_Page_ 693. _Concerning the letters of_ 1846.
In "Un Roman d'Amour," which (as stated in the Preface to this volume)
is the authority given on page 1 of "Lettres à l'Étrangère," to vouch
for the authenticity of those letters, the following statement is made
(page 94):--
"He [Balzac] lost in November, 1846, a daughter, born at six months.
The birth of this child gave occasion for one of those great hidden
dramas of which the celebrated novelist was the hero; and the rapid
progress of his heart disease was due in part to this terrible
adventure."
Now, a man of Balzac's emotional excitability--plainly shown in his
walking distraught about Paris on reading one page of a letter without
waiting to read the next (see letter to Madame Hanska of January 5,
1846)--could not have passed through such a crisis without some sign of
it appearing in his letters.
I have therefore studied with great care those for the year 1846 given
in his Correspondence. The letters addressed to Madame Hanska are all
here, in this volume, for the reader to judge.
Balzac returned, about October 15, from Wiesbaden, where Madame Hanska,
it is said, pledged herself definitively to marry him as soon as
matters could be arranged with the Russian government.
From October to December there are five letters to M. and Mme.
Mniszech, all very lively and gay. Here are a few quotations from
them:--
_October:_ "To-morrow our great and dear Atala [his
family name for Madame Hanska] will receive a letter from
me. But I charge you none the less to assure her that
there is not a fibre in my heart that is not for her, and
that I am, as I have been for thirteen years, the sole
moujik of Paulowska, who will be hers for time and for
eternity."
"Anna's dear mother is, as you know, the only affection I
have in all my life. She has been my only consolation in
my griefs, my toils, my misfortunes; she has sufficed to
appease all, to counterbalance all."
_November:_ "I thank you with all my heart for the
punctuality with which you give me news of our great and
good Atala Notify me, I entreat you, of the day when I
must stop sending letters to Dresden. I imagine that the
doctor will not forbid your dear, beloved mother to read.
In which case I shall write to her every day. As soon as
she wrote me she should stay in Dresden till the end of
November I sent all the newspapers and 'La Cousine Bette'
there to amuse the dear invalid."
"Père Bilboquet [his name for himself], believe it,
is buying nothing more; he is only thinking of paying
and worrrking [_trrravailller_] in the market-place of
Literature; yes, I have given myself the task of earning
40,000 francs in six months. Oh! how I wish! could see my
troupe in their fine carriage ... This is stolen from the
quantity of _copy_ I have to do.
"DUC DE BILBOQUET,
"Peer of France and other regions."
The letters to Madame Hanska of October 18, 19, 20 are unusually
cheerful and hopeful about his future; and those of November 20, 21,
22, 23 are full of his work, and mention his intention to join her
December 6 at Leipzig. In point of fact, he did join her in the course
of that month, and she returned with him to Paris some time in January,
1847. She remained in Paris till the following April, when she returned
to Wierzchownia, where Balzac followed her in September.
Now, if the reader has read the letters to Madame Hanska during this
year (1846) attentively he will see, not only that there is no symptom
of any such crisis with its attendant circumstances in Balzac's life,
but that there was actually no time for it.
To this record I must add that in 1889 M. le Vicomte de Spoelberch de
Lovenjoul proposed to sell me the papers of Balzac in his possession;
and in giving me a general list and description of them he wrote:--
"A cloud of letters exist, but they tell nothing; they are not the
letters of women who had a part, either great or small, in his time or
in his thoughts."
Warped minds, that is, degenerate minds judging all things by a
standard of evil, may persuade themselves that this outspoken,
impulsive man is the deceitful, double-faced being that they represent
him. But will any sober, reflecting, common-sense, true judge of human
nature, in presence of these letters, agree with that opinion? No.
It is surely an important duty to rescue a great name, and a great
nature, from undeserved obloquy, and I hope the readers of this
volume will second my effort by studying the truth of this matter and
maintaining it.