CANNES, _April 14, 1865_.
DEAR FRIEND: I have delayed writing to you until I should be well, or,
at least less ill; but notwithstanding the lovely weather,
notwithstanding every possible attention, I am still the same--that is
to say, very bad. I can not accustom myself to this life of suffering,
and I have neither courage nor resignation to endure it. I am waiting
until the weather becomes a little warmer before returning to Paris, and
it will probably be the first of May before I arrive. Here, for the last
fortnight, we have had the most glorious skies, and a sea to correspond,
but it does not keep me from coughing as if it were still freezing
weather.
What has become of you this spring? Shall I find you in Paris, or are
you going to ----, to watch the budding of the first leaves?
So your friend Paradol becomes an Academician by the will of the
burgraves, who, in fact, have compelled the poor duc de Broglie to
return to Paris, in spite of his gout and his eighty years. It will be a
curious session. Ampère has written a wretchedly poor history of Caesar,
and in verse, in the bargain. You may imagine all the allusions which M.
Paradol will find occasion to make to this work, forgotten to-day by
everybody except the burgraves. Jules Janin remained without, and also
my friend Autran, who being from Marseilles, for no other reason than to
be elected to the Academy, became a clerical, and was after all deserted
by his religious friends.
You knew, perhaps, that Mr. William Brougham, brother of lord Brougham,
and next in line to the peerage, has just been caught in the act of a
very ugly piece of cheating. It is creating a tremendous scandal here
among the English colony. Lord Brougham shows a bold front; he is,
besides, perfectly innocent in all this villainy.
I am reading, to keep me patient and to put me to sleep, a book by a M.
Charles Lambert, which demolishes the holy king David and the Bible. It
seems to me quite ingenious, and tolerably amusing. The clericals have
succeeded in having read and bringing into popularity serious and
pedantic books, which fifteen years ago would have attracted the
attention of no one. Renan has gone to Palestine to make new researches
into the scenery. Peyrat and this Charles Lambert are at work on books
more erudite and more serious, which sell like hot cakes, so my
bookseller tells me. Good-bye, dear friend.