus, when you told of the parties that -divided Athens and Rome! You were certain, at least, of animating them, -not only with your genius, but also with the splendour of the Greek -and the gravity of the Latin language! What could we relate of our -expiring society, we Welshmen, in our jargon confined to narrow and -barbarous limits? If these later pages reproduced our parliamentary -tautology, those eternal definitions of our rights, our ministerial -prize-fights, would they, fifty years hence, be anything more than -the unintelligible columns of an old newspaper? Of a thousand and one -conjectures, would a single one prove to be true? Who would foresee -the strange leaps and bounds of the inconstancy of the French spirit? -Who could understand how its execrations and infatuations, its curses -and blessings become transformed without apparent reason? Who would -be able to guess and explain how, by turns, it adores and detests, -how it springs from a political system, how, with liberty on its lips -and bondage in its heart, it believes in one truth in the morning -and is persuaded of a contrary truth at night? Throw us a few grains -of dust: like Virgil's bees, we shall cease our conflict to fly away -elsewhither[298]. - - -If, by chance, anything great should still be stirring here below, our -country will remain supine. The womb of a society that is becoming -discomposed is barren; the very crimes which it begets are still-born -crimes, smitten as they are with the barrenness of their origin. The -period upon which we are entering is the tow-path along which fatally -condemned generations will draw the old world towards a world unknown. - -In this year 1834, M. de La Fayette has just died[299]. I think I must -have been unjust in speaking of him in former days; I think I must -have represented him as a sort of double-faced, double-famed ninny: -a hero on the other side of the Atlantic, a Giles on this side[300]. -It has needed more than forty years to recognise in M. de La Fayette -qualities that had been persistently denied him. He expressed himself -in the Tribune with ease and in the tone of a well-bred man. His life -was unblemished; he was affable, obliging and generous. Under the -Empire, he behaved nobly and lived a life apart; under the Restoration, -he was less dignified: he stooped so far as to allow himself to be -called the "grand old man" of the auction-rooms of Carbonarism and -the ring-leader of petty conspiracies, glad as he was to escape from -justice at Belfort[301], like a vulgar adventurer. In the early stages -of the Revolution, he did not mix with the cut-throats; he fought them -by force of arms and tried to save Louis XVI.; but, though abhorring -the massacres, obliged though he were to fly from them, he found words -of praise for scenes in which some heads were carried at the ends of -pikes. - -[Sidenote: La Fayette.] - -M. de La Fayette became exalted because he lived: there is a reputation -which bursts forth spontaneously from talent and of which death -increases the splendour by arresting the talent in youth; there is -another sort of reputation which is the offspring of age, the backward -daughter of time: without being great of itself, it is great through -the revolutions in whose midst chance has placed it. The bearer of -that reputation, by the mere fact of his existence, is mixed up with -everything; his name becomes the sign or the banner of everything: M. -de La Fayette[302] will be the "National Guard" to the end of time. -By an extraordinary effect, the result of his actions was often in -contradiction with his thoughts: as a Royalist, he overthrew, in 1789, -a Royalty eight centuries old; as a Republican, he created, in 1830, -the Royalty of the Barricades: he went away giving Philip the crown -which he had taken from Louis XVI. Moulded as he was with events, when -the alluvium of our misfortunes shall have become consolidated, his -image will be found encrusted in the revolutionary dough. - -The ovation which he received in the United States enhanced his fame to -a singular degree: a nation, rising to greet him, covered him with the -effulgence of its gratitude. Everett[303] apostrophized him as follows -in the peroration to the speech which he delivered in 1824: - -"Welcome, friend of our fathers, to our shores!... Enjoy a triumph such -as never conqueror or monarch enjoyed.... The friend of your youth, -the more than friend of his country, rests in the bosom of the soil he -redeemed. On the banks of his Potomac he lies in glory and peace. You -will revisit the hospitable shades of Mount Vernon, but him whom you -venerated as we did, you will not meet at its door.... But the grateful -children of America will bid you welcome, in his name. Welcome, thrice -welcome to our shores; and whithersoever throughout the limits of the -continent your course shall take you, the ear that hears you shall -bless you, the eye that sees you shall bear witness to you, and every -tongue exclaim, with heartfelt joy: - -"'Welcome, welcome, La Fayette[304]!'" - -In the New World, M. de La Fayette contributed to the formation of a -new society; in the Old World, to the destruction of an old society: -liberty invokes him in Washington, anarchy in Paris. - -M. de La Fayette had only one idea, and, unfortunately for him, it was -that of his century; the fixity of that idea constituted his empire: it -served him as a blinker, prevented him from looking to right or left -of him; he walked with a firm step along a single line; he marched on -without falling into precipices, not because he saw them, but because -he did not see them; blindness stood him in the stead of genius: all -that is fixed is fatal, and that which is fatal is powerful. - -[Sidenote: La Fayette's funeral.] - -I still see M. de La Fayette, at the head of the National Guard, -passing along the boulevards, in 1790, on his way to the Faubourg -Saint-Antoine; on the 22nd of May 1834, I saw him lying in his coffin, -following the same boulevards. In the funeral procession one remarked -a troop of Americans, each with a yellow flower in his button-hole. M. -de La Fayette had sent to the United States for a quantity of earth -sufficient to cover him in his grave; but his intentions were not -carried out[305]: when the fatal moment came, forgetting both his -political dreams and the romance of his life, he expressed the wish to -lie at Picpus beside his virtuous wife[306]: death restores order to -all things. - -At Picpus are buried the victims of the Revolution[307] commenced by -M. de La Fayette; there stands a chapel where perpetual prayers are -said in honour of those victims. I accompanied M. le Duc Matthieu de -Montmorency to Picpus[308]; he had been M. de La Fayette's colleague in -the Constituent Assembly: on touching the bottom of the grave, the rope -turned that Christian's coffin on one side, as though he had raised -himself on his hip to say a last prayer. - -I stood in the crowd, at the entrance to the Rue Grange-Batelière, when -M. de La Fayette's funeral passed by: at the top of the ascent to the -boulevard, the hearse stopped; I saw it, all gilded by a fleeting ray -of the sun, gleam above the helmets and arms: then the shadow returned, -and it disappeared from sight. - -The multitude dispersed; sellers of "goodies" cried their -_oublies_[309], vendors of trifles hawked about paper mills, which -twirled round in the same wind whose breath had shaken the plumes of -the funeral car. - -In the sitting of the Chamber of Deputies of the 20th of May 1834, the -President[310] spoke: - -"General La Fayette's name," he said, "will remain famous in our -history.... While expressing to you the sentiments of condolence of -the Chamber, I join to these, sir and dear colleague[311], the private -assurance of my attachment." - -After these words, the reporter of the sitting adds, in brackets, the -word, "(Laughter)." - -That is what one of the most serious lives is reduced to. What remains -of the death of the greatest men? A grey mantle and a straw cross, as -on the corpse of the Duc de Guise, assassinated at Blois. - -Within earshot of the public crier who was selling for a son, at the -gate of the Tuileries Palace, the news of the death of Napoleon, I -heard two quacks shouting the praises of their antidotes; and, in the -_Moniteur_ of the 21st of January 1793, I read the following words -below the account of the execution of Louis XVI.: - - "Two hours after the execution, nothing remained to show that he - who had once been the head of the nation had just undergone the - punishment of criminals." - -Following on those words came this notice: - -"_Ambroise_, comic opera[312]." - -The last actor in the drama played fifty years ago, M. de La Fayette -remained upon the scene; the last chorus of the Greek tragedy delivers -the moral of the play: - -"Learn, O blind mortals, to turn your eyes upon the last day of life." - -And I, a spectator seated in an empty play-house, amid deserted boxes -and extinguished lights, remain alone, of my time, before the lowered -curtain, alone with the silence and the night. - - -[Sidenote: Armand Carrel.] - -Armand Carrel threatened Philip's future even as General La Fayette -beset his past You know how I came to be acquainted with M. -Carrel[313]; since 1832, I did not cease to keep up relations with him -until the day when I followed him to the Cemetery of Saint-Mandé. - -Armand Carrel was melancholy; he began to fear that the French were -incapable of a rational feeling of liberty; he had a vague presentiment -of the shortness of his life: as though it were a thing upon which he -did not rely and to which he attached no value, he was always willing -to risk it on a cast of the die. If he had fallen in his duel with -young Laborie[314], about Henry V., his death would at least have had -a great cause and a great stage; probably his funeral would have been -honoured by a great display of bloodshed: he left us for a miserable -quarrel which was not worth a hair of his head. - -He was suffering from one of his native attacks of gloom, when he -inserted an article on myself, in the _National_, to which I replied by -the following note: - - "PARIS, 5 _May_ 1834. - - "Your article, monsieur, is full of that exquisite feeling for - situations and proprieties which places you above all the political - writers of the day. I say nothing to you of your exceptional - talent; you know that I did it ample justice before I had the - honour of knowing you. I do not thank you for your praises: I like - to owe them to what I look upon now as an old friendship. You are - rising very high, monsieur; you are beginning to stand alone, like - all men made for a great fame: gradually the crowd, unable to - follow them, leaves them, and we see them the better because they - hold themselves aloof. - - "CHATEAUBRIAND." - -I tried to console him by another letter, on the 31st of August, when -he was condemned for a newspaper offense. I received the following -reply from him; it shows forth the opinions of the man, his regrets and -his hopes: - - TO MONSIEUR LE VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND - - "MONSIEUR, - - "Your letter of the 31st of August was handed to me only on my - arrival in Paris. I would come to thank you for it, at once, if - I were not obliged to devote the short time which can still be - left to me by the police, who are informed of my return, to a - few preparations for entering prison. Yes, monsieur, here am I - condemned by the bench to six months' imprisonment for a fanciful - offense and by virtue of an equally fanciful piece of legislation; - for the jury wittingly let me go unpunished upon the best-founded - charge, and that in spite of a defense which, so far from - extenuating my crime of telling the truth to the person of King - Louis-Philippe, had aggravated that crime by setting it up as an - established right for the whole of the opposition press. I am glad - that the difficulties of so bold a thesis, as times go, appeared to - you to be almost surmounted by the defense which you read and in - which it was so great an advantage to me to be able to invoke the - authority of the book in which, eighteen years ago, you instructed - your own party in the principles of constitutional responsibility. - - "I often ask myself with a heavy heart what purpose will have - been served by writings such as yours, monsieur, such as those - of the most eminent men of the opinion to which I myself belong, - if, from this agreement between the highest intellects of the - country for the constant defense of the rights of discussion, there - did not at last result, for the bulk of French minds, a resolve - thenceforth to insist upon, under every form of government, to - exact from all victorious systems, whatever they may be, liberty - of thought, speech and writing, as the first condition of all - lawfully exercised authority. Is it not true, monsieur, that when, - under the last government, you asked for the most complete liberty - of discussion, it was not for the momentary service which your - political friends might derive from it in opposition to adversaries - who had forced their way into power by intrigue? There were some - who made use of the press in this way, as they have since proved; - but you, monsieur, asked for liberty of discussion as essential - to the public welfare, as the weapon and general protection of - all ideas, young or old; that is what earned for you, monsieur, - the gratitude and respect of opinions to which the Revolution of - July has opened the lists again. That is why our work is incident - on yours, and, when we quote your writings, we do so less from - admiration of the incomparable talent which produced them than - as aspiring to continue the same task at a great distance, young - soldiers as we are of a cause of which you are the most glorious - veteran. - - "What you have wished for thirty years, monsieur, what I would - wish, if I be permitted to mention myself after you, is to secure - to the interests that divide our beautiful France a law of combat - that shall be more humane, more civilized, more brotherly, more - conclusive than civil war. When shall we succeed in bringing - ideas face to face, instead of parties, and lawful and avowable - interests, instead of disguises, egoism and cupidity? When shall - we see speech and persuasion cause those inevitable transactions - which the contest of parties and the shedding of blood also bring - to pass by exhaustion, but too late for the dead in both camps - and, too often, without profit for the wounded and survivors? As - you so sorrowfully say, monsieur, it seems that many lessons have - been wasted and that men no longer know in France what it costs to - take refuge in a despotism that promises silence and repose. We - must none the less continue to speak, write and print; resources - most unforeseen sometimes issue from constancy. And so, of all the - splendid examples which you, monsieur, have set, that which I have - most constantly before my eyes is expressed in one word: Persevere. - - "Accept, monsieur, the sentiments of unalterable affection with - which I am glad to call myself - - "Your most devoted servant, - - "A. CARREL. - - "PUTEAUX, near NEUILLY, 4 _October_ 1834." - -[Sidenote: Armand Carrel in prison.] - -M. Carrel was locked up at Sainte-Pélagie; I used to go to see him two -or three times a week: I found him standing behind his window-grating. -He reminded me of his neighbour, a young African lion in the Jardin -des Plantes: motionless at the bars of its cage, the son of the desert -turned its vague and sad look upon the objects outside; one could -see that he would not live. Then M. Carrel and I used to go down the -stairs; the servant of Henry V. walked with the enemy of the Kings in a -damp, dark, narrow yard, surrounded by high walls, like a well. There -were other Republicans also taking exercise in this yard: those young -and ardent Revolutionaries, with their mustachios, beards, long hairs, -Greek or German caps, pale faces, fierce looks, threatening aspect, -were like those pre-existent souls in Tartarus that had not yet reached -the light; they were preparing to break into life. Their dress acted -upon them as the uniform upon the soldier, as Nessus' blood-stained -shirt upon Hercules: they were an avenging world, which lay hidden -behind the society of the present and which made one shudder. - -In the evening, they met in the room of their leader, Armand Carrel; -they spoke of what would have to be accomplished when they came into -power and of the necessity for bloodshed. Discussions arose on the -"great citizens of the Terror:" some, who were partisans of Marat, were -atheists and materialists; others, who admired Robespierre, adored that -new Christ. Had not St. Robespierre said, in his speech on the Supreme -Being, that belief in God "gives strength to defy misfortune" and that -"innocence on the scaffold made the tyrant turn pale in his triumphal -car?" The hocus-pocus of an executioner who talks meltingly of God, -misfortune, tyranny, scaffolds, in order to persuade men that he kills -only the guilty, and even then in consequence of virtue; the foresight -of evil-doers who, feeling the punishment draw nigh, pose in advance as -Socrates before the judge and try to frighten the blade by threatening -it with their innocence! - -The stay at Sainte-Pélagie did M. Carrel harm: shut up with hot-heads, -he fought against their ideas, blamed them, defied them, nobly refusing -to illuminate his room on the 21st of January; but, at the same time, -he chafed at his sufferings, and his reason was disturbed by the -murderous sophistry that resounded in his ears. - -The mothers, sisters and wives of those young men came to look after -them in the mornings and to do their rooms. One day, as I was passing -along the dark corridor which led to M. Carrel's room, I heard a -bewitching voice issue from a neighbouring den: a beautiful woman, -hatless, with her hair hanging loose, was sitting on the edge of a -pallet-bed, mending the tattered clothes of a kneeling prisoner, who -seemed less the captive of Philip than of the woman at whose feet he -was chained. - -M. Carrel, delivered from his captivity, came, in his turn, to see me. -A few days before his fatal hour had struck, he came to bring me the -number of the _National_ in which he had taken the trouble to insert an -article on my _Essais sur la littérature anglaise_, in which article he -had, with too much praise, quoted the concluding pages of those Essays. -After his death, they gave me that article written entirely in his own -hand, and I keep it as a token of his friendship. "After his death:" -what words I have just written without noticing it! - -[Sidenote: Armand Carrel's duel.] - -Though forming a necessary supplement to laws which take no cognizance -of offenses against honour, the duel is a horrible thing, especially -when it destroys a life full of hopes and robs society of one of -those rare men who came only after the labour of a century, in the -concatenation of certain ideas and certain events. Carrel fell in the -wood that saw the Duc d'Enghien fall: the shade of the grandson of the -Great Condé served as a witness to the illustrious plebeian and took -him with it. That fatal wood has twice made me weep: at least I cannot -reproach myself for having, in those two catastrophes, failed in what I -owed to my sympathies and my grief. - -M. Carrel, who, in his other meetings, had never dreamt of death, -thought of it before this one: he employed the night in writing his -last wishes, as though he had been warned of the result of the combat. -At eight o'clock in the morning, on the 22nd of July 1836, he went with -a quick, light step to those shadows where the roebuck gambols at that -hour. - -Placed at the distance measured out, he moved swiftly forwards, -fired without turning sideways, as was his custom: it would seem as -though there were never enough danger for him. Wounded to the death -and supported in the arms of his friends, as he passed before his -adversary[315], who was himself wounded, he said to him: - -"Are you in great pain, sir?" - -Armand Carrel was as gentle as he was fearless. - -On the 22nd, I heard of the accident too late; on the morning of the -23rd, I went to Saint-Mandé: M. Carrel's friends were most exceedingly -anxious. I wanted to go in, but the surgeon observed that my presence -might over-excite the patient and dissipate the faint glimmer of hope -that still remained. I went away in consternation. The next day, the -24th, when I was making ready to return to Saint-Mandé, Hyacinthe, whom -I had sent ahead of me, came to tell me that the unfortunate young man -had expired at half-past five, after suffering atrocious pain: life in -all its force had waged a desperate fight with death. - - -The funeral took place on Tuesday the 26th. M. Carrel's father and -brother had arrived from Rouen. I found them gathered in a little room -with three or four of the most intimate companions of the man whose -loss we were mourning. They embraced me and M. Carrel's father said to -me: - -"Armand would have been a Christian like his father, his mother, his -brothers, his sisters; the hand of the clock had but a few hours to -travel over in order to reach the same point on its face." - -I shall eternally regret that I was not able to see Carrel on his -death-bed: I should not have despaired, at the last moment, of making -the hand "travel over" the space beyond which it would have stopped at -the hour of the Christian. - -Armand Carrel was not so irreligious as has been supposed; he had -doubts: when from fixed incredulity a man passes to indecision, he is -very near to arriving at certainty. A few days before his death, he -said: - -"I would give the whole of this life to believe in the other." - -When reporting the suicide of M. Sautelet[316], he wrote this powerful -passage: - - "I have been able to carry my life, in thought, to that instant, - swift as lightning, in which the sight of objects, the power of - movement, speech and perception will escape me and the last forces - of my mind will gather to form the one idea, 'I am dying;' but of - the minute, the second that will immediately follow I have always - had an undefinable dread; my imagination has always refused to - guess at any part of it. The depths of hell are a thousand times - less terrible to measure than that universal uncertainty: - - . . . . To die; to sleep; - To sleep! Perchance to dream[317]! - - "I have seen in all men, whatever their strength of character - or belief, that same inability to go beyond their last earthly - impression. There we lose our heads, as though, on reaching that - boundary, we found ourselves suspended over a precipice of ten - thousand feet. We drive away that terrifying sight to go to fight - a duel, deliver an assault on a redoubt or face a stormy sea; we - even seem to sneer at life; we display a bold, contented, serene - countenance; but that is because our imagination reveals success - rather than death, because our minds are much less exercised upon - the dangers than upon the means of escaping them[318]." - - -[Sidenote: Armand Carrel's funeral.] - -These words are remarkable in the mouth of a man fated to be killed in -a duel. - -In 1800, when I returned to France, I did not know that a friend was -being born to me on the shore where I was landing[319]. In 1836, I -saw that friend lowered into the grave without those consolations of -religion of which I brought back the memory to my country in the first -year of the century. - -I followed the coffin from the residence of the deceased to the place -of burial; I walked beside M. Carrel's father and gave my arm to M. -Arago: M. Arago has measured the Heaven which I have sung. On reaching -the gate of the little rural cemetery, the procession stopped; speeches -were delivered. The absence of the cross informed me that the emblem of -my affliction was to remain enclosed in the depths of my soul. - -Six years before, during the Days of July, passing in front of the -colonnade of the Louvre, near an open grave, I met young men who -carried me back to the Luxembourg, when I was going to make my protest -in favour of a Royalty which they had just overthrown[320]; after six -years, I was returning, on the anniversaries of the July festivals, -to associate myself with the regrets of those young Republicans, even -as they had associated themselves with my fidelity. How strange is -destiny! Armand Carrel breathed his last in the house of an officer of -the Royal Guard[321] who did not take the oath to Philip; I, a Royalist -and a Christian, have had the honour of bearing a corner of the pall -which covered noble ashes, but which will not hide them. - -Many kings, princes, ministers, men who thought themselves powerful, -have gone off before me: I have not condescended to raise my hat to -their coffin or devote a word to their memory. I have found more to -study and depict in the intermediary ranks of society than in those -which make men wear their livery; a gold-laced cloak is not worth the -morsel of flannel which the bullet drove into Carrel's body. - -Carrel, who remembers you? The mediocrities and poltroons whom your -death delivered from your superiority and their fears and I, who was -not of your views. Who thinks of you? Who remembers you? I congratulate -you on having, at one step, finished a journey whose prolonged passage -becomes so disgusting and so lonely, on having brought the end of your -march within the range of a pistol, a distance which to you appeared -still too great and which you hastened to reduce to a sword's length. - -I envy those who have departed before me: like Cæsar's soldiers at -Brundusium, from the top of the rocks on shore I cast my eyes upon the -main sea and gaze towards Epirus to look if I can see the ships which -have taken over the first legions come back to carry me across in my -turn. - -After reading the above lines again, in 1839, I will add that, having, -in 1837, visited M. Carrel's grave, I found it much neglected, but -I saw a black wooden cross which the dead man's sister Nathalie had -planted near him. I paid Vaudran, the grave-digger, eighteen francs -that remained owing for trellis-work; I instructed him to tend the -grave, to sow grass on it and keep it adorned with flowers. At each -new season, I go to Saint-Mandé to discharge what is due and to make -sure that my intentions have been faithfully fulfilled[322]. - - -As I am preparing to end my recollections and taking a last look round, -I perceive women whom I have involuntarily forgotten; like angels -grouped at the bottom of my picture, they stand leaning against the -frame to watch the end of my life. - -In former days, I met women who were known or celebrated in different -ways. Women have changed their manner of being to-day: are they worth -more, are they worth less? It is only natural that I should incline -towards the past; but the past is surrounded by a mist through which -objects assume an agreeable and often deceptive complexion. My youth, -to which I can never go back again, produces the effect upon me of a -grandmother; I hardly remember it and I should be charmed to see it -once more. - -[Sidenote: A Lady from Louisiana.] - -A Louisianan lady came to see me from the Mississippi: I thought that -I was setting eyes upon the virgin of the last loves. Célestine wrote -me several letters: they might have been dated from the "Moon of the -Flowers;" she showed me fragments of Memoirs which she had composed in -the savannahs of Alabama. Some time after, Célestine wrote to me that -she was busy with a dress for her presentation at the Court of Philip: -I resumed my bear's skin. Célestine has changed into an alligator from -the water of the Floridas: may Heaven grant her peace and love, for as -long as those things last! - - -There are persons who, by thrusting themselves between you and the -past, prevent your memories from coming to your recollection; there -are others who become mingled from the first with what you have been. -Madame Tastu[323] produces this latter effect. She has a natural turn -of expression; she has left the Gallic jargon to those who believe that -they make themselves younger by disguising themselves in the cloaks of -our ancestors. Favorinus[324] said to a Roman who affected to talk the -language of the Twelve Tables[325]: - -"You want to speak with the mother[326] of Evander." - -Since I have touched upon antiquity, I will say a few words on the -women of its peoples and descend the ladder down to our own time. The -Greek women sometimes celebrated philosophy; more often they followed -another divinity: Sappho[327] has remained the immortal sibyl of -Cnidus; we know very little now of what Corinna[328] did after she had -conquered Pindar[329]. Aspasia taught Socrates to know Venus: - -"Socrates, observe my lessons. Fill thyself with poetic enthusiasm: -by its potent charm thou shalt know how to win the object that thou -lovest; thou shalt enchain her to the sound of the lyre, by carrying -the finished image of thy passion through her ear to her heart." - -The breath of the Muses, passing over the women of Rome without -inspiring them, came to quicken the nation of Clovis, still in its -cradle. The _langue d'Oyl_ had Marie de France[330]; the _langue d'Oc_ -the Dame de Die[331], who, in her castle of Vaucluse, complained of a -cruel friend: - -"I would know, my gentle and fair friend, why you treat me so fiercely -and so harshly:" - - Per que vos m'etz tan fers, ni tan salvatges. - -The middle-ages handed those ballads on to the Renascence. Loyse -Labé[332] said: - - Oh! si j'étois en ce beau sein ravie - De celui-là pour lequel vais mourant[333]! - -[Sidenote: Mediæval poetesses.] - -Clémence de Bourges[334], surnamed the Oriental Pearl, who was buried -with her face uncovered and her head crowned with flowers because of -her beauty; the two Margarets[335] and Mary Stuart[336], all three -Queens, expressed ingenuous frailties in ingenuous language. - -I had an aunt at about that period of our Parnassus: Madame Claude de -Chateaubriand; but I am more embarrassed with Madame Claude than with -Mademoiselle de Boistelleul. Madame Claude, disguising herself under -the name of the Lover, addresses her seventy sonnets to her mistress. -Reader, forgive my Aunt Claude's two-and-twenty years: _parcendum -teneris._ If my Aunt de Boistelleul was more discreet, she reckoned -fifteen lustres and a half when she was singing, and the traitor -Trémigon no longer appeared before her old Warbler's thought save as a -Sparrow-hawk[337]. - -When the language was settled, liberty of sentiment and thought -contracted. One remembers hardly any one, under Louis XIV., expect -Madame Deshoulières[338], by turns too much extolled and too much -depreciated. Elegy extended, through woman's sorrow, under the reign -of Louis XV. to the reign of Louis XVI., when the great elegies -of the people commence; the old school came to die with Madame de -Bourdic[339], who is but little known to-day, although she left a -remarkable Ode on Silence. - -The new school has thrown its thoughts into another mould: Madame -Tastu walks in the midst of the modern choir of poetesses in prose -or verse, the Allarts[340], the Waldors[341], the Valmores[342], the -Ségalas[343], the Révoils[344], the Mercœurs[345], and so on, and -so on: _Castalidum turba._ Must we regret that, following the example -of the Aonides, she has not celebrated the passion which, according to -antiquity, smooths the brow of Cocytus and makes it smile at Orpheus' -sighing? At Madame Tastu's concerts, love recites only hymns borrowed -from foreign voices. This reminds me of what is related of Madame -Malibran[346]: when she wanted to tell of a bird whose name she had -forgotten, she used to imitate its song. - -[Sidenote: Gorge Sand.] - -George Sand[347], otherwise Madame Dudevant, having spoken of _René_ -in the _Revue des Deux-Mondes_[348], I thanked her; she did not reply. -Some time after, she sent me _Lélia_: I did not reply. Soon a short -explanation took place between us: - - "I venture to hope that you will forgive me for not having answered - the flattering letter which you were good enough to send me when - I spoke of _René_ in writing on _Obermann._ I did not know how to - thank you for all the kind expressions which you have used towards - my books. - - "I have sent you _Lélia_, and I anxiously desire that it may - obtain the same protection from you. The fairest privilege of - an universally accepted glory like your own is to welcome and - encourage at their start those inexperienced writers for whom there - can be no lasting success without your patronage. - - "Accept the assurance of my high admiration and believe me, - monsieur, - - "One of your most faithful believers, - - "GEORGE SAND." - -At the end of October[349], Madame Sand gave me her new novel, -_Jacques_: I accepted the present. - - "30 _October_ 1834. - - "I hasten, madame, to offer you my sincere thanks. I am going to - read _Jacques_ in Fontainebleau Forest or at the sea-side. Were - I younger, I should be less brave; but my years will defend me - against solitude, without taking anything from the passionate - admiration which I profess for your talent and which I hide from - nobody. You have attached a new enchantment, madame, to that city - of dreams whence I set out, in former days, for Greece with a - whole world of illusions: returning to his starting-point, René - lately aired his memories and his regrets on the Lido, between - Childe-Harold, who had vanished, and Lelia about to appear. - - "CHATEAUBRIAND." - -Madame Sand possesses a talent of the first order; her descriptions -have the truth of those of Rousseau in his _Rêveries_[350] and of -Bernardin de Saint-Pierre in his _Études._[351] Her frank style is -tainted with none of the faults of the day. _Lélia_, though painful -to read and offering none of the delicious scenes of _Indiana_ and -_Valentine_, is nevertheless a master-piece of its kind: of the nature -of an orgy, it is without passion, but perturbing like passion; it -lacks soul, and yet it weighs upon the heart; the depravity of its -maxims, its insults thrown at rectitude of life could go no further -than they do; but over that abyss the author sends down her talent In -the Valley of Gomorrah, the dew falls at night upon the Dead Sea. - -The works of Madame Sand, her novels, the poetry of matter, are born -of the time. In spite of her superiority, it is to be feared that the -author has, by the very nature of her works, narrowed the circle of her -readers. George Sand will never belong to every age. Of two men of -equal genius, of whom one preaches order, the other disorder, the first -will attract the greater number of admirers: the human race refuses -to accord unanimous applause to that which offends, morality, the -pillow on which the weak and the just sleep; we can hardly associate -with all the memories of our life books which caused our first blush, -books whose pages we did not learn by heart on leaving the cradle, -books which we have read only by stealth, which have not been our -acknowledged and cherished companions, which are connected with neither -the purity of our sentiments nor the integrity of our innocence. -Providence has confined successes that do not take their origin in good -within strait limits and has given universal glory as an encouragement -to virtue. - -[Sidenote: Her particular talent.] - -I am arguing here, I know, like a man whose restricted sight does not -embrace the immense "humanitarian" horizon, like a reactionary attached -to a ridiculous moral system, a decrepit moral system of olden time, -good at most for unenlightened minds, in the infancy of society. A -new Gospel is about to take birth forthwith, placed far above the -commonplaces of that conventional wisdom which arrests the progress -of mankind and the rehabilitation of that poor body of ours, so sadly -slandered by the soul. When the women will be running about the -streets, when it will be sufficient, in order to get married, to open a -window and summon God to the wedding as witness, priest and guest: then -all prudery will be destroyed; there will be nuptials everywhere and -we shall rise, like the doves, to nature's level. My criticism of the -taste of Madame Sand's works would, therefore, possess a certain value -only in the vulgar order of past things; wherefore I hope that she will -not be offended by it: the admiration which I profess for her must make -her excuse remarks which owe their origin to the infelicity of my age. -In former days, I should have been more carried away by the Muses; -those daughters of the olden sky were my fair mistresses: they keep me -company in the evening in the chimney-corner, but they soon leave me, -for I go to bed early, and they go to sit up by Madame Sand's fire-side. - -No doubt Madame Sand will in this way prove her intellectual -omnipotence, and yet she will please less, because she will be less -original: she will believe herself to be increasing her power by -sounding the depths of those reveries under which she buries us vulgar -men, and she will be mistaken; for she stands far above that pit, that -watery hollow, that proud balderdash. While we have to put a rare, but -too flexible faculty on its guard against the follies of superiority, -we must also warn it that fantastic writings, intimate descriptions, to -employ the jargon of the day, are limited, that their source lies in -youth, that each moment of time dries up a few drops of it and that, -after a certain number of productions, we end with feeble repetitions. - -Is it quite sure that Madame Sand will always find the same charm in -what she is writing to-day? Will not the merit and allurement of the -passions of twenty years depreciate in her mind, even as the works -of my early days have lost their value in mine? It is only the works -of the Ancient Muse that do not change, supported as they are by the -nobility of manners, the beauty of language and the majesty of those -sentiments bestowed upon the whole human race. The fourth book of the -_Æneid_ remains for ever exposed to the admiration of men, because -it is hung up in the sky. The fleet carrying the founder of the Roman -Empire; Dido, the foundress of Carthage, stabbing herself after -foretelling the coming of Hannibal: - - Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor[352]; - -Love causing the rivalry of Rome and Carthage to blaze forth from its -torch, setting fire to the funeral pile whose flame the flying Æneas -sees on the waves: these are very different from the walk of a dreamer -in a wood or the disappearance of a libertine who drowns himself in a -pond. Madame Sand will, I hope, link her talent with subjects worthy of -her genius. - -Madame Sand can be converted only by the preaching of that missionary -with the bald forehead and the white beard whose name is Time. At -present, a less austere voice enchains the poet's captive ear. Now -I am convinced that Madame Sand's talent is in some way rooted in -corruption; she would become commonplace if she became timorous. The -case would be different if she had always remained within the sanctuary -unfrequented by men; her power of love, restrained and hidden under the -virginal fillet, would have drawn from her bosom those decent melodies -which suggest the woman and the angel. Be this as it may, boldness -of doctrine and voluptuousness of manners are a field which had not -yet been cleared by a daughter of Adam and which, delivered to female -cultivation, has produced a harvest of unknown flowers. Let us leave -Madame Sand to bring forth perilous marvels till the winter; she will -sing no more "when the cold winds blow:" meantime let us permit her, -less improvident than the grasshopper, to make a provision of glory for -the time when there shall be a dearth of pleasure. Musarion's mother -used to say to her: - -"Thou wilt not always be sixteen.... Will Chæreas always remember -his oaths, his tears and his kisses[353]?" - -For the rest, many women have been seduced and as it were carried -off by their young years: when the autumn days come, brought back to -the maternal hearth, they have added to their cithern the grave or -plaintive string on which religion or misfortune is expressed. Old age -is a nocturnal traveller: the earth is hidden to her and she no longer -discerns aught save the sky shining over her head. - -[Sidenote: Her eccentricities.] - -I have not seen Madame Sand dressed as a man or wearing the smock-frock -and the ferruled stick of the mountaineer; I have not seen her drink -of the bacchantes' cup or smoke, seated indolently on a sofa, like a -sultana: these are natural or affected singularities that would add -nothing, in my eyes, to her charm or her genius. - -Is she more inspired when she sends a cloud from her mouth to mount -up around her hair? Did Lélia escape from her mother's brain through -a burning puff of smoke, even as Sin, according to Milton, issued -from the head of the beautiful, guilty archangel amid a whirl of -flame[354]? I do not know what happens in the Heavens; but, here below, -Néméade[355], Phila[356], Lais[357], the witty Gnathæna[358], -Phryne[359], the despair of Apelles'[360] pencil and Praxiteles'[361] -chisel, Lesena[362], who was loved by Harmodius[363], the two sisters -surnamed Aphyes, because they were slender and had large eyes, Dorica, -whose head-band and perfumed robe were dedicated in the temple of -Venus: all these enchantresses, in fine, knew none but the perfumes of -Araby. Madame Sand, it is true, has on her side the authority of the -Odalisks and the young Mexican girls who dance with a cigar between -their lips. - -After a few superior women and so many charming women whom I have met, -after those daughters of the earth who said, like Madame Sand, with -Sappho, "Come, in our delicious banquets, O mother of Eros, to fill -our goblets with the nectar of the roses," what effect did the sight -of Madame Sand have on me? Placing myself alternately in the domain of -fiction and truth, I find the author of _Valentine_ making two very -different impressions upon me. In the domain of fiction: I will not -speak of that, for I must have ceased to understand its language. In -that of reality: as a man of a serious age, entertaining notions of -seemliness, attaching, as a Christian, the highest price to the timid -virtues of woman, I could not say how unhappy I was made at the sight -of so many fine qualities abandoned to those prodigal and fickle hours -which consume and fly. - - -PARIS, 1838. - -In the spring of this year 1838, I busied myself with the _Congrès -de Vérone_[364], which I was obliged to publish by the terms of my -literary engagements: I have told you of it in its proper place in -these Memoirs. - -A man has gone[365]: that guard of the aristocracy escorts to the rear -the mighty plebeians who have already departed. When M. de Talleyrand -first appeared in my political career, I said a few words about -him[366]. Now his whole existence has become known to me through his -last hour, to use the fine expression of one of the ancients. - -[Sidenote: Talleyrand.] - -I have had relations with M. de Talleyrand: as a man of honour, I have -been faithful to him, as the reader will have observed, especially -in the matter of the disagreement at Mons, when I most gratuitously -ruined myself for him[367]. I was too simple; I shared in anything -that happened to him of a disagreeable character; I pitied him when -Maubreuil slapped his face[368]. There was a time when he ran after -me in a coquettish manner; he wrote to me at Ghent, as you have read, -that I was a "strong man[369];" when I was staying in the Rue des -Capucines, he sent me, with perfect gallantry, a seal of the Foreign -Office, a talisman doubtless engraved under his constellation. It is, -perhaps, because I did not abuse his generosity that he became my enemy -without any provocation on my part, if it was not because of a few -successes which I obtained and which were not his handiwork. His tattle -ran through society and did not offend, for M. de Talleyrand could not -offend any one; but his intemperance of language has released me and, -since he permitted himself to judge me, he left me free to make use of -the same right in respect to him. - -M. de Talleyrand's vanity duped him: he mistook the part which he -played for his genius; he thought himself a prophet, while deceiving -himself in all things; his authority had no value in matters concerning -the future; he was quite unable to see ahead: he saw only behind him. -Deprived of the strength of the outlook and light of conscience, he -discovered nothing like superior intelligence, he appreciated nothing -like uprightness. He made much of the accidents of fortune, when those -accidents, which he never foresaw, had taken place, but only for -himself personally. He knew nothing of that large ambition in which the -interests of public glory are wrapped as the most profitable treasure -for private interests. M. de Talleyrand, therefore, does not belong -to the class of beings calculated to become one of those fantastic -creatures to whom men's opinions, whether forced or deceived, are -constantly adding fanciful attributes. Nevertheless it is certain that -several sentiments, agreeing with one another for different reasons, -concur to form an imaginary Talleyrand. - -In the first place, the kings, the Cabinets, the former Foreign -Ministers, the ambassadors who were once that man's dupes and who were -always incapable of fathoming him are anxious to prove that they bowed -only before a real superiority: they would have taken off their hats -to Bonaparte's scullion. Then again, the members of the old French -aristocracy who are connected with M. de Talleyrand are proud to -number in their ranks a man who had the kindness to assure them of his -greatness. Lastly, the Revolutionaries and the immoral generations, -while railing against names, have a sneaking fondness for the -aristocracy: those singular neophytes eagerly aspire to its baptism and -think that they will learn fine manners from it. The prince's double -apostasy at the same time charms another side of the young Democrats' -self-love: for they conclude from it that their cause is the right one -and that a noble and a priest are very contemptible persons. - -Be it as it may with these obstacles to a true insight, M. de -Talleyrand is not of the height to create a lasting illusion; he has -not in him a great enough power of growth to turn lies into an increase -of stature. He has been seen too near; he will not live, because his -life is not connected with a national idea that survives him, nor with -a celebrated action, nor with a peerless talent, nor with a useful -discovery, nor with an epoch-making conception. Existence through -virtue is forbidden him; dangers did not so much as deign to honour his -days: he spent the Reign of Terror away from his country and returned -only when the forum had become transformed into an antechamber. - -Diplomatic monuments go to prove Talleyrand's relative mediocrity: -you cannot quote a fact held in any esteem that belongs to him. Under -Bonaparte, no important negociation was his; when he was free to -act alone, he allowed occasions to escape him and spoilt what he -touched. It is well averred that he was the cause of the death of -the Duc d'Enghien; that stain of blood cannot be wiped out: so far -from over-drawing the minister when telling the story of the Prince's -murder, I spared him a great deal too much. - -In his affirmations contrary to the truth, M. de Talleyrand displayed -terrible effrontery. I have not spoken, in the _Congrès de Vérone_, of -the speech which he read to the Chamber of Peers with reference to the -address on the Spanish War; that speech opened with these solemn words: - - "It is sixteen years to-day since I was called upon by him who - was then governing the world to give him my opinion as to the - struggle to be engaged upon with the Spanish people, when I had - the misfortune to displease him by unveiling the future to him, - by revealing to him all the dangers which were about to arise in - a mass from an act of aggression which was as unjust as it was - reckless. My disgrace was the fruit of my sincerity. How strange - is the destiny that brings me back, after this long space of time, - to repeat with the Legitimate Sovereign the same efforts, the same - advice[370]!" - -[Sidenote: Talleyrand's lies.] - -There are lapses of memory or lies that are terrifying: you open your -ears, you rub your eyes, not knowing whether to believe that you are -waking or sleeping. When the retailer of those imperturbable assertions -descends the tribune and goes impassively to sit down in his seat, -you follow him with your eyes, hung up as you are between a kind of -dismay and a sort of admiration: you are not sure that that man has not -received from nature an authority so great that he has the power of -reconstructing or annihilating truth. - -I did not reply; it seemed to me as though the shade of Bonaparte was -about to ask leave to speak and to repeat the terrible contradiction -which he had once given M. de Talleyrand. Witnesses of that scene were -sitting among the peers, among others M. le Comte de Montesquiou[371]; -the virtuous Duc de Doudeauville[372] has described it to me: he had -it from the lips of the same M. de Montesquiou, his brother-in-law; M. -le Comte de Cessac[373], who was present at that scene, tells it to -whoever cares to listen to him: he thought that the great elector would -be arrested on leaving the Emperor's closet. Napoleon, in his rage, -apostrophizing his pallid minister, shouted: - -"It suits you well to decry the Spanish War, you who advised me to -embark on it, you from whom I have a heap of letters in which you try -to prove to me that that war was as essential as it was politic[374]." - -Those letters disappeared at the time of the abduction of the archives -in the Tuileries, in 1814[375]. - -M. de Talleyrand declared, in his speech, that he had had "the -misfortune to displease "Bonaparte" by unveiling the future to him, -by revealing to him all the dangers which were about to arise from -an act of aggression which was as unjust as it was reckless." Let -M. de Talleyrand console himself in his grave: he did not have that -misfortune; he must not add that calamity to all the afflictions of his -life. - -[Sidenote: Talleyrand's diplomatic errors.] - -M. de Talleyrand's principal mistake as against the Legitimacy was that -he deterred Louis XVIII. from concluding the proposed marriage between -the Duc de Berry and a Russian Princess[376]; M. de Talleyrand's -unpardonable mistake as against France was that he consented to the -revolting Treaties of Vienna. - -The result of M. de Talleyrand's negociations is that we are left -without frontiers: a battle lost at Metz or Coblentz would bring the -enemy's cavalry under the walls of Paris in a week. Under the Old -Monarchy, not only was France enclosed within a circle of fortresses, -but she was defended on the Rhine by the independent States of Germany. -It was necessary to invade the electorates or negociate with them in -order to reach us. On another frontier stood Switzerland, a neutral and -free country; she had no roads; no one would violate her territory. -The Pyrenees were impassable, guarded as they were by the Spanish -Bourbons. That is what M. de Talleyrand failed to understand; those are -the mistakes which will for ever condemn him as a politician: mistakes -which, in one day, deprived us of the work of Louis XIV. and the -victories of Napoleon. - -It has been contended that his policy was superior to Napoleon's: -in the first place, we must well bear in mind that a man is purely -and simply a clerk, when he holds the portfolio of a conqueror who -every morning puts into it the bulletin of a victory that changes the -geography of States. When Napoleon had once become inebriated, he made -mistakes so enormous as to strike every eye: M. de Talleyrand probably -perceived them, like everybody else; but that points to no lynx-like -vision. He compromised himself in a strange fashion in the catastrophe -of the Duc d'Enghien; he was mistaken about the Spanish War of 1808, -although he tried, later, to disown his advice and take back his words. - -However, an actor creates no illusion, if he is utterly unprovided -with means of fascinating the pit: therefore the prince's life was -a perpetual deception. Knowing what he lacked, he avoided, shunned -whosoever was able to know him: his constant study was not to allow -his measure to be taken; he withdrew into silence at seasonable -times; he concealed himself during the three dumb hours which he -devoted to whist. Men wondered that so great a capacity could descend -to the amusements of the vulgar: who knows if that capacity was not -partitioning empires while sorting the four knaves in his hand? -During those moments of juggling, he inwardly worded some effective -phrase, inspired by a pamphlet of the morning or a conversation of -the evening. If he took you on one side to render you illustrious by -his conversation, his chief manner of seduction was to load you with -praises, to call you the hope of the future, to prophesy brilliant -destinies for you, to give you a bill of exchange as a great man, drawn -upon himself and payable at sight; but, if he thought that your faith -in him was a little open to suspicion, if he perceived that you did not -sufficiently admire a few short sentences with pretensions of depth, -but with nothing behind them, he went away, lest he should allow the -end of his wit to come to the surface. He would have told a good story, -were it not that his jests fell upon an underling or a fool, at whose -cost he amused himself without danger, or upon a victim, attached to -his person, who formed a butt for his jokes. He was unable to keep up a -serious conversation: the third time that he opened his lips, his ideas -evaporated. - -Old engravings of the "Abbé de Périgord" represent a very pretty man; -as he grew old, M. de Talleyrand's face had turned into a death's head: -his eyes were dull, so that one had a difficulty in reading them, which -served his purpose. As he had received a great deal of contempt, he had -soaked himself in it and placed it in the two hanging corners of his -mouth. - -A great manner, which came from his birth, a strict observance of the -niceties, a cold and disdainful air contributed to keep up the illusion -that surrounded the Prince de Bénévent. His manners exercised an empire -over second-rate people and the men of the new society, to whom the -society of the old days was unknown. Formerly one met persons at every -turn whose ways resembled M. de Talleyrand's, and one took no notice -of them; but, almost alone in the field in the midst of democratic -customs, he appeared a phenomenon: in order to submit to the yoke of -his forms, it suited self-love to ascribe to the minister's wit the -ascendant exercised by his breeding. - -When, occupying a considerable place, you find yourself mixed up with -prodigious revolutions, these give you a chance importance which the -common herd take for your personal merit: lost in Bonaparte's rays, -M. de Talleyrand shone, under the Restoration, with the brightness -borrowed from a fortune that was not his. The accidental position of -the Prince de Bénévent permitted him to attribute to himself the power -of overthrowing Napoleon and the honour of restoring Louis XVIII.: -have I myself, like all those gapers, not been foolish enough to fall -into that fable? When I was better informed, I came to know that M. de -Talleyrand was not a political Warwick: his arm lacked the strength -that lays low and raises thrones. - -Impartial numskulls say: - -"We agree, he was a very immoral man; but what ability!" - -Alas, no! That hope must be lost too, so consoling for his enthusiasts, -so desirable in the interests of the prince's memory: the hope of -making M. de Talleyrand a demon. Beyond certain ordinary negociations, -at the bottom of which he had the cleverness to place his personal -interest in the first rank, there was nothing to be expected of M. de -Talleyrand. - -[Sidenote: Talleyrand's mediocrity.] - -M. de Talleyrand kept up a few habits and a few maxims for the use of -the sycophants and worthless fellows of his intimate circle. His toilet -in public, copied after that of a minister in Vienna, was a triumph -of diplomacy. He boasted of never being in a hurry; he boasted that -time is our enemy and that we must kill it: by this he reckoned to be -occupied for only a few moments. - -But, as, in the last result, M. de Talleyrand did not succeed in -transforming his idleness into a master-piece, it is probable that he -was mistaken in talking of the necessity of getting rid of time: we -triumph over time only by creating immortal things; with works that -have no future, with frivolous distractions, we do not kill it: we -waste it. - -M. de Talleyrand entered into office[377] on the recommendation of -Madame de Staël, who obtained his appointment from Chénier. He was then -very destitute and he began to make his fortune five or six times over -again: by the million which he received from Portugal in the hope of a -signature of peace with the Directory, a peace which was never signed; -by the purchase of Belgian bonds on the Peace of Amiens, of which -he, M. de Talleyrand, knew before it was known to the public; by the -erection of the short-lived Kingdom of Etruria; by the secularization -of the ecclesiastical properties of Germany; by the jobbing of his -opinions at the Congress of Vienna. The prince went so far as to try -to make over some old papers in our archives to Austria; but this time -he was duped by M. de Metternich, who religiously returned him the -originals, after having copies taken of them. - -Incapable of writing a single sentence unaided, M. de Talleyrand -made men work competently under him: when, by dint of erasions and -alterations, his secretary had succeeded in drafting his dispatches -to his liking, he copied them out with his own hand. I have heard him -read, from the Memoirs which he commenced, a few pleasing details -about his youth. As he varied in his tastes, detesting to-morrow what -he loved yesterday, if those Memoirs exist in their entirety, which I -doubt, and if he has preserved the opposite versions, it is probable -that his judgments on the same fact and especially on the same man -will contradict each other outrageously. I do not believe in the story -that the manuscripts have been deposited in England; the order which, -they pretend, has been given to publish them not before forty years -hence[378] seems to me a piece of posthumous jugglery. - -Slothful and without attainments, with a frivolous nature and a -dissipated heart, the Prince de Bénévent gloried in that which ought -to have humbled his pride, in remaining standing after the fall of -empires. The minds of the first order which produce revolutions -disappear; the minds of the second order which profit by them survive. -Those persons of the morrow and of their wits preside at the march-past -of the generations; it is their business to endorse the passports, to -confirm the sentence: M. de Talleyrand was of that inferior species; he -signed events, he did not make them. - -To survive governments, to remain when a power goes, to declare one's -self permanent, to boast of belonging only to the country, of being the -man of things and not the man of individuals: that is the fatuousness -of an uneasy egoism, which strives to hide its want of elevation under -lofty words. Nowadays we count many of those unruffled characters, -many of those citizens of the soil: still, if there is to be any -greatness in growing old like the hermit in the ruins of the Coliseum, -they must be guarded with a cross; M. de Talleyrand had trodden his -underfoot. - -Our species is divided into two unequal parts: the men of death, loved -by death, a chosen band which is born again; the men of life, forgotten -by life, a multitude condemned to annihilation which is born no more. -The temporary existence of these latter consists of name, credit, -place, fortune; their fame, their authority, their power fade away with -their person: closed are their drawing-room and their coffin, closed -is their destiny. Thus befell M. de Talleyrand; his mummy, before -descending into its crypt, was shown for a moment in London[379], as -the representative of the corpse-like Royalty that reigns over us. - -[Sidenote: Talleyrand's depravity.] - -M. de Talleyrand betrayed all governments and, I repeat, raised or -overthrew none. He had no real superiority, in the sincere acceptance -of those two words. A fry of trite prosperities, so common in -aristocratic life, does not take a man two feet beyond the grave. -The evil which is not worked with a terrible explosion, the evil -parsimoniously exerted by the slave for the master's benefit is no -more than turpitude. Vice, the pander of crime, enters into domestic -service. Suppose M. de Talleyrand a plebeian, poor, obscure, having, -besides his immorality, nothing save his incontestable drawing-room -wit: we should certainly never have heard speak of him. Take away -from M. de Talleyrand the debased great lord, the married priest, the -degraded bishop: what remains to him? His reputation and his successes -have depended on that treble depravity. - -The comedy with which the prelate crowned his eighty-two years is a -pitiful thing: first, to give a proof of strength, he went to pronounce -at the Institute the common eulogy of a poor German dolt[380] whom he -did not care about. In spite of all the sights with which our eyes -have been glutted, people lined up to see the great man go out[381]; -next, he came to die at home, like Diocletian, showing himself to the -universe. The crowd gaped at the last moments[382] of that prince -three parts rotten, with a gangrenous aperture in his side, his head -falling on his breast in spite of the bandage that supported it, he -disputing minute by minute his reconciliation with Heaven, his niece -playing beside him a part long prepared between a priest who was -imposed upon and a little girl who was deceived. Weary of resistance, -when his power of speech was about to leave him, he signed (or perhaps -he did not even sign) the disavowal of his early adhesion to the -Constitutional Church; but without giving any sign of repentance, -without fulfilling the Christian's last duties, without retracting -the immorality and scandal of his life. Never did pride appear so -contemptible, admiration so foolish, piety so greatly duped. Rome, -always prudent, did not make the retractation public, for a very good -reason. - -[Sidenote: Talleyrand's death.] - -M. de Talleyrand failed to put in an appearance in answer to a -long-standing summons issued by the Judgment Seat on High; death sought -him on the part of God and has found him at last. - -To analyze minutely a life as corrupted as that of M. de Lafayette -was healthy, one would have to face a distaste which I am incapable -of overcoming. Men of sores resemble prostitutes' carcasses: they -have been so much eaten away by the ulcers that they are of no use -to the dissecting-room. The French Revolution is one vast political -destruction, set in the midst of the old world; let us fear lest a much -more fatal destruction be established, let us fear a moral destruction -through the evil side of that Revolution. What would become of the -human race if a strenuous attempt were made to rehabilitate manners -justly stigmatized, to offer odious examples to our enthusiasm, to -show us the progress of the age, the establishment of liberty, the -profundity of genius in abject natures and atrocious actions? Not -daring to extol the evil under its own name, they sophisticate it: -beware of taking that brute for a spirit of darkness; it is an angel -of light! All ugliness is beautiful, every shame honourable, every -enormity sublime; every vice has its admiration awaiting it. We have -gone back to that material society of paganism in which every form -of depravity had its altars. Back, those cowardly, lying, criminal -praises, which pervert the public conscience, which debauch youth, -which discourage good people, which are an outrage against virtue and -the spitting of the Roman soldier in the face of Christ! - - -PARIS, 1839. - -When I was in Prague, in 1833, Charles X. said to me: - -"So that old Talleyrand is still alive?" - -And Charles X. left this life two years before M. de Talleyrand; the -Monarch's private and Christian death forms a contrast with the public -death of the apostate bishop, dragged against his will to the feet of -the divine incorruptibility. - -On the 3rd of October 1836, I wrote the following letter to Madame -la Duchesse de Berry, and I added a postscript to it on the 15th of -November of the same year: - - "MADAME, - - "M. Walsh[383] has handed me the letter with which you have been - good enough to honour me. I should be ready to obey Your Royal - Highness' wishes, if writing could do anything at present; but - public opinion has fallen into such a state of apathy that the - greatest events would hardly be able to stir it. You have permitted - me, Madame, to speak with an amount of frankness which only my - devotion could excuse: as Your Royal Highness knows, I have been - opposed to almost all that has been done; I ventured even not to - be in favour of your journey to Prague. Henry V. is now emerging - from childhood; he will soon enter the world with an education - that has taught him nothing of the age in which we live. Who will - be his guide, who will show him Courts and men? Who will make him - known and as it were appear, at a distance, to France? These are - important questions which will, probably and unfortunately, be - resolved in the same sense as all the others. Be this as it may, - the rest of my life belongs to my young King and his august mother. - My previsions of the future will never make me unfaithful to my - duty. - - "Madame de Chateaubriand asks leave to lay her respects at Madame's - feet. I offer to Heaven all my prayers for the glory and prosperity - of the mother of Henry V. and I am, with profound respect, - - "Madame, - - "Your Royal Highness' most humble and most obedient servant, - - "CHATEAUBRIAND. - - _"P.S._ This letter has been waiting for a month for a safe - opportunity of reaching Madame. This very day, I hear of the death - of Henry's august grandfather[384]. Will the sad news cause any - change in Your Royal Highness' destiny? Dare I beg Madame to permit - me to enter into all the sentiments of regret which she must feel, - and to offer the respectful tribute of my grief to Monsieur le - Dauphin and Madame la Dauphine? - - "CHATEAUBRIAND. - - "15 _November._" - -[Sidenote: Death of Charles X.] - -Charles X. is no more: - - Soixante ans de malheurs out paré la victime[385]! - -Thirty years of exile; death at seventy-nine in a foreign land! So that -none might doubt of the errand of misfortune with which Heaven had -entrusted that Prince, it was a plague that came to fetch him. - -Charles X., at his last hour, recovered the calm, the equanimity which -sometimes failed him during his long career. When he learnt the danger -that threatened, he was content to say: - -"I did not think that this illness would turn so short." - -When Louis XVI. set out for the scaffold, the officer on duty refused -to receive the will of the condemned man because there was no time, and -he, the officer, had to take the King to execution; the King replied: - -"That is so." - -If Charles X., in other days of peril, had treated his life with the -same indifference, what wretchedness would he not have spared himself! -One can understand that the Bourbons cling to a religion which makes -them so noble at the moment of death; Louis IX., attached to his -posterity, sends them the saint's courage to await them beside the -coffin. That House knows wonderfully how to die: true, it has been -learning death for more than eight hundred years. - -Charles X. went away persuaded that he had made no mistake: if he hoped -for the divine mercy, it was because of the sacrifice which he believed -that he had made of his crown to what he thought to be the duty of his -conscience and the welfare of his people; conviction is too rare not to -be valued. Charles X. was able to bear himself this witness that the -reign of his two brothers and his own were neither without liberty nor -without glory: under the Martyr King, the enfranchisement of America -and the emancipation of France; under Louis XVIII., representative -government given to our country, the Royalty restored in Spain, the -independence of Greece recovered at Navarino; under Charles X., -Africa left to us in compensation for the territory lost through the -conquests of the Republic and the Empire: those are results which -remain established in our records, in spite of stupid jealousies and -vain enmities; those results will stand out more prominently as we -sink lower into the abasement of the Royalty of July. But it is to be -feared that those costly ornaments will be for the benefit of past days -only, like the garland of flowers on Homer's head discarded with great -respect by the Republic of Plato. The Legitimacy to-day seems to have -no intention of going further; it appears to be adopting its fall. - -The death of Charles X. could be an effective event only by putting an -end to a deplorable contest for a sceptre and giving a new direction -to the education of Henry V.: now it is to be feared that the absent -crown will always be disputed, that the education will be finished -without having been virtually changed. Perhaps, by saving themselves -the trouble of taking sides, they will fall asleep in habits dear to -weakness, sweet to family-life, easy to lassitude, the result of long -sufferings. Misfortune perpetuated produces on the mind the same effect -as old age on the body: one can no longer move, one takes to one's -bed. Misfortune again resembles the executioner of the high decrees -of Heaven: it strips the condemned man, snatches the sceptre from the -king, the sword from the warrior; it takes the noble's dignity, the -soldier's heart, and sends them back degraded into the crowd. - -On the other hand, one derives from extreme youth arguments in favour -of postponement: when one has much time to spend, one persuades one's -self that one can wait, that one has years to play with before events -happen: - -"They will come to us," one cries, "without our going to any trouble; -all will ripen; the throne will come of itself; in twenty years, -prejudice will be wiped out." - -This calculation might have some justness, if generations did not pass -away or did not become indifferent; but a certain thing may appear a -necessity at one time and not be even felt at another. - -[Sidenote: Charles's predecessors.] - -Alas, how swiftly things fade away! Where are the three brothers whom -I have seen reign in succession? Louis XVIII. is at Saint-Denis, with -the mutilated relics of Louis XVI.; Charles X. has just been laid, at -Gorlitz, in a coffin locked with three keys. - -The remains of that King, falling from on high, startled his ancestors; -they turned in their sepulchres; drawing closer together, they said: - -"Let us make room; here is the last of our number." - -Bonaparte did not make so much noise on entering eternal life; the old -dead did not wake for the emperor of the new dead. They did not know -him. - -The French Monarchy connects the Ancient World with the Modern World. -Augustulus[386] laid down the diadem in 476. Five years later, in 481, -the first dynasty of our kings, in the person of Clovis, was reigning -over the Gauls. - -Charlemagne, when associating Louis the Débonnaire with himself on the -throne, said to him: - -"Son dear to God, my years are hastening, even my old age escapes me; -the time of my death is drawing nigh. The land of the Franks beheld -my birth: Christ accorded me that honour. First among the Franks, I -have obtained the name of Cæsar and transferred to the Empire of the -Franks the Empire of the House of Romulus." - -Under Hugh, with the Third Dynasty, the Elective Monarchy became -hereditary. Hereditary right gave birth to legitimacy, or permanence, -or duration. - -The Christian Empire of the French must be placed between the baptismal -fonts of Clovis and the scaffold of Louis XVI. The same religion stood -at either barrier: - -"Gentle Sicamber, bow thy neck, worship what thou hast burnt, burn what -thou hast worshipped," said the priest who administered the baptism of -water to Clovis. - -"Son of St. Louis, rise up to Heaven," said the priest[387] who -assisted Louis XVI. at the baptism of blood. - -If there were nothing in France save that old House of France built up -by time and of astounding majesty, we could make a finer show than all -the other nations in the matter of illustrious things. The Capets were -reigning when the other sovereigns of Europe were still subjects. The -vassals of our kings have become kings. Those sovereigns have handed -down to us, with their names, titles which posterity has accepted as -authentic: some are called Augustus[388], Saint[389], the Pious[390], -the Great[391], the Courteous[392], the Bold[393], the Wise[394], -the Victorious[395], the Well-beloved[396]; others the Father of the -People[397], the Father of Letters[398]: - - "As it is writ in blame," says an old historian, "that all the good - Servian kings could easily go into a ring, the bad kings of France - could do so more easily, so small is their number." - -Under the Royal Family, the darkness of the Barbarians was dispelled, -the language was formed; literature and arts produced their -master-pieces; our towns were beautified, our monuments raised, our -roads opened, our harbours constructed; our armies astonished Europe -and Asia and our fleets covered the two oceans. - -Our pride waxes furious at the mere display of those magnificent -tapestries in the Louvre; shadows, shadowy embroideries shock us. -Unknown this morning, still more unknown this evening, we are none the -less persuaded that we efface all that went before us. And yet each -fleeting moment asks us, "Who art thou?" and we know not what to reply. -Charles X. replied: he went away with a whole era of the world; the -dust of a thousand generations is mingled with his; history salutes -him, the centuries kneel before his tomb; all have known his House; it -has never failed them: it is they who have been wanting towards that -House. - -[Sidenote: The last of the Bourbons.] - -O banished King, men have been able to outlaw you, but you shall not be -driven out by time: you are sleeping your hard sleep in a monastery, -on the last plank but yesterday destined for some Franciscan. No -heralds-at-arms at your obsequies: none save a troop of bleached and -hoary old times; no grandees to fling the emblems of their dignities -into the vault: they have done homage for them elsewhere. Mute ages are -seated beside your bier; a long procession of past days, with closed -eyes, silently mourns around your coffin. - -By your side lie your heart and your intestines, snatched from your -breast and your loins, even as we lay beside a dead mother the abortive -fruit that has cost her her life. At each anniversary, O Most Christian -Monarch, O cenobite after death, some brother will recite to you the -prayers of the memorial service; you will attract to your eternal _Hic -Jacet_ none save your sons banished with you: for even at Trieste the -monument of Mesdames is empty; their sacred relics have returned to -their country and you have paid to exile, by your own exile, the debt -of those noble ladies. - -Ah, why do they not to-day bring together so many dispersed remains, -even as they collect antiques unearthed from different excavations? The -Arc de Triomphe would carry Napoleon's sarcophagus as its crowning, or -the bronze column raise motionless victories over immortal remains. -And yet the stone carved by order of Sesostris hence-forward buries the -scaffold of Louis XVI. under the weight of the ages. The hour will come -when the obelisk of the desert shall find again, on the place of the -murders, the silence and solitude of Luxor. - - - -[283] This book was written in Paris, in 1837 and 1838, and revised in -June 1847--T. - -[284] Ferdinand Philippe Louis Charles Henri Duc d'Orléans -(1810-1842) married, on the 30th of May 1837, the Princess Helen of -Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He was killed, on the 13th of July, at Neuilly, -by leaping from his carriage, of which the horses had run away. His -widow, who was and remained a Lutheran, died in 1858.--T. - -[285] Charles Jean Marie Barbaroux (1767-1794), a noted Girondin -orator and politician, belonged, like most of the participants in -the Revolution of 1789, to the middle-classes, and was a lawyer by -profession. He led the Marseillaise section in the attack on the -Tuileries, on the 10th of August 1792. He was sent, as a Girondin -deputy, to the Convention, where he appears to have been noted for the -beauty of his person no less than for his eloquence, and soon went to -loggerheads with Marat and Robespierre. In the trial of Louis XVI., -he voted for the appeal to the nation. He was proscribed, on the 31st -of May 1793, as a Royalist and an enemy of the Republic: he sought -shelter in Calvados and took ship at Quimper for Bordeaux. Hardly had -he arrived there when he was arrested and well and duly guillotined, on -the 25th of July 1794 and in the twenty-eighth year of his age. Carlyle -says, wrongly, I believe, that he shot himself to escape arrest.--T. - -[286] Antoine Saint-Just (1767-1794) has been only once mentioned in -the Memoirs (_Cf._ Vol. III., p. 196). He was born a few months after -Barbaroux, and died three days later. This "black-haired, mild-toned -youth," to quote Carlyle, was one of the most violent organizers of the -Terror. He became President of the Convention in February 1794 and took -charge of the reports against his colleagues Danton, Camille Desmoulins -and others, who were promptly sent to the scaffold. Almost alone he -defended Robespierre, was eventually involved in the same condemnation, -and was guillotined with him on the 28th of July. Saint-Just cultivated -the Muse: at the early age of twenty, he published _Organt_, a -licentious poem in twenty cantos (1789). He also left the _Esprit de la -Révolution_ (1791) and a number of Reports and Opinions delivered in -the Convention.--T. - -[287] _Cf._, in Chateaubriand's preface to his _Études historiques_, -the table of the victims of the Terror, taken from the six volumes of -Prudhomme, the Republican. There were 18,923 men not of noble birth, of -different conditions; 2,231 wives of labourers or artisans; and 2,000 -children guillotined, drowned and shot. In the Vendée, 15,000 women -were killed, and almost all of these were peasant-women. Terrible as -they are, these figures are very far below the reality.--B. - -[288] Thiers was Premier and Foreign Minister from the 22nd of February -to the 25th of August 1836 and, for the second time, from the 1st of -March to the 28th of October 1840.--T. - -[289] This is in allusion to an episode which occurred in 1834, of -which the country-house of a ministerial deputy was the scene and -M. Thiers, then Minister of the Interior, the hero. Dr. Bonnet de -Malherbe, in his _Notes inédites sur M. Thiers_ (1888, p. 73) refers to -it in the following words: - - "One episode especially, the feast of Grand-Vaux, at the _château_ - of the Comte Vigier, which the newspapers called the 'Orgy of - Grand-Vaux,' made a great stir at the time. M. Thiers, if the - chroniclers of the time are to be credited, played a part in it - which went far beyond the 'pranks' of the Marseilles school-boy, - and 'showed himself' in a 'posture' which was not exactly that of - which another minister spoke, with some emphasis, half a century - later. The _Quotidienne_ published a very spicy article in this - connection, nor was the _Charivari_ sparing in caricatures."--B. - - -[290] Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes (_circa_ 104--_circa_ 180), -a Greek rhetorician celebrated for his munificence. He erected many -public works at his own expense and restored several decayed towns in -various parts of Greece.--T. - - -[291] Thiers had published his _Histoire de la Révolution française_ in -1823 to 1827. The _Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire_ did not appear -till many years later (1845 to 1862).--T. - -[292] The remains of Napoleon were brought back to France in 1840.--T. - -[293] M. Thiers had said in the Tribune, under the Monarchy of July, in -the course of the discussion of the law against the associations: - - "France abhors the Republic; speak of it to her, and she recoils in - affright; she knows that that form of government turns to blood or - imbecility." - -In 1872, Henry Reeve met him in Paris and describes the conversation as -follows in his Journal: - - "M. Thiers' conversation on the war, the Commune and the siege was - very interesting. He said to me: - - "'_Certainement je suis pour la République! Sans la République - qu'est-ce que je serais, moi? Un bourgeois, Adolphe Thiers!_' - - "He described the withdrawal of the troops from Paris, which was - his own act. Then the siege, which he claims to have directed, the - battery of _Mouton Tout_, adding: - - "'_Nous avons enterré, en entrant à Paris, vingt mille cadavres!_'" - -(JOHN KNOX LAUGHTON: _Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry -Reeve_, Vol. II., p. 202).--B. - -[294] At the same time that Chateaubriand was drawing this portrait of -M. Thiers, another seer, Balzac, wrote in the _Chronique de Paris_, on -the 12th of May 1836: - - "M. Thiers has always wished for the same thing, he has never - had but one thought, one system, one aim; all his efforts have - been constantly directed towards it: he has always thought of M. - Thiers.... M. Thiers is a weather-cock which, in spite of its - incessant mobility, remains on the same building."--B. - -[295] Simon Deutz was the converted Jew who betrayed the Duchesse de -Berry's hiding-place to Thiers in 1832 (_cf._ Vol. III., p. 156).--T. - -[296] DANTE: _Hell_, Canto I., 50.--B. - -[297] The Sirens, daughters of Achelous and Calliope, represented as -having the head, arms and bust of a young woman and the wings and lower -part of the body of a bird.--T. - -[298] _Cf._ VIR., _Geor._, IV., 82-83, 86-87: - - Ipsi per medias acies, insignibus alis, - Ingentes animos angusto in pectore versant. - . . . . . . . . - Hi motus animorum atque hæc certamina tanta - Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt.--B. - - -[299] La Fayette died in Paris on the 19th of May 1834. He was already -suffering from indisposition, when he insisted on following, on foot, -the funeral of Dulong, the deputy killed in a duel by General Bugeaud. -He took to his bed on returning home and did not leave it again.--B. - -[300] Rivarol, in the early days of the Revolution, had nicknamed -General La Payette "César-Gille."--B. - -[301] La Fayette was mixed up in Caron's military conspiracy at Belfort -in 1821 (_Cf._ Vol. IV., p. 211, nn. 4-5).--T. - -[302] Having failed to secure his re-election as a deputy in 1824, La -Fayette took advantage of this enforced rest to revisit America. He was -absent from France for fourteen months.--B. - -[303] Edward Everett (1794-1865), a celebrated American statesman, -orator and author. He was professor of Greek at Harvard College from -1819 to 1825; editor of the _North American Review_ from 1820 to 1824; -Member of Congress from Massachusetts from 1825 to 1835; Governor of -Massachusetts from 1836 to 1840; Minister to England from 1841 to 1845; -President of Harvard College from 1846 to 1849; Secretary of State -from 1852 to 1853; and Senator from Massachusetts from 1853 to 1854. -In 1860, he was the candidate for Vice-president of the Constitutional -Union Party. His _Orations and Speeches on various Occasions_ were -published in Boston, in 4 volumes, in 1850.--T. - -[304] EVERETT: _An Oration pronounced at Cambridge before the Society -of Phi Beta Kappa, August_ 26, 1824 (Boston, Mass.: 1824).--T. - -[305] I omit six lines of verse.--T. - -[306] La Fayette was married to Mademoiselle de Noailles on the 11th of -April 1774; she died in 1807.--T. - -[307] La Fayette's tomb is in one corner of the little Picpus Cemetery, -near the Avenue de Saint-Mandé. At the end of the Picpus Cemetery is -the _Cimetière des guillotinés_, where 1300 victims of the Revolution, -executed at the Barrière du Trône, are interred. These include André -Chénier, Lavoisier, General Beauharnais and many other bearers of noted -names.--T. - -[308] The Duc de Montmorency-Laval died in 1826.--T. - -[309] A sort of cakes.--T. - -[310] M. Dupin the Elder.--B. - -[311] Georges de La Fayette.--_Author's Note._ - -Georges Washington de La Fayette (1779-1849), La Fayette's only son and -a godson of Washington, sat in the Chamber of Deputies, on the Extreme -Left, from 1827 to 1849.--T. - -[312] Chateaubriand is wrong. The notice of _Ambroise_, a comic opera -by Monvel and Nicolas Dalayrac occcurs in the _Gazette nationale, ou Le -Moniteur universel_ of the 22nd of January 1793! but the report of the -execution of Louis XVI. appears in the issue of the next day, Wednesday -23 January, two days after the tragedy took place. Immediately after -the report comes this paragraph: - - "That excellent patriot, Lepelletier Saint-Fargeau, member of the - Convention, was assassinated on Sunday at a tavern-keeper's, in the - Palais _ci-devant_ Royal, by a former body-guard called Paris. The - details of the crime were communicated to the National Convention; - they will be found in the report of Monday's sitting." - -This report of "Monday's sitting" appears in the following Thursday's -_Moniteur._--T. - -[313] _Cf._ Vol. V., pp. 206.207.--T. - -[314] At the time of the failure of the Duchesse de Berry's plans, -followed by her arrest and imprisonment, feelings of irritation and -regret reigned among the Royalists, of which several duels with members -of the opposite party were the direct consequence. At the end of -January 1833, Armand Carrel, after a certain article that appeared in -the _National_, accepted a personal provocation and, from a list of ten -names put before him, selected that of M. Roux-Laborie the Younger, who -was personally quite unknown to him. Swords were the chosen weapons; -the adversaries were both wounded: M. Roux-Laborie by two thrusts in -the arm and hand; Carrel by a thrust in the stomach, which put his life -in danger.--B. - -[315] Émile de Girardin (1806-1881), the journalist and economist -(_Cf._ Vol. IV., p. 21, n. 2). A duel was arranged between Girardin and -Armand Carrel in consequence of articles published in their respective -journals, the _Presse_ and the _National._ It was fought in the Bois de -Vincennes; the weapons chosen were pistols. The two adversaries were -placed at forty paces from one another, with powers each to walk ten -paces and to fire at will, a very much more dangerous method than the -firing at the word of command, at a fixed distance, which is generally -practised to-day. After each taking a few steps, the two adversaries -fired almost at the same time: Émile de Girardin was shot through the -thigh and Carrel was hit in the pit of the stomach. He succumbed to -acute peritonitis from the lesions caused by the bullet, which had torn -the intestines.--B. - -[316] _Cf._ p. 83, _supra._--T. - -[317] SHAKESPEARE: _Hamlet_, Act III., sc. i.--T. - -[318] Carrel's article on Sautelet's suicide (_Cf._ Vol. V., p. -83.--T.) appeared in the _Revue de Paris_ of June 1830, under the title -of _Une Mort volontaire._--B. - -[319] Armand Carrel was born, at Rouen, on the 8th of May 1800, the day -on which Chateaubriand set foot at Calais (_Cf._ Vol. II., p. 148, n. -1).-T. - -[320] _Cf._ Vol. V., pp. 120-122.--T. - -[321] The gravity of Carrel's wound did not allow of his being -conveyed to the house in which he lived, at No. 7, now No. 18, -Rue Grange-Batelière. He was accordingly taken to one of his old -school-fellows of the Military School, M. Adolphe Peyra, who was -spending the summer at his mother's house at Saint-Mandé. M. Peyra was -a retired officer in the Guards, who had himself fought many duels -and had kept up friendly relations with Carrel, although they were in -different camps: Peyra was an ardent Royalist.--B. - -[322] - - THE GRAVE-DIGGER'S RECEIPT. - - "I have received from M. de Chateaubriand the sum of eighteen - francs that remained owing for the trellis-work which surrounds the - grave of M. Armand Carrel. - - "SAINT-MANDÉ, 21 _June_ 1838. - - "Paid: VAUDRAN." - - "Received from M. de Chateaubriand the sum of twenty francs for - keeping up the grave of M. Carrel at Saint-Mandé. - - "PARIS, 28 _September_ 1839. - - "Paid: VAUDRAN."--B. -] - -[323] Sabine Casimir Amable Voïart, Dame Tastu (1798-1885), author -of several volumes of verse: _Poésies_(1826), _Chroniques de -France_(1829), _Poésies nouvelles_ (1834), _Œuvres politiques_(1837). -She also published a large number of educational books. Some of her -poems, notably the _Ange gardien_, the _Dernier jour de l'année_ and -the _Feuilles de saule_ are happily inspired and deserve to live.--B. - -[324] Favorinus (_d. circa_ 135), a skeptical philosopher, a native -of Arles, in Gaul, who taught rhetoric in Athens and in Rome under -Hadrian.--T. - -[325] 451-450 B.C.--T. - -[326] Carmenta, the Arcadian prophetess, mother of Evander by -Mercury.--T. - -[327] Sappho (_b. circa_ 612 B.C.), the most famous of poetesses. She -was surnamed the Tenth Muse.--T. - -[328] Corinna (_fl. circa_ 470 B.C.), the Greek poetess, surnamed the -Lyric Muse. She conquered Pindar in a trial of poetry and carried off -the palm before him no less than five times.--T. - -[329] Pindar (_circa_ 520 B.C.--_circa_ 450 B.C.), the greatest of the -Greek lyric poets.--T. - -[330] Marie de France (_fl._ 13th Century), author of a collection -of fables entitled _Ysopet_, narrative poems entitled _Laïs_ and a -Purgatory of St. Patrick. Her works were collected and published in -Paris in 1832.--T. - -[331] Beatrix Comtesse de Die in her own right (_fl._ 12th Century), -author of a few Provençal poems.--T. - -[332] _Cf._ Vol. II., p. 308, n. 6.--T. - -[333] Loyse Labé, _Sonnets_, XIII., 1-2: - - "Oh, if I were in that fair bosom rapt - Of him for whom I ever dying go!"--T. - - -[334] Clémence de Bourges was a young girl of Lyons, famous for her wit -and her beauty and a friend and admirer of Loyse Labé. She died early, -of a broken heart, and was given a magnificent funeral by the Lyonese. -The poets of the day called her the "Pearl of Damsels, a truly Oriental -pearl."--T. - -[335] Margaret of Valois, Queen of Navarre (1492-1549), sister -of Francis I. and married, in 1526, to Henry II. d'Albret, King -of Navarre, is the author of the _Heptaméron des nouvelles de -très-illustre et très-excellente princesse Marguerite de Valois_ -(1558-1559), the _Miroir de l'âme pêcheresse_ (1533), _Marguerites de -la Marguerite des princesses, très-illustre royne de Navarre_ (1547), -the _Miroir de Jésus-Christ crucifié_ (1556) and Letters, published -in the last century. The other Margaret is Margaret of France, Queen -of Navarre (1552-1615), sister of Henry III. and married, in 1572, -to Henry III. King of Navarre, later Henry IV. King of France, and -left her admirable Memoirs for the enjoyment of posterity, with some -Poems.--T. - -[336] Mary Queen of Scots, France and (_de jure_) England (1542-1587). -The only extant specimens of Mary's poetry, in addition to the reputed -sonnets to Bothwell, are the verses on the death of her husband Francis -II., printed by Brantôme in his Memoirs; a sonnet to Elizabeth in Latin -and French; a _Méditation faite par la Reyne d'Escosse Douarière de -France, recueillie d'un Livre des Consolations Divines_; and a sonnet -written at Fotheringay, in the State Paper Office (_Cf._ the article in -the _Dictionary of National Biography_, Vol. XXXVI., p. 389).--T. - -[337] _Cf._ Vol. I., p. 21. I omit Madame Claude de Chateaubriand's -sixty-sixth sonnet, which is quoted by her nephew many times -removed.--T. - -[338] Antoinette du Ligier de La Garde, Dame Deshoulières (1638-1694), -married, in 1651, to Guillaume de Lafon de Boisguérin, Seigneur -Deshoulières, enjoyed a great reputation under Louis XIV., when she was -surnamed the Tenth Muse and the French Calliope. She is now remembered -chiefly by her idyll of the _Moutons_, although her collected idylls, -odes, elegiacs and songs, to say nothing of two highly unsuccessful -tragedies, fill two, volumes 8vo.--T. - -[339] Marie Anne Henriette Payan de L'Étang, Marquise d'Antremont, -later Baronne de Bourdic, later Madame Viot (1746-1802) was three times -married. She was already known for several pieces of verse inserted in -the _Almanach des Muses_ when, for a while, she acquired a real fame -through her _Ode au Silence_, which was long considered one of the -master-pieces of the eighteenth century.--B. - -[340] Hortense Allan de Méritens (1801-1879) published, as her first -work, in 1821, a remarkable novel, the _Conjuration d'Amboise_, -which was succeeded by _Sextus, ou le Romain des Maremmes_, the -_Indienne, Settimia_ and others. In 1873 and 1874, she published, -under the pseudonym of "Madame Prudence de Saman" and the title of -the _Enchantements de Prudence_, a series of erotic confidences, or -romantic autobiography, in which she mixes up Chateaubriand, Lamennais, -Béranger and a score of others with her imaginary adventures.--B. - -[341] Mélanie Villenave, Dame Waldor (1796-1871), author of some -volumes of poems, of which the principal, entitled _Poésies du cœur_, -had appeared in 1835. Her novels include _André le Vendéen_ (1843) and -the _Moulin en deuil_ (1849).--B. - -[342] Marceline Josèphe Félicité Desbordes, Dame Desbordes-Valmore -(1786-1859) had appeared, with some success, at the Opéra-Comique, -when, in 1817, she married François Prosper Lanchantin, known as -Valmore, the actor, and left the stage. Her poetry is distinguished for -sweetness and pathos, without affectation. That published before the -time in which Chateaubriand is writing includes _Élégies et romances_ -(1818), _Élégies et poésies nouvelles_ (1824) and the _Pleurs_ (1833). -_Pauvres fleurs_ appeared in 1839 and _Bouquets et prières_ in 1843.--T. - -[343] Anaïs Ménard, Dame Ségalas (_b._ 1814), published the -_Algériennes_ in 1831, when only seventeen years of age. Next came -the _Oiseaux de passage_ (1836) and, later, _Enfantines: poésies à ma -fille_ (1844), the _Femme_ (1847) and _Nos bons Parisiens_ (1865). -To these must be added a number of novels and plays of various -descriptions. Madame Ségalas will, however, remain known mainly as the -author of the _Enfantines_, a collection of verse that has had no less -than ten editions.--B. - -[344] Louise Révoil, Dame Colet (1815-1876), published her first -volume, _Fleurs du Midi_, accompanied by two kindly letters from -Chateaubriand, in 1836. From that year till the year of her death she -did not cease writing in prose and verse. The list of her works, which -include poems, novels, dramatic essays, travels and works on history -and politics, would exceed the space of these notes. She obtained the -prize for poetry at the French Academy four times between 1839 and -1854. For the rest, Madame Colet mixed romance with her life in such -proportions that it is best to keep silence upon both the lady and her -career.--B. - -[345] Elisa Mercœur (1809-1835), the girl poet, died before the above -lines were written. The first edition of her _Poésies_ appeared in -1827, when Mademoiselle Mercœur was only eighteen years old. Her -Complete Works were published in 1843, in three volumes 8vo.--T. - -[346] Maria Felicita Garcia, Dame Malibran, later Dame de Bériot -(1808-1836), one of the most famous opera-singers of the time, was the -daughter of Manuel del Popolo Vicente Garcia, the Spanish singer and -composer. She made her first appearance in opera in London, on the 7th -of June 1825, when she took the place of Madame Pasta, who was ill. -She made a great sensation and was at once engaged for the rest of the -season. In 1826, she went to New York and there, in the middle of a -successful season, married Malibran, the French banker, who soon became -bankrupt. She left him in 1827, returned to France and appeared for -the first time in Paris, on the 12th of January 1828, in _Sémiramide._ -Her success was prodigious and she continued to rouse unparalleled -enthusiasm in all the great cities of Europe. On the 30th of March -1836, Madame Malibran married Charles Auguste de Bériot, the Belgian -violinist; six months later, on the 23rd of September, she died, in -Manchester, from the effects of a fall from her horse, in London, a few -days earlier.--T. - -[347] At this time (1833), George Sand had published only _Indiana_ -(September 1832) and _Valentine_ (November 1832). _Lélia_ appeared in -September 1833, the _Secrétaire intime_ and _Jacques_ in 1834.--T. - -[348] In an article on Étienne Pivert de Sénancour's _Obermann_, in the -_Revue des Deux-Mondes_ of 15 June 1833.--B. - -[349] October 1834.--B. - -[350] _Rêveries du promeneur solitaire_, published in 1782, four years -after Rousseau's death.--T. - -[351] _Études de la nature_(1784).--T. - -[352] _Æn._, IV. 625.--T. - -[353] LUCIAN: _Dialogues of the Courtezans_, VII.--_Author's Note._ - -[354] _Cf._ MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, II., 752-760. - - "All on a sudden miserable pain - Surprised thee; dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum - In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast - Threw forth; till on the left side opening wide, - Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, - Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess arm'd - Out of thy head I sprung: amazement seized - All the host of heaven; back they recoil'd afraid - At first, and cal I'd me Sin."--T. - - -[355] _Sic_, in all the editions.--T. - -[356] Phila (_fl._ 370 B.C.), a celebrated Athenian courtezan and -mistress to Hyperides the Attic orator.--T. - -[357] Lais (_d. circa_ 340 B.C.), a noted Corinthian courtezan, said -to have been advised to adopt her profession by Apelles. Demosthenes -was one of her many lovers; Diogenes another. She was assassinated in -Thessaly by a number of women jealous of their husbands' affections.--T. - -[358] Gnathæna, a Greek poetess and courtezan, of an uncertain period. -Some of her witty sayings are recorded by Athenæus.--T. - -[359] Phryne (_fl. circa_ 328 B.C.), a celebrated Athenian hetaira, -mistress to Praxiteles, one of whose many statues of her is known as -the _Cnidian Aphrodite_, while Apelles took her for his model for the -_Aphrodite Anadyomene._--T. - -[360] Apelles (_fl. circa_ 332 B.C.), the famous Greek painter. His -_Aphrodite Anadyomene_ (_vide supra_) was originally painted for the -Temple of Æsculapius in Cos. It was afterwards bought by Augustus and -placed in the Temple of Cæsar in Rome.--T. - -[361] Praxiteles (_circa_ 360 B.C.--_circa_ 280 B.C.), the greatest -Greek sculptor after Phidias. His _Aphrodite of Cnidus_ ranks as one of -the most admired statues of antiquity. A replica of this statue is now -in the Glyptothek in Munich.--T. - -[362] Leæna (_fl._ 514 B.C.), the mistress of Harmodius and -Aristogiton, the Athenian patriots.--T. - -[363] Harmodius (_d._ 514 B.C.), who, with Aristogiton, delivered -Athens from the tyranny of Hipparchus.--T. - -[364] _Cf._, on the _Congrès de Vérone_, M. Biré's Appendix, Vol. IV., -pp. 215-219.--T. - -[365] Talleyrand died in Paris on the 17th of May 1838.--B. - -[366] _Cf._ Vol. III., pp. 145 _et seq._--T. - -[367] _Ibid._, pp. 171-175.--T. - -[368] The Marquis de Maubreuil (_cf._ Vol. III., p. 86, n. 1), escaping -from police surveillance, went, on the 20th of January, to Saint-Denis, -during the celebration of the anniversary of the death of Louis XVI., -and there, in the midst of the solemnity, he struck Talleyrand in -the face and threw him to the ground. Maubreuil was charged with -the offense and received sentence; but the affair made a terrible -noise, of which Talleyrand's innumerable enemies did not fail to take -advantage.--B. - -[369] _Cf._ Vol. III., p. 147--T. - -[370] Speech of the Prince de Talleyrand against the vote of one -hundred millions proposed for the cost of the Spanish War (March -1823).--B. - -[371] Elisabeth Pierre Comte de Montesquiou-Fézensac (1764-1834) was -President of the Legislative Body in 1810, 1811 and 1813. He was -created a count of the Empire in 1809 and, in the following year, was -appointed Great Chamberlain of France in Talleyrand's stead.--B. - -[372] The Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville (_Cf._ Vol. IV., p. 134, -n. 1) was a member of the Chamber of Peers from 1814 to 1831.--B. - -[373] Jean Girard Lacuée, Comte de Cessac (1752-1841) was an -inspector-general of reviews under Napoleon (1806), a minister of State -(1806) and Minister of the Board of Military Administration. He was a -member of the French Academy.--B. - -[374] The Comte Roederer, in his _Souvenirs_, describes a conversation -which he had with the Emperor, at the Élysée, on the 6th of March -1809. The subject of the conversation was King Joseph, who, in his -letters from Madrid to his wife and Napoleon, complained of his brother -and threatened to leave the Throne of Spain to go and grow his small -potatoes at Mortefontaine. Napoleon, in the course of this interview -with Roederer, walked to and fro, and became more and more excited as -he spoke of the contents of those letters: - - "'He says that he wants to go to Mortefontaine, rather than stay - in a country bought by blood unjustly shed. And what is this - Mortefontaine? It is the price of the blood which I spilled in - Italy. Does he hold it from his father? Does he hold it from his - work? He holds it from me. Yes, I have spilt blood, but it is the - blood of my enemies, of the enemies of France. Does it become - him to use their language? Does he want to act like Talleyrand? - Talleyrand! I have covered him with honours, riches, diamonds. He - has employed all of that against me. He has betrayed me as much - as he could, on the first occasion that he had to do it in.... He - said, during my absence'--during the Spanish War--'that he had gone - on his knees to prevent the Spanish business; and he pestered me - for two years to undertake it! He maintained to me that I should - require only twenty thousand men; he gave me twenty memorandums - to prove it. He behaved in the same way in the affair of the Duc - d'Enghien; I knew nothing about him; it was Talleyrand who told me - about him.' The Emperor always pronounces it Taillerand. 'I did not - know where he was.' The Emperor stopped in front of me. 'It was he - who told me the place where he was and, after advising his death, - he bemoaned it with all his acquaintances.' The Emperor resumed - his walk and, in a calmer tone, after a short pause, continued, 'I - shall do him no harm; I am keeping him in all his offices; I even - have the same feelings for him that I used to have; but I have - taken from him the right to enter my closet at all times. He shall - never have a private conversation with me; he will no longer be - able to say that he has advised me or dissuaded me from one thing - or the other.'" - - -[375] _Cf._ Vol. II., pp. 281-282.--T. - -[376] _Cf._ Vol. III., p. 144.--T. - -[377] Talleyrand was appointed Minister of External Relations, on the -16th of July 1797, in succession to Charles Delacroix, the father of -Eugène Delacroix the painter.--B. - -[378] Yet Talleyrand's Memoirs were not published until 1891-1892. They -were disappointing when published.--T. - -[379] After the Revolution of July, Talleyrand accepted the London -Embassy at the hands of the new Government (September 1830); he asked -to be recalled on the 13th of November 1834.--B. - -[380] Charles Frédéric Comte Reinhard (1761-1838), a retired head -of a department at the Foreign Office and a native of Schöndorf, in -Wurtemberg.--B. - -[381] Talleyrand read his _Éloge de Reinhard_ at the Institute on the -3rd of March 1838. The room was crowded. M. Mignet, the Perpetual -Secretary, went to meet him in the room adjoining the lecture-room. The -prince, who was then in his eighty-fifth year, was not able to climb -the stairs on foot; he was carried up by two men in livery. When he -entered the lecture-room, leaning on M. Mignet's arm and on his crutch, -the whole audience stood up. His speech was delivered in a very strong -voice and was frequently interrupted by applause. The reading took less -than half an hour in all, which constituted the whole performance. When -it was over, the enthusiasm knew no bounds: - -"On his way out," says Sainte-Beuve (_Nouveaux Lundis_, Vol. I., p. -110), "the prince had to pass through a double row of foreheads which -bowed with redoubled reverence."--B. - -[382] The Prince de Talleyrand died on the 17th of May 1838, at -thirty-five minutes past three in the afternoon; he was horn on the 2nd -of February 1754, and was consequently 84 years, 3 months and 15 days -old. He was assisted in his last illness by the Abbé Dupanloup, the -future Bishop of Orleans, who himself wrote the story of the prince's -last moments. On the morning of the 17th of May, M. de Talleyrand had -signed his retractation and a letter to the Pope; some hours later, -the Abbé Dupanloup arrived. Upon a word from the abbé, saying that -Monseigneur de Quélen, the Archbishop of Paris, would be happy to -give his life for him, he raised himself a little and said, in a very -distinct voice: - - "Tell him that he can make a much better use of it." - - "Prince," continued the abbé, "this morning you gave the Church a - great consolation; I now come, in the name of the Church, to offer - you the last consolations of faith, the last succour of religion. - You have been reconciled with the Catholic Church, which you had - offended; the moment is come to be reconciled with God by a new - confession and a sincere repentance for all the faults of your - life." - - "Thereupon," in the words of the Abbé Dupanloup, "he made a - movement as though to come towards me; I went up to him, and, - at once grasping my two hands in his and pressing them with - extraordinary force and emotion, he did not leave go of them during - the whole time that his confession took to make; I had even to make - a great effort to release my hand from his, when the moment had - come to give him absolution. He received it with an humility, an - amount of feeling and faith that made me shed tears." - -He also received Extreme Unction while fully conscious. Then the Abbé -Dupanloup, kneeling beside him, recited the Litany of the Saints. When -he came to the invocation of the martyrs and pronounced the name of St. -Maurice, M. de Talleyrand's patron-saint, the prince was seen to bow -his head and his glance to seek that of the Abbé Dupanloup, to prove to -him that he was joining in those prayers. At three o'clock, seeing the -last hour come, the Abbé Dupanloup began the Prayers for the Dying. The -sick man appeared to join in them so visibly that one of those present -remarked upon it: - -"Monsieur l'abbé, see how he is praying!" - -He was in fact seen, with eyes now open, now lowered, to follow with -evidences of perfect understanding all that was happening around him. -At last his strength suddenly failed him and his lips closed for ever. - -The Abbé Dupanloup ends his narrative with these words: - - "God sees the secrets of men's hearts; but I ask Him to give those - who thought that they might doubt M. de Talleyrand's sincerity, I - ask for them, at the hour of death, the same sentiments which I - beheld in M. de Talleyrand when dying, the memory of which will - never leave me."(_Cf._ LAGRANGE: _Vie de Monseigneur #/ Dupanloup_, - Vol. I., Chaps, XIV. and XV.)--B. - - -[383] Édouard Vicomte Walsh had, since the 25th of September 1835, had -the management of the _Mode_, the liveliest of the royalist papers, -published under the patronage of the Duchesse de Berry.--B. - -[384] Charles X. died at Goritz, on the 6th of November 1836, of an -attack of cholera, of which he had felt the first symptoms two days -before, on St. Charles's Day, the 4th of November. The doctor asked to -have the King's grandchildren taken away, because of the danger of the -illness, but the Duc de Bordeaux declared that no consideration would -prevent his following the impulse of his heart and Mademoiselle made -the same reply as her brother. The King kissed them fondly and laid his -hand upon their heads: - -"May God protect you, my children!" he said. "Walk before Him in the -paths of justice.... Do not forget me.... Pray sometimes for me!" - -The Cardinal de Latil and Doctor Bougon, who had already met by the Duc -de Berry's bed-side on the night of the 13th February 1820, met again, -on the night of the 6th of November 1836, by the bed-side of Charles X. -An altar had hurriedly been erected near the bed for the celebration -of Mass. It was said by the Bishop of Hermopolis, Monseigneur de -Frayssinous. At the end of the Mass, the King meditated an instant; he -prayed for France and blessed her; and, as the bishop exhorted him to -forgive, at that last moment, those who had done him so much harm: - -"I have long forgiven them," he replied. "I forgive them again, at this -moment, with all my heart; may the Lord be merciful to them and me." - -"At one o'clock in the morning, on the 6th of November, M. Bougon -announced that the King had but a few moments to live. All fell on -their knees; M. le Dauphin (the Duc d'Angoulême) had his head bowed -towards his father. Madame la Dauphine alone remained standing at the -King's feet, with her hands joined, and seemed to be presiding over -that scene of sorrow. At half past one, M. Bougon made a sign to the -Duc de Blacas, who leant towards the Dauphin and said a few words to -him in a low voice. Then the Prince respectfully closed his father's -eyes, and Madame la Dauphine's sobs, bursting forth suddenly amid the -silence of death that reigned in the room, announced that all was -over." (NETTEMENT: _Histoire de quinze ans d'exil_, Vol. II., pp. 96 -_et seq._)--B. - -[385] "Sixty years with misfortunes the victim have decked!"--T. - -[386] Romulus Momyllus Augustus, the last Roman Emperor of the West, -nicknamed Augustulus because of his youth, was placed on the throne at -a very early age, in 475, but compelled to abdicate in the following -year by Odoacer King of the Heruli.--T. - -[387] Henry Essex, Abbé Edgeworth de Firmont (1745-1807).--T. - -[388] Philip II. Augustus (1165-1223), son of Louis VII., succeeded in -1180.--T. - -[389] St. Louis IX. (1215-1270), son of Louis VIII., succeeded in -1226.--T. - -[390] Robert II. (_circa_ 970-1031), son of Hugh Capet, succeeded in -996.--T. - -[391] Henry IV. (1553-1610) succeeded Henry III. in 1569; and Louis -XIV. (1638-1715), son of Louis XIII., succeeded in 1643.--T. - -[392] Charles VIII. (1470-1498), surnamed the Affable or the Courteous, -son of Louis XI., succeeded in 1483.--T. - -[393] Philip III. (1245-1285), son of St. Louis IX., succeeded in -1270.--T. - -[394] Charles V. (1337-1380), son of John II., succeeded in 1364.--T. - -[395] Charles VII. (1403-1461), son of Charles VI., succeeded in -1422.--T. - -[396] Charles VI. (1368-1422), son of Charles V., succeeded in 1380.--T. - -[397] Louis XII. (1462-1515) succeeded his cousin Charles VIII. in -1498.--T. - -[398] Francis I. (1494-1547) succeeded his cousin Louis XII. in -1515.--T. - - - - -BOOK X[399] - - -Conclusion--Historical antecedents from the Regency to 1793--The -Past--The old European order expiring--Inequality of fortunes--Danger -of the expansion of intellectual nature and material nature--The -downfall of the monarchies--The decline of society and the progress of -the individual--The future--The difficulty of understanding it--The -Christian idea is the future of the world--Recapitulation of my -life--Summary of the changes that have happened on the globe during my -life--End of the _Mémoires d'Outre-tombe_. - - -25 _September_ 1841. - -I began to write these Memoirs, at the Vallée-aux-Loups, on the 4th -of October 1811; I am about to finish reading and correcting them, -in Paris, on the 20th of September 1841: I have, therefore, for -thirty years, eleven months and twenty-one days[400], been secretly -holding the pen while writing my public books, in the midst of all -the revolutions and all the vicissitudes of my existence. My hand is -tired: may it not have weighed upon my ideas, which have never wavered -and which I feel to be as lively as when I started on my career! I had -the intention of adding a general conclusion to my thirty years' work: -I meant to say, as I have often mentioned, what the world was like -when I entered it, what it is like now that I am leaving it. But the -hour-glass is before me; I observe the hand which the sailors used to -think that they saw come forth from the waves at the hour of shipwreck: -that hand beckons to me to be brief; I will therefore reduce the scale -of the picture, without omitting anything essential. - - -Louis XIV. died[401]. The Duc d'Orléans was Regent during the -minority of Louis XV. A war with Spain broke out as the result -of Cellamare's[402] conspiracy: peace was restored by the fall of -Alberoni[403]. Louis XV. attained his majority on the 15th of February -1723. The Regent succumbed ten months later. He had communicated his -gangrene to France; he had seated Dubois[404] in Fénelon's pulpit and -raised Law[405] to power. The Duc de Bourbon[406] became Prime Minister -to Louis XV., and he had as his successor the Cardinal de Fleury[407], -whose genius lay in his years. In 1734, the war[408] broke out in -which my father was wounded outside Dantzig[409]. In 1745 was fought -the Battle of Fontenoy; one of the least warlike of our kings made us -triumph in the only great pitched battle that we have won over the -English: and the conqueror of the world has, at Waterloo, added one -more disaster to the disasters of Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt. The -church at Waterloo is decorated with the names of the English officers -who fell in 1815; in the church at Fontenoy we find only a stone with -these words: - - NEAR THIS SPOT LIES THE BODY OF MESSIRE PHILIPPE DE VITRY, - WHO, AGED 27 YEARS, WAS KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF - FONTENOY ON THE 11TH OF MAY 1715 - -No mark indicates the place of the action; but skeletons are taken from -the ground with bullets flattened into their skulls. The French carry -their victories written on their foreheads. - -Later, the Comte de Gisors, son of the Maréchal de Belle-Isle[410] fell -at Crefeld[411]. With him died out the name and the direct descent of -Fouquet[412]. Things had passed from Mademoiselle de La Vallière to -Madame de Châteauroux. There is something sad in seeing names come to -their end, from century to century, from beauty to beauty, from glory -to glory. - -[Sidenote: Historical antecedents.] - -In the month of June 1745, the second Stuart Pretender had begun his -adventures: misfortunes on which I was brought up pending the time when -Henry V. should replace the English Pretender in exile. - -The end of those wars was the harbinger of our disasters in our -colonies. La Bourdonnais[413] avenged the French flag in Asia; his -dissensions with Dupleix[414], after the capture of Madras, undid -all. The peace of 1748 suspended those misfortunes; hostilities broke -out again in 1755; they opened with the earthquake of Lisbon[415], in -which Racine's grandson perished. Under the pretext of a few plots of -land at issue on the frontier of Acadia, England, without declaring -war, seized upon three hundred of our merchant-ships; we lost Canada: -facts immense in their consequences, above which floats the death of -Wolfe and Montcalm. We were stripped of our possessions in Africa and -India, and Lord Clive[416] began the conquest of Bengal. Now, during -this time, the Jansenist quarrels were taking place: Damiens[417] had -struck at Louis XV.; Poland had been partitioned, the expulsion of the -Jesuits effected, the Court had descended to the Parc-aux-Cerfs. The -author of the Family Compact[418] retired to Chanteloup, while the -intellectual revolution was being completed under Voltaire. Maupeou's -Plenary Court[419] was installed: Louis XV. left the scaffold to the -favourite[420] who had degraded him, after sending Garat[421] and -Sanson to Louis XVI., one to read, the other to execute the sentence. - -This last monarch had married, on the 16th of May 1770, the daughter of -Maria Theresa of Austria: we know what became of her. Next passed the -ministers: Machault, old Maurepas, Turgot the economist, Malesherbes, -with his ancient virtues and modern opinions, Saint-Germain[422], who -destroyed the King's Household and gave a baleful order; Calonne and -Necker lastly. - -Louis XVI. recalled the parliaments, abolished forced labour, repealed -the power of inflicting torture before the verdict had been given, -restored Protestants to the enjoyment of civil rights and recognised -their marriages as legal. The American War of 1779, although impolitic -for France, the dupe, as always, of her generosity, was useful to the -human race; it restored throughout the world the esteem in which our -arms were held and the honour of our flag. - -The Revolution sprang up, ready to give birth to the warlike generation -which eight centuries of heroism had laid in its womb. The personal -merits of Louis XVI. did not redeem the faults which his ancestors -had left to him to expiate; but the blows of Providence fall on the -evil, never on the man: God shortens virtue's days upon earth only to -lengthen them in Heaven. Under the star of 1793, the sources of the -great abyss were broken; all our glories of former days next united and -made their last explosion under Bonaparte: he sends them back to us in -his coffin. - - -[Sidenote: When I was born.] - -I was born while these facts were being accomplished[423]. Two new -empires, Prussia[424] and Russia[425], preceded me by scarcely -half a century on the earth; Corsica became French at the moment -when I appeared[426]; I arrived in the world twenty days before -Bonaparte[427]. He brought me with him. I was about to enter the navy, -in 1783, when the fleet of Louis XVI. put in to Brest[428]: it carried -the birth certificate of a nation[429] that had been hatched under the -wings of France. My birth is connected with the birth of a man and a -people, pale reflection that I was of an immense light. - -If we fix our eyes on the actual world, we see it, following the -movement communicated by a great revolution, shaken from the East to -China, which seemed closed for ever: so that our past subversions -would be nothing and the noise of Napoleon's fame be hardly audible -in the general topsy-turviness of the nations, even as he, Napoleon, -drowned all the noises of our ancient globe. - -The Emperor left us in a condition of prophetic agitation. We, the -ripest and most advanced State, display numerous symptoms of decadence. -Just as a sick man in danger becomes preoccupied with what awaits him -in his grave, a nation which feels itself decaying grows restless as -to its future fate. Hence the political heresies which succeed one -another. The old European order is expiring; our present contests will -appear puerile struggles in the eyes of posterity. Nothing more exists; -authority of experience and age, birth or genius, talent or virtue: -all are denied; a few individuals clamber to the top of the ruins, -proclaim themselves giants and roll down to the bottom as pygmies. With -the exception of a score of men who will survive and who were destined -to hold the torch across the murky steppes upon which we are entering, -with the exception of those few men, a generation which bore within -it an abundant intelligence, acquired knowledge, germs of success of -all kinds has stifled these in a restlessness as unproductive as its -arrogance is barren. Nameless multitudes are agitated without knowing -why, like the popular associations of the middle-ages: famished flocks -which recognise no shepherd, which rush from the plain to the mountain -and from the mountain to the plain, disdaining the experience of the -herdsmen hardened to the wind and sun. In the life of that city, all -is transitory: religion and morals cease to be admitted, or else each -interprets them after his own fashion. Among things of an inferior -nature, even in power of conviction and existence, a man's renown -throbs for barely an hour, a book grows old in a day, writers kill -themselves to attract attention: one more vanity; no one hears even -their last breath. - -From this predisposition of men's minds it results that we imagine no -other means of touching people than scenes of the scaffold and tainted -manners: we forget that the real tears are those which flow at the -bidding of a beautiful poem and with which as much admiration as sorrow -is blended; but at present, when talents feed upon the Regency and the -Terror, what need was there of subjects for our tongues destined so -soon to die? No more will fall from man's genius some of those thoughts -which become the patrimony of the universe. - -That is what everybody says and what everybody deplores, and yet -illusions superabound, and the nearer a man is to his end the longer -he thinks that he will live. We see monarchs who imagine that they -are monarchs, ministers who believe that they are ministers, deputies -who take their speeches seriously, landlords who, possessing property -to-day, are persuaded that they will possess it to-night. Private -interests, personal ambitions hide the gravity of the moment from the -vulgar: notwithstanding the oscillations of the affairs of the day, -they are but a wrinkle on the surface of the deep; they do not decrease -the depth of the waters. Beside the paltry contingent lotteries, -the human race is playing the great game; the kings still hold the -cards and hold them for the nations: will the latter do better than -the monarchs? A side issue, which does not alter the principal fact. -What importance have children's amusements, shades gliding over the -whiteness of a shroud? The invasion of ideas has succeeded on the -invasion of the Barbarians; our actual decomposing civilization is -becoming lost in itself; the vessel that contains it has not poured -the liquid over into another vessel: it is the vessel that has been -shattered. - - -At what period will society disappear? What accidents will be able to -suspend its movements? In Rome, the reign of man was substituted for -the reign of law: they passed from the Republic to the Empire; our -revolution is being accomplished in a contrary sense; we are inclined -to pass from the Royalty to the Republic, or, not to specify any form, -to Democracy: this will not be effected without difficulty. - -[Sidenote: Property.] - -To touch upon only one point in a thousand: will property, for -instance, remain distributed as it is? The Royalty born at Rheims was -able to keep that property going by tempering its severity by the -diffusion of moral laws, even as it changed humanity into charity. -Given a political state of things in which individuals have so many -millions a year, while other individuals are dying of hunger: can that -state of things subsist, when religion is no longer there with its -hopes beyond this world to explain the sacrifice? There are children to -whom their mothers give suck at their withered breasts for want of a -mouthful of bread to feed their dying babes; there are families whose -members are reduced to huddle together at night, for want of blankets -to warm them. That man sees his many furrows ripen; this one will -possess only the six feet of earth lent to his tomb by his native land. -Now with how many ears of corn can six feet of earth supply a dead man? - -As instruction comes down to those lower classes, the latter discover -the secret sore which gnaws at the irreligious social order. The too -great disproportion of conditions and fortunes was endurable so long as -it remained concealed; but, so soon as this disproportion was generally -perceived, it received its death-blow. Recompose the aristocratic -fictions, if you can; try to persuade the poor man, when he shall have -learnt to read correctly and ceased to believe, when he shall be as -well-informed as yourself, try to persuade him that he must submit to -every sort of privation, while his neighbour possesses superfluity a -thousand times told: as a last resource, you will have to kill him. - -When steam shall be perfected, when, joined to the telegraph and -railways, it shall have caused distances to disappear, we shall see not -only merchandise travel, but also ideas, restored to the use of their -wings. When fiscal and commercial barriers shall have been abolished -between the various States, as they already are between the provinces -of the same State; when different countries entertaining daily -relations shall tend to promote the unity of the peoples: how will you -resuscitate the old manner of separation? - -Society, on the other hand, is no less threatened by the spread of -intellect than it is by the development of brute nature: suppose labour -to be condemned to idleness by reason of the multiplication and variety -of machinery; admit that one only and general mercenary, matter, -replaces the mercenaries of the farm and the household: what will you -do with the unemployed human race? What will you do with passions that -are idle at the same time as, the intellect? The vigour of the body -is maintained by physical occupation; when labour ceases, strength -disappears; we shall become like those nations of Asia which fall a -prey to the first invader and which are unable to defend themselves -against a hand that bears the sword. Thus liberty is preserved only by -work, because work produces strength; withdraw the curse pronounced -against the sons of Adam, "In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat -bread[430]," and they will die in servitude. The divine curse therefore -enters into the mystery of our lot; man is less the slave of his sweat -than of his thought: that is how, after making the circuit of society, -after passing through the different civilizations, after supposing -unknown perfections, we find ourselves once more at the starting-point, -in the presence of the truths of Scripture. - - -[Sidenote: The Monarchy.] - -At the time of our Monarchy of eight centuries, Europe had in France -the centre of its intelligence, its perpetuity, its repose; when -deprived of that Monarchy, Europe at once inclined towards democracy. -The human race, for good or ill, has become its own master; the -princes have enjoyed its property during its minority; now that the -nations have come of age, they contend that they have no more need of -guardians. From David to our time, the kings have been called: the -vocation of the peoples is commencing. The brief and small exceptions -of the Greek, Carthaginian, Roman Republics, with slaves, do not take -away the fact that, in antiquity, the monarchic state was the normal -state of the globe. The whole of modern society, since the banner of -the French kings has ceased to exist, is laying aside the monarchy. -God, to hasten the degradation of the royal power, has delivered the -sceptres in different countries to infirm kings, to little girls in -long-clothes[431] or in the white veils of their weddings[432]: those -are the toothless lions, the clawless lionesses, the sucking babes, the -marrying babes, whom grown men are to follow in this era of unbelief. - -The boldest opinions are proclaimed in the face of the monarchs, who -pretend to feel safe behind the three-fold hedge of a suspected guard. -The flood of democracy is overtaking them; they climb from storey to -storey, from the ground-floor to the attic roof of their palace, whence -they will leap into the water through the dormer windows. - -In the midst of this, observe a phenomenal contradiction: material -conditions are improving, intellectual progress increases, and the -nations, instead of profiting, are diminishing. Whence comes this -contradiction? - -It is because we have lost in the moral order of things. There have -been crimes at all periods; but they were never committed in cold -blood, as they are nowadays, because of the loss of the religious -sentiment. At this hour, they no longer revolt us, they seem a -consequence of the march of time; if formerly we judged them in a -different manner, it was because we were not yet, as we dare to -assert, sufficiently advanced in the knowledge of man; we analyze -them at the present moment; we test them in the crucible, in order -to see what useful thing we can obtain from them, even as chemistry -finds ingredients in the sewers. The corruption of the mind, which is -very much more destructive than that of the senses, is accepted as a -necessary result; it no longer belongs to a few wayward individuals: it -has become public property. - -Many men would feel humiliated if it were proved to them that they have -a soul, that beyond this life they will find another life; they would -think that they were wanting in firmness and strength and genius, if -they did not rise superior to the pusillanimity of our fathers; they -admit annihilation, or, if you like, doubt, as a disagreeable fact -perhaps, but as a truth which it is impossible to deny. Admire the -stultification of our pride! - -That is how the decline of society and the increase of the individual -are explained. If the moral sense were developed in proportion to -the development of the intellect, there would be a counterpoise, -and humanity would grow up without danger; but the exact opposite -is happening: our perception of good and evil becomes dimmer as our -intellect becomes more enlightened; our conscience shrinks as our -ideas expand. Yes, society will perish: liberty, which could save the -world, will not make progress, for want of leaning on religion; order, -which could maintain the observance of rules, will not be solidly -established, because it is combated by the anarchy of men's ideas. The -purple, which used formerly to confer power, will henceforth serve as -a bed only for misfortune: none will be saved unless he be born on the -straw, like Christ. When the monarchs were disinterred at Saint-Denis, -at the moment when the trumpet sounded for the popular resurrection; -when, taken from their crumbling tombs, they lay awaiting plebeian -burial, the ragmen came to this Last Judgment of the centuries: they -looked with their lanterns into the eternal night; they rummaged among -the remains that had escaped the first pillage. Already the Kings were -there no more, but the Royalty was there still: they snatched it from -the womb of time and flung it into the rubbish-basket. - - -[Sidenote: Old and young Europe.] - -So much for old Europe: it will never revive. Does young Europe offer -better prospects? The present world, the world without consecrated -authority, seems placed between two impossibilities, the impossibility -of the past and the impossibility of the future. And do not go to -think, as some imagine, that, if we are badly off at present, good will -come out of evil: human nature, when disordered at its source, does not -proceed with such correctness. For instance, the excesses of liberty -lead to despotism; but the excesses of tyranny lead only to tyranny; -the latter, in degrading us, makes us incapable of independence: -Tiberius did not cause Rome to go back to the Republic; he left only -Caligula to follow him. - -To avoid explanations, we are satisfied to declare that the times may -have hidden in their womb a political constitution which we do not -perceive. Did the whole of antiquity, did the finest geniuses of that -antiquity conceive a society without slaves? Yet we see it existing. -We assert that, in this civilization as yet unborn, the human race -will grow greater; I have advanced this theory myself: is it not to -be feared, however, that the individual will grow less? We may become -industrious bees occupied in common with the manufacture of our honey. -In the _material_ world, men unite for purposes of labour; a multitude -attains sooner and by different roads the thing after which it strives; -masses of individuals will raise pyramids; by dint of study, each on -his own side, those individuals will light upon scientific discoveries -and explore every corner of physical creation. But are things the same -in the _moral_ world? It will be vain for a thousand brains to combine: -never will they compose the master-piece that issues from the head of a -Homer. - -It has been said that a city whose members enjoy an equal division -of goods and education will present to the gaze of the Divinity a -spectacle surpassing the spectacle of the city of our fathers. The -madness of the moment tends to achieve the unity of peoples and to make -but one man of the whole race: well and good; but, in acquiring general -faculties, will not a whole series of private sentiments perish? -Good-bye to the delights of the home; good-bye to the charms of the -family: among all those beings, white, yellow and black, reputed as -your fellow-countrymen, you would not be able to throw yourself on a -brother's neck! Was there nothing in the life of old, nothing in that -limited space upon which you looked out from your ivy-framed casement? -Beyond your horizon, you suspected the existence of unknown lands of -which the bird of passage, the only traveller that you had seen in -autumn, scarce spoke to you. It was happiness to think that the hills -which surrounded you would not disappear from before your eyes; that -they contained your friendships and your loves; that the moaning of the -night around your dwelling would be the only sound to which you would -fall asleep; that never would your soul's solitude be disturbed; that -you would always meet there the thoughts that await you to resume their -familiar intercourse with you. You knew where you were born, you knew -where your tomb lay; as you entered the forest, you were able to say: - - Beaux arbres qui m'avez vu naître, - Bientôt vous me verrez mourir[433]! - -Man does not need to travel in order to grow greater: he carries -immensity with him. The accents that escape from your bosom are not -measured, they find an echo in thousands of souls: he who has not that -melody within himself will ask it in vain of the universe. Sit down -on the trunk of the tree felled in the depths of the wood: if in your -profound forgetfulness of self, in your immobility, in your silence you -do not find the infinite, it is useless for you to wander on the banks -of the Ganges. - -What would an universal society be that should have no particular -country, that should not be French, nor English, nor German, nor -Spanish, nor Portuguese, nor Italian, nor Russian, nor Tartar, nor -Turkish, nor Persian, nor Indian, nor Chinese, nor American, or rather -that should be all these societies at once? What would be the outcome -for its manners, its science, its arts, its poetry? How would passions -be expressed felt at the same time in the manner of different peoples -in different climates? How would the language entertain that confusion -of needs and images produced by the various suns that should have cast -their light upon a common youth, manhood and old age? And what would -that language be? Would an universal idiom result from this fusion of -societies, or would there be a dialect of compromise, employed for -daily use, while each nation would talk its own language, or else would -the different languages be understood by all? Under what like rule, -under what one law would this society have its being? How would one -find one's place on an earth enlarged by the power of ubiquitousness -and narrowed by the petty proportions of a globe tainted on every hand? -There would be nothing for it but to apply to science for means to -change one's planet. - - -Are you weary of private ownership and do you wish to turn the -government into a sole proprietor, distributing to what will have -become a mendicant community a share commensurate with the merit of -each individual? Who shall judge of the merits? Who will have the -strength and the authority to compel the execution of your decrees? Who -will keep and make the most of that bank of living real estate? - -[Sidenote: Socialism.] - -Will you seek to bring about the association of labour? What will the -weak, the sick, the unintelligent bring to the community left burdened -with their unfitness? - -Here is another contrivance: one might form, in place of wages, a -sort of limited company or partnership between manufacturers and -workmen, between mind and matter, to which the one would bring his -capital and his idea, the others their industry and their labour; the -eventual profits to be shared in common. That would be very good, -admitting complete perfection among men; very good, if you meet with -no quarrelling, avarice, nor envy: but, if a single partner protests, -the whole crumbles to the ground; divisions and law-suits begin. This -method, which seems a little more possible in theory, is quite as -impossible in practice. - -Would you, having modified your opinion, seek to build a city in which -every man shall possess a roof, a fire, clothes and sufficient to eat? -When you have succeeded in endowing every citizen, the good and bad -qualities of each will disturb your division and make it an unjust one: -this one requires more to eat than that; that one is unable to work as -much as this: the economical and industrious will become rich men, the -spendthrifts, the idlers, the cripples will relapse into poverty; for -you cannot give all men the same temperament: natural inequalities will -reappear in spite of your efforts. - -And do not think that we should allow ourselves to be tied by the -complicated legal precautions demanded by the organization of the -family, patrimonial rights, wardships, recaptions by heirs and -assigns, and so on, and so on. Marriage is notoriously an absurd -oppression: we abolish all that. If the son kills the father, it is not -the son, as is easily proved, who commits parricide but the father who, -by living, sacrifices the son. Do not therefore let us go confusing our -brains with the labyrinth of an edifice which we put down level with -the ground; it is unnecessary to linger over those crazy trifles of our -grandfathers. - -This notwithstanding, there are some among the modern sectarians who, -half seeing the impossibility of their doctrines, mix with them, to -obtain sufferance for them, words of morality and religion; they think -that, pending better things, we might first be brought up to the ideal -mediocrity of the Americans; they close their eyes and are good enough -to forget that the Americans are landlords and ardent landlords, which -alters the question somewhat. - -Others, still more obliging, who admit a sort of elegance of -civilization, would be content to transform us into "Constitutional" -Chinese, all but atheists, free and enlightened old men, sitting in -yellow robes for centuries in our flowery seed-plots, spending our -days in a state of comfort acquired to the multitude, having invented -everything, discovered everything, vegetating peacefully in the midst -of our accomplished progress and only going on board a railway-train, -like a bale of merchandise, in order to travel from Canton to the Great -Wall to chat about a marsh that wants draining or a canal that wants -cutting with some other manufacturer of the Celestial Empire. In either -supposition, American or Chinese, I shall be glad to have departed -before so great a felicity happened to me. - -Lastly, one solution remains: it might be that, in consequence of the -complete degradation of the human character, the peoples would put up -with what they have; they would lose the love of independence, replaced -by the love of money, at the same time that the kings lost the love of -power, bartered for the love of the Civil List. Hence would result a -compromise between monarchs and subjects charmed to crawl promiscuously -in a bastard political order of things; they would display their -infirmities to one another at their ease, as in the old leper-hospitals -or in those mud-baths in which sick people soak nowadays to obtain -relief: one would dabble in a common mire like a peaceful reptile. - -We misconstrue our times, however, when we desire, in the present -condition of society, to replace the pleasures of our intellectual -nature by the joys of our physical nature. The latter, we can -understand, were able to occupy the life of the old aristocratic -nations: masters of the world, they owned palaces, troops of slaves; -they absorbed whole regions of Africa in their private possessions. But -under what portico would you now air your paltry leisure? In what vast -and decorated baths would you shut up the perfumes, the flowers, the -flute-players, the courtezans of Ionia? One is not Heliogabalus[434] -for the asking. Where will you find the wealth indispensable to those -material delights? The soul is thrifty; but the body is extravagant. - -[Sidenote: Communism.] - -And now, a few words of a more serious character touching absolute -equality. That equality would bring back not only the servitude of -bodies, but the slavery of souls; it would be a question of nothing -less than destroying the moral and physical inequality of the -individual. Our will, administered under the general eye, would see -our faculties falling into disuse. The infinite, for instance, is part -of our nature: forbid our intellect, or even our passions to think -of endless blessings, and you reduce man to the life of the snail, -you transform him into a machine. For make no mistake: without the -possibility of attaining all, without the idea of living eternally, -you have nothingness everywhere; without individual property, none is -free; whosoever has no property cannot be independent; he becomes a -proletarian or a salaried servant, whether he live under the present -condition of separate ownerships or in the midst of a common ownership. -Common ownership would make society resemble one of those monasteries -at whose door stewards used to stand distributing bread. Hereditary and -inviolable property is our personal defense; property is nothing else -than liberty. Absolute equality, which presupposes complete submission -to that equality, would reproduce the harshest form of servitude; it -would turn the human individual into a beast of burden subjected to -the action which would constrain him and obliged to walk endlessly in -the same path. - -While I was arguing thus, M. de Lamennais[435], behind the bolts of -his gaol, was attacking the same systems with his logical power, which -is enlightened by the brilliancy of the poet. A passage borrowed from -his pamphlet entitled, _Du Passé et de l'avenir du peuple_[436] will -complete my arguments; listen to him, it is he now who speaks: - - "Of those who put before them this object of strict, absolute - equality, the most consistent, in order to establish it and - maintain it, agree upon the use of force, despotism, dictatorship, - under one form or another. - - "The partisans of absolute equality are, at the out-set, compelled - to attack the natural inequalities, in order to extenuate and, if - possible, destroy them. Unable to affect the primary conditions of - organization and development, their work begins at the moment when - man is born or when the child leaves its mother's womb. The State - then seizes upon it: behold it the absolute master of the spiritual - as of the organic being. Mind and conscience, all depends upon - the State, all is subject to the State. No more family, no more - paternity, no more marriage henceforth; a male, a female, children - whom the State handles, with which it does as it pleases, morally, - physically: an universal servitude and so profound that nothing - escapes it, that it penetrates to the very soul. - - "Where material things are concerned, equality can never be - established in ever so little a lasting manner by a simple - partition. If it be a question of land only, one can understand - that it can be divided into as many portions as there are - individuals; but, as the number of individuals varies perpetually, - it would also be necessary perpetually to vary that primitive - division. All individual property being abolished, there is no - lawful owner except the State. This mode of ownership, if it be - voluntary, is that of the monk bound down by his vows to poverty - as to obedience; if it be not voluntary, it is that of the slave, - where nothing modifies the harshness of his condition. All human - ties, sympathetic relations, mutual devotion, exchange of services, - free gift of self, all that constitutes the charm of life and its - greatness, all, all has disappeared, disappeared for ever. - - "The methods hitherto proposed to solve the problem of the future - of the people end in the negation of all the indispensable - conditions of existence, destroy, either directly or by - implication, duty, right, the family and would produce, if they - could be applied to society, instead of the liberty in which all - real progress is summarized, only a servitude with which history, - however far we go back into the past, can offer nothing to compare." - - -There is nothing to be added to this logic. - -[Sidenote: The Abbé de Lamennais.] - -I do not go to see prisoners, like Tartuffe, to distribute alms to -them, but to enrich my intelligence by contact with men who are worth -more than I. If their opinions differ from mine, I am not afraid: -stubborn Christian that I am, all the fine geniuses in the world would -not shake my faith; I am sorry for them, and my charity protects -me against seduction. If I sin through excess, they sin through -deficiency; I understand what they understand, they do not understand -what I understand. In the same prison where I used to visit the noble -and unfortunate Carrel, I now visit the Abbé de Lamennais[437]. -The Revolution of July has relegated to the darkness of a gaol the -remnant of the superior men of whom it can neither appraise the merit -nor endure the effulgency. In the last room as one goes up, under -a slooping roof which we can touch with our heads[438], we silly -believers in liberty, François[439] de Lamennais and François de -Chateaubriand, talk of serious things. Struggle as he please, his -ideas have remained in the religious mould; their form has remained -Christian, even when their substance is furthest removed from dogma: -his speech has retained the sound of Heaven. - -A true believer professing heresy, the author of the _Essai sur -l'indifférence_[440] talks my language with ideas that are not my -ideas. If, after having embraced the popular evangelical teaching, -he had remained attached to the priesthood, he would have preserved -the authority which variations have destroyed. The parish priests, -the new members of the clergy (and the most distinguished among those -ecclesiastics) were going towards him; the bishops would have found -themselves involved in his cause if he had clung to the Gallican -liberties, while continuing to venerate the successor of St. Peter and -defending unity. - -In France, the youth of the country would have gathered round the -missionary, in whom it found the ideas which it loves and the progress -to which it aspires; in Europe, the attentive dissenters would have -raised no obstacle; great Catholic nations, the Poles, the Irish, -the Spaniards, would have blessed the preacher who had risen up. -Rome herself would have ended by seeing that the new evangelist was -causing the dominion of the Church to take new birth and supplying -the oppressed Pontiff with the means of resisting the influence of -the absolute kings. What power of life! Intellect, religion, liberty -represented in a priest! - -God did not wish it: the light suddenly failed him who was the -light; the guide, stealing away, left his flock in darkness. But my -fellow-countryman, though his public career has been interrupted, -will always have his private superiority left and his pre-eminence in -natural gifts. In the order of time, he ought to survive me; I summon -him to my death-bed to agitate our great conquests at those gates -through which there is no returning. I should like to see his genius -shed upon me the absolution which once his hand had the right to call -down upon my head. We were lulled at our birth by the same waves[441]; -may my ardent faith and my sincere admiration be permitted to hope -that I shall meet my reconciled friend once more on the same shore of -eternal things[442]. - -On the upshot, my investigations lead me to conclude that the old -society is giving way beneath itself, that it is impossible for -whosoever is not a Christian to understand the future society pursuing -its career and satisfying at one time either the purely republican or -the moderate monarchical idea. In any hypothesis, you can derive the -improvements which you desire only from the Gospel. - -At the bottom of the actual sectarians, what we find is always the -plagiarism, the parody of the Gospel, always the apostolic principle: -that principle has entered into us so deeply that we use it as though -it belongs to us; we presume it to be natural, even though it be not so -to us; it has come to us from our old faith, to take the latter two or -three steps in the ascending line above us. Many a man of independent -mind occupied with the perfecting of his fellows would never have -thought of it if the right of the peoples had not been laid down by the -Son of Man. Every act of philanthropy in which we indulge, every system -of which we dream in the interests of humanity, is but the Christian -idea turned over, changed in name and too often disfigured: it is -always the Word made Flesh[443]! - -[Sidenote: The Christian idea.] - -Do you say that the Christian idea is only the human idea in -progression? I agree; but open the different cosmogonies, and you -shall learn that a traditional Christianity preceded revealed -Christianity upon earth. If the Messiah "had not come" and if He "had -not spoken[444]," as He says of Himself, the idea would not have -been disengaged, the truths would have remained confused, such as -we see them in the writings of the ancients. However you interpret -it, therefore, it is from the Revealer, or from Christ that you hold -everything; it is from the Saviour, _Salvator_, from the Comforter, -_Paracletus_, that you must always start; it is from Him that you have -received the germs of civilization and philosophy. - -You see, therefore, that I find no solution for the future except in -Christianity and in Catholic Christianity; the religion of the Word is -the manifestation of truth, even as the Creation is God made visible. -I do not pretend that a general renovation will absolutely take place, -for I admit that whole nations are vowed to destruction; I admit also -that the faith is drying up in certain countries: but, if a single -grain of it remain, if it fall upon a little earth, were it but in the -remnants of a vase, that grain will spring up and a second incarnation -of the Catholic spirit will revive society. - -Christianity is the most philosophical and rational appreciation of God -and the Creation; it contains the three great laws of the universe, -divine law, moral law, political law: divine law, the unity of God in -three Persons; moral law, charity; political law, that is, liberty, -equality, fraternity. - -The two first principles are fully developed; the third, political law, -has not received its complements, because it could not flourish so long -as the intelligent belief in the infinite being and universal morality -were not firmly established. Now Christianity had first to clear away -the absurdities and abominations with which idolatry and slavery had -encumbered the human race. - -Enlightened persons cannot understand how a Catholic like myself can -persist in sitting in the shadow of what they call ruins; according to -those persons, it is a wager on my part, an obstinate determination. -But tell me, for pity's sake, where shall I find a family and a God in -the individual and philosophical society which you offer me? Tell me -that, and I follow you; if not, do not find it amiss that I lie down in -the tomb of Christ, the only shelter which you have left to me while -abandoning me. - -No, I have made no wager with myself: I am sincere; see here what has -happened to me: of my plans, my studies, my experiments, all that has -remained to me is a complete disillusionment touching all the things -which this world pursues. My religious conviction, as it grew greater, -has swallowed up all my other convictions; there is no more believing -Christian and no more incredulous man here below than I. Far from -drawing near its end, the religion of the Deliverer has hardly entered -upon its political period: liberty, equality, fraternity. The Gospel, -the sentence of acquittal, has not yet been read to all; we have not -gone beyond the curses pronounced by Christ: - - "Wo to you ... because you load men with burdens which they cannot - bear, and you yourselves touch not the packs with one of your - fingers[445]." - -Christianity is stable in its dogma and mobile in its enlightenment; -its transformation involves the universal transformation. When it -has reached its highest point, the darkness will become completely -lightened; liberty, crucified on Calvary with the Messiah, will -descend from it with Him; it will hand to the nations that new -Testament written in its favour and hitherto trammelled in its clauses. -Governments will pass away, moral evil will disappear, rehabilitation -will proclaim the consummation of the centuries of death and oppression -born of the Fall. - -When will that longed-for day arrive? When will society reconstruct -itself after the secret methods of the generating principle? None can -say; it is impossible to calculate the resistance of the passions. - -[Sidenote: Christian liberty.] - -More than once will death enervate races of men and shed silence upon -events even as snow falling during the night deadens the noise of the -traffic. Nations do not grow up so rapidly as the individuals of whom -they are composed, nor do they disappear so quickly. How long does it -not take to attain a single thing sought after! The death-agony of the -Lower Empire threatened to be endless; the Christian Era, already so -extensive, has not sufficed to abolish servitude. These calculations, I -know, do not suit the French temper; in our revolutions, we have never -admitted the element of time: that is why we are always wonder-struck -at results contrary to our impatience. Full of generous courage, young -men rush onwards; they make straight for a lofty region which they -see dimly and which they strive to reach: nothing could be worthier -of admiration; but they will wear out their lives in those efforts -and, coming to the end, after disappointment upon disappointment, they -will consign the weight of the years of deception to other deluded -generations, which will carry it on to the next tombs; and so on. The -time of the desert has returned; Christianity is beginning over again, -in the barrenness of the Thebaid, amid a formidable idolatry, the -idolatry of man for himself. - -There are two kinds of consequences in history: one is immediate and -instantly known; the other distant and not seen at once. Those two -consequences are often contradictory: the first come from our short -wisdom, the others from long-continued wisdom. The providential event -appears after the human event. God rises behind men. Deny the Supreme -Counsel as much as you please; do not consent to its action; dispute -about words; call what the vulgar call Providence the force of things -or reason; but look at the end of an accomplished fact, and you shall -see that it has always produced the contrary of what was expected of -it, when it was not first established on morals and justice. - -If Heaven has not pronounced Its last decree; if there is to be a -future, a free and mighty future, that future is still far away, far -beyond the visible horizon: we can reach it only with the aid of that -Christian hope whose wings grow in proportion as all things seem to -betray it, that hope which is longer than time and more powerful than -misfortune. - - -Will the work inspired by my ashes and destined for my ashes be extant -after me? It is possible that my work may be bad; it is possible that -these Memoirs may fade into nothing on seeing the light: at least the -things which I have told myself will have served to beguile the tedium -of those last hours which no one wishes and which we know not how to -employ. At the end of life is a bitter age: nothing pleases, because -one is worthy of nothing; useful to none, a burden on all, near to our -last resting-place, we have but a step to take to reach it: what would -be the good of musing on a deserted shore? What pleasing shadows would -one see in the future? Fie upon the clouds that now hover over my head! - -One idea comes back to me and troubles me: my conscience is not -reassured as to the innocence of my vigils; I dread my blindness and -man's complacency towards his faults. Is what I am writing really in -keeping with justice? Are morality and charity rigorously observed? -Have I had the right to speak of others? What would it avail me to -repent, if these Memoirs did any harm? O you unknown and hidden of the -earth, you whose life, pleasing to the altars, works miracles, all hail -to your secret virtues! - -This or that poor man, destitute of knowledge, about whom none will -ever trouble, has, by the mere doctrine of his manners, exercised upon -his companions in suffering the divine influence which emanated from -the virtues of Christ. The greatest book on earth is not worth so much -as an unknown act of those nameless martyrs "whose blood Herod had -mingled with their sacrifices[446]." - -You have seen me born; you have seen my childhood, my idolatry of my -singular creation in Combourg Castle, my presentation at Versailles, -my attendance, in Paris, at the first spectacle of the Revolution. -In the New World, I met Washington; I penetrated into the backwoods; -shipwreck brought me back to the coast of my Brittany. Came my -sufferings as a soldier, my wretchedness as an Emigrant. Returning -to France, I became the author of the _Génie du Christianisme._ In a -changed society, I counted and lost friends. Bonaparte stopped me and -flung himself, with the blood-stained body of the Duc d'Enghien, across -my path; I stopped myself in my turn and brought the great man from -his cradle, in Corsica, to his tomb, in St. Helena. I shared in the -Restoration and saw its end. - -Thus I have known public and private life. I have four times crossed -the sea; I have followed the sun in the East, touched upon the ruins -of Memphis, Carthage, Sparta and Athens; I have prayed at the tomb of -St. Peter and worshipped on Golgotha. Poor and rich, powerful and weak, -happy and miserable, a man of action, a man of thought, I have placed -my hand in the century, my mind in the desert; effective existence has -shown itself to me in the midst of illusions, even as the land appears -to sailors in the midst of mists. If those facts spread over my dreams, -like the varnish that preserves fragile paintings, do not disappear, -they will mark the place through which my life passed. - -[Sidenote: My several careers.] - -In each of my three careers, I placed an important object before -myself: as a traveller, I aimed at discovering the polar world; as a -man of letters, I have striven to reconstruct religion from its ruins; -as a statesman, I have endeavoured to give the nations the system of -balanced monarchy, to restore France to her rank in Europe, to give -back to her the strength which the Treaties of Vienna had taken from -her; I have at least assisted in winning that one of our liberties -which is worth all the others: the liberty of the press. In the divine -order of things, religion and liberty; in the human order, honour and -glory (which are the human generation of religion and liberty): that is -what I have desired for my country. - -Of the French authors of my own period, I may be said to be the only -one who resembles his works: a traveller, soldier, publicist, minister, -it is amid forests that I have sung the forests, aboard ship that I -have depicted the Ocean, in camp that I have spoken of arms, in exile -that I have learnt to know exile, in Courts, in affairs of State, in -Parliament that I have studied princes, politics and laws. - -The orators of Greece and Rome played their part in the republic and -shared its fate; in Italy and Spain, at the end of the Middle Ages -and under the Renascence, the leading intellects in letters and the -arts took part in the social movement. How stormy and how fine were -the lives of Dante, of Tasso, of Camoens, of Ercilla, of Cervantes! In -France, of old, our songs and stories came to us from our pilgrimages -and battles; but, commencing from the reign of Louis XIV., our writers -have too often been men leading detached lives, and their talents have -perchance expressed the spirit, but not the deeds of their age. - -I, as luck would have it, after camping in Iroquois shelters and -Arab tents, after wearing the cloak of the savage and the caftan of -the mameluke, have sat at the tables of kings only to relapse into -indigence. I have meddled with peace and war; I have signed treaties -and protocols; I have taken part in sieges, congresses and conclaves, -in the restoration and overturning of thrones; I have made history and -I could write it: and my solitary and silent life went on through the -tumult and uproar in the company of the daughters of my imagination, -Atala, Amélie, Bianca, Velléda, without speaking of what I might call -the realities of my days, if they had not themselves been the seduction -of chimeras. I am afraid lest I should have a soul of the nature of -that which an ancient philosopher called a sacred sickness[447]. - -I have found myself caught between two ages, as in the conflux of two -rivers, and I have plunged into their waters, turning regretfully from -the old bank upon which I was born, yet swimming hopefully towards an -unknown shore[448]. - -The whole of geography has changed since, according to the expression -of our old customs, I was able to look at the sky from my bed. If -I compare the two terrestrial globes, the one at the commencement, -the other at the end of my life, I no longer recognise them. A fifth -part of the world, Australia, has been discovered and populated[449]; -French sails have recently caught sight of a sixth continent amid the -ice-fields of the Antarctic Pole[450], and the Parrys, Rosses and -Franklins have turned the coasts, on our own pole, that mark the -limits of North America; Africa has opened its mysterious solitudes; in -short, there is not a corner of our abode that is at present unknown. -We are attacking all the necks of land that separate the world; soon, -no doubt, we shall see ships pass through the Isthmus of Panama and, -perhaps, the Isthmus of Suez[451]. - -[Sidenote: The world of the future.] - -History has made parallel discoveries in the depths of time; the -sacred languages have allowed us to read their lost vocabulary; on -the very granite-blocks of Mezraim, Champollion[452] has deciphered -those hieroglyphics which seemed to be a seal set upon the lips of -the desert that answered for their eternal discretion[453]. If new -revolutions have struck off the map Poland, Holland[454], Genoa and -Venice, other republics occupy a part of the shores of the Pacific and -Atlantic. In those countries, a perfected civilization would be able to -lend assistance to a vigorous nature: steam-boats would ascend those -rivers destined to become easy means of communication after having been -invincible obstacles; the banks of those rivers would become covered -with towns and villages, even as we have seen new American States -spring from the deserts of Kentucky. Through those forests once reputed -impenetrable would fly horseless chariots, transporting enormous -weights and thousands of travellers. Along those rivers, along those -roads, would descend, together with the trees for the construction of -the ships, the wealth of the mines which would serve to pay for them; -and the Isthmus of Panama would burst its barrier to give passage to -those ships from one sea to the other. - -The shipping which borrows movement from fire is not restricted to the -navigation of rivers: it crosses the Ocean; distances are shortening: -no more currents, monsoons, contrary winds, blockades, close-ports. -It is a far cry from this romance of industry to the hamlet of -Plancoët[455]: in those days, the ladies used to play at old-time games -by their fireside; the peasant-women spun the hemp for their clothes; -the meagre resin-torch lit up the village evenings; chemistry had not -worked its wonders; machinery had not set all the waters and all the -irons in motion to weave the wools or embroider the silks; gas, left to -the fire-balls, did not yet supply the lighting for our theatres and -streets. - -Those transformations are not confined to our abodes: obeying the -instinct of his immortality, man has sent his intellect on high; -at each step that he has taken in the firmament, he has recognised -miracles of the Unspeakable Power. That star, which seemed single to -our fathers, is double and treble to our eyes; suns interposed before -suns eclipse one another and lack space for their multitude. In the -centre of the Infinite, God sees passing around Him those magnificent -theories, proofs added to the proofs of the Supreme Being. - -Let us picture, according to our enlarged knowledge, our paltry planet -swimming in an ocean whose waves are suns, in that milky way, the raw -matter of light, the molten metal of worlds which the hand of the -Creator will shape. The distance of certain stars is so prodigious that -their brightness will not be able to reach the eye that watches them -until those stars are extinct: the focus before the ray. How small is -man on the atom where he moves! But how great he is as an intellect! -He knows when the face of luminaries is to be overcast with shadow, at -what hour comets will return after thousands of years: he who lives but -an instant! Microscopic insect though he be, lying unperceived in a -fold of the robe of the sky, the globes cannot hide from him a single -one of their movements in the depth of space. What destinies will those -stars, new to us, shine upon? Is the revelation of those stars linked -with some new phase of humanity? You will know, O races yet to be born; -I do not know, and I am going. - -Thanks to the exorbitancy of my years, my monument is finished. It is a -great relief to me; I felt some one urging me: the skipper of the bark -in which my seat is taken was warning me that I had but a moment left -to go on board. If I had been the master of Rome, I should say, like -Sulla, that I am ending my Memoirs on the very eve of my death; but I -should not conclude my story with those words with which he concludes -his: - - "I have seen, in a dream, one of my children who showed me Metella, - his mother, and exhorted me to come to enjoy repose in the breast - of eternal happiness." - -If I had been Sulla, glory could never have given me repose and -happiness. - -[Sidenote: End of my Memoirs.] - -New storms will arise; men seem to have a presentiment of calamities -that will surpass the afflictions with which we have been overwhelmed; -already they are thinking of binding up their old wounds again in order -to return to the field of battle. Still, I do not believe in the early -outbreak of misfortunes; peoples and kings alike are tired out; no -unforeseen catastrophe will fall upon France: what comes after me will -be only the effect of the general transformation. No doubt, there will -be painful stations; the world cannot change its aspect without causing -suffering. But, once more, there will be no separate revolutions; -it will be the great revolution approaching its end. The scenes of -to-morrow do not concern me; they call for other painters: it is your -turn, gentlemen! - -As I write these last words, on the 16th of November 1841, my window, -which looks west over the gardens of the Foreign Missions, is open: it -is six o'clock in the morning; I see the pale and spreading moon; it is -sinking over the spire of the Invalides scarce revealed by the first -gold ray from the East: one would say that the old world was ending -and the new commencing. I behold the reflections of a dawn of which I -shall not see the sun rise. It but remains for me to sit down by the -edge of my grave; and then I shall descend boldly, crucifix in hand, to -Eternity. - -[399] This book was written partly in 1834 and partly in 1841, from the -25th of September to the 16th of November.--T. - -[400] Chateaubriand is a year out in his calculation; but, as has -been said before and as he himself has stated, he was an indifferent -arithmetician.--T. - -[401] 1 September 1715.--T. - -[402] Antonio Giudice, Duca di Giovenazza, Principe di Cellamare -(1657-1733), of Neapolitan birth, was Spanish Ambassador to the Court -of France in 1715. He became the soul of a conspiracy directed against -the Duc D'Orléans and having for its object the transfer of the Regency -to Philip V. King of Spain. But the plot was discovered and Cellamare -made to leave the Kingdom in 1718.--T. - -[403] _Cf._ Vol. V., p. 15, n. 5. Alberoni's fall occurred in 1719.--T. - -[404] Guillaume Cardinal Dubois, Archbishop of Cambrai (1656-1723), -became Foreign Minister in 1717, was useful to the Regent in -discovering Cellamare's conspiracy and received the See of Cambrai, as -his reward, in 1718. He became Prime Minister in 1722. Dubois added to -the Court of the Regency such depravity as there was room for.--T. - -[405] John Law (1671-1729), the Scotch financier, became French -Controller-general of Finance in May 1720. He was the inventor of a -marvellous "System," which collapsed in May of the same year, and Law -with it. He was driven from France and his estates confiscated.--T. - -[406] Louis Henri Duc de Bourbon (1692-1740), known as M. le Duc, was -Prime Minister from 1723 to 1726, when Fleury obtained his banishment -to Chantilly. - -[407] André Hercule Cardinal de Fleury, Bishop of Fréjus (1653-1743), -was seventy-three years old, when he became Prime Minister, and -remained in power till his death, at the age of ninety.--T. - -[408] The War of the Polish Succession.--B. - -[409] 29 May 1734 (_Cf._ Vol. I., p. 13).--T. - -[410] Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, Maréchal Duc de Belle-Isle -(1684-1761), father of the Comte de Gisors and grandson of Fouquet -(_vide infra_), created a marshal of France, after meritorious -services, in 1700. His finest feat of arms was his masterly retreat -from Prague in 1742. He was Minister for War from 1757 till his -death.--T. - -[411] The French were defeated by the Brunswickers, at Crefeld, on the -23rd of June 1758.--T. - -[412] Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle-Isle (1615-1680), -Superintendent of Finance from 1652 to 1661, is more celebrated -for the disgrace that followed on his administration than for that -administration itself. He was arrested and condemned for peculation in -1661 and imprisoned at Pignerol, in Piedmont, where he died in 1680, -after nineteen years' captivity. He retained many good friends during -his reverses of fortune, notably La Fontaine, who sang his sufferings, -and Madame de Sévigné.--T. - -[413] La Bourdonnais (_Cf._ Vol. I., p. 26, n. 6) was Governor-General -of the Isles of France and Bourbon when, in 1743, he went to the -assistance of Dupleix, Governor of French India, who was threatened -by the English. La Bourdonnais laid siege to Madras and compelled it -to capitulate (1746). By the terms of the capitulation, Madras was to -be restored to the English on payment of a ransom. Dupleix quashed -this capitulation and a collision arose between him and La Bourdonnais -which was fatal to the latter. Furious at Dupleix's want of faith, La -Bourdonnais evacuated Madras and went back as a private individual to -the Isle of France, where he had been replaced in the command by the -instructions of the masterful Dupleix. He returned to France, in 1748, -to reply to the accusations levelled against him at the instance of -his persecutor, was imprisoned in the Bastille and remained there for -several years without receiving an opportunity of justifying himself. -At last, in 1752, his innocence was established and he released; but he -was a ruined man and he died in 1753 of a long and painful illness.--T. - -[414] Joseph François Marquis Dupleix (1697-1764) was Governor of the -French East Indies from 1742 to 1754. In the war which ensued on his -breach of faith (_vide supra_), he displayed a courage and capacity -that went far to atone for the wrong he had undoubtedly committed. For -forty-two days, he defended Pondicherry against a formidable English -fleet and an army on land, and he added a great tract of country to the -French dominions. Puffed out by his successes, he ended by struggling -against the French East India Company itself, whose agent he was, when -it tried to oppose his enterprises. Ruined at last by all these wars, -he strove for a time to conceal the real state of things: the truth -became known, and he was recalled (1754). He spent the rest of his life -in bringing actions against the Company for sundry millions of francs -advanced to them and died in poverty and humiliation, in Paris, in -1764.--T. - -[415] 1 November 1755.--T. - -[416] Robert first Lord Clive of Plassey (1725-1774) started on his -first expedition against Bengal in 1756. He won the Battle of Plassey -on the 23rd of June 1757 and was Governor of Bengal from 1758 to 1760 -and from 1765 to 1767. Clive committed suicide in London on the 22nd of -November 1774.--T. - -[417] Robert François Damiens (1715-1757) made an unsuccessful attempt -on the life of King Louis XV. on the 5th of January 1757. He succeeded -in stabbing him. The punishment inflicted on Damiens was one of the -most serious known in history: his right hand was burnt in a slow fire; -his flesh was torn with pincers and burnt with melted lead; resin, wax -and oil were poured upon the wounds; and he was torn to pieces by four -horses.--T. - -[418] The Family Compact was a treaty signed on the 15th of August 1761 -between the Kings of France, Spain and the Two Sicilies and the Duke -of Parma, and so-called because all the contracting parties belonged -to the Bourbon Family. The object of this treaty, of which the Duc de -Choiseul was the chief author, was to counteract the superiority of the -British Navy by the union of the French, Spanish and Italian forces.--T. - -[419] _Cf._ Vol. I., p. 139, n. 1.--T. - -[420] Madame Du Barry was guillotined on the 6th of December 1793--T. - -[421] Dominique Joseph Garat (_Cf._ Vol. II., p. 106, n. 6) was sent, -as Minister of Justice under the Convention, on the 20th of January -1793, to notify Louis XVI.'s condemnation to him.--T. - -[422] Claude Louis Comte de Saint-Germain (1707-1778) became Minister -for War to Louis XVI., in 1775, on the advice of Turgot. He effected -many useful reforms, especially in the King's Military Household, but -displeased the army by attempting to introduce the Austrian discipline -and corporal punishment. He resigned office in 1777 and died in the -course of the following year.--T. - -[423] Chateaubriand was born on the 4th of September 1768.--T. - -[424] Prussia declared herself a kingdom in 1701.--T. - -[425] Russia underwent her greatest development under Peter the Great, -whose reign lasted from 1682 to 1725.--T. - -[426] Corsica was annexed to France on the 15th of August 1768.--T. - -[427] Napoleon I. was born on the 15th of August 1768.--T. - -[428] _Cf._ Vol. I., pp. 68-69.--T. - -[429] American Independence was recognised by Great Britain in 1783.--T. - -[430] _Gen._, IV., 19.--T. - -[431] Isabella II. Queen of Spain (_b._ 1830 and still living) was made -to usurp the throne, in 1833, on the death of Ferdinand VII., when a -child of three, by the machinations of her mother, Maria Christina -(_cf._ Vol. III., p. 221, n. 2 and Vol. V., p. 74, n. 4). Queen -Isabella was deposed and driven from Spain in 1868, since which time -she has resided in Paris.--T. - -[432] Victoria Queen of Great Britain and Ireland (_cf._ Vol. IV., p. -47, n. 2) married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on the 10th of -February 1840, when in her twenty-first year.--T. - -[433] GUILLAUME ANFRIE, ABBÉ DE CHAULIEU, _Les Louanges de la vie -champêtre, à Fontenay, en_ 1707, 71-72: - - "O beautiful trees that presided - O'er my birth, you shall soon see me die!"--T. - - -[434] Varius Avitus Bassianus, known as Heliogabalus, Roman Emperor -(205-222) was proclaimed Emperor in 218 and gave himself up to the -most extravagant licentiousness. He was killed, in the eighteenth year -of his age, by his soldiers, whom his rapacity and debaucheries had -irritated.--T. - -[435] Lamennais (_cf._ Vol. I., p. 27, n. 1) had been prosecuted for -one of his political writings, the _Pays et le Gouvernement_, and -sentenced, on the 26th of December 1840, to twelve months' imprisonment -and a tine of 2,000 francs.--B. - -[436] Lamennais' pamphlet had just been published when Chateaubriand -was writing these last pages of the Memoirs in the autumn of 1841.--B. - -[437] Lamennais was locked up at Sainte-Pélagie from January to -December 1841. He here composed his _Voix de prison_, an admirable -little volume containing, beside the furious rage of the pamphleteer, -pages of exquisite poetic feeling.--B. - -[438] It is interesting in this connection to note that Lamennais was a -dwarf in stature and Chateaubriand himself only five feet four inches -high.--T. - -[439] Lamennais' name was not François, but Félicité Robert.--T. - -[440] 1817-1823.--T. - -[441] Lamennais was born at Saint-Malo on the 19th of June 1782, -fourteen years after Chateaubriand.--T. - -[442] Lamennais died in Paris on the 27th of February 1854, six years -after Chateaubriand. His funeral was held almost by stealth, on the 1st -of March. The hour of the funeral was accelerated by the authorities, -who were afraid of disturbances; six or eight persons followed the -hearse, from which the crowd was kept off by an armed force. - -"The coffin," says M. Blaize, in his _Essai biographique sur M. F. de -La Mennais_, "was lowered into one of those long and hideous trenches -in which the common people are buried. When it was covered with earth, -the grave-digger asked: - -"'Is there to be a cross?'" - -M. Barbet answered: - -"'No. M. de La Mennais said, "They must put nothing on my grave.'" - -"Not a word was spoken over the tomb."--B. - -[443] JOHN, I., 14.--T. - -[444] JOHN, XV., 22.--T. - -[445] LUKE, XI., 46.--T. - -[446] _Cf._ LUKE, XIII., 1: "And there were present at that very time -some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood _Pilate_ had mingled -with their sacrifices." An earlier edition gives _Herodotus!_ I have -little doubt that the misquotation was a slip on the part of the -author's pen.--T. - -[447] Epilepsy.--T. - -[448] _Cf._ Vol. I., pp. XXI.-XXIV.: _The Author's Preface._--T. - -[449] Australia was explored by Cook in 1770-1777. The first settlement -was at Port Jackson in 1788.--T. - -[450] Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842) visited the -Antarctic Ocean in the _Coquille_, in 1839. He was killed in the -burning of a railway train between Paris and Versailles on the 8th of -May 1842.--T. - -[451] Ferdinand Vicomte de Lesseps (1805-1894) made his first -investigation of the Isthmus of Suez in 1849. The Canal was thrown open -for navigation in 1869. Work on the Panama Canal began in 1881.--T. - -[452] Jean François Champollion (1791-1831) discovered the key to the -Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions in 1822, with the aid of the famous -Rosetta Stone.--T. - -[453] M. Charles Lenormant, Champollion's learned travelling-companion, -has preserved the grammar of the obelisks which M. Ampère has gone to -study to-day on the ruins of Thebes and Memphis.--_Author's Note._ - -[454] _Sic_, in all the editions!--T. - -[455] _Cf._ Vol. I., pp. 21-22.--T. - -THE END. - - - - -APPENDICES - - -I. THE MORGANATIC MARRIAGE OF THE DUCHESSE DE BERRY - -II. UNPUBLISHED FRAGMENTS OF THE _MÉMOIRES D'OUTRE-TOMBE_ - -III. THE LAST YEARS OF CHATEAUBRIAND - -IV. THE TRANSLATOR'S SECOND NOTE - - - - -APPENDIX I - -(BY M. EDMOND BIRÉ) - -THE MORGANATIC MARRIAGE OF THE DUCHESSE DE BERRY - -The Comte de La Ferronnays, in the course of his interviews with King -Charles X. at Hradschin Castle[456], brought himself to say: - -"If Madame has not yet complied with Your Majesty's wish, if she has -hitherto refused to furnish the proof which is asked of her, it is -because her advisers in Paris, M. Hennequin[457] among others, have -frightened her as to the consequences that might ensue to her from the -publicity which it may perhaps be intended to give to her marriage. -She has been told that Your Majesty would not be satisfied until you -had the original instrument in your hands. Now Madame, I fear, will -never part with that document. But, if there were any other means of -obtaining the certainty which Your Majesty desires to have, if a man -honoured with all the King's confidence, such as M. de Montbel, for -instance, could, on his word of honour, vouch for the existence and the -perfect regularity of the marriage-deed, would the King then declare -himself satisfied?" - -Since the Emigration, Charles X. had the habit of addressing M. de La -Ferronnays in the second person singular. He replied eagerly: - -"Yes, certainly, I only ask to be convinced." - -It was then arranged that M. de La Ferronnays and M. de Montbel should -go to Florence to the Duchesse de Berry. The Comte de La Ferronnays -continues his narrative in the following words: - - "On returning to Prague, I found M. de Montbel's carriage standing - ready harnessed before my door. He was waiting for my return to set - out for Florence, where we were to join the Duchess. He purposed to - pass through Vienna, where he had to supply himself with certain - papers which he thought useful. I intended to go straight to - Tuscany. Nevertheless, in spite of all the haste that I made, I did - not arrive until twenty-four hours after him. - - "I immediately called at his hotel; it was six o'clock in the - morning. Soon, Montbel joined me in a little sitting-room next to - his bed-room: - - "'We have made an useless journey,' he said to me at once; 'I much - regret having undertaken it. I saw the Duchesse de Berry yesterday, - one hour after my arrival. I found her more excited, more irritated - against the King than ever. She is firmly decided to yield on no - point and to risk all the consequences of a rupture by arriving in - Prague, in spite of the measures taken to close the road to her. - All my arguments, all my entreaties were useless. She ended by - flying out against what she calls the partiality of my conduct. I - can do no more. As for you, she expects you with impatience. She - is persuaded that the letter which you are bringing her from the - Emperor will give her the liberty to continue her journey. That - letter, so different from what she expects, will increase her - irritation two-fold. You will have a painful scene and it appears - to me impossible that you should succeed in making her listen to - reason.'" - -As the Duchesse de Berry was not to receive M. de La Ferronnays until -eleven o'clock, the latter, on leaving M. de Montbel, went to the Comte -de Saint-Priest. M. de Saint-Priest was the Princess's most authorized -adviser. The reception was perfect, but nevertheless wrapped up in -every imaginable kind of reserve. - -"At bottom, the question remains the same," said M. de Saint-Priest. -"However affectionate the letter which M. de Montbel brought from -the King may be, it makes no alteration in the first demands, nor, -consequently, in the reasons which the Duchess has for rejecting them. -The mere fact," concluded M. de Saint-Priest, "of handing over the -marriage-deed, as Madame is asked to do, would be enough to deprive -her of her rights as a mother, a princess of the Blood and Regent She -refuses and will always refuse to hand it over." - -This was brusquely broaching a question which M. de La Ferronnays -meant to discuss only with the Duchess herself. He therefore left M. -de Saint-Priest, not, however, without obtaining from him a promise of -complete neutrality. - - "At the appointed hour," he continues, in his narrative, "I called - at the Poggio Imperiale, where Madame was staying. When I was - announced, she was alone, in a small drawing-room, with Count - Lucchesi, who at once withdrew. - - "Her Royal Highness' first sentence was one of thanks. The - second was to ask me for the Emperor's letter. She read it with - ever-increasing excitement: - - "'I see,' she at last said, angrily, 'that the party against me is - firmly united. This letter of the Emperor's is evidently dictated - by the King. They want to drive me to extremities. They want to be - able to say to France and to my children that there is no Duchesse - de Berry now, that there is only a foreigner entitled to neither - protection nor pity! They are erecting a pillory and they want me - to fasten myself to it.... They know me very little, if they think - me capable of so mean-spirited an act. They who employ such lofty - language to me have a false appreciation of their position and - mine. They do not know the strength which public opinion can give - me against them. They shall learn to know, for, as they want war, I - accept it. I shall have everything printed, everything published. I - shall prove that it is for me to impose conditions and not for me - to accept any. I shall force the King to respect my rights and at - last to give me back my children.' - - "Madame la Duchesse de Berry's utterance was loud and short, her - gestures abrupt; and, but for her extreme agitation, I might have - thought that she was repeating a part which she had studied. I - expected this outburst; I was also prepared with the language which - I should have to hold; but I did not hurry to reply. - - "Astonished at my silence: - - "'But, after all,' she asked, 'don't you think that I am right?' - - "'I shall dare to tell you everything, Madame, because my reasons - for being absolutely sincere will justify the harshness of my - words. All that Your Highness has just told me makes me fear that - you are ill-informed, ill-advised or ill-inspired. I have listened - to Madame with great attention and I am obliged to tell her that - she is mistaken as to the King's intentions, but that she is also - unfortunately mistaken as to her own position. The King, Madame, - does not believe in Your Highness' marriage. He does not believe - in it, because you refuse to give him the proof of it and because - your friends continue to protest against the reality of this - marriage. And yet it is important that the truth about this should - be known. Too much has been said about it, or not enough. M. le - Comte Lucchesi's presence about Your Highness is no longer to be - explained. As long as this remains so, I am not afraid to say that - the King, having his grand-children with him, cannot admit you into - the interior of his family. Right, justice and reason are on His - Majesty's side.' - - "Here the Duchesse de Berry, whose agitation was extreme, was - unable to contain herself any longer and cried: - - "'But, monsieur, I give you my word of honour that I am married. - The marriage-deed, which is perfectly regular, exists. It is - deposited in safe hands, and I shall certainly not take it from - them to place it in those of Charles X. and M. de Metternich.' - - "'I beg Your Highness to observe that this is the first time - that you have deigned to speak to me with such confidence. One - declaration of this kind made to me in Naples with that accent - of truth would, I dare to think, have been enough to enable me - to fulfil in an entirely satisfactory manner the mission with - which Your Royal Highness was pleased to entrust me. But what - had I to oppose to the King's doubts? What could I tell him to - reassure his conscience? Nothing, Madame, for you had told me - nothing. My personal conviction could carry no weight Your friends, - moreover, reproached me with it. To admit that one believed in - Your Highness' marriage seemed to them almost an act of treachery. - I could therefore say nothing and I was obliged to leave the King - in the fulness of his doubts. Do not believe, Madame, that it is - to Charles X.'s interest to stigmatize the widow of his son and - the mother of his grandson. No, he shows himself only jealous of - your honour as a widow and a mother, believe me. The King may have - disapproved of a marriage contracted without his knowledge, he - may even have become irritated at it; but to-day he asks only to - set his conscience at rest and to shelter your honour. Your Royal - Highness speaks of the strength which public opinion will give you. - You seem to threaten the King and the Powers with your anger. - Alas, all those outbursts would only be new and great misfortunes. - It is very painful for me to be reduced to give utterance only to - cruel words. But it is necessary that Madame should at last know - the truth, so that she may resolve upon a necessary sacrifice. - No, Madame is no longer in a situation to dictate terms or impose - conditions: she still judges her position from the height of the - pedestal upon which public opinion for some time placed her. No - doubt, if Your Royal Highness had remained there; if, after the - admiration inspired by her sublime courage, constancy, devotion, - we had had to bemoan only her reverses and her captivity, not only - would Madame have lost none of her spell, but she would have left - Blaye even greater than when she entered it. She would not have had - to dictate conditions, for she would have found none but submissive - wills before her. But, unhappily for Madame and for France, the - declaration made in the month of February has completely and - cruelly changed all that. Believe, Madame, the voice of a friend - who will never be able to give you a greater proof of his devotion - than he is doing at this moment; or rather, listen only to your - reason. It will make you understand why and to what extent your - position is changed. You will admit how guilty is the want of - reflection of those who advise you to resort to resistance and even - threats. Everyone pities you, Madame, but no one is any longer - afraid of you. The struggle which you are being urged to maintain - is henceforth too unequal. Its prolongation can henceforth have - fatal consequences for you alone.' - - "While speaking, I saw the unhappy Princess turn red, then pale; - tears poured down her cheeks, but she did not try to interrupt me. - I was able to fulfil my sad duty to the end. She then looked at me - with an indefinable expression of face: - - "'If all that you have just told me is true, they are deceiving - me and I am very unhappy. What do you want me to do? Can I send - that original document which, before the courts, would be my - condemnation?' - - "'No, Madame, I am the first to tell Your Highness that you must - in no case part with it. Only, the King's conscience desires to - be reassured; there is no other motive in his demand. If the King - could obtain the certainty of Your Highness' marriage, without - your parting with the original, without your even giving a copy of - it, should you see any danger, for yourself or your interests, in - satisfying Charles X.?' - - "The Princess tried to guess my thought. - - "'But what means can you contrive that would satisfy the King, - since he refuses to believe my word?' - - "'The King does not believe it, because you have not given it him.' - - "'But I tell you again that I am married. The deed is in Rome, in - the Pope's hands.' - - "'Well then, Madame, if a man honoured by your confidence and the - King's, if M. de Montbel were to go to Rome, would you refuse to - allow the holder of your marriage-deed to give him cognizance of - it, or at least to certify its existence to him? I am certain - that M. de Montbel's declaration would be immediately followed by - the dispatch of the passports which Your Highness so impatiently - desires.' - - "Madame la Duchesse de Berry, at last conquered, came up to me and - said, with a sad smile: - - "'I see no harm in trying the method which you propose, but you - understand that I cannot decide alone. Count Lucchesi's consent is - as necessary as my own.' - - "M. le Comte Lucchesi was in a neighbouring room, with Messieurs - de Montbel and de Saint-Priest; I called him in. Madame herself - repeated to him the proposal which I had just made. He did not - hesitate to accept. - - "I then asked that the two other gentlemen might be brought in. We - all sat round a little table before which Madame la Duchesse de - Berry was herself seated and, at her bidding, I gave an account of - the explanation which I had just had with her. As I was finishing, - I addressed the Comte de Montbel: - - "'And now, monsieur, it is for you alone, who know the King's mind - and who, so to speak, represent him here, to judge and declare if - the method which I propose will be able to satisfy His Majesty and - put an end to his opposition to Madame's journey to Prague.' - - "'I give a formal undertaking to that effect,' cried M. de Montbel, - with deep emotion. I Madame, how great is the gratitude that we owe - you and how happy I shall be, if I can have contributed a little - towards a reconciliation for which I long with all my soul!' - - "I proposed to M. de Montbel himself to draw up, then and there, - the rough draft of a letter to the Cardinal Vicar, which would then - be copied out and signed by Madame and by Count Lucchesi. A few - moments were enough to prepare this draft, which was approved of. - - "It was arranged that the letter should be written during the day, - and Madame invited us to meet again there at noon the next day; she - added that M. de Montbel could then, set out for Rome and that she - herself would leave Florence two days later to go to Bologna, where - M. de Montbel would join her again. - - "The next day, as arranged, we met, at the appointed time, at - the Poggio Imperiale. Her Highness received us with an air of - contentment which I, for my part, had not yet seen her display. - - "'I have,' she said, 'done all that you asked. I hope that they - will be pleased at last.' - - "At the same time, she showed us her letter to the Cardinal Vicar; - this letter agreed exactly with the copy as given by M. de Montbel. - Madame's signature and Count Lucchesi's were at foot, and the - signatures had been witnessed by the Grand-duke of Tuscany and his - minister, Fossombroni[458]. M. de Montbel set out the same evening - for Rome, and I left Florence two days later. - - "At a stage at Viterbo, I met M. de Montbel, who had already - fulfilled his mission; he had stayed only half a day in Rome. - He had seen no one but the Cardinal Vicar, who, after taking - the Pope's instructions, had hastened not only to give him a - declaration in writing of Madame la Duchesse de Berry's marriage - to Count Lucchesi, but had shown him the deed itself, which was - perfectly regular. M. de Montbel had decided to travel without - stopping and was convinced of the definite success of his mission." - - - - -APPENDIX II - - -UNPUBLISHED FRAGMENTS OF THE _MÉMOIRES D'OUTRE-TOMBE_[459] - - -MAINTENON, _September_ 1836. - -I resume my pen at the Château de Maintenon, through whose gardens I -stroll by the autumnal light: _peregrinæ gentis amænum hospitium._ - -When passing in front of the coasts of Greece, I used to ask myself -what had become of the four acres of the garden of Alcinous, shaded -with pomegranate-trees, apple-trees, fig-trees and adorned with two -fountains? Goodman Laertes' vegetable-garden in Ithaca no longer had -its two and twenty pear-trees when I was sailing before that island, -and they were not able to tell me if Zante was still the home of the -hyacinth. The pleasure-ground of Academus, in Athens, offered a few -stumps of olive-trees to my view, as did the Garden of Gethsemane at -Jerusalem. I have not wandered in the gardens of Babylon, but Plutarch -teaches us that they still existed in the time of Alexander. Carthage -presented to me the aspect of a park strewn with the vestiges of Dido's -palaces. At Granada, looking through the doorways of the Alhambra, I -could not take my eyes from the groves in which the romance of Spain -had placed the loves of the Zegris. From the top of David's house at -Jerusalem, the King-Prophet saw Bethsabee bathing in Urias' gardens; I -saw none pass there save a daughter of Eve, a poor Abigail, who will -never inspire me with the magnificent Penitential Psalms. - -During the Conclave of 1828, I strolled in the Gardens of the Vatican. -An eagle, plucked of its feathers and imprisoned in a den, presented -the emblem of Pagan Rome overthrown; an emaciated rabbit was delivered -as a prey to the bird of the Capitol, which had devoured the world. -Monks have shown me, at Tusculum and Tibur, the waste fruit-groves of -Cicero and Horace. I have shot wild-duck in Pliny's Laurentinum; the -waves came to die at the foot of the wall of the dining-room, where, -through three windows, one descried as it were three seas: _quasi tria -maria._ - -In Rome herself, as I lay among the wild anemones of Bel Respiro, -between the pine-trees that formed a vault above my head, the Sabine -Range opened to the view in the distance; Albano enchanted my eyes -with its azure mountain, whose lofty denticulations were fringed with -gold by the last rays of the sun: a sight that became more admirable -still when I came to think that Virgil had contemplated it, as I was -doing, and that I was seeing it again, from the midst of the ruins of -the city of the Cæsars, across the vine-branch of the Tomb of the -Scipios[460]. - - -If, from these Gardens of the Hesperides of poetry and history, I -descend to the gardens of our days, how many have I seen born and die? -Without speaking of the woods of Sceaux, Marly, Choisy, now razed to -the level of the corn-fields, without speaking of the thickets of -Versailles, which they purpose to restore to their festal condition! -I too have planted gardens; my little water-furrow, which served as a -passage for the winter rains, was in my eyes equal to the ponds of the -_Prædium rusticum._ - -Seen from the side of the park, the Château de Maintenon, surrounded by -moats filled from the waters of the Eure, presents on the left a square -tower of bluish stone, on the right a round tower of red brick. The -square tower is connected, by a block of buildings, with the surbased -archway which opens from the outer yard to the inner yard of the -castle. Above this, archway rises a mass of turrets from which starts -a building which is attached transversely to another block coming from -the round tower. These three lines of buildings contain a space closed -on three sides and open only on the park. - -The seven or eight towers of different thickness, height and shape are -capped with priests' bonnets, which mix with a church-window, placed -outside, towards the village. - -The façade of the castle on the village side is of the Renascence -period. The fancifulness of this style of architecture gives the -Château de Maintenon a special character, as who should say of a town -of olden time or a fortified abbey, with its spires and steeples, -grouped at hap-hazard. - -To complete the medley of periods, there is a great aqueduct, the work -of Louis XIV.; one would think it a labour of the Cæsars. One goes -down from the drawing-room of the castle into the garden by a bridge, -lately put up, which partakes of the architecture of the Rialto. Thus -are Ancient Rome and the Italian Cinquecento associated with the French -sixteenth century. Memories of Bianca Capello[461] and de' Medici, of -the Duchesse d'Étampes[462] and Francis I. rise up through memories -of Louis XIV. and Madame de Maintenon, while all this is swayed and -completed by the recent catastrophe of Charles X. - -The castle was rebuilt by Jean Cottereau[463] Treasurer to Louis XII. -Marot, in his _Cimetière_, maintains that Cottereau was too honest a -man for a financier. One of Cottereau's daughters brought the Maintenon -domain into the d'Angennes family. In 1675, this domain was bought by -Françoise d'Aubigné, who became Madame de Maintenon. Maintenon reverted -to the Noailles family, in 1698, through the marriage of a niece[464] -of the wife of Louis XIV. with Adrien Maurice Duc de Noailles[465]. - -The park has something of the calm and gravity of the Great King. Near -the middle, the first tier of arcades of the aqueduct crosses the bed -of the Eure and connects the two hills on opposite sides of the valley, -so that at Maintenon a branch of the Eure would have flowed in the -air above the Eure. "In the air" is the word: for the first arcades, -as they exist, are eighty-four feet high and they were to have been -surmounted by two other tiers of arcades. - -The Roman aqueducts are nothing beside the aqueducts of Maintenon; -they would all go under one of those arches. I know only the Aqueduct -of Segovia, in Spain, which recalls the massiveness and solidity of -this one; but it is shorter and lower[466]. If you picture to yourself -some thirty triumphal arches linked laterally one with the other and -more or less resembling the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile in height and -width of opening, you will have an idea of the Maintenon Aqueduct; but -even then you must remember that what you see is only a third of the -perpendicular and of the perforation which would have been formed by -the treble gallery destined for the passage of the waters. - -The fallen fragments of this aqueduct are compact blocks of rocks; they -are covered with trees around which hover crows fat as doves: they flit -to and fro under the curves of the aqueduct like little black fairies -performing fatidical dances under garlands. - -At the sight of this monument, one is struck with the imposing -character with which Louis XIV. imprinted all his works. It is for ever -to be regretted that this gigantic conduit was not finished: the water -carried to Versailles would have fed the fountains there and created a -new marvel by making their waters play perpetually; from there it might -have been brought to the suburbs. It is a pity, no doubt, that the camp -formed for the works at Maintenon in 1686 caused the death of a large -number of soldiers[467]; it is a pity that many millions should have -been spent on an uncompleted undertaking. But, certainly, it is a still -greater pity that Louis XIV., driven by necessity, astounded at the -cries of economy which frustrate the loftiest schemes, should have lost -patience: otherwise, the greatest monument on earth would to-day have -belonged to France. - -Say what we may, a nation's fame increases that nation's power, and -that is no vain thing. As for the millions, their value would have -been represented at high interest by an edifice as useful as it -was wonderful; as for the soldiers, they would have fallen as the -Roman legions fell in building their famous "roads," another kind of -battle-field, no less glorious for the country. - -It was in this alley of old willow-trees, where I was strolling a -moment ago, that Racine, after the triumph of Pradon's[468] _Phèdre_, -sighed his last songs[469]. - -Madame de Maintenon, having attained the summit of greatness, wrote to -her brother[470]: - - "I am done up, I would that I were dead." - -She wrote to Madame de La Maisonfort: - - "Do you not see that I am dying of melancholy.... I have been young - and pretty; I have tasted pleasure... and I protest to you that - every condition leaves a horrid void." - -Madame de Maintenon exclaimed: - -"What a torment to have to amuse a man who is no longer capable of -amusement!" - -It has been reckoned as a crime against the daughter of a simple -nobleman[471], against the widow of Scarron[472], that she should speak -in this way of Louis XIV., who had raised her to his bed; but I see -in this the accent of a superior nature, which was above the exalted -fortune to which she had attained. Only I would have preferred that -Madame de Maintenon had not left the dying Louis XIV., especially after -hearing these grave and tender words: - -"I regret only you; I have not made you happy, but I have always had -for you all the sentiments of esteem and friendship which you deserve: -the only thing that vexes me is to leave you[473]." - -The last years of that Monarch were an expiation offered to the first. -Stripped of his prosperity and his family[474], he allowed his eyes -to roam from this window over that garden. He no doubt fixed them on -that water-conduit already abandoned since twenty years: great ruins -that they were, an image of the ruins of the Great King, they seemed to -foretell the exhaustion of his House and to await his great-grandson. -The time in which Le Nôtre[475] designed the gardens of Versailles for -Mademoiselle de La Vallière was past; the time was also past, more than -a century earlier, of Olivier de Serres[476], who said to Henry IV., -when planning gardens for Gabrielle: - -"We can cultivate sugar-canes, so that, coupled with the orange-tree -and its companions, the garden shall be perfectly ennobled and rendered -most magnificent." - -In the absorption of those dreams which sometimes confer second sight, -Louis XIV. might have discerned his immediate successor hastening the -fall of the arches in the Eure Valley to take from them the materials -for the mean pavilions of his ignoble mistresses[477]. After Louis XV, -he might have seen yet another shadow kneel down, bow its head and lay -it silently on the pediment of the aqueduct, as though on a scaffold -raised in the sky. Lastly, who knows if, in one of those presentiments -attached to royal Houses, Louis XIV. might not, one night, in that -Château de Maintenon, have heard a knock at his door: - -"Who goes there?" - -"Charles X., your descendant." - -Louis XIV. did not wake up to see Madame de Maintenon's corpse dragged -with a rope round its neck around Saint-Cyr. - - -MAINTENON, _September_ 1836. - -My host[478] has described to me the half-a-night which Charles X., -banished, spent at the Château de Maintenon. The Monarchy of the Capets -ended in a castle-scene of the middle-ages; the Kings of the past had -gone back into their centuries to die. As in the time of Cæsar, -"the gods announce a great change and revolution in affairs[479]." - -The manuscript of one of M. le Duc de Noailles's nieces[480], which he -was good enough to show me, relates the incidents which that young lady -witnessed. He has permitted me to make the following extracts: - - "My uncle, anticipating that the King was going to come to ask him - for shelter, gave orders to have the castle made ready.... We got - up to receive the King and, while awaiting his arrival, I went to - a window in the turret which comes before the billiard-room, to - watch what was happening in the court-yard. The night was calm and - clear, the half-veiled moon made every object visible in a pale, - sad light, and the silence, as yet, was disturbed only by the hoofs - of the horses of two regiments of cavalry defiling across the - bridge; after them, over the same bridge, defiled the artillery of - the Guard, with matches lighted. The dull sound of the guns, the - appearance of the black ammunition-wagons, the sight of the torches - amid the shadows of the night oppressed my heart terribly and - presented the image--alas, too true!--of the funeral procession of - the Monarchy. - - "Soon, the horses and the first carriages arrived; next, M. le - Dauphin and Madame la Dauphine, Madame la Duchesse de Berry, M. - le Duc de Bordeaux and Mademoiselle; lastly, the King and all his - suite. As the King alighted from his carriage, he seemed extremely - dejected: his head had fallen on his chest; his features were - drawn and his face distorted with sorrow. This almost sepulchral - march of four hours, at a foot's pace[481] and in the midst of the - darkness, had also helped to depress his spirits; and, besides, - did not the crown weigh heavily enough, at that moment, on his - brow? He had some difficulty in ascending the stair-case. My uncle - showed him to his apartment, which had been that of Madame de - Maintenon; he remained there a few moments alone with his family, - after which each of the Princes withdrew to his own room. My uncle - and aunt[482] then went in to the King. He spoke to them with his - ordinary kindness, told them how wretched he was at not having - succeeded in rendering France happy, that that had always been his - dearest wish: - - "'My one despair is,' he added, 'to see the state in which I am - leaving her; what is going to happen? The Duc d'Orléans himself - is not sure that his head will be on his shoulders a fortnight - hence. All Paris is there, on the road, marching against me; the - commissaries have assured me so. I did not trust their report - entirely; I called Maison, when they had gone out, and said to him, - "I ask you on your honour to tell me, on your word as a soldier, is - what they have told me true?" He answered, "They have told you only - half the truth[483].'" - - "After the King had retired, we all returned to our rooms in - succession. I would not go to bed, and I went back to the window to - watch the sight that lay before my eyes. A foot-guard was standing - sentry at the little door of the grand stair-case, a body-guard - was posted on the outer balcony which leads from the square tower - to the part where the King was sleeping. In the first rays of the - dawn, that warlike figure was outlined in a picturesque manner - on the walls darkened by time and his steps resounded on those - time-worn stones, as did, perhaps, in former days, those of the - steel-clad gallants who had trodden them.... - - "At half past seven, I went to dress in my aunt's room and, at - nine o'clock, I went down, with Madame de Rivera, to M. le Duc - de Bordeaux's, where Mademoiselle came soon after. M. le Duc de - Bordeaux was amusing himself, with my aunt's children, in throwing - bread to the fish and tumbling with the others on mattresses spread - out in the room. Nothing was so heart-rending as the sight of those - children thus laughing at the misfortunes that struck them. At ten - o'clock, the King went to Mass in the castle chapel. It was in - that little chapel that the unfortunate Monarch made his sacrifice - to God and laid at His feet that brilliant crown which had been - so grievously snatched from him, with that admirable, but useless - virtue of resignation which is an hereditary heroism in his unhappy - family. - - "It was, in fact, at Maintenon that Charles X. really ceased to - reign; it was there that he disbanded the Royal Guard and the - Swiss, keeping only the body-guards for his escort. From that - moment, he gave no more orders and in some measure constituted - himself a prisoner: the commissaries settled his road to Cherbourg. - - "After Mass, the King went back for a moment to his room, and then - the sinister procession started off again, at half-past ten. The - departure was heart-breaking: every misfortune and the noblest - resignation were depicted on the face of Madame la Dauphine, so - long accustomed to sorrow. She spoke a few words to me; then, - stepping towards the guards who were drawn up in the court-yard, - she held out her hand to them; they flung themselves upon it, - shedding tears; her own eyes were full, and she uttered these - words, in a firm voice: - - "'It is not my fault, my friends, it is not my fault.' - - "M. le Dauphin embraced M. de Diesbach, who commanded the guards, - and mounted his horse. M. le Duc de Bordeaux and Mademoiselle each - climbed into a separate carriage. The King went last; he spoke for - some time to my uncle, in a manner full of kindness, and thanked - him for the hospitality which he had shown him; then he went up to - the troops and took leave of them with that accent of the heart - which belongs to him: - - "'I hope,' he said, 'that we shall soon meet again.' - - "A rural gendarme threw himself at his feet and kissed his - hand sobbing; he gave it to several others and, turning to the - foot-guard who was on sentry and who presented arms to him: - - "'Come,' he said, 'I thank you, you have done your duty well. I am - pleased with you; but you must be very tired.' - - "'Ah, Sire,' answered the old soldier, while great tears trickled - down upon his white mustachios, 'it's nothing to be tired: if only - we had been able to save Your Majesty!' - - "A grenadier, at that moment, made his way through the crowd and - came up and stood in front of the King: - - "'What do you want?' asked His Majesty. - - "'Sire,' answered the soldier, raising his hand to his bear-skin, - 'I wanted to look at you once more.' - - "The King, deeply moved, threw himself into his carriage, and the - whole scene disappeared." - - -MAINTENON, _September_ 1836. - -Calamities extend their effect by the fate of him who describes them: -this narrative is the work of Madame de Chalais-Périgord, _née_ -Beauvilliers-Saint-Aignan. The Duc de Beauvilliers[484] was, under -Louis XIV., the governor of the Prince who was the stock of the -family outlawed to-day. The last daughter of Fénelon's friend came -unexpectedly upon the Duc de Bordeaux on his road and hastened to go to -tell her father that she had seen the last heir of the Duc de Bourgogne -pass. In the young princess, beauty, rank and fortune were combined; -she had first turned her thoughts to the world, in search of pleasure; -her hope, like the dove after the Deluge, finding the earth soiled, -flew back to the Ark of God. - -When, in 1816, I passed this spot, on my way to write the eleventh book -of the first part of these Memoirs at Montboissier[485], Maintenon -Castle stood empty; Madame de Chalais was not yet born: since, she has -spread out and reckoned her whole life over twenty-six years of mine. -Thus have the shreds of my existence composed the spring-time of a -number of women who have fallen after their month of May. Montboissier -is now deserted and Maintenon inhabited: its new occupiers are my hosts. - -M. le Duc de Noailles, who, if nothing stops him, will achieve a -brilliant career, was not of an age to vote when I was in the House -of Peers: I did not hear him deliver those speeches in which he has -pleaded, with the authority of arguments and the power of words, the -cause of France and of the royal misfortunes. His part in life began -when mine had finished: he took the oath to misfortune in a more useful -way than I. - -Madame la Duchesse de Noailles is a niece of M. le Marquis de -Mortemart, my old colonel in the Navarre Regiment; she bears a sad and -gentle likeness to my sister Julie[486]. - -The rivalries of Madame de Maintenon and Madame de Montespan have been -resolved by the marriage of M. le Duc de Noailles and Mademoiselle de -Mortemart[487]. At this present time, who troubles his brain about -a sovereign's heart? That heart has been chilled these hundred and -twenty years; and, in the decrial and vilification of monarchies, are -the attachments of a king, even though it were Louis XIV., events? What -can one measure by the huge scale of our modern revolutions that does -not contract to an imperceptible point? Do the new generations care -about the intrigues of Versailles, which is no longer anything but a -crypt? What matters to our transformed society the end of the enmities -of blood of some women once destined, in bowers or palaces, to lie on -beds of flowers or down? - -And yet, around the general interests of history, would there not be -historical curiosities? If some Aulus Gellius, some Macrobius, some -Strabo, some Suidas, some Athenasus of the fifth or sixth century, -after describing to me the sack of Rome by Alaric, were, by chance, to -tell me what became of Berenice after Titus had repudiated her; if he -were to show me Antiochus returning to that Cæsarea, the "charming -spot where his heart" ...had adored her who loved another; if he were -to take me to a castle in the Lebanon inhabited by a descendant of the -Queen of Palestine, in spite of the destruction of the Eternal City and -the invasion of the Barbarians, it would still please me to come across -the memory of Berenice in the "desert East." - - - - -APPENDIX III - - -(BY M. EDMOND BIRÉ) - - -THE LAST YEARS OF CHATEAUBRIAND - - -On the 16th of November, at daybreak, Chateaubriand wrote the last -lines of the _Mémoires d'Outre-tombe_: - - "It but remains for me," he said, "to sit down by the edge of - my grave; and then I shall descend boldly, crucifix in hand, to - Eternity." - -He had lately entered on his seventy-fourth year, and he had still -seven years to live. Shortly after the Revolution in July, in April -1831, he had said, in the Preface to his _Études historiques_: - - "I began my literary career with a work in which I contemplate - Christianity under its poetic and moral aspects; I end it with a - work in which I consider the same religion under its philosophical - and historical aspects. I began my political career with the - Restoration; I end it with the Restoration. It is not without a - secret satisfaction that I behold this consistency with myself. The - main lines of my existence have never wavered: if, like all men, - I have not always been alike in the details, let human frailty be - forgiven for it." - -His last years will show him to us consistent with himself to the end. - -In the first days of October 1843, he received a letter from the Comte -de Chambord, dated Magdeburg, 30 September, and concluding with these -words: - - "I shall be in London in the first fortnight of November and I hope - most eagerly that it will be possible for you to join me there; - your presence with me will be of great use to me and will explain - better than anything could the object of my journey. I shall be - happy and proud to show by my side a man whose name is one of the - glories of France and who has represented her so nobly in the - country which I am about to visit. - - "Come, then, monsieur le vicomte, and be sure to believe in all my - gratitude and in the pleasure which it will give me to express to - you, by word of mouth, the feelings of high esteem and attachment - of which I love to send you with this the renewed and most sincere - assurance." - -Ill as he was and almost paralyzed with gout, the old man was moved to -tears by the young Prince's invitation: - -"To such a letter as that," he said, "one answers by going in one's -coffin, if necessary." - -He set out for England on the 22nd of November. The Prince was not to -arrive in London until a week later, the 29th. On the 30th, a large -number of French Royalists, with the Duc Jacques de Fitz-James[488] at -their head, came to Chateaubriand to pay him their respects and thank -him for coming. Suddenly the door opened and the Comte de Chambord -appeared, accompanied by Berryer and the Duc de Valmy[489]: - -"Gentlemen," he said to the assembled company, "I heard that you were -all at M. de Chateaubriand's and I decided to come here to pay you a -visit... I am so happy to find myself surrounded by Frenchmen! I love -France, because France is the land of my birth, and, if I have ever -turned my thoughts towards the throne of my ancestors, it has been only -in the hope that it might be possible for me to serve my country in the -principles and sentiments which have been so gloriously proclaimed by -M. de Chateaubriand and which are honoured, in addition, by so many and -such noble defenders in your native land." - -This scene moved Chateaubriand deeply. On the same day, he wrote to -Madame Récamier: - - "I have just received the reward of my whole life: the Prince has - deigned to speak of me, in the midst of a crowd of Frenchmen, - with an effusiveness worthy of his youth. If I were able to tell - anything, I would tell you about this; but here I am crying like a - fool. - - "Protect me with all your prayers." - -The Comte de Chambord had had an apartment reserved for him in his own -house in Belgrave Square. Every morning, Chateaubriand would see the -descendant of Louis XIV. come into his room, sit down familiarly on his -bed and talk with him at length of the interest, liberties and future -of France. During the day, the Prince came to take him for a drive in -his carriage, so as to lose hardly an hour of his stay. - -When Chateaubriand was on the eve of departure, Henry of France wrote -him the following letter: - - "LONDON, 4 _December_ 1843. - - "MONSIEUR LE VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND, - - "At the moment when I am about to have the grief of parting from - you, I wish once more to express to you all my gratitude for the - visit which you have come to pay me on foreign soil and to tell you - all the pleasure which I have felt at seeing you again and talking - with you of the great interests of the future. Finding myself as - I do in perfect community of opinion and feeling with yourself, - I am happy to see that the line of conduct which I have adopted - in exile and the position which I have taken up are, in every - respect, consonant with the advice which I wished to ask of your - long experience and of your judgment. I shall, therefore, walk with - still more confidence and firmness in the path which I have marked - out for myself. - - "More fortunate than I, you are going to see our dear country - again; tell France of all the love that my heart contains for - her. I am glad to take as my interpreter that voice so dear to - France which has, at all times, so gloriously defended monarchical - principles and the national liberties. - - "I renew, monsieur le vicomte, the assurance of my sincere - friendship. - - "HENRY." - -Chateaubriand replied to the Comte de Chambord: - - "LONDON, 5 _December_ 1843. - - "MONSEIGNEUR, - - "The marks of your esteem would console me for every disgrace; but, - expressed as they are, I see in them more than kindness towards - myself: they discover another world; another universe opens up - before France. - - "I greet with tears of joy the future which you proclaim. Shall - you, innocent of all, to whom there is nothing to object save that - you are descended from the House of St. Louis, be the only unhappy - one among the youth that turns its eyes towards you? - - "You tell me that, more fortunate than you, I am going to see - France again: 'more fortunate than you!' That is the only reproach - which you found to address to your country. No, Prince, I can never - be happy so long as you lack happiness. I have not long to live, - and that is my consolation. I dare to ask you, after I am gone, to - keep the memory of your old servant. - "I am, with the most profound respect, - "Monseigneur, - "Your Royal Highness' most humble and most obedient servant, - - "CHATEAUBRIAND." - -On his return to Paris, Chateaubriand put the finishing touches to the -work which was to close his literary career, the _Vie de Rancé._ He -added to his manuscript some pages on his pilgrimage to Belgrave Square -which were worthy of his talent and almost equal to the finest pages -of the Memoirs. After a description of the Château de Chambord, in -the neighbourhood of which the Abbé de Rancé[490] possessed a priory, -the great writer's thought harks back to the Prince whom he has been -visiting in London, and he continues in these words: - - "That orphan has lately sent for me to London; I obeyed the close - writ of misfortune. Henry has given me hospitality in a land that - flies from under his feet. I have again seen that town which - witnessed my fleeting greatness and my interminable wretchedness, - those squares filled with fogs and silence, whence issued the - phantoms of my youth. How long a time already has passed between - the days when I dreamt of René at Kensington[491] and these last - hours! The old exile found himself called upon to show to the - orphan a town which my eyes can scarcely recognise. - - "A refugee in England for eight years; next, Ambassador to London - and intimately acquainted with Lord Liverpool, Mr. Canning and Mr. - Croker: what changes have I not seen in those spots, from George - IV.[492], who honoured me with his intercourse to Charlotte[493], - whom you will find in my Memoirs! What has become of my brothers - in banishment? ...On that soil, where we were not noticed, we - nevertheless had our merry-makings and, above all, our youth. - Growing girls commencing life in adversity brought the weekly fruit - of their toil, to revel in some dance or other of the country; - attachments were formed; we prayed in chapels which I have just - revisited and found unchanged. We wept aloud on the 21st of - January, and were much moved by a funeral oration pronounced by the - Emigrant curate of our village. We also strolled beside the Thames, - to see vessels laden with the world's riches enter the port, to - admire the country-houses at Richmond, we so poor, we who had lost - the shelter of the paternal roof-tree! All those things constituted - true happiness[494]. Will you ever return, O happiness of my - misery? Ah, come back to life, companions of my exile, comrades - of my bed of straw: behold me returned! Let us go once more into - the little gardens of some despised tavern and drink a cup of bad - tea while we talk of our country[495]: but I see no one; I have - remained behind alone.... - - . . . . . . . . . . . - - "I was not received, on my last visit to London, in a garret in - Holborn by one of my Emigrant cousins[496], but by the 'Heir of the - Ages.' That heir took a pleasure in showing me hospitality in the - places where I had so long awaited him. He hid himself behind me - like the sun behind ruins. The torn screen that sheltered me seemed - to me more magnificent than the wainscotings of Versailles. Henry - was my last sick-nurse: those are the perquisites of misfortune. - When the orphan entered, I tried to stand up; I had no other way of - showing my gratitude. At my age, we have only the impotence of life - left Henry has consecrated his wretchedness; stripped though he be, - he is not without authority: every morning, I saw an Englishwoman - pass before my window; she would stand still and burst into tears - so soon as she saw the young Bourbon: what king on his throne would - have had the power to make such tears as those flow! Those are the - unknown subjects conferred by misfortune." - -The _Vie de Rancé_ appeared in the month of May 1844. Chateaubriand had -dedicated his work to the memory of the Abbé Sequin, an old priest, -his spiritual director, who had died the year before at the age of -ninety-five: - - "I have written the story of the Abbé de Rancé in obedience to the - orders of the director of my life." - -The work had only just appeared, when the Duc d'Angoulême died at -Goritz, on the 3rd of June 1844. The author of the _Congrès de Vérone_, -on this occasion, wrote the following letter, addressed to M. le -Vicomte de Baulny: - - "MONSIEUR LE VICOMTE, - - "I have just read in the _France_ the letter which you were good - enough to communicate to me and which anticipated the sentiments so - nobly expressed in the _Gazette de France_ and the _Quotidienne._ - I congratulate myself that my family has contracted with yours an - alliance which does me honour and which is dear to me. I would - myself have tried to raise my voice once more, if it deserved to be - heard; I would have said once again what I think of the liberator - of Spain, of the man who recalled to existence the last soldiers - of Napoleon. M. le Duc d'Angoulême loved and protected my nephew, - whose daughter has married your brother[497]. Christian, my second - nephew, also much loved by the august Prince, has gone to God. And - so all disappears for me! When I cast back my eyes, I see only - a woman who weeps; and what a woman! Marie-Thérèse over-towers - all ruins. And yet, this family which, for nine centuries, has - commanded the world would to-day scarce find an old servant to - raise to it, on the sea-shore, a funeral pile built out of the - remnants of a shipwreck! Marie-Thérèse buries her grief in the - bosom of God, in order that that sorrow may be everlasting. I have - said that that sorrow was one of the greatnesses of France; was I - wrong? In the wastes of Bohemia, I used to see, at night, at the - window of a tower, a solitary light which proclaimed the new exile - of the Duc d'Angoulême. Alas, that light has disappeared! The - virtuous Prince has gone to seek his true country in Heaven. There - revolutions will no longer strike him. He will stretch out his hand - to us to climb to him, and, under the protection of his stainless - life, we shall find grace with the Father of Mercies." - -In the spring of 1845, Chateaubriand wanted to see "his young King" -again for the last time. He accordingly went to Venice, at the end of -May, and spent a few days with the Comte de Chambord. Seeing him set -out in the state of weakness to which his ailments reduced him, his -friends in Paris were very anxious about the journey. He bore it better -than had been expected. The Prince persuaded him to prolong his stay a -little: - - "I was about to depart," he wrote, from Venice, in June 1845; "the - young Prince's embraces and prayers retain me. My days are his; - and, when he asks me only for a sacrifice of twenty-four hours, - what right have I to refuse him?" - -If rejoicings in exile are rare, the Royal Family nevertheless knew -a few. On the 11th of November 1845 was celebrated, at Frohsdorf, -the marriage of H.R.H. Mademoiselle with the Hereditary Prince of -Lucca[498], like herself of a royal race, like herself sprung from the -House of Bourbon. This was that Princesse Louise, the sister of the Duc -de Bordeaux, whom Chateaubriand had seen in Prague in the month of May -1833 and of whom he had at that time drawn the following portrait: - - "Mademoiselle somewhat recalls her father: she is fair-haired; - her blue eyes have a shrewd expression.... Her whole person is a - mixture of the child, the young girl and the young princess: she - looks up, lowers her eyes, smiles with an artless coquetry mingled - with art; one does not know if one ought to tell her fairy stories, - make her a declaration, or talk to her with respect as to a queen. - The Princesse Louise adds to the agreeable accomplishments a good - deal of information....[499]" - -So soon as the marriage was announced, the Breton Royalists decided to -offer the Princess a gift, a product of local manufacture. They asked -Chateaubriand to take it to Frohsdorf and present it in their name. - -"I owe," he said to their delegate, M. Thibault de La Guichardière, "I -owe Louise of France a wedding-visit; I shall be delighted to offer her -a fine specimen of the work of our Breton looms." - -He wrote on this subject, on the 9th of September 1845, to his sister, -the Comtesse de Marigny[500], who was living at Dinan: - - "I have received your letter, dear sister; it goes without saying - that I add my name to those of all the Bretons who wish to make - the Princess a present. You can therefore look upon me as a - subscriber for the sum which you think right to fix.... But be sure - to remember that I want to be mixed with the crowd and that I am - ambitious for no distinction but that of my eagerness and my zeal." - -On the 15th of the same month, he wrote again to his sister: - - "If I am specially charged, by a certain number of Bretons, to be - the bearer of their respects, that is all that I want I shall go - at my own expense. I know the young Princess; she will receive me - well, wherever she may be. I would rather that she were already - in Italy. If we are to believe the newspapers, she is already in - Venice; but the place does not matter.... You can put me down for - 100 francs; once more, the amount makes no difference: it is enough - to know that I am commissioned to take a Breton subscription to - the daughter of the Duc de Berry; the choice is everything.... - Your canton is more than I need to authorize me to go to Madame la - Princesse de Lucques, whose brother, moreover, has invited me to - go to present my compliments to him next spring." - -Shortly before his death, Chateaubriand was anxious to give Henry of -France a last proof of his fidelity. By a disposition "outside his -will," a disposition specially recommended to his family, of which a -duplicate was forwarded to the Comte de Chambord, he gave the latter -his little collection of choice books, some of them "annotated," those -which he was "re-reading," he said, in order to serve for the Prince's -"leisure" and instruction. - -Until the end, therefore, to use the very true expression of M. Charles -de Lacombe, "his royalist flame, kept alive by honour, did not cease to -burn, under an appearance of scepticism, in that disabused heart[501]." - -And, in the same way, the Christian remained faithful. A whole -volume has been written recently on the _Sincérité religieuse de -Chateaubriand._[502] This was, perhaps, a good subject for a thesis; -it seems to me, however, that the demonstration did not require to be -made: one does not demonstrate evidence. For the rest, I have nothing -to speak of here except the last years of the author of the _Génie du -Christianisme_, those which go from 1841 to 1848. - -In a letter to his friend Hyde de Neuville, on the 14th of June 1841, -Chateaubriand wrote: - - "I admire you from the bottom of my heart; you interest yourself in - everything; I no longer interest myself in anything; my courage is - not used up; but it is overcome by disgust. I no longer think of - anything but of dying a Christian, and I hope that the good Père - Sequin, old though he be, will have strength enough to raise his - hand to cleanse me and send me to God[503]." - -In the month of March 1842, speaking of the recent death of Théodore -Jouffroy[504], one of the professors of the Royal College of -Marseilles, M. Lafaye[505], said to his pupils: - -"Jouffroy, the sceptic, sent for a confessor, and no one can give the -name of the confessor of the author of the _Génie du Christianisme._" - -These words created some stir, and M. Lafaye, fearing lest he should be -dismissed, begged the Baron de Flotte[506], a friend and co-religionist -of Chateaubriand, to write to the latter asking him to intercede on -his behalf with M. Villemain, the Minister of Public Instruction. -Chateaubriand replied: - - "Thank God, monsieur, I neither have nor can have any credit with - the present Government. At the time when I possessed some political - power, I do not remember ever employing it except for the benefit - of persons who might be oppressed. M. Lafaye has not offended me - in the least; but, if he were molested on my account, I would ask - them to leave him in peace. I no longer occupy myself with what - goes on in society. My part is played, monsieur. I live far from - the world, and I shall be forgiven, I hope, because of my great - age, for having a confessor. It is M. l'Abbé Sequin, a priest at - Saint-Sulpice. When one has lived many days, one must needs accuse - one's self of many faults." - -He rigorously observed the rules of the Church on fasting and -abstinence, often even, in his practice, going beyond the limits -prescribed by health. I make the following ex-tract from a letter which -Victor de Laprade[507] wrote me, on the 12th of August 1870: - - "To those who are inclined to doubt the firmness of his Christian - faith, you can tell this detail, which was given me by a Protestant - lady who was for a long time his neighbour and who still lives - in the house in which he died at No. 120, Rue du Bac. Madame - Mohl[508] was very intimate with Madame de Chateaubriand, who did - not go out and saw hardly any one. The wife of that truly great - man used often to lament to her neighbour about the difficulty - which she had to prevent her husband from following with the most - scrupulous strictness the rules for Lent and the other seasons of - fasting and abstinence. Chateaubriand had at that time reached - the age at which the Church dispenses us from fasting, and his - health suffered greatly from these austerities. He practised them, - nevertheless, with his Breton stubbornness, and it needed all his - wife's entreaties to make him give way sometimes. This was not - done for the world nor for the sake of 'posing,' as one would say - nowadays. Madame de Chateaubriand and her confidant were the only - witnesses, and I am perhaps the only one to know of it to-day. Do - you, who are young, keep and hand down this recollection of the - author of the _Génie du Christianisme._ - - "I like indulging in this old man's gossip; but it is only thus - that traditions are preserved. I have known a whole vanished world. - There are hardly any people left who have seen Chateaubriand - close. There are only two of us now at the French Academy who have - seen Madame Récamier's _salon_: M. le Duc de Noailles and myself. - Outside the Academy, I know only Madame Lenormant and Madame Mohl - who have lived in that illustrious intimacy." - - In his conversations, as in his letters, Victor de Laprade loved - to call up before my eyes those vanished days, those figures - now extinguished. He used frequently to describe to me M. de - Chateaubriand's punctual regularity. The great writer used to - arrive at Madame Récamier's every day at half-past two; they took - tea together and spent an hour in private chat. Then the door would - open for visitors; the worthy Ballanche came first; after him, a - wave of more or less numerous, more or less varied, more or less - animated comers and goers, amid whom was the group of persons - accustomed to see one another daily and, as Ballanche said, to - "gravitate towards the centre" of the Abbaye-aux-Bois[509]. - - While the author of _Antigone_ and _Orphèe_, lively, smiling, - often flung some light-hearted jest into the midst of the most - serious conversations and sometimes even tried to point a pun, the - author of _René_ usually stayed till six o'clock, but in an almost - absolute silence. Seated in one of the corners of the chimney, - opposite Madame Récamier, he leant upon his cane, listened to - everything with interest and sometimes replied by means of an - ironical and disheartened question. - - Because he has, in many places in his Memoirs, spoken of the - strength of the democratic current, some have thought themselves - authorized to turn him into a deserter from Royalism, hailing in - the triumph of Democracy the realization of his supreme hopes. - This is just contrary to the truth. That France was going towards - Democracy he saw and proclaimed aloud; but, far from rejoicing in - this new revolution, or looking upon it in the light of a progress - for humanity or a happiness for France, he saw in Democracy the - worst of governments, _omnium deterrimum_, to use Bellarmine's - strong expression. One day, at the Abbaye-aux-Bois, Laprade, - who, at that time, was an ingenuous person, thought he might - confess before the great poet his juvenile faith in the future of - Democracy, of a Christian Democracy which would fulfil all the - promises of the Divine Law-giver. Chateaubriand received these - enthusiastic confidences with his melancholy smile; and then, - after saying that he believed the fall of the Throne of July to - be near at hand and the advent of Democracy to be inevitable, he - began to sketch in broad lines that future society which would be - the offspring of a democracy without religion or ideals. The more - he spoke, the more did the singer of _Psyché_ see his beautiful - illusions fade away. The New Jerusalem of which he had dreamt so - long crumbled to the noise of that great word, as the walls of - Jericho fell to the sound of the trumpet. Instead of the promised - land, a riotous arena, stained with blood by the struggle of - appetites and covetousness; and, at the furthermost point of the - horizon, at the end of the journey, rest in the stupidity of a - semi-Barbarism, of vast pastures in which human herds browzed - on thick grass, with lowered heads, without ever looking at the - sky[510]. - - On the subject of the dangers and disgraces which the democratic - system was preparing for France, he spoke the strongest and most - contemptuous words at every juncture. M. de Marcellus tells us how, - in 1844, on a day when they were taking a little stroll together in - his garden in the Rue du Bac, Chateaubriand said: - - "The stream of the Monarchy disappeared in blood at the end of - the last century. We have been carried away by the currents of - Democracy, and have only a few times halted on the mud of the foul - places. But the torrent will submerge us and it is all up, in - France, with true political liberty and the dignity of man[511]." - -On the 16th of August 1846, driving in the Champ de Mars, he was -trying to alight from his carriage, when his foot slipped and he -broke his collar-bone. This accident marked a new stage in his -physical decay; from that time, he no longer walked. When he came to -the Abbaye-aux-Bois, his footman and Madame Récamier's carried him -from his carriage to the door of the drawing-room; he was then put -into an arm-chair and rolled to the chimney-corner. This happened -in the presence of Madame Récamier only, and the visitors who were -admitted after tea found M. de Chateaubriand settled in his place; -but, when leaving, he had to be moved before the strangers present. -They pretended in vain to notice nothing; it was nevertheless a cruel -torture to the old man that his infirmities should be seen[512]. - -The hour was now near at which death was to close that _salon_ in the -Abbaye-aux-Bois on which the shades of night were already falling: - - Majoresque cadunt celsis de montibus umbræ. - - Madame de Chateaubriand was the first one struck. She softly fell - asleep in the Lord on the 9th of February 1847; Ballanche followed: - on the 12th of June 1847, he expired with the calmness of a sage - and the resignation of a saint, gentle towards death as he had - been towards life. Madame Récamier, who had not left her post by - his death-bed, thanks to the tears which she there shed ended by - compromising [Illustration: The Vicomtesse de Chateaubriand.] - - her sight, which had been growing more and more weak. She was - threatened with complete blindness; it was then that Chateaubriand - offered to consummate his friendship by asking her to share his - name. She refused that honour and, in doing so, was prompted by the - noblest and nicest scruples. - - He was to precede her to the grave[513]. In the month of June 1848, - at the very moment when the cannon of civil war was thundering in - the streets of the capital[514], he took to his bed never to rise - again. He was given the Last Sacraments on the 2nd of July. He - received the Viaticum "not only in full and perfect consciousness, - but also with a profound sense of faith and humility[515]." - - The next day, he dictated the following lines to his nephew: - - "I declare before God that I retract all that my writings may - contain that is contrary to faith, morals and, generally, to the - principles preservative of goodness. - - "PARIS, 3 _July_1848. - - "Signed for my uncle François de Chateaubriand, whose hand was - unable to sign, and in conformity with the wish which he expressed - to me. - - "Geoffroy-Louis de CHATEAUBRIAND." - -When this declaration was written, the dying man made them read it -out to him; next, he insisted on reading it with his own eyes and -then, calmly and with a peaceful mind, the author of the _Génie du -Christianisme_ awaited the hour at which he was to appear before -God. He drew his last breath on Tuesday the 4th of July. Only four -persons were present: his spiritual director, the Abbé Deguerry[516], -Rector of Saint-Eustache; his nephew; a sister of Charity; and Madame -Récamier[517]. - -In a letter to the _Journal des Débats_, the Abbé Deguerry, the future -martyr of the Commune, describes the great writer's last moments in -these words: - - "PARIS, 4 _July_ 1848. - - "SIR, - - "France has lost one of her noblest children. - - "M. de Chateaubriand died this morning at a quarter past eight. We - have gathered his last breath. He drew it in full consciousness. - So beautiful an intellect was bound to prevail over death and to - preserve a visible freedom in its embrace. - - "The death of Madame de Chateaubriand, which happened last year, - struck M. de Chateaubriand so hard that he said to us at the time, - laying his hand upon his breast: - - "'I have this moment felt life struck and withered at its source; - it is now but a question of a few months.' - - "The death of M. Ballanche, which followed only too soon after, was - the last blow for his old and illustrious friend. Since then, M. de - Chateaubriand seemed no longer to be sinking, but rather rushing to - the grave. - - "A few moments before his death, M. de Chateaubriand, who had - received the Last Sacraments on Sunday last, once more pressed his - lips to the cross with the emotion of a lively faith and a firm - confidence. One of the sayings that he repeated most frequently - during his last years was that the social problems that are - harassing the nations to-day can never be resolved without the - Gospel, without the spirit of Christ, whose doctrines and examples - have called down a curse upon selfishness, that canker of all - concord. Wherefore M. de Chateaubriand hailed Christ as the Saviour - of the World from the social point of view and he loved to call Him - his King as well as his God. - - "A priest, a sister of Charity knelt at the foot of M. de - Chateaubriand's bed at the moment of his death. It was amid - prayers and tears of that nature that the author of the _Génie du - Christianisme_ was to deliver his soul into the hands of God. - - "I have the honour to be, etc. - - "DEGUERRY, - - "Rector of Saint-Eustache[518]." - -The Comte de Chambord, on the occasion of this death, wrote the -following letter: - - "Your letter, monsieur, was the first to bring me the news of the - death of M. de Chateaubriand. I had in him a sincere friend, a - faithful counsellor, whose opinions I was happy to receive, whose - generous thoughts I was glad to search, in my exile. For several - months I had grieved at seeing that fine genius approach the end - of his career; this great loss is even more painful to me at the - present moment, when my heart has so much to weep for in the - sorrows of my country. - - "How many misfortunes have I not to deplore! Those terrible - battles which have stained the capital with blood; the death of - so many honourable and distinguished men in the National Guard - and the Army; the martyrdom of the Archbishop of Paris[519]; the - wretchedness of the poor people; the ruin of our manufactures; the - alarms of all France! I pray to God to stay their course. - - "May the spectacle of these calamities and the dread of the evils - that threaten the future not carry away men's minds from the great - principles of justice and public liberty which in these days, more - than ever, the friends of nations and kings ought to defend and - maintain. - - "I renew, monsieur, the assurance of my very sincere and constant - affection. - - "HENRY. - - "15 _July_ 1848." - -On Saturday, the 8th of July, a funeral service was celebrated in the -church of the Foreign Missions, in the Rue du Bac, quite close to the -house of the deceased; the body was next taken down into the vaults -of the chapel, to be removed, from there, to Saint-Malo. The solemn -obsequies took place in that town on the 18th of July. The Mass was -celebrated by the Rector of Combourg. At the Elevation, by a touching -inspiration, the musicians played the melody to which Chateaubriand -wrote his well-known lines: - - Combien j'ai douce souvenance - Du joli lieu de ma naissance[520]! - -After the Mass, the funeral procession took its way between the -ramparts and the sea towards the isle of the Grand-Bé. Two long rows -of surpliced priests wound along the beach. The flags of the national -guards who had come from the different towns of Brittany waved in -the wind; the helmets gleamed in the sun. The cannon thundered at -intervals. An innumerable crowd covered the ramparts of Saint-Malo, -which rise so formidably above the perpendicular rocks and the sea. -All the reefs, all the rocks bore human figures; boats dressed with -mourning flags were laden with spectators. At the foot of the Grand-Bé, -the coffin was shouldered by sailors and carried to the top, in the -midst of a squall that resembled a storm: a last caress which the Ocean -gave him who so much loved the noise of the waves and the winds. Then, -suddenly, there was a great calm, and the coffin was solemnly laid on -the rock which is to guard it for ever. The last prayers of the Church -were recited by the Rector of Saint-Malo and holy water sprinkled on -the bier. - -Brittany and Religion gave the author of the _Génie du Christianisme_ -a magnificent funeral. For half a century, he has slept, beside the -waves, in his granite sepulchre, under a stone surrounded by a little -Gothic iron railing and surmounted by a cross. For the rest, no -inscription, no name, no date. He had asked that this might be so, in -his letter of 1831 to the Mayor of Saint-Malo: - - "The cross," he wrote, "will tell that the man resting at its feet - was a Christian; that will be enough for my memory." - - - - -APPENDIX IV - - -THE TRANSLATOR'S SECOND NOTE - - -When, eighteen months ago, I wrote my Note to the first volume of this -version of the _Mémoires d'Outre-tombe_, I neglected to add to my list -of omissions from the original work three several items which I have -since felt justified in disregarding. My neglect must be ascribed to -the fact that, at that time, the last volume of M. Biré's edition was -not yet in my hands; and that these three items form the _Supplément à -mes Mémoires_ which occurs at the end of the work and which had escaped -my notice. The reader should, therefore, understand that, to the list -of omissions on pages XV and XVI of Vol. I., must be added: - -6. Chateaubriand's Life of his sister Julie de Chateaubriand, Comtesse -de Farcy. This is extracted, for the most part, from the Abbé Carron's -_Vie des justes dans les plus hauts rangs de la Société_ and in no way -affects the interest of the Memoirs. - -7. A very long letter addressed by the Comte de La Ferronnays, French -Minister to Russia, to the Vicomte de Chateaubriand, Foreign Secretary, -on the 14th of May 1824 and treating of contemporary politics. - -8. The Genealogy of the Family of Chateaubriand, which fills 122 pages -of the first edition and is not of sufficient general interest to be -included in this translation. I can, however, refer the curious to the -very full account of the Chateaubriand Family in M. René Kerviler's -_Essai d'une bio-bibliographie de Chateaubriand et de sa famille_ -(Vannes: 1895). - - -M. Louis Cahen, of Paris, who read and collated the greater part of -the proofs of the first two volumes, died before those volumes were -published and before he could read the tribute which I paid to his -kindness. He was a man of leisure and of great intelligence, and he -made it a labour of love to compare the two versions sentence for -sentence and line for line. I wish also gratefully to acknowledge the -assistance which I have received in the translation of many technical -expressions from Mr. Oswald Barron, of the Society of Antiquaries; -from Mr. W. B. Campbell and Mr. C. H. Swanton of the English Bar; from -Mr. Edgar Jepson, the author of many delightful novels; from Mr. F. -Norreys Connell, who is as able a military expert as he is a diverting -story-writer; from "Snaffle," most accurate of sporting writers; and -from more than one of the Jesuit Fathers at Farm street. But I have not -consulted these gentlemen invariables; and, if any mistakes are found -to occur, those mistakes are mine, not theirs. - -No book of reference that I have consulted has been of such constant -daily use to me as the _Century Cyclopædia of Names_, published in -this country by Mr. Unwin; this and my old Bouillet have reduced my -necessary visits to the British Museum to not more than two a month -during the two years and a half for which I have been engaged on -the translation. At the Museum, over and above the splendid French -biographical dictionaries and the ever-ready Larousse, I have found -the _Dictionary of National Biography_ of some service; but it did not -tell me who "Master Bernard" was, the "blind poet," to whom Henry VII. -gave "100 shillings" (_cf._ Vol. V, p. 351). This disappointed me; but -the dictionary sets no great store by the national poets: it has no -biography of Ernest Dowson. In the matter of the European journeys I -have found no gazetteer published so useful as Baedeker's admirable -Guides, which are always accurate and have not that bad modern fault of -too great conciseness which distinguishes so many of their rivals. - -* - -The reviewers of the first four volumes have done more than write -universally favourable notices: not only have they appraised at its -true worth what is, perhaps, the greatest prose work of, certainly, -the greatest prose writer of nineteenth-century France; but they have -spoken of the translation in generous terms of praise which I cannot -feel that I have deserved. But I thank them for their kindness and I -only wish that I could have earned it by devoting as long a time to the -translating of these Memoirs as Chateaubriand did to the writing of -them. That would have been thirty years: but I should have known scarce -a dull moment. - -A. T. DE M. - -CHELSEA, _June_ 1902. - - -[456] September 1833.--T. - -[457] Antoine Louis Marie Hennequin (1786-1840) was a distinguished -member of the Paris Bar, who had made a great name for himself in -political cases and invariably placed his talent at the disposal of -the distressed Royalists. In 1830, he defended Peyronnet in his trial -before the Chamber of Peers and, in 1832, assisted the Duchesse de -Berry after her arrest.--T. - -[458] Vittorio Fossombroni (1754-1844), Foreign Minister and Premier to -the Grand-duke Ferdinand. He continued in office until his death at the -advanced age of ninety years.--T. - -[459] In the spring of 1832, when the cholera was raging most fiercely, -the Duc de Noailles was introduced to Madame Récamier. He was at -once adopted by her and M. de Chateaubriand. The latter prized very -highly the judgment and political feeling, the reason and the upright -character of the young peer of France, who had just made a brilliant -first speech in the tribune of the Upper House, and who, seventeen -years later, was to become his successor in the French Academy. In the -month of September 1836, Chateaubriand went to spend a few days with -M. de Noailles at the Château de Maintenon, and he wrote a chapter -which he intended to form part of his Memoirs. This chapter, however, -was not inserted there; the manuscript was given by the author to -Madame Récamier. Madame Lenormant has published it in Vol. II. of her -_Souvenirs et correspondence tirés des papiers de Madame Récamier_, -pp. 453 _et seq._, and it is reprinted here as forming a natural and -essential complement of the Memoirs.--B. - -[460] I omit four lines of verse.--T. - -[461] Bianca Capello, Grand-duchess of Tuscany (_circa_ 1548-1587), was -originally an Italian adventuress, the mistress of Francis de' Medici, -Grand-duke of Tuscany, whom she married, in 1578, when he became a -widower. She was recognised as Grand-duchess in 1579. - -[462] _Cf._ Vol. I., p. 120, n. 2.--T. - -[463] _Cf._ Marot: _La Cimetière_; VIII.: _De Messire Jean Cotereau, -chevalier, seigneur de Maintenon_; IX.: _De luy mesmes_; and X.: _De -luy encores._--T. - -[464] Mademoiselle d'Aubigné, Madame de Maintenon's niece and adopted -daughter, married the Duc de Noailles in 1698.--T. - -[465] Adrien Maurice Maréchal Duc de Noailles (1678-1766), after -distinguishing himself in the Spanish War of Succession, was created -a grandee of Spain by Philip V. (1712) and a duke and peer of France -by Louis XIV, became President of the Board of Finance under the -Regency (1715) and did much to avert the disasters consequent upon -John Law's "System." He returned to military service in 1733, won -his marshal s baton at the Siege of Philippsburg and forced the the -Germans to evacuate Worms in 1734. In 1743 he was defeated by George -II. at Dettingen. In 1745, he was sent to Spain as Ambassador and, -later, became a member of the Home Administration. The Maréchal Duc de -Noailles is the ancestor of the two present branches of the Noailles -family, the Ducs de Noailles and the Ducs de Mouchy, Princes de -Poix.--T. - -[466] The Aqueduct of Segovia, presumed to be of the time of Trajan, -forms a great bridge, 937 feet long, and consisting of 320 arches in -two tiers. The tallest arches, in the middle of the lower tier, are 102 -feet high. It is built of large blocks of arches, somewhat rounded at -the edges and assembled without cement.--T. - -[467] _Cf._ COMTESSE DE LA FAYETTE: _Mémoires de la cour de France pour -les années 1688 et 1689_; the opening pages: - - "France was in a condition of perfect tranquillity; no arms were - known other than the implements necessary for removing the earth - and building. The troops were employed for these purposes, not - only with the intention of the Ancient Romans, which was only to - take them out of a state of idleness as injurious to themselves as - excessive work would be. But the object was also to make the River - Eure flow against its will, to make the fountains of Versailles - play continuously. They employed the troops on this prodigious - plan, so as to advance the King's pleasures by a few years, and - they did so at less expense and in less time than they had dared - hope. - - "The quantity of sickness always caused by earth-work rendered the - troops in camp at Maintenon, where the chief part of the work lay, - incapable of performing any service. But this drawback did not seem - worthy of any attention in the midst of the tranquillity which we - were enjoying."--T. - - -[468] Nicolas Pradon (1632-1698), a tragic poet who has left a -reputation as a ridiculous, vain and jealous author. Nevertheless, -he achieved some success in his day and, when Racine produced his -_Phèdre_, his envious rivals brought out Pradon's tragedy of the same -name in opposition to the great poet's masterpiece (1677). A few days -sufficed to restore the two plays to their relative places in the -judgment of the public. Besides several other tragedies, Pradon wrote -a comedy directed against Racine and entitled the _Jugement d'Apollon -sur Phèdre_ and a pamphlet against Boileau entitled the _Triomphe de -Pradon_ (1684).--T. - -[469] I omit ten lines quoted from Racine.--T. - -[470] Charles d'Aubigné (1634-1703) answered his sister with a -blasphemous phrase. He married, in 1678, Mademoiselle Geneviève Piètre -and was the father of the Mademoiselle d'Aubigné who married the -Duc de Noailles in 1698, receiving the estates of Maintenon as her -marriage-portion.--T. - -[471] Constant d'Aubigné (_d. circa_ 1645), second son of Théodore -Agrippa d'Aubigné, the Calvinist favourite of Henry IV.--T. - -[472] Paul Scarron (1610-1660), the burlesque author, married -Mademoiselle d'Aubigné in 1652, when she was only seventeen years of -age. Louis XIV. gave her the domain of Maintenon in 1674 and erected it -into a marquisate for her.--T. - -[473] The reproach which M. de Chateaubriand, following the example of -so many others, here levels against Madame de Maintenon has ceased to -bear upon the memory of that illustrious woman since the publication -of the Marquis de Dangeau's _Relation de la dernière maladie de Louis -XIV.--Note by Madame Lenormant._ - -[474] Louis Dauphin of France (1661-1711), known as the Great -Dauphin, and Louis Duc de Bourgogne (1682-1712), his son, who became -Dauphin, for one year, on his father's death, predeceased Louis XIV., -their father and grandfather, who was succeeded, in 1715, by his -great-grandson, Louis XV.--T. - -[475] André Le Nôtre (1613-1700), the great French architect and -landscape-gardener, designed not only the gardens at Versailles and -most of the other French royal palaces, but laid out Kensington -Gardens, St. James's Park and Greenwich Park in England and a number of -the most celebrated gardens in Rome. Louis XIV. granted him letters of -nobility in 1675.--T. - -[476] Olivier de Serres (1539-1619), known in France as the "Father -of Agriculture," was summoned to Paris by Henry IV. and introduced -various improvements into the royal domains. _Inter alia_, he imported -the silk-industry into France and planted fifteen thousand white -mulberry-trees in the Tuileries Gardens.--T. - -[477] Louis XV. used part of the materials of the Maintenon Aqueduct -to construct a _château_ for Madame de Pompadour, which has since been -demolished.--T. - -[478] Paul Duc de Noailles (1802-1885) took his scat in the Upper House -in 1827. In 1830, he took the oath to Louis-Philippe, but employed all -his oratorical power in favour of the alleviation of the laws against -the exiled Bourbons of the Elder Branch and kindred subjects. He -retired into private life after the Revolution of 1848. In 1849, he was -elected to the French Academy on the strength of some historical works -of no particular merit and of not the slightest originality. The Duc de -Noailles was Ambassador to St. Petersburg for two or three months from -May to July 1871.--T. - -[479] Langhome's PLUTARCH: _Julius Cæsar._--T. - -[480] Mademoiselle de Beauvilliers Saint-Aignan, later Princesse de -Chalais-Périgord (_vide infra_, p. 245).--T. - -[481] The distance from Rambouillet to Maintenon is about 13 miles.--T. - -[482] Alice de Rochechouart-Mortemart, Duchesse de Noailles -(1800-1887), married to the Duc de Noailles in 1823.--T. - -[483] _Cf._ Vol. V., p. 153.--T. - -[484] Paul Duc de Beauvilliers (1648-1714), a soldier and statesman -of austere virtue, was, in 1685, appointed President of the Board of -Finance and governor to the Duc de Bourgogne, Louis XIV.'s grandson, -and his brothers, the Duc d'Anjou, afterwards Philip V. King of Spain, -and Charles Duc de Berry. Beauvilliers took Fénelon to assist him and -the two became very firm friends. He survived the death of the Duc de -Bourgogne by only two years.--T. - -[485] _Cf._ Vol. II., pp. 71-72. The "books" are numbered differently -in the original edition of the Memoirs.--T. - -[486] I omit five lines of verse from La Fontaine on Madame de -Montespan.--T. - -[487] Madame de Montespan was a Mademoiselle de Rochechouart de -Mortemart (_Cf._ Vol. I., p. 103, n. 1).-T. - -[488] Jacques Duc de FitzJames (1799-1846).--T. - -[489] François Christophe Edmond Kellermann, Duc de Valmy (1802-1868), -grandson of Marshal Kellermann, first Duc de Valmy, shortly after the -Revolution of July became a fervent Legitimist. He resigned his seat -in the Chamber of Deputies, after his visit to Belgrave Square, and -was re-elected; but he retired from political life entirely in 1846. -Like the Duc de Noailles and the other Legitimists, Valmy was opposed -to Louis-Philippe's English Alliance and would have preferred an -alliance with Russia. Those who have read the Memoirs carefully will -entertain little doubt that these were also the views of Chateaubriand -himself.--T. - -[490] Armand Jean Le Bouthillier de Rancé (1626-1700), the great -reformer of the Trappist Order. Chateaubriand's Life of Rancé appeared -in 1844.--T. - -[491] _Cf._ Vol. I., p. 189 and Vol. II., p. 72.--T. - -[492] _Cf._ Vol. IV., Book IX.-T. - -[493] _Cf._ Vol. II., pp. 86 _et seq._--T. - -[494] _Cf._ Vol. I., p. 187.--T. - -[495] _Ibid._ pp. 188-189.--T. - -[496] _Cf._ Vol. II., p. 69.--T. - -[497] I find that Anne Louise de Chateaubriand, eldest daughter of -Geoffroy Louis Comte de Chateaubriand, became Baronne de Baudry (not -Baulny).--T. - -[498] Later Charles III. Duke of Parma (1823-1854), assassinated on the -27th of March 1854, father to the present Duke. (_Cf._ Vol. IV., p. -224, n. 2.)--T. - -[499] _Cf._ Vol. V., p. 364.--T. - -[500] Marie Anne Françoise de Chateaubriand, Comtesse de Marigny -(1760-1860), who lived to the age of over a hundred years (_Cf._ Vol. -I., _passim_).--T. - -[501] LACOMBE: _Vie de Berryer_, VOL. II., P. 401.--B. - -[502] By the Abbé Georges Bertram, professor of the Catholic Institute -of Paris (Paris: 1899; one vol. 8vo).--B. - -[503] _Mémoires et souvenirs du baron Hyde de Neuville_, VOL. III., P. -579.--B. - -[504] Théodore Simon Jouffroy (1796-1842), a noted philosophical -writer, a professor at several institutions and librarian of the -University of Paris from 1838. He translated Dugal Stewart's _Outlines -of Moral Philosophy_ (1826) and the Complete Works of Thomas Reid -(1824-1836) and wrote a _Cours de droit naturel_ (1834-1842), a _Cours -d'esthétique_ (posthumous: 1843), _Mélanges philosophiques_ (1833) and -_Nouveaux mélanges_ (published after his death).-T. - -[505] Pierre Benjamin Lafaye (1808-1867), a distinguished philologist, -was appointed professor of philosophy at the Royal College of -Marseilles in 1837 and, in 1849, was transferred to Aix. In 1858, he -published his _Dictionnaire des synonymes de la langue française_, the -finest work of this class that exists in any language.--T. - -[506] Étienne Gaston Baron de Flotte (1805-1882), a poet and man of -letters of some merit and an ardent Catholic and Legitimist.--T. - -[507] Pierre Marin Victor Richard de Laprade (1812-1885) had published -_Parfums de Madeleine_ (1839), the _Colère de Jésus_ (1840), _Psyché_, -(1841) and _Odes et poèmes_ (1844) before the date of Chateaubriand's -death. None of his poems were of great value; but he was elected to the -French Academy in 1858. He sat as a silent member (of the Right) of the -National Assembly from 1871 to 1873.--T. - -[508] Madame Mohl was the wife of Julius von Mohl (1800-1876), the -German-French Orientalist, who had been appointed Professor of Persian -to the Collège de France in 1845.--T. - -We read in Vol. II., p. 564, of the _Souvenirs et correspondance de -Madame Récamier_: - - "An amiable, witty and kind-hearted Englishwoman, Madame Mohl, - lived on the floor above, in the same house and on the same - stair-case as M. de Chateaubriand."--B. - - -[509] MADAME LENORMANT: _Souvenirs et correspondance tirés des papiers -de Madame Récamier_, Vol. II., p. 543.--B. - -[510] _Cf._ Victor de Laprade's article, _Académie de Lyon. Concours -pour l'éloge de Madame Récamier_, in the _Revue de Lyon_ for 1849, Vol. -I., p. 65.--B. - -[511] _Chataubriand et son temps_, p. 290.--B. - -[512] _Souvenirs et correspondance de Madame Récamier_, Vol. II., p. -554.--B. - -[513] Madame Récamier died on the 11th of May 1849, in the -seventy-third year of her age.--T. - -[514] "It was in the midst of the Days of June that the death occurred -of a man who, perhaps, of all men of our day best preserved the spirit -of the old races: M. de Chateaubriand, with whom I was connected by so -many family ties and childish recollections. He had long since fallen -into a sort of speechless stupor, which made one sometimes believe -that his intelligence was extinguished. Nevertheless, while in this -condition, he heard a rumour of the Revolution of February and desired -to be told what was happening. They informed him that Louis-Philippe's -Government had been overthrown. He said, 'Well done!' and nothing more. -Four months later, the din of the Days of June reached his ears, and -again he asked what that noise was. They answered that people were -fighting in Paris, and that it was the sound of cannon. Thereupon he -made vain efforts to rise, saying, 'I want to go to it,' and was then -silent, this time for ever; for he died the next day." (_Recollections -of Alexis de Tocqueville_, p. 230).--T. - -[515] _Souvenirs et correspondance de Madame Récamier_, Vol. II., p. -563.--B. - -[516] Abbé Gaspard Deguerry (1797-1871), Rector of Saint-Eustache from -1845 to 1849 and of the Madeleine to his death, in 1871, when he was -shot as a hostage under the Commune. A monument has since been erected -to the Abbé Deguerry in the crypt of the Madeleine.--T. - -[517] It has often been said that Béranger was present at the death; -but this is not so.--B. - -[518] _Journal des Débats_, 5 July 1848.--B. - -[519] Denis Auguste Affre (1793-1848), Archbishop of Paris, was -appointed Co-adjutor of Strasburg, in 1839, and Archbishop of Paris, in -succession to Monseigneur de Quélen, in 1840. He was mortally wounded -during the Insurrection of 1848, while admonishing the insurgents, at -the barricades in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, on the 25th of June. -Monseigneur Affre died two days later, repeating Christ's words: - - "The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep.--T." - - -[520] - -"I know no sweeter place on earth -Than the fair spot that gave me birth!"--T. - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of François René Vicom -e de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassad, by François René Chateaubriand and Alexander Teixeira de Mattos - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF FRANÇOIS RENÉ *** - -***** This file should be named 55124-0.txt or 55124-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/1/2/55124/ - -Produced by Laura Natal Rodriguez and Marc D'Hooghe at -Free Literature (online soon in an extended version, also -linking to free sources for education worldwide ... 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