PARIS, _May 20, 1863_.
DEAR FRIEND: I am writing to you with an abominable grippe. For two
weeks I have coughed instead of sleeping, and I have frequent attacks of
choking. The only remedy is to take laudanum, and this gives me headache
and stomach-ache, which are as distressing as the cough and the choking.
In short, I feel weak and _avvilito_, and I am going to the dogs, my
health and myself.
I hope it is not the same with you. I believe I have cautioned you to
guard against the dampness accompanying the sunset in the country where
you are now. Take care never to get cold, even if you should be too
warm. I envy you for being in that beautiful land, where one feels a
melancholy that is sweet and agreeable, which he recalls afterwards with
an emotion of pleasure: but to make the comparison better, I wish you
would go to Naples for a week. Of all transitions, it is the most abrupt
and the most amusing that I know. It has, moreover, the advantage of
comedy after tragedy; one falls asleep with his head full of comical
thoughts.
I do not know whether the science of cooking has made any advancement in
the states of the Holy Father. In my time it was the abomination of
desolation, while in Naples one managed to subsist. It is possible that
the political revolutions have laid equally low the cookery of both Rome
and Naples, and that, epicure as you are, you will find them both bad.
We are thriving here on the experiences which have happened, or have
been ascribed to Madame de ----. What is certain is that she is crazy
enough to be bound. She beats her servants, she slaps and strikes
people, and makes love to several fast fellows at the same time. She
pushes her Anglomania to the point of drinking brandy and water--that is
to say, a great deal more of the former than the latter.
The other evening she introduced her foppish lover to President
Troplong, by saying, “Monsieur le President, I present to you my
darling.” M. Troplong replied that he was happy to make the acquaintance
of M. Darling. If what I hear of the reigning society women of this year
is true, it is to be feared that the end of the world is at hand. I dare
not tell you all that is done in Paris among the young representatives
of the rising generation!
I hoped that you would relate some incidents of your journey, or at
least that you would share your impressions with me. It is always a
pleasure for me to know how things appear to you. Do not forget to look
at the statue of Pompey, which is probably the one at the base of which
Caesar was assassinated; and if you discover the shop of a man named
Cades, who sells imitation antiques and pottery, buy me an intaglio of
some beautiful stone. If you should go through Civita Vecchia, go to a
curio merchant named Bucci, give him my regards, and thank him for the
plaster cast of Beyle which he sent me. You can purchase from him for a
song black Etruscan vases, engraved gems, and other things of the kind.
You can decorate your mantel charmingly with those black vases.
Good-bye, dear friend. Keep well, and think sometimes of me.