1835
_Paris, January 3, 1835._--I yesterday received the Duc de Noailles,
who had written me a charming letter to ask leave to call. He came to
talk to me about his wife's niece, Madame de Chalais, whom he loved as
his own child and whom he knew I deeply regretted. We mourned
together; then he spoke a little of politics with good sense and good
taste, a little of society, and much of Maintenon. He stayed a long
time and seemed at his ease and very happy. He expressed the desire to
see me often and to become a little intimate with us. He is one of the
men whom M. Royer-Collard esteems, is very ugly, and older in
appearance than in reality. He is studious, and his manners are
excellent and very distinguished. I saw a great deal of his wife when
she was Mlle. Alicia de Mortemart, and was living with her sister the
Duchesse de Beauvilliers, with whom she went to Saint-Aignan. We are,
moreover, nearly related to the Mortemarts. The old Princesse de
Chalais, who brought up M. de Talleyrand, was a Mortemart, and the
daughter of M. de Vivonne, the brother of Madame de Montespan.
Yesterday I was at the great evening reception at the Tuileries, the
Queen having sent word to me by Madame Mollien that I might come and
go by the private apartments, and so not have to wait for my carriage.
It was the last Court of the season, and I took my daughter-in-law,
Madame de Valençay. The palace, when lit up, is really superb, and
many things look very well--in contrast to many others. This applies
to the black coats scattered here and there among the uniforms, the
elaborate dresses of some women, and the bourgeois caps of others.
There was nothing like disorder, but there was no distinction of rooms
or places. There is no procession; the Court makes its entry when all
the company is assembled and makes a tour of the ladies, after which
the men present file past by themselves. A little man in uniform
precedes their Majesties and asks each lady her name, a proceeding
which in the case of three quarters of them seems absolutely
necessary.
They were very gracious to me, and I think they were pleased that I
went on the day of one of the great receptions which may well be
called "public." They feared that I would restrict myself to special
audiences. That, I think, would have been bad taste. I might perhaps
prefer not to go at all, but when one is pleased to see people in
private it does not do to hide one's self and repudiate them in
public. Whenever she saw me, the Queen herself told me I might go;
they opened the little door and I escaped delighted to be relieved of
the burden.
_Paris, January 7, 1835._--M. Molé came to see me and said many
curious things--among others, that he "had a mission to purge the
Government of doctrinaire influences." He has a terrible hatred of
doctrinaires, and he is a good hater. He quite startled me on this
subject, and I asked myself if he was equally good at loving. The
answer to this embarrassed me and I went no further.
_Paris, January 8, 1835._--Madame Adélaïde having asked me to bring
Pauline to see her, I did so yesterday. The King told me to wait for
him at his sister's which kept me for three hours. The King had just
heard of the strange scene among the Mont Saint-Michel people who were
amnestied. On the very day of their liberation the Republicans among
them (the Carlists said their prayers and went quietly back to La
Vendée) sang the most horrible songs and ended by swearing on their
table knives to compass the death of the King. His Majesty had the
police reports before him and gave us all the details.
He talked for a long time and on all subjects--I must say with much
good sense, ability, clearness, and prudence. He perfectly understood
the destiny of England, judged the European situation very acutely,
and spoke of his son in a most reasonable way. He said two things in
particular to me which struck me very much. The first was that,
without having been carried away so far as his son, he had himself
fallen into several errors of which experience had cured him. He
returned to the subject of the Revolution of July, and was careful to
show that in principle he disapproved of it. Thus he told me that his
Ministers had wished him to wear the July decoration and that he had
refused, saying that he had taken no part in the Revolution except to
put a stop to its disastrous consequences. He added, "You never saw me
wearing that decoration, Madame!"
He is more and more embarrassed in the choice of his Ambassador in
London, for the news received yesterday from Naples proves that
Sébastiani is no longer capable of undertaking the post. I think the
King would like M. de Latour-Maubourg, but he is ill and talks of
nothing but retiring to the country. M. de Sainte-Aulaire will be here
in two or three days, and I imagine that the lot will fall on him. The
King and I discussed the possibility of sending Rigny to London, but
the King said, "Rigny's only possible successor at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs would be Molé, but Guizot would never dare to stay in
office with him because Broglie would be furious, and they think they
can't do without Guizot in the Chamber." The objection to
Sainte-Aulaire is the influence M. Decazes has over him, which is bad
in itself and justly displeasing to the King.
M. de Talleyrand's letter of November 13 was at last read to the
Council yesterday. It will appear in to-day's _Moniteur_, and there
will also be published a reply from M. de Rigny in the politest terms.
They only asked that one word should be changed, and this was agreed
to, as it made the sense clearer without altering it. They asked M. de
Talleyrand to allow them to say "this propagandist spirit" instead of
"certain doctrines."
Yesterday evening I was at the great ball at the Tuileries. M. le Duc
d'Orléans attacked me again on the subject of the English elections.
He is curiously afraid that they may turn out to the advantage of the
Tory Cabinet. This is the second time we have had it out on this
question. Yesterday I tried to avoid the discussion, but he insisted,
saying that "perhaps I should convert him," to which I replied, "I
should indeed be proud, Monseigneur, to convert you to your own side."
He had just been re-reading M. de Talleyrand's letter of resignation.
He said it was a masterpiece, a real historic document, which would
attract a great deal of attention abroad. Nothing, he thought, could
be so noble or so simple, and it was the more kind to the King as no
one here had the courage to praise him. M. de Talleyrand had, however,
showed himself to be terribly conservative, and this would give rise
to a great controversy in the press. I answered: "Perhaps,
Monseigneur, but what does it matter? Whether M. de Talleyrand speaks
or is silent, he is always attacked by ill-disposed papers. At his
age, when one is taking leave of the public, one may well take the
opportunity of pleasing one's self and showing one's self in one's
true colours to be an honest man as one has always been, the friend of
one's country and of social order, and, what is more, a man of one's
own class, which does not necessarily mean a prejudiced person. You
say that M. de Talleyrand _alone_ has the courage here to praise the
King--and why? Because he is a gentleman, a great personage, and
therefore a Conservative. A monarchy, believe me, must always come
back to people like that." He went on, "Oh, yes, the letter will be
much admired abroad."--"Yes, Monseigneur, it will be admired abroad,
but it will also be admired by every honest man at home, and your
Royal Highness will permit me to neglect the rest." Here is another
specimen of my conversations with this young Prince, who lacks neither
intelligence nor courage nor grace, but whose judgment is still
greatly wanting in prudence and balance.
As to the King, he is prudent above all things, and what is more, he
is very gracious to me. He came up to me and said, with a smile,
"Have you given M. de Talleyrand an account of our long
conversation?"--"Of course, Sire, it was too full of interest not to
make me anxious to give him that pleasure."--"Ah, then I am sure you
will not have forgotten my story about the July decoration."--"It was
the first thing I told M. de Talleyrand, and I am going to tell my son
and my grandson. I wish my descendants to remember it in order that
they may in the future repeat what I now say every day, which is that
the King has a great understanding." It was said long ago that when
flattery did not succeed it was the fault of the flatterer, not of the
flattery. I think that yesterday the flatterer was quite efficient!
_Rochecotte, March 12, 1835._--Our letters from Paris announce that M.
Thiers' refusal to remain in the Ministry with the Duc de Broglie as
President of the Council and Minister of Foreign affairs (a refusal
which the King, who does not wish to be entirely delivered up to the
doctrinaires, will not hear of) is again stopping the machine. The
Chamber of Deputies is beginning to get excited, and it is impossible
to see clearly what the result of all this will be.
There is to be a collection at Saint-Roch for the Asylums directed by
Madame Adélaïde who accordingly has the choice of collectors. She has
chosen Mesdames de Flahaut and Thiers. The former, who is said to be
furious at the choice of her partner, has refused, and this little
difficulty has contrived to attract some attention among the many more
important and insoluble problems of the moment.
_Rochecotte, March 14, 1835._--Yesterday's letters leave no doubt as
to the _dénouement_ of the Ministerial crisis.
It is practically the crisis of last November over again. Then Marshal
Gérard was replaced by Marshal Mortier; now M. de Broglie replaces
Mortier in the Presidency and Rigny gives up to him Foreign Affairs
and takes War until the arrival of Maison, to whom a courier has been
sent. If the latter accepts, the Embassy at St. Petersburg will be
vacant, but it is thought that he will refuse. In that case will Rigny
remain definitely as Minister of War or will he go to Naples, giving
place to some secondary general? No one knows yet. Thus, with the
addition of Broglie and Maison, and the subtraction of Rigny,
practically every one remains at his post. It was hardly worth making
such a fuss about!
This is what I hear as to M. Thiers, who at first refused to take
office with M. de Broglie. He was harried and worried in every
direction, Mignet and Cousin trying to dissuade him, Salvandy to make
him accept. During this period a numerously attended meeting of
deputies assembled at M. Fulchiron's. Thiers, hearing of this, said
that if this meeting asked him he would accept office. Salvandy
hurried with a deputation to obtain Thiers' consent, which was given
in order that he might not be accused of ruining the only possible
combination, and because he is backed by a solemn expression of
opinion from a parliamentary majority. It is thought, however, that he
will soon repent of having yielded. The balance is no longer even.
They will be two to one against him in the Council, and conditions are
quite against the present arrangement lasting.
I have a letter from M. Molé which says, "You have left a gap here
which nothing could fill; no one has felt this more than I have in the
last few days. I hope, I may say I am sure, that you would have
approved of me. You are one of the very few people of whose approval I
think before I act. We have not been fighting about individuals but
for the Amnesty. A complete general Amnesty was my condition. Those
who resigned in order to get their way provoked a demonstration
against it in the Chamber. I alone maintained that facts were on our
side. However, some who, like me, were for the Amnesty lost courage,
and the result is that the old Ministry is being reconstructed under
M. de Broglie. Several of its members are by no means proud of this,
but they are all accepting a position on which the future will
pronounce judgment as well as on many other things."
_Rochecotte, March 16, 1835._--M. Royer-Collard writes to me as
follows about the late Ministerial crisis: "It was on Tuesday the
10th that the King asked Guizot to summon M. de Broglie. No doubt you
expect to hear of the insolence of the conqueror. Nothing of the sort.
M. de Broglie, coached by Guizot, had laid aside not only his
arrogance, but even his personal dignity which should not be
surrendered even in exchange for the Presidency of the Council. He
expressed regret in humble terms for the past and promised to be good
in the future. You may take this for certain--the Necker pride, which
is the same type as the Broglie pride, has given way."
Further on, _à propos_ of the paper signed by the so-called Fulchiron
meeting about Thiers, M. Royer-Collard says: "It is certain that
Thiers has capitulated. He accepts, but is separated and disengaged
from the doctrinaires whom he has humiliated. He _returns_ whereas
Guizot _stays_. No one, I think, gains by this patch work."
Still further on there is this. "When M. Molé came to see me
yesterday, I embraced him as I would the survivor of a shipwreck. He
comes out of the matter best of all, and he has surpassed himself."
_Rochecotte, March 23, 1835._--Yesterday evening I had a very gracious
reply from the Duchesse de Broglie to the letter of congratulation I
had addressed to her. She dissembles her political triumph by the use
of humble Biblical quotations. The note of her letter is kindliness,
and in fact I am pleased with her; she is a deserving person.
I had also written to M. Guizot on the occasion of his brother's
death. He did not reply before the period of mourning was over; he did
finally answer however, and yesterday there came from him a very
cajoling letter. The only phrase dealing with politics is: "I am one
of those who should say that the crisis is over, but I am also one of
those who know that nothing is ever finished in this world, and that
one has to begin again every day. Our life consists of a continual
effort to secure a success which is always incomplete. I accept this
without illusions, and without discouragement."
I shall add an extract from a letter from M. Royer-Collard which also
came yesterday evening. "All that has happened, the _dénouement_ as
well as the crisis, is very sad. The King and Thiers have, as you see,
been conquered by Guizot, and, as a result, M. de Talleyrand as well,
in what remains to him of public life. It is true that this victory
bears no resemblance to a triumph, and makes none of the noise in the
world which a triumph causes. It is obscured by the uncertainty of
things in the Chamber. Guizot however is a skilled intriguer, and his
obstinacy is in proportion to his presumption and to his burning
thirst for personal predominance. He will never stop till he is
conquered by the force of circumstances. I doubt whether there exists
anywhere at present a force which would be sufficient to conquer him.
Thiers had the satisfaction of making them wait thirty-six hours for
him and of going his own way in the tribune, but the fact remains that
he gave in, and that it was the fear of Guizot and the little
doctrinaires that prevented him from entering the Gérard-Molé
Ministry, much as he would have liked to do so. Till something else
turns up he is absorbed in the general submission. From this chaos M.
Molé has emerged with an increased reputation of which you may rest
assured that he owes part to you. You came into his life more than
once and brought succour. He likes you very much and feels the need of
your approbation. I owe his friendship to his belief that I helped to
bring you and him together."
_Rochecotte, May 10, 1835._--Yesterday I had a curious account of what
passed at the secret committee of the House of Peers on the form of
judgment.[49] Several Peers declared that they could not get rid of
the matter by sentencing the accused in default, that is to say by
sentencing empty benches. Of this opinion were MM. Barthè,
Sainte-Aulaire, Séguier and, it is believed, de Bastard. M. Decazes
and some others contended that the cases should be taken separately.
M. Cousin reproached M. Pasquier in the most violent manner for not
having heard counsel for the defence, and the Chamber for being weak
enough to uphold the decision of its President. M. Pasquier in his
reply was sentimental and pathetic, but the most serious incident was
the declaration of M. Molé who said in so many words that if they
passed sentence on the accused in his absence he would protest. This
declaration had a great effect, and several Peers, among them the Duc
de Noailles, adopted M. Molé's view. It is added: "You can easily see
that this declaration is the nucleus of a new Molé Ministry if the
impossibility of carrying on the case should force the present
Ministers to resign. On the other hand it would be so dangerous to be
weak in the presence of such accused that the necessity of standing
fast will override all other considerations. It remains to be seen how
it is to be done. This case is a hydra!"
[49] A Royal decree had charged the Court of Peers with the duty
of trying the authors of the Republican insurrection which
occurred from April 7 to April 13, 1834, in several provincial
towns and in Paris. The sentences were not passed till December
1835 and January 1836.
_Langenau (Switzerland), August 18, 1835._--This little chronicle has
been interrupted for some time. I have often been ill, and found any
kind of application impossible. In this way I became more and more
indolent, and got tired of writing down my own thoughts after having
so long dealt with those of others. Then came removals and travels and
all sorts of things which have combined to interrupt my old habits. My
mind has been distracted by too many new scenes; I have had no time
for the reflection and steady work necessary for writing, and my
inspiration was at an end. I had lived prodigally for four years and
my small stock of provisions was exhausted. In short, I may repeat the
rather unfilial remark of M. Cousin, who in speaking of his father,
who had become imbecile, observed, "only the animal survives."
My notes have recorded in their proper sequence the visit of M. le Duc
d'Orléans to Valençay, the drama (as I may well call it) of M. de
Talleyrand's resignation of his Embassy to London; the change of
Ministry at Paris, which only lasted three days; that of the English
Cabinet, which after three months retired on meeting a Parliament
which they had imprudently renewed. How much these events displeased
those about me, how a many-sided intrigue made Sébastiani Ambassador
at London, a post to which M. de Rigny secretly aspired--all this is
well known, and I shall say no more about it.
At Maintenon, where I spent some hours with the Duc de Noailles, I had
the pleasure of hearing a long account of the visit of Charles X. in
1830, when he left Rambouillet to embark at Cherbourg. The Duc de
Noailles describes this dramatic scene with emotion, and consequently
with talent. Unfortunately, I did not write it all down the very day
he told it me, and now I fear that I should spoil it if I tried to
recollect it. Some day or other I shall go to Maintenon again, and
instead of the story, which I shall not hear again, I shall be able to
tell what has become of this venerable and curious old house in the
hands of the Duc de Noailles, who has undertaken many improvements.
Our quiet stay at Rochecotte might also have furnished several pages
which would have contained the piquant anecdotes of M. de la
Besnardière; the frequently agitated correspondence of Madame Adélaïde
during the re-entry last March of the doctrinaire Ministry, and some
characteristic traits of M. de Talleyrand grappling with his
comparative solitude, almost continually trying to put other people in
the wrong in order to manufacture emotions for himself, sometimes
putting himself in the wrong, and thus conducting a solitary warfare
in the midst of a profound peace.
I should have set down, during the days which Madame de Balbi spent
with me, some account of the many-sided vivacity which is so
characteristic of her age and type of mind. Her conversation was full
of it, and what she says is almost always connected with scenes and
persons and situations which prevent it from being trivial and make it
material for serious history. If I had been in form at that time I
should certainly not have passed over in silence the loquacious and
pompous figure of the Comte Alexis de Saint-Priest, a malicious, and
indeed a grotesque person, though not without wit and animation, and a
striking contrast to the restraint, good taste, and incisiveness of
Madame de Balbi. M. de Saint-Priest's total want of manners is his
most unpleasant feature. He thinks he is a born diplomatist, but his
temperament is certainly anything but diplomatic. He is also a man of
letters, and is writing historical memoirs, for which he thought
himself entitled to request Madame de Balbi, on the very first day
they met at Rochecotte, to communicate to him her letters from Louis
XVIII., of which no doubt she must have a great many. This was too
much not to cast a shade of gravity over Madame de Balbi's habitual
gaiety; and she said, very drily, that she would be wanting in every
sentiment of the respect and gratitude which she entertained towards
the late King if a single one of these letters was published or even
shown to any one during her lifetime.
During the month of June which I spent at Paris the King very
graciously showed us Versailles, which should have impelled me to
record here the profound impression made upon me by the first plan and
the actual restoration. Fast as one forgets everything at Paris,
Versailles remains dazzlingly clear in my recollection; all I feared
was to have too much to say. I doubt if I could have revisited the
Palace under more curious circumstances. On one side was M. de
Talleyrand who reconstructed for us the Versailles of Louis XV., Louis
XVI. and the Constituent Assembly, and on the other King Louis
Philippe. In the middle of the hall of 1792 the King was carried back
to the earliest memories of his youth and made them live again by his
words no less than by the fine portraits and interesting pictures he
has collected. I had visited Versailles in April 1812 with the Emperor
Napoleon who then dreamed of establishing his court there, and had
gone to inspect the works which he had put in hand and which first
extricated the palace from the ruin and disorder caused by the
Revolution. The second visit I paid to Versailles might well recall
the first! M. Fontaine, the clever architect, and I were the only
people who could compare both restorations.
_Berne, August 19, 1835._--The month of June which I spent in Paris
was full of incident of all kinds. I am really ashamed that I have
allowed the impressions of these to become so feeble that hardly a
trace remains. I assisted at several conversations between the King
and Madame Adélaïde. There were the little intrigues of the
doctrinaires diffidently developing around me under the auspices of M.
Guizot, in whom I have often remarked an easy hypocrisy which seems to
me quite a new variety of charlatanism. All these, the alternations of
exaltation and despondency through which M. Thiers kept passing, and a
thousand other things which gave each day a character of its own,
would have been well worthy of a few notes. I should have said
something of a dinner at the Villa Orsini given by M. Thiers, where a
motley collection of fifteen people gave the party a stamp of bad
taste which embarrassed me and made M. de Talleyrand observe, "We have
been to a Directoire dinner party."
Personal matters also have not been uninteresting. There was the death
of young Marie Suchet and her mother's grief, the confirmation of my
daughter Pauline on the occasion of which I met the Archbishop of
Paris after five years of separation. All these events, so to speak,
marked out one day from another and kept them from being confused one
with another.
I was the more struck with my interview with M. de Quélen, as it was
the occasion of a conversation which I do not wish to go unrecorded.
The Archbishop returned to a subject which has always much concerned
him, namely, the conversion of M. de Talleyrand, and spoke of it with
the same vivacity as in the days of M. le Cardinal de Périgord. He
repeated how eagerly he wished for this event, assured me that he had
gladly accepted all the tribulations of his episcopal life in the hope
that God would vouchsafe as a recompense for his own sufferings the
return of M. de Talleyrand into the bosom of the Church. He exhorted
me vehemently to co-operate by my own efforts in so meritorious a
work, and added that, knowing how trustworthy I was, and, moreover,
believing that it was well that I should know what he intended to do,
he would confide to me that he had thought that in the last phrase of
M. de Talleyrand's letter of resignation of November 13 last there
was a return to serious thoughts, and that he had become convinced
that the moment had come to act energetically. He had therefore
written straight to the Pope at Rome to inquire what line the Holy
Father thought he should follow. "The Holy Father's answer was not
long in coming," said M. de Quélen; "it refers to M. de Talleyrand in
kindly and affectionate terms. It gives me the right to absolve and
reconcile him, and it extends my powers so far as to permit me to
delegate them to the prelates of the various dioceses in which M. de
Talleyrand might be attacked by his last illness, in particular to the
Archbishops of Bourges and Tours. Finally, the Pope even showed a
willingness to write personally to M. de Talleyrand." In my replies to
M. de Quélen I necessarily temporised. I made it clear in the most
precise terms that any direct overture would probably produce an
effect the very opposite of that which was desired. For my own part I
could never take other than a purely passive part in the matter.
Assuredly I should be equally averse from any action contrary to the
object desired by the Church, as from any which might disturb one for
whose peace I am responsible, without securing the desired effect,
which, if it ever is secured, will be due to a voice more mighty and
more powerful than any human one.
The Archbishop also spoke to me of his own tribulations, of those he
has experienced since 1830; they have been both strange and sad. I
regret that latterly he has not been able to forget them a little
more, and that when he returned to the Tuileries after the attempt of
July 28,[50] and reopened Notre Dame to the King, he did not accompany
what he did with more frank and more definitely pacific words. He
would then have avoided the reproach of speaking to two addresses, one
at Prague, the other at Paris. The Archbishop's misfortune is that he
has not quite the intellectual grasp which is necessary to play the
difficult part which circumstances have imposed upon him. Neither has
he the intense energy which redeems, and sometimes more than redeems,
intellectual shortcomings. No doubt his sentiments are excellent, and
his intentions admirable. He is kind, charitable, affectionate,
grateful, sincerely attached to his duties, and always ready to face
martyrdom, but he is too ready to receive impressions of every kind.
It is easy to gain his confidence and to abuse it by pushing him into
a path the end of which he does not perceive in time. He is afraid of
criticism and is always provoking it by a hesitancy and a want of
balance which arise from a vacillating intelligence, and the scruples
of a conscience which is never certain whether what was good yesterday
is good to-day. He would have been a good pastor in ordinary times;
but in our day, in which no one seems suited to the place he occupies,
the attitude he has taken up has made neither for his reputation with
the public nor the peace of his private life. However, as he has many
noble and good qualities, and as he has the deepest interest in all
who bear the name of Talleyrand, which is much to his credit as it
arises from gratitude to the Cardinal de Périgord, I wish with all my
heart that his life may be made more tranquil than it has been in
these recent years, and that his troubles may come to an end. Another
man might have known how to turn them to his advantage; he can do
nothing but succumb.
[50] The crime of Fieschi who tried to assassinate King Louis
Philippe.
I have enjoyed the four weeks which I have lately been spending at
Baden-Baden. I found many old acquaintances and had some agreeable
meetings. There, too, I ought to have fixed my recollections by
putting down a few lines about Madame la Princesse d'Orange, that
pattern of all that education should make a Princess, about the King
of Würtemberg and his daughters the Princesses Sophie and Marie, about
the ill-concealed hostility of Mesdames de Lieven and de Nesselrode,
about the genial philosophy of M. de Falk, about the fine talk of M.
and Madame de Zea, in fact about everything good and bad which struck
me in this gathering, of which each member had a distinction of his
own.
They all group themselves more or less about Madame de Lieven, whose
former glories and recent misfortune (the deaths of her two youngest
sons in the same week), excited sympathy or imposed duties. I was very
sorry for her, and her position seemed to me to contain a great
lesson. She has lost her way and wanders at large. She is not
resigned, and finds no pleasure in her regrets. She finds nothing but
a cruel void in the distraction which she demands of every one. She
finds no pleasure in occupation; she lives in the street, in public
places, talks inconsequently, and never listens, laughs, cries and
acts at a venture, asks questions without interest in the answers.
This misery is the worse, as four months of sorrow have not taught her
patience. She is already astonished that her regrets have lasted so
long; but, as she will not submit herself to trouble, it will not wear
itself out; she prolongs it by struggling against it. In the combat
sorrow triumphs and the victim cries out, but the sound is discordant
and awakes no sympathetic echo in the hearts of others. I have seen
people, one after another, cease to pity her and care for her: she saw
it too and was humiliated. She seemed grateful to me for continuing to
be kind to her. She left me with the conviction that, if I had not
been a consolation to her, I was at least a resource, and I am very
glad of it.
It was a pleasure to me to see the lovely Lake of Constance again a
few days ago. Three years ago I dreamed of taking a small château
which was there. It has been burned down. I am now thinking of a
cottage; I should be sorry not to have some shelter on this promontory
from which the view is so rich, so varied, and so tranquil, and where
it would be so pleasant to rest.
From Wolfsberg where I lived I several times went to Arenenberg to see
the Duchesse de Saint-Leu; she seemed to me rather more tranquil than
three years ago. Madame Campan's pretentious pupil, the Tragedy Queen,
has given place to a good stout Swiss house-wife who talks with
freedom, receives hospitably, and is pleased to see any one who comes
to divert her in her solitude. Her little house is picturesque, but
intended only for summer weather, though she lives there almost all
the year round. The interior is small and narrow, and seems to have
been made only for flowers, reeds, matting, and divans--it is in fact
no more than a summer-house. The relics of imperial magnificence which
are heaped together there are not altogether in keeping. Canova's
marble statue of the Empress Josephine requires a larger setting. I
should have liked with the stroke of an enchanter's wand to have
transported to the Versailles Museum the portrait of the Emperor as
General Bonaparte by Gros, which is certainly the finest modern
portrait that I know. It ought to be the property of the nation, for
the military and political history as well as all the glories and
destinies of France are embodied in this perfect picture. In a little
cabinet in a looking-glass case there are some precious relics mixed
with a number of insignificant trifles. The cashmere scarf worn by
General Bonaparte at the Battle of the Pyramids, the portrait of the
Empress Marie-Louise and her son on which the dying eyes of the exile
of St. Helena were fixed, and several other interesting relics lie
there side by side with wretched little scarabs and a thousand
trifling things without interest or value. Thus an eyeglass left by
the Emperor Alexander at Malmaison, and a fan given by Citizen
Talleyrand to Mlle. Hortense de Beauharnais, preserved in the midst of
the memories of the Empire, show great freedom of thought and a
certain amount of indifference, or else a remarkable facility of
humour and character.
True I saw the Empress Josephine and Madame de Saint-Leu ask to be
received by Louis XVIII. a fortnight after the fall of Napoleon. In
London I saw Lucien Bonaparte make Lady Aldborough introduce him to
the Duke of Wellington, and at the Congress of Vienna Eugène de
Beauharnais sang to oblige the company. Ancient dynasties may be
wanting in ability; new ones are always lacking in dignity.
_Fribourg, August 20, 1835._--It would be, if not dignified, at any
rate well bred, on Madame de Saint-Leu's part if she restored to the
town of Aix-la-Chapelle the magnificent reliquary worn by Charlemagne,
and found on his neck when his tomb was opened. This reliquary, which
contains a piece of the True Cross under a great sapphire, was given
to the Empress Josephine by the Chapter of the Cathedral in order to
conciliate her favour. It must have been a painful sacrifice for them
to part with this relic, to which it would have been a piece of
delicacy and good breeding to put an end. What might be an appropriate
possession for the successor of Charlemagne is a most unsuitable one
for the mistress of the Arenenberg.
I have little to say of the journey which brought me here. Saint-Gall
has a charming situation. The interior of the town is very ugly; the
church and the adjoining buildings, which are now the seat of the
Cantonal Government, have been restored too recently, and they missed
their effect on me. Nothing recalls the strange glories of the ancient
Prince Bishops of Saint-Gall. The nave of the church is fine, but
there is none of the calmness of antiquity in it. The bridge, which
you cross to reach the new road to Heinrichsbad, is a picturesque
incident in a wooded country.
Heinrichsbad is quite a new establishment; and the Alpine situation of
the isolated hotel affords opportunities for the goats'-milk cure. The
part of Appenzell which we crossed on the way to Meynach reminded me
more of the Pyrenees than any other part of Switzerland.
I was pleased to see the Lake of Zurich again; but the Lake of Zug,
along which I passed the next day, being more shaded and retired,
seemed to me even more lovely. There is a view of almost all of it
from the Convent of the Nuns of S. Francis, whose house is high above
the lake. I arrived as the ladies were saying Mass--not very well it
must be confessed, but the organ and voices which come from invisible
persons and an unseen place always affect me too deeply to allow me to
be critical. The nuns are employed in the education of girls. Sister
Seraphina, who showed me over the Convent, speaks French well, and her
cell is extremely clean. The rule of the Convent did not seem to me
very strict.
The chapel of Kussnach--on the very spot where Gessler was killed by
William Tell, has some historic interest no doubt, but as regards
situation it is far inferior to that on the Lake of Four Cantons, at
the place where Tell leapt out of his persecutor's boat and pushed it
back into the raging storm.
The position of Lucerne, which I knew, struck me again as very
picturesque. The lion carved in the rock near Lucerne, after
Thorwaldsen's design, is an imposing monument--a fine thought well
rendered.
Berne, which I reached by way of the Immersthal, a pleasant valley
covered with the most beautiful vegetation and ornamented with
charming villages, has the aspect of a great city, thanks to its
numerous fine streets and buildings. It is a melancholy place,
however, and even in summer one feels how cold it must be in winter.
The terrace, which is planted with trees and hangs high above the Aar,
opposite to the mountains and the glaciers of the Oberland, is a
splendid promenade, to which the Hôtel de la Monnaie on one side and
the Cathedral on the other make a fine finish.
The road from Berne to this place has no remarkable features. The
first view of Fribourg is striking and uncommon. The site is rough and
wild; the towers thrown on the surrounding heights, the depth at which
the river, or rather the torrent, flows at the foot of the rock on
which the town is placed, and the hanging bridge above the houses, all
make the scene exceedingly picturesque. The interior of the town, with
its numerous convents and its population of Jesuits in long black
robes and broad hats, is like a vast monastery, in which there is not
wanting, on occasion, a faint flavour of the Inquisition. It is not in
this mysterious and cloistered place that one feels oneself drinking
in the classic atmosphere of Helvetian liberty. The new Jesuit College
is so placed as to dominate the town, and the influence due to its
importance is very great. To judge by the little which the traveller
is permitted to see, this establishment is on the vastest scale and
perfectly managed. There are three hundred and fifty children being
educated there, most of them French; the buildings appear to me to be
intended for an even larger number. Besides this great boarding-school
the Jesuits have their own house adjoining, and in addition a country
place about a league from the town.
I went to see the Cathedral, which would be quite unworthy of notice
were it not for the organ which was playing as I entered and which
seemed to me the most harmonious and the least harsh of any I have
heard.
I am very glad to have seen Fribourg. I passed through eleven years
ago without examining it. I now understand better the kind of part
which this town plays in the religious history of the present time.
_Lausanne, August 21, 1835._--The broad and easy road from Fribourg
crosses a country partly wooded, partly cultivated, smiling and varied
but not exactly picturesque, except at Lussan. The scenery does not
become grand until the mountain chain which surrounds Lake Leman
appears at the end of a pine wood, which for a long time conceals both
the lake and the town of Lausanne.
Like all Swiss towns Lausanne is ugly inside. Its situation is
picturesque; the variations of level are inconvenient for the
inhabitants, but they provide several terraces from which the view is
very fine. Those at the Cathedral and the Castle are the most thought
of. I prefer the Montbadon promenade which is not so high, but from
which one can see the country better. There are too many roofs in the
other views.
_Bex, August 23, 1835._--Less of wall and vineyard and a few more
trees would make the road from Lausanne to Vevey charming. The country
does not quite take my fancy until Vevey is reached. Chillon above all
impressed me by its situation and its associations. I should like to
have re-read Lord Byron's verses while I was going over the famous
dungeons. His name alone which is scrawled in charcoal on one of the
pillars of the prison (the same to which François de Bonnivard was
chained for six years), is enough to make this dungeon poetic.
At Villeneuve the road leaves Lake Leman and plunges into a wild and
narrow gorge. The sharp and curious indentations of the rocks which
flank the road supply the only beauty which adorns the four long
leagues to Bex. Quite near, on a spur of rock veined with many
colours, and half hidden in a clump of trees, you can see the Castle
of St. Triphon, which seemed to me very fine.
Bex itself is a village which bears no resemblance to the pretty
villages of the Canton of Berne. Everything already suggests the
neighbourhood of Piedmont. We are all at the Auberge de l'Union which
is the only one in the place and is neither good nor bad. The sulphur
baths established here did not succeed; neither did the goat's milk
cure. In fact the place is bare of resources and very sombre and dull,
though for me it is lighted up by the rosy cheeks of Pauline and the
brightness of her blue eyes. I was delighted to get here.
I got a letter on my arrival which had been left for me by Admiral de
Rigny on his way to Naples. He tells me that he has found everywhere
on his way a definite belief that the Duchesse de Berry was at
Chambéry on the 24th, and that on the 30th, Berryer who was going to
take the waters at Aix-en-Savoie disappeared a few hours after the
attempt on the King's life in Paris, and afterwards reappeared at Aix
much upset. Like M. de Rigny I have found this version of the story
current everywhere. The Swiss papers also describe Madame la Duchesse
de Berry, but nothing is certain.
At Maintenon the Duc de Noailles has just been having a party of
clever and intriguing people. M. de Chateaubriand, Madame Récamier,
the Vicomtesse de Noailles, M. Ampère, in fact the whole morning
congregation of the Abbaye-aux-Bois.[51] I am sorry to hear it: the
Duc de Noailles should not forsake the high road for such a byway.
[51] The Abbaye-aux-Bois was a religious community of women; it
was situated in Paris at the corner of the Rue de Sèvres and the
Rue de la Chaise. During the Revolution it was used as a place of
detention. Later it reverted to its former character, and,
besides the convent occupied solely by the nuns, it afforded a
peaceable refuge to ladies of great fashion. Madame Récamier
settled there.
From what I hear from Touraine I see that the atrocity at Paris of
the 28th July,[52] has aroused indignation there, an indignation,
however, which feared to speak above its breath and which is perhaps
even now forgotten. We live in a time when so many monstrosities are
produced on the stage, when books are so full of them, and when they
are so common in real life that the public have supped full with
horrors and have become indifferent to them and quite familiarised
with crime. The town of Tours, a place so essentially calm, has
distinguished itself by refusing to send addresses from the Tribunal,
the Conseil Municipal and the Conseil d'Arrondissement. Two rogues,
glibly arguing about the letter of the law, were enough to set all the
indifferent at their ease. It appears however that a creditable number
of the Garde Nationale showed themselves the day of the funeral
service and sent an address with some show of cordiality. When one
sees the most violent and criminal passions on the one side and on the
other an exhibition of laziness and indifference, one wonders whether
the repressive laws asked for by the French Ministry will be enough.
Perhaps they will only irritate!
[52] Fieschi's attempt on the King's life.
This is an evil age of ours; good centuries are rare but there is no
example of one that is worse than this. I pity with all my heart those
who are called upon to govern it, M. Thiers, for example, whose
weariness and anxiety appear in a letter which I received from him
yesterday from which I give an extract. After speaking of the personal
danger from which he escaped at the time of the attempt of July 28, he
adds, "But my only trouble, and it is overwhelming, is the immense
responsibility of my position. I am on my feet day and night. I go
from the Prefecture of Police to the Tuileries, to the Chamber,
without a moment's rest, and without being sure that I have foreseen
everything, for the fertility of evil is infinite, as is the case in
every disordered society in which every criminal has formed a hope
that he may attain anything by setting the world on fire. There are
some scoundrels who would blow up this planet if they were allowed. On
the day after the horrible massacre all that occurred to them to say
was 'we shall see:' these are the very words of the leader of the
assassins. I know not when I shall have the rest which will be the
reward of these troubles, nor what issue out of my affliction will be
vouchsafed to me."
Immediately after the explosion of the infernal machine, when she
learned that her husband and children had not perished, our good Queen
said, "How did my sons behave?" an inquiry which I think was worthy of
her. The young Princes behaved with touching devotion. They gathered
closely round the King, and the next day, when traces of a bullet were
discovered on the King's forehead, the Duc d'Orléans said, "And yet I
made myself as tall as I could yesterday."
While Madame Récamier is at Maintenon with the Duchesse de Noailles,
my sister-in-law, the Princesse de Poix, goes to the Duchesse
d'Abrantès' Mondays where one meets Madame Victor Hugo! Wit and
politics have strangely intermingled all society, good and bad!
M. le Duc de Nemours is going to London. He is nice-looking,
dignified, serious and reserved, with a great air of youth and
nobility. One would expect him to have a great success in England, but
his excessive shyness so completely deprives him of all ease and grace
in conversation that he will perhaps be rated at much less than his
real value.
Of all the congratulatory letters written to the King of the French by
foreign sovereigns on the occasion of the attempt of July 28, the most
cordial was that of the King of the Netherlands. This seems to me very
good taste on his part, and I am very glad of it. I have always
thought that since his misfortunes the King of the Netherlands has
shown ability, readiness, and a persistency which, whatever his
ultimate success, will assure him a fine page in the history of our
time in which there is so little that is good to say about anybody.
While the King of the French submits to escorts and measures of
precaution, and is adopting a more Royal state, the President of his
Council comes to diplomatic dinners at the Tuileries in coloured
trousers and without decorations, and this Minister is the Duc de
Broglie!
Jerome Bonaparte and all his family have left Florence and are now at
Vevey; the cholera is driving every one out of Italy into Switzerland.
_Bex, August 24, 1835._--The weather having cleared, we have been to
see the salt mines near Bex, which are the only ones in Switzerland,
and do not produce enough to supply the needs of the country. We did
not go far into the mine because of the damp cold which we felt
gaining on us, but we saw the refining plant in detail. The salt
seemed to me very pure and white.
We returned through the valley of Cretet along the mountain stream of
Davanson, which is the fullest and the most impetuous I have seen in
this part of the Alps. Its course is long and its descent extremely
rapid. It is caught in a narrow gorge, the sides of which are high and
wooded. It supplies motive power for many factories, and for this
purpose is divided into many little canals and aqueducts. These
establishments are nearly always hung, as it were, on blocks of rock
which seem to have become detached from the high peaks and to be
suspended by a miracle over the abyss. All the road as far as M. de
Gautard's little château is delightful, and I was somewhat reconciled
to the country, the first sight of which was a disagreeable surprise.
I am just come back from a very interesting excursion. The chief
object was the cascade of Pisse-Vache, a fine straight foam-white
column of water which throws far and wide on all sides a damp mist,
and leaps in a single jet from a breach in rocks rising into two
needle-like peaks. The water of the cascade soon mingles with that of
the Rhone, near the bridge where one crosses the river. The current is
almost equally rapid from the source to the mouth and is particularly
so in the narrow gorge through which it passes on leaving the Valais
to enter the Canton de Vaud. The frontier is at Saint Maurice, a
picturesque village, where the convents, the castle, the old town and
the fortifications, lying unevenly on the perpendicular rocks, present
a quaint spectacle. The gate of this town is, so to speak, formed by
the narrow passage between two great rocks which separate the two
cantons. From this point on the right the view reaches to the Canton
de Vaud, ending in the distance beyond Lake Leman at the Jura, and on
the left towards the wilderness of the Valais you can see as far as
the snowy chain of Saint Bernard.
What, in spite of everything, spoiled the expedition for me was the
character of the population. Crétins are numerous, and even those who
are not so afflicted are horribly disfigured by goîtres. The women
sometimes have as many as three. The water coming from melted snow,
and the deficiency of sunlight, which penetrates very little into the
narrow gorges of the Valais, are responsible for the frequency of this
disease.
_Geneva, August 26, 1835._--We left Bex this morning and went along
the Rhone to the point at which it enters Lake Leman. Thence to Thonon
by a pleasant road boldly tunnelled in the rock and built out over the
lake. The view was a picturesque mixture of superb lawns, lovely
chestnut trees and majestic rocks, which form a very fine spectacle.
From Thonon the road is monotonous until within two leagues from
Geneva. There the natural beauty of the country is enhanced by
numerous ornamental gardens cared for as well as they are in England,
by pretty country houses and magnificent avenues, the whole being
grouped like the town of Geneva itself in an amphitheatre round the
lake.
We are at the Hotel des Bergues. My window looks out on a new wire
bridge which spans the Rhone and joins the two parts of the town,
leading at the same time to a small island on which is the statue of
Jean-Jacques Rousseau surrounded by a clump of great trees. A great
part of the lake is simply covered with little boats; nothing could be
gayer or more animated.
_Geneva, August 27, 1835._--The Duc de Périgord whom I met yesterday
here, and who is a good authority about everything that concerns the
Archbishop of Paris, explained to me as follows the _rapprochement_
of the Archbishop with the present Government. After the attempt
of July 28, the Curé of Saint Roch, whose church has become the
place of worship of the Royal Family since the destruction of
Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, went to the King, who intimated to him his
intentions as to the funeral service. The Curé, whose name is the Abbé
Olivier, observed that after the funeral service a _Te Deum_ in
thanksgiving for the preservation of the King and his children would
be an obvious and proper ceremony. The King adopted this idea adding:
"This _Te Deum_ will have to take place at Saint-Roch as the
Archbishop continues to oppose my Government." The Curé of Saint-Roch
immediately informed the Archbishop of the innovation which his
attitude was about to cause, and it was this which made M. de Quélen
decide to go to the King. He was received and thereafter officiated at
the Invalides and at Notre-Dame. I shall hear later what passed
between the King and him.
I hear from Paris that Marshal Maison, who takes no part in the
debates in the Chamber, takes out every day in a phaeton, at the
fashionable hour, a young lady whom he has brought back from St.
Petersburg. He is the dandy of the Cabinet!
_Geneva, August 29, 1835._--The environs of Geneva have improved as
much as the interior of the town. Every year new country houses
replace and augment the number of those which used to cover the coasts
of the lake. The most elaborate belongs to a banker named Bartholony.
The Italian taste predominates in the construction of these villas;
the gardens and the arrangement of the flowers recall England. The
frame of the picture alone is Swiss and it could not be more
grandiose. Coppet, which is further from Geneva, has no particular
style. It is now occupied by the young Madame de Staël who lives there
in all the austerity of early Christian widowhood, and it has a
deserted and lugubrious air. The village separates the château from
the lake and blocks the view. M. and Madame Necker and the famous
Madame de Staël are buried in a part of the park shut off by brushwood
and very difficult to approach. Moreover, by the orders of the dead,
no one (not even their children) is allowed to enter this enclosure.
The rest of the Park is full of fine trees which, however, are too
close together. They are wanting in style and neatness like the
general impression produced by the whole place. Strangers are no
longer admitted to the house. I had been there on a former occasion.
The apartments are well arranged and well enough proportioned, but
they are furnished without taste or elegance. It is in every way an
establishment characteristic of a Puritan banker, vast and austere but
neither noble nor imposing.
The position of Ferney is very agreeable; the house is embellished by
terraces and vegetation. In itself it is small and all on the old
French model of last century. The salon and bedchamber of M. de
Voltaire alone remain open to the public and consecrated to the memory
of the great mind who, during thirty years made this little manor the
fire from whence issued so many dazzling flames of wit. We stayed a
long time examining the little relics preserved by the gardener. When
M. de Voltaire died he was fourteen; he recites his story well, for I
do not believe that it is his own.
In a letter I had yesterday from the Duc d'Orléans occurs the
following passage: "On the day on which the laws under discussion are
voted, and this dangerous weapon is placed in the hands of the
executive, the difficulty will begin. It is nothing to have got them
through, the trouble is to carry them into execution. Will they be
able to carry on this unceasing struggle? Will they be able each day
to defeat the stratagems, and to resist the tenacious purpose of men
who are driven to desperation and have only one thought and one end?
Hostile critics here assert that it is much more difficult to govern
regularly and coherently than to carry new laws by violent speeches
while not even enforcing those which are already provided. For my part
all I say is that, now Ministers have involved us in so grave a
struggle, I can find no words with which to describe their conduct if
they do not make a proper use of the powers which they have thought it
their duty to demand, or if they try to transfer to others the burden
of executing what they alone have conceived and insisted on in what
they believe to be their own interests."
_Lons-le-Saulnier, August 31, 1835._--I got here last night very late,
after having traversed the wild, melancholy and arid Jura. Great
efforts have been used there to create an easy road, on which however
you get on slowly owing to the constant ascents and descents. The
roads themselves, cut out of the living rock and protected by
encasements skilfully contrived so as to prevent infiltration of
water, are perfectly smooth, wide and well protected against the
dangers of this rugged country. From the heights of Saint Cergue I
cast a last look at the lovely lake of Geneva and the Alps. The view
stretches out magnificently before one and leaves a fine image in
one's memory.
_Arlay, September 1, 1835._--This place, which was part of the ancient
duchy of Isenghien, came to Prince Pierre d'Arenberg from his maternal
grandmother, the heiress of the house of Isenghien, which descended
from those of Châlons and Orange. The nobility of such an origin is
unquestionable, and is much in the mind of the present owner. The view
from my room, and in fact from all parts of the house, is wide without
being picturesque; and in this it is like the house itself, which is
vast and well restored, but rather bare of furniture and rather
chilly, as the ridge above it comes between it and the south.
On the summit of this ridge there are the ruins of the Gothic manor,
which have not character enough to be interesting. The approaches are
short, there being no other avenue than a courtyard planted with
trees. There are many things wanting which are necessary to make it
agreeable and effective, but it is a substantial piece of wreckage
saved from the revolutionary catastrophe. The master of the house and
the Duchesse de Périgord received me with the utmost kindness.
I received here a letter from M. Royer-Collard, who was returning to
his country house "after having done what he believed to be his duty
and due to his honour in the Chamber," and without waiting for the
vote on the law as a whole. His speech, the thought, sentiment and
language of which I admire (he did not intend it to create a sensation
or to carry people away), was made to satisfy the demands of his
conscience. He also wished to make his position quite clear (a long
silence had made some people uncertain about it) and to lay down
clearly the line of his opinions. This is why, though far from well,
he made this speech which is so short and yet so full of matter. It is
the first time that, without exciting any murmuring or appearing
ridiculous, hypocritical or imprudent, any one has praised, honoured,
and defended the peers, and that the spirit of religion, the words God
and Providence, have been heard in the precincts of the Chamber of
Deputies. The respect with which such words were heard seemed to me,
more than anything else, to place M. Royer-Collard apart in the
exalted regions to which he naturally belongs.
The man in whose pay Fieschi seems to have been, and whose name is
Pépin, has at last been arrested. It was a great triumph, but--he has
escaped! A few hours after his arrest, following an order of the
Court, this Pépin had been taken to his house from the Conciergerie
where he was confined in order that a search might be made in his
presence. He was taken by a Commissaire de Police and two men only,
and the moment he got home he disappeared! It is extraordinary that a
man whose arrest and safe keeping were so important should be
entrusted _at midnight_ to the care of two guards, that he should not
have been handcuffed, and that he should have been taken to his own
house from which he no doubt knew of exits unknown to those in charge
of him! It seems that since the affair of June 6, 1832,[53] in which
Pépin was implicated, his house has been so arranged as to furnish him
with means of escape. The Juge d'Instruction who allowed Pépin to
escape by not having him properly guarded is called Legonidec; he is a
young Judge of the Paris Cour d'Assises. Some people think he will be
seriously compromised by the carelessness (if it is no worse) with
which he has treated this very important matter.
[53] The burial of General Lamarque, who died of cholera on June
2, 1832, took place on June 5, and was the occasion of a revolt
which continued all day on the 6th.
They took me to see the ruins of the old castle, which are more
extensive and important than I thought when I came. It was an
important fortress in its day and was dismantled by the orders of
Louis XI. in the time of the wars against Burgundy.
_Dijon, September 3, 1835._--I left Arlay this morning with grateful
memories of the kindness with which Pauline and I were received. The
Princesse d'Arenberg became a special friend of mine; her politeness,
her kindness and simplicity, combined with much good sense and good
manners, her education and talents, and her power of making good use
of all these, assure this young woman a distinguished position among
those of her age and rank of whom very few in my opinion are her
equals.
I went by the new road which goes by Saint Jean-de-Losne and is much
shorter. The road is good and easy, but the country it crosses--rich
no doubt and well cultivated--has no special beauty or even interest
apart from its many châteaux and the Burgundian canal which is finely
shaded by poplars.
Pierres, the château of M. de Thiard, is the most important of those
on the road. It seemed to me large and the surroundings of it are
splendid, but its situation is not pleasant. It is a pity they are
pulling down the castle of Seurre on the bank of the Saône. It seemed
to me to be well placed. Toiran, La Bretonnière, and some others show
that the province is well inhabited.
I regret having arrived too late to see Dijon. It is a fine town with
splendid buildings. The streets are animated. The park, an excellent
public promenade about a quarter of a league from the town and
connected with it by long avenues, must be a source of great pleasure
to the inhabitants.
_Tonnerre, September 4, 1835._--The road from Dijon to Montbard is
bare and flat and fatiguing to the eye. Montbard is an old feudal
castle of the Dukes of Burgundy situated on a considerable eminence.
It was presented by Louis XV. to M. de Buffon, who already possessed
at the foot of the hill a rather large and melancholy house in one of
the streets of the little town. He continued to live in this house
which has nothing interesting in it except a fairly good portrait of
the celebrated owner. He demolished four of the five surviving towers
on the walls of the old château. The one he left still survives, as
well as the enormous outside wall which now encloses nothing but a
"quincunx" of fine trees planted by M. de Buffon, from which fine
alleys lead to his house below. The trees make a delightful shady
promenade. At the top of the grove there is a little house containing
a single room in which M. de Buffon used to establish himself for
several hours every day in order to work uninterruptedly. He had a
church built on part of the foundations of the fortress, and is buried
there. M. de Buffon's house is occupied by his daughter-in-law, a
widow with no children.
The country becomes more varied as one approaches Ancy-le-Franc, a
great and noble château built in the sixteenth century by Madame de
Clermont-Tonnerre and afterwards bought by the celebrated Louvois, to
one of whose descendants it still belongs. This château is perfectly
regular in form; it consists of four buildings joined at each corner
by a square tower. There is no principal staircase; each tower has its
own--a very narrow one. The bedrooms are well proportioned and well
furnished, but the public rooms are ill-arranged. They are small,
especially the salon, in which the heavy gilding seems to add to the
effect of smallness. Some ancient ceilings with panelling to match
give some of the rooms a Gothic character, which is interesting. The
windows are few and narrow, and the courtyard small and sombre. The
castle is entirely surrounded by a vast and well planted park. The
water is ugly and muddy and I saw neither glass-houses nor flowers,
though the offices are considerable. The high road crosses the
fore-court a few yards from the house, which I think is carrying the
principle of accessibility a trifle too far.
What pleases me least is the situation of this abode. It lies at the
bottom of a valley and lacks light, air, and a view. The English word
"gloomy" seems made for Ancy-le-Franc. The chapel is fine, and it is
needless to say that there is a theatre. How could the M. Louvois of
to-day do without one?
I had often heard Ancy-le-Franc and Valençay mentioned as the two most
considerable and remarkable châteaux in France. I cannot admit that
there is any comparison. Valençay is much more imposing, and at the
same time cheerful to live in. Its situation is picturesque and
healthy: it is much richer in architectural ornament, and its finest
part, which dates from the fifteenth century, is a hundred years older
than Ancy-le-Franc, and in the purest Renaissance style.
It has just occurred to me that I saw no library in M. Louvois' house.
I am sorry I did not mention it to the _concierge_, who seemed,
however, to be conscientiously showing us all there was to be seen.
I prefer not only Valençay to Ancy-le-Franc, but, apart from
tradition, even Chenonceaux, and I should prefer Ussé also if it were
put in order and furnished.
_Melun, September 6, 1835._--The banks of the Yonne are pleasant
enough, and are a welcome rest after the melancholy road from Dijon.
It is a pity, however, that the vegetation is, so to speak,
factitious. Up to Sens I saw no other trees than poplars planted in
quincunxes or in avenues. This in the end becomes exceedingly
monotonous, and gives a stiff and artificial look to the landscape.
The Cathedral at Sens is fine, and its proportions elegant. Two
sculptures attract particular attention, the Mausoleum of the Dauphin
father of Louis XVI., and the altar of Saint Leu, on which this good
Bishop of Sens is represented undergoing his martyrdom, which, as a
matter of fact, took place at Sens itself. The group is in white
marble, and very effective. I think the general effect of the
Dauphin's mausoleum is heavy. The composition lacks simplicity, but
some of the parts are fine. The Treasury of the Cathedral is not only
very rich in relics whose authenticity is beyond question, but also in
antiquities, which interested me because they bore the stamp of being
genuine. Thus I saw the Episcopal throne of Saint Leu, his pastoral
ring, his mitre, the pastoral ring of Gregory VII., the comb used by
Saint Leu at ordinations, vestments used by Thomas Becket, who, as I
lately read in Lingard, had taken refuge on the Continent when first
persecuted, and had resided chiefly in France. These vestments are
locked up with great care in an iron case. There is a fine crucifix by
Girardon, which is worth seeing.
In a letter from the Princesse de Lieven at Baden, dated August 29,
which reached me at Sens, the following passage occurs: "We have
strange news from England. Will Ministers really have the courage to
carry out their threats against the Lords? Will the latter give way
before these threats? I doubt it; but the collision so long postponed
is coming at last. In France all is going well. M. de Broglie's speech
is splendid. Lord William Russell is always saying 'Our alliance is at
an end.' As France is repudiating revolutionary principles and England
is going more and more in that direction, there is no basis of
agreement. The alliance was one of principles, and as the principles
are no longer identical the alliance is dead."
_Paris, September 7, 1835._--It is always a great event for me to get
back to Paris where I have had so many bad moments. All my past
unrolls itself before me as I pass through these streets and squares,
which awake so many memories, almost all of them painful.
As we passed along the boulevards I glanced with a shudder at the
house from which Fieschi committed his crime. It is quite small and of
a mean appearance. The too celebrated window is boarded up. In a year
or two perhaps this house will be demolished, and I shall be sorry.
They will no doubt build some memorial on the site, which will
disappear in its turn with the first turn of the political
weathercock, and will, in any case, be much less impressive than would
be the preservation of the scene of the atrocity exactly as it is. If
it were preserved it would assist tradition; every one knows the
history of the event, and may find a lesson in it. The Rue de la
Ferronnerie still exists. They pulled down the Opera house in which
the Duc de Berry was assassinated only to demolish thereafter the
chapel which was built in its place. And yet the chapel from which
Charles IX. shot his subjects is still there, always pointed out,
always referred to. Why should the crimes of monarchs be made manifest
and those of peoples remain concealed?
I shall give some extracts from the letters from M. de Talleyrand
which awaited me at Paris: "In the Ministry here you will find more
politeness than friendship. To be intimate with M. Royer-Collard and
not to have prevented him speaking against the press law is too bad!
That is our real crime. Even Thiers has not been here for two days. I
am not sorry, as I should have told him very plainly that I thought
the articles in the _Journal de Paris_ which he writes or inspires
very improper, and that he should have so much respect for M.
Royer-Collard as at least to keep silent. The confidence of the
Tuileries is also one of the causes of the Ministerial coolness....
Thiers has lost a great deal at the recent sittings of the Chamber. To
appear in the tribune with a copy of the _National_ dating from before
1830 in order to prove that one did not say so and so, is to rate
oneself very low! Men who have not been properly educated to begin
with grow up with great difficulty; they lose their heads whenever
they are contradicted.... You cannot too highly praise M. de Broglie's
speech; all the incense bearers in Paris have passed through his
salon.... The affair of the escape of Pépin has much diminished the
stability of the Ministry, which has shown itself so incompetent to
deal with a serious situation. People say, 'If the Government doesn't
serve the King better than that what have we to rely upon?' Thiers,
instead of using his ability to consolidate his position, has used it
to produce an impression of mere cleverness. He came badly out of
these sittings. In the first place, he was beaten on an amendment of
Firmin Didot's, then he brought his claims as a journalist into the
tribune which produced a bad effect everywhere. And yet he is the best
the Ministry have got, because he has humanity behind all his
cleverness; he loves his friends, he is a good creature (in the best
sense of the term), but he requires to have good people about him, and
those he has are the reverse.... Do not forget that espionage in the
Chamber, in the streets, and in letters is pushed to the utmost
lengths.... The King, the Queen, and Madame Adélaïde look forward to
seeing you among the greatest of their consolations. They need
consolation, for I assure you they are very unhappy. The Guizots and
the Broglies will perhaps talk to you of my coldness; you can say to
them that the coldness is not on my side. It did not come from me, but
from them."
Here now is an extract from a letter from Madame de Lieven, dated
Baden, September 2: "I have reason to believe, from a few lines I have
from England, that there is an understanding between Peel and Lord
Grey. The quarrel of the two Houses will be adjusted, I understand
from Lady Cowper. They think very well of M. le Duc de Nemours in
England."
_Paris, September 8, 1835._--M. Thiers is aged and ill; his illness is
nothing but fatigue and exhaustion, but what a life! He is angry with
his colleagues for grudging him the days of rest for which he asks,
and roundly accuses them of cowardice for shrinking from assuming for
three weeks a responsibility which burdens him all the year. But what
a responsibility it is to preserve the King from the daggers of
assassins! Every day there is a new conspiracy; to defeat them all is
a superhuman task.
Up till now Fieschi's crime has not been connected with anything of
importance. There are a few obscure public-house accomplices and that
is all; the Ministry cannot find anything bigger. M. Thiers even goes
so far as to think it the most ominous feature of the case that such
an atrocity should be the fruit not of fanaticism or intense passion,
or even of some deep laid political conspiracy, but simply the product
of the licence and anarchy which dominate the public mind.
Fieschi, being pressed by a doctor to declare the motive which led him
to commit the crime, replied, "I did it as a boy lets off a cracker."
Hideous frivolity! He asserts that all the clubs and secret societies,
Carlist and others, were informed that on July 28 an attempt would be
made to kill the King. Fieschi had relations with some ruffians of his
own stamp; these talked to their friends, and thus a vague rumour
spread and even reached the Government. No details however were given,
no proper names, nothing precise. As for Fieschi himself, he is simply
an Italian bravo, who is always ready to set his hand to a crime even
though the reward is not great.
M. Guizot, who had to break the news to the Queen, told me that she
was seized with an attack of nerves, that Madame Adélaïde was in
despair, and yet so angry that she lost all self-control and literally
did not know what she was doing. As for Madame de Broglie, who was
also at the Chancellerie at the Place Vendôme with the Queen, she was
much affected, but had her emotion under control. On this occasion M.
Guizot told me that he felt inclined to compare Madame de Broglie's
soul to a great desert in which there are beautiful oases. There are
many gaps in her nature, and yet much force and power.
_Paris, September 9, 1835._--The absurdities of Sébastiani are talked
of even in the cabinet of Madame Adélaïde; and they seem in fact to
pass all bounds. He is much laughed at in London, which he does not
like at all. He says, in his dogmatic and paralytic way, "English
society gives me indigestion." As for his wife, her silliness and
simplicity have become proverbial. They entertain very little, and no
one comes near them; Lord Palmerston alone, in order to mark the
contrast with the insolence with which he honoured M. de Talleyrand,
is constantly paying little attentions to the General. He is always
coming to see him, and is most careful to keep him supplied with all
the news.
The English Legion raised by General Alava has just been beaten in
Spain. The abominable _canaille_ he recruited turned and fled at once.
The compromise between the two Houses in England has taken place; it
is a truce until next Session.
I have seen the King, who gave me his account of July 28. It is a very
curious thing that on the evening before he had told his Ministers
that they would shoot at him from a window, that being the surest
method of assassination. M. Thiers and General Athalin feared an
attack at close quarters, and wished the King to take precautions
against this, but he absolutely refused to do so as being useless. The
King's advisers partly adopted his Majesty's view, but said they
thought the attempt, if made at all, would be made in a narrow street.
The King, on the other hand, maintained that they were wrong, and that
the attempt would be made on the Boulevard because of the trees, which
would afford better cover for the assassin. The King's predictions all
came true. He told me that the most cruel moment in his life--which
has certainly not been without incident--was when the order of the
review brought him back after half an hour to the scene of the crime,
and he was forced to pass through pools of blood and among the dead
and wounded, amid the cries and lamentations of the people who had
been torn to pieces because of him. When he rejoined his family he
burst into tears, and his first words were, "Poor Marshal Mortier is
dead." No one could have been more self-forgetful, more simply
courageous, and yet more moved by the misfortunes of others. His
conduct was really admirable, as is unanimously admitted.
The Emperor of Russia did not write personally, but contented himself
with sending condolences by a _chargé d'affaires_. This is all the
worse, as he wrote a letter with his own hand to the widow of the Duc
de Trévise, who had been Ambassador at St. Petersburg. Several small
Sovereigns were also silent. The letters from Austria were cordial,
those from Prussia excellent, Saxony was tender, England correct,
Holland kind but otherwise without interest.
The King, who very justly fears any shock, wishes to keep the present
Ministry as long as possible, but he thinks he already sees some new
germs of division which he fears will develop during the sick leave
for which M. Thiers has applied and which will be accorded. The
composition of a new Cabinet would be very difficult, chiefly owing to
the question of the Presidency, which touches everybody's vanity. The
King would like to abolish the Presidency altogether, and with this in
view he would like to entrust it for a short time to some exceptional
person with whom no one would compete and who could have no successor.
It is thus that he comes to think of M. de Talleyrand. His Majesty is
at least as antagonistic as ever to the doctrinaire party in the
Cabinet, and fears above all that if there were a partial dissolution
it would be this factor which would be strengthened.
I am always surprised when people lie without any particular object.
It is quite natural that newspapers should amuse themselves by
deceiving the public, but when Ministers of State amuse themselves by
telling falsehoods the effect is curious. Thus M. Guizot told me the
day before yesterday that it was he who broke the news of the
catastrophe of July 28 to the Queen at the Hôtel de la Chancellerie.
Well, it appears that the Princesses were told of the danger to which
the King had just been exposed while they were still at the Tuileries
and on the point of leaving for the Chancellerie, by two aides-de-camp
sent by the King for that purpose! Vanity leads people into very
contemptible things. Could anything be more childish than to invent a
lying story about a fact of this kind?
_Paris, September 10, 1835._--M. le Duc d'Orléans regrets that the
Würtemberg project of marriage has not come off. He says he wishes to
settle the matter as regards Princess Sophia, and to visit Stuttgart
when he next goes to Germany. He says that if he married some one else
without having seen her, he would be convinced that he had missed his
true fate.
M. le Duc d'Orléans is very bitter about the Ministry in general; the
royal family is disposed to blame the negligence and obstinacy (if it
is no worse) of the police for what has happened. He is sure that for
some time back the police have been wanting in ability, but as for
the escape of Pépin, he is convinced it is due to the negligence of M.
Pasquier, who sits languidly in an arm-chair and gives incomplete
orders, and also to some extent to M. Martin du Nord, who transmits
these orders, with even less detail, to inferior agents, who carry
them out in the slackest way. M. Legonidec, in exculpating himself,
makes very grave charges against his superiors, and some go so far as
to say that M. Pasquier is negligent because he fears to find some
Carlist at the bottom of the Fieschi affair. This is what Madame
Adélaïde wants, and what the Queen fears above all things. The King
thinks that the attempt has a Republican origin. The essential thing
is to get at the truth if possible, and the determination of Ministers
to see nothing in the whole affair but a conspiracy conceived in a
cabaret is not one which is likely to lead to new discoveries.
Prince Leopold of Naples is accused of practising such duplicity in
the matter of his marriage that any other than Princess Marie might
have been disgusted with the affair. She is, however, anxious to be
settled; no other match offers, and, as the King says, "You know, of
course, that Neapolitan princesses simply must be married." His
daughter is half a Neapolitan.
The eldest of our Princesses, the Queen of the Belgians, had so little
inclination for the King, her husband, that she refuses ever to return
to Compiègne, where her marriage was solemnised; and it is chiefly for
this reason that the Court is arranging to go to Fontainebleau.
However, this disinclination on the part of Queen Louise has been
transformed into a conjugal affection so intense that she lives almost
shut up with the King in a _tête-à-tête_ which is hardly interrupted
even by her ladies or the Master of the Household who receive all
their orders in writing. The King and the Queen occupy adjoining
rooms, the doors of which are left open. The King, who is timid and
domestic in his habits, likes this sort of life very well, and it is
much to his wife's taste, for she is only loved by her husband, while
he is adored by her. I have these details from her brother, the Duc
d'Orléans.
_Paris, September 11, 1835._--My son Alexander, who is just returned
from Italy, says that the country is covered with monks flying from
Spain and taking with them the treasures of their convents. The
precious stones which come from this source are being sold cheap.
The Queen of the French, though in delicate health, goes to bed late,
and never retires without having herself read all the petitions
addressed to her. She does this chiefly because she fears she might
miss some information which might be given in this form and might
concern the King's safety.
On July 28, at the very moment when he saw his three sons round him,
he turned to M. Thiers and, stretching out his hand, said, "Do not be
alarmed: I am alive and well." These are words worthy of Henri IV.!
_Maintenon, September_ 12, 1835.--This place is quite restored and
furnished. The rooms are fine; there is a large establishment. The
river is clear, and the aqueducts are on a great scale. For any one
who does not miss a view, and who does not fear the damp, this old
château, which has so many associations, is one of the most splendid
and attractive abodes possible.
_Courtalin, September 13, 1835._[54]--Here they know all about what is
passing at the Court of Charles X. It is said that the language there
on the subject of the crime of July 28 has been very kind and correct.
That unhappy Court spends its time in internal warfare and animosity.
There are exactly the same intrigues and rivalries as there used to be
at Rome at the Court of the Pretender.
[54] A castle belonging to the Duc de Montmorency.
_Rochecotte, September 14, 1835._--This morning I went to see the
Prince de Laval at his pretty manor of Montigny, which he is arranging
and adorning in the most delightful manner, while trying to preserve
its Gothic character. It is a place which suits well with the heraldic
tastes of its possessor.
At Tours I found the Prefect rather irritated at a Ministerial order
requiring an exact report of the newspapers which the officials of the
Government take in. This little inquisition does, in fact, somewhat
recall the curiosity which used to be displayed under the Restoration.
_Valençay, September 15, 1835._--To-day I dined at Beauregard with
Madame de Sainte-Aldegonde. It is a fine house, an old hunting lodge
of François I., which he used when stag hunting from Chambord, in the
Forest of Roussé. There is a gallery with a hundred and twenty
portraits, which are very bad but interesting because they represent
all the celebrated people of the period in Europe. The gallery is
paved with tiles contemporary with the house. There is a good deal of
old panelling and furniture very well preserved by their present
owner.
I arrived late at Valençay and found M. de Talleyrand thinner,
complaining of palpitation of the heart, and of some rather painful
trouble in his left arm. He had just got a letter from the King
announcing the appointment of M. de Bacourt as Minister at Carlsruhe.
The following extract refers to the want of deference with which M. de
Broglie treats him: "My dear Prince, the method which in my
'impotence' I decided to use has proved completely successful, and
what you desired[55] has been done. I wished to have at any rate the
pleasure of announcing this to you myself while renewing most
cordially the assurance of my old friendship for you which you have
known so long."
[55] An allusion to the request made to the King by M. de
Talleyrand that M. de Bacourt should be appointed to Carlsruhe.
The King of the French is not the only Sovereign who does not like his
Ministers. The King of England hates his and speaks openly against
them at table, as well as against his sister-in-law, the Duchess of
Kent, who meanwhile is taking her daughter about from county to county
receiving addresses and answering them just as if she were Regent
already.
_Valençay, September 16, 1835._--Mlle. Sabine de Noailles is sixteen,
very beautiful, very clever and well educated, with a voice like a
man, an excellent memory like all the Noailles, and rather brusque
manners. At dinner at Courtalin she raised her voice, and addressing
M. de Talleyrand, who was not next to her, she said: "Uncle, will you
drink a glass of wine with me?" "With great pleasure, my dear
_nephew_!" replied M. de Talleyrand.
The Duke of Modena is playing the petty tyrant in his Duchy. One of
his commonest practices is to have the whiskers and moustaches of
those whose passports are in any way irregular cut off. The fashion of
the day makes this a more cruel punishment than imprisonment, which,
however, his victims have usually to suffer in addition!
The grandmother of the present Duc d'Arenberg, an intimate friend of
Maria Theresa, a great and noble lady in all respects, came to France
under the Consulate to secure her removal from the list of _émigrés_
and the restoration of such of her property as was still sequestrated.
She stayed with the Maréchale de Beauveau, who was a friend of hers.
She had to write to Fouché requesting an interview, which being
granted she went to the Hôtel de Police. Her carriage was not allowed
to enter, and she had to alight and cross the dirty courtyard. The
Minister was engaged and could not receive the Duchess, whom he
referred to his principal clerk. The latter said she might sit down
while he was looking for the box with the papers about her case. He
began to turn over an index and exclaimed, "But your name was removed
a fortnight ago; it is struck out altogether, and since I am the first
to give you the good news I must have a kiss, Citoyenne d'Arenberg."
Whereupon he seized the Duchess and kissed her on both cheeks. But
before Madame d'Arenberg was at the bottom of the steps he called her
back, shouting: "Hi! Citoyenne d'Arenberg! I made a mistake; it is not
you but one d'Alembert who is struck out!" So the poor Duchess had to
go back to Madame de Beauveau having been kissed by the clerk but not
struck out of the list. The First Consul, who heard the story next
day, ordered the Duchess's name to be struck out at once and she got
back her property.
_Valençay, September 17, 1835._--The Princesse de Lieven has had a
curious conversation at Baden with M. Berryer the Advocate and Deputy.
"What do you think, monsieur, of the new laws proposed by the French
Government on the occasion of the attempt of July 28?" "I approve of
them in principle, and that is why I intend to absent myself from the
Chamber, where my position would oblige me to oppose them."--"Do you
think the Government will last?"--"No."--"Do you think there will
be a Republic?"--"No."--"Do you think Henri V. will come
in?"--"No."--"What, then, do you think?"--"Nothing, for in France it
is impossible to establish anything." M. Berryer left the next day for
Ischl to see Madame la Duchesse de Berry there, and is bound thence
for Naples.
_Valençay, September 18, 1835._--I am anxious about M. de
Talleyrand--not that I think that the symptoms he complains of are
serious, but he is impressed by them. He often speaks of his end, and
is evidently afraid of it, and thrusts the idea away from him with
horror. He often sighs, and yesterday I heard him exclaim, "Ah, mon
Dieu!" in a tone of the deepest dejection. Politics and news interest
him, but there is not much of those to be had here.
_Valençay, September 19, 1835._--Lord Alvanly came back in a cab from
the scene of his duel with O'Connell's son and gave a piece of gold to
the cabman. The latter, surprised at this generosity, said, "What, my
lord, a sovereign for taking you so near your death?"--"No, my man,
but for taking me back!"
I sent for the excellent Dr. Bretonneau from Tours to examine M. de
Talleyrand. He says that the trouble is only muscular, the muscles
being bruised and weary with the efforts M. de Talleyrand has to make
owing to the failure of his legs. He thinks, moreover, that he is in a
nervous state and is languid and bored, but that there is nothing
dangerous. The worst feature is the growing weakness of his
extremities which might at any moment reduce him to complete
helplessness. In short all the circumstances point to living with
difficulty, but none suggest that the end is near. I hope that
Bretonneau's presence and his kind and clever talk will have calmed M.
de Talleyrand's mind.
_Valençay, September 20, 1835._--General Sébastiani has been nearly
blown up in Manchester Square in London. A new Fieschi had deposited
an infernal machine there with the result that one poor woman was
injured. There are as yet no further particulars. There is nothing but
crime and mystery in these days!
M. Royer-Collard spoke to us yesterday of his last speech in the
Chamber of Deputies. He said that if he had held his peace he would
have thought himself dishonoured, that he would rather have had
himself carried to the tribune than be silent in a situation in which
the glory of his whole life was at stake, and finally that he would be
dead now if he had not spoken and that the only reason he is not
better than he is, is that he did not manage to express all that he
was thinking.
I was bold enough to touch on the subject of the Cours Prévôtales[56]
at the time of the second Restoration, for which he has been so much
blamed lately, and M. Royer-Collard replied: "It is true that I, with
several Councillors of State, was appointed to examine the Bill before
the Minister introduced it in the Chamber. M. Cuvier and I opposed it
in principle and secured many modifications in detail. M. de Marbois,
who was then Garde des Sceaux, and who did not like the law, wished it
to be introduced in the Chamber by people who were opposed to it, and
appointed me Government Commissary without consulting me. I did not
know what had been done till I saw the _Moniteur_ and I complained
bitterly. I did not appear in the Chamber as Commissary during the
discussion of the law, and I defy any one to quote a word I ever said
in its favour." He added that M. Guizot, then Secretary-General at the
Ministry of Justice, should not have contented himself with being so
good as to quote to his colleagues in the present Cabinet the
_Moniteur_ which contained his name. He should at the same time have
explained how it happened. If this accusation had been made in the
Chamber instead of merely in the Ministerial press M. Royer-Collard
would have ascended the tribune to give the true version of the
matter.
[56] In 1789 the Cours Prévôtales were tribunals empowered to
punish summarily and without appeal certain crimes and offences
defined by an Ordinance of 1731. Under the Consulate and the
Empire exceptional jurisdictions were established under the same
name to deal with desertions, mutiny, political offences and
smuggling. The Cours Prévôtales of the Restoration were composed
of Judges of Courts of first instance, and were directed by a
Prévôt, a superior officer of the army. These Courts from 1815 to
1817 took cognisance of offences against the public safety and
acted retrospectively; they were an instrument of Reaction and
Political vengeance.
He is sorry to have wounded M. Thiers by his speech, which was not
aimed at him, and he would have liked to be able to make an exception
in his favour.
M. Royer-Collard, who has not always either thought or spoken well of
King Louis-Philippe, has changed his mind to a remarkable extent. Last
night, _à propos_ of the fine portrait of the King which is here, he
said he had gone up very much in his opinion, more than he was willing
to admit to himself, so great was the contradiction between his past
and present opinions on this point, and between his reason and his
prejudices.
_Valençay, September 21, 1835._--M. de Talleyrand was reassured for a
day or two by the conscientious and satisfactory report of Bretonneau,
but has now relapsed into anxieties about his health. He admits that
he thinks of nothing else and says that the cause lies in his state of
mind, which is depressed and weary. Yesterday evening when I went back
to his room I found him reading a medical book, studying the subject
of heart disease, and fancying he had a polypus. Yet he suffers very
little, only at long intervals, and then not without a purely natural
cause. It is clear to me (and I know something about it) that he has
an attack of nerves. He had no experience of this protean malady. He
denied its existence in others and now he is a victim himself and will
not admit it.
They say that General Alava has been appointed President of the
Council at Madrid. He has been saying for the last year that he only
accepted the mission to London because the Duke of Wellington was in
office. He remained in spite of the Duke's resignation because, he
said, Martinez de la Rosa was Premier at Madrid. The reason why he did
not retire along with Martinez de la Rosa was, he explained, because
Toreno was also his friend! He led the English Legion he had raised
in London to Spain in person, after having sworn to declare for Don
Carlos on the day the Queen Regent should summon a single foreigner to
defend her cause, and finally he seems to have been placed at the head
of the Spanish Cabinet by Mendezabal, whom he once drove out of his
house as a rascal and a thief! This, it must be confessed, is to push
the logic of inconsistency to its furthest limits!
_Valençay, September 22, 1835._--This is the first occasion for twenty
years that I have spent this anniversary[57] away from M. de
Talleyrand. He went away yesterday to the Conseil Général at
Châteauroux. I remained alone here with the generation which is
destined to succeed him. This gave rise to one or two reflections,
among which was that when M. de Talleyrand departs this life I should
come here very seldom--not that I fear that I should not be well
treated, but the memories of the past would make everything painful to
me, and that the contrast which even yesterday was visible would
become more marked. I did not feel that it was my business to manage
and carry on the salon. It was not my house, and I longed for wings in
order to fly to Rochecotte.
[57] September 22 is the day of Saint Maurice, the patron Saint
of M. de Talleyrand.
M. Mennechet, up to the present time editor of _la Mode_, a Carlist
paper, and defamatory on principle, says, "Just fancy; for five years
I have been leading forlorn hopes on behalf of the Prague people and I
have only had two letters from them, one from King Charles X. bitterly
complaining of the caricatures of Louis-Philippe which we had sent him
and which he ordered us to stop, and the other from Madame la Dauphine
who two months ago wrote me a very severe letter, sending me back my
paper and saying that she would give up her subscription because we
had published an article in which it was said that we had seen or
received a letter containing good news about the Duc de Bordeaux." M.
Mennechet, much distressed by these two letters, has resigned the
editorship. I think the letters are very reasonable and very
creditable to the writers.
_Valençay, September 23, 1835._--I am impatiently awaiting M. de
Talleyrand's return from Châteauroux. Though he has become depressed
and irritable, his presence does good here. It fills this great
castle, and maintains good conversation and manners. Moreover, when he
is here I feel there is a reason for my presence.
_Valençay, September 24, 1835._--Bretonneau's diagnosis is justified.
M. de Talleyrand has returned from Châteauroux revived and pleased
with the reception of the Prefect and the enthusiasm of the whole town
as well as by the success of the road in which he is interested.
Madame Adélaïde writes that the King's expedition to the town of Eu
has been not only good for his health but gratifying to him personally
and to all his family. The testimonies of affection which he received
all along the way were impossible to describe.
Pépin was at last recaptured on the morning of the 22nd. This also I
learn from Madame, but she had only just heard, and gives no details.
M. de Rigny is said to be at Toulon, which proves that he has not been
successful in his negotiations for the Neapolitan marriage.
_Valençay, September 28, 1835_.--M. Brenier, who has just come from
London, tells me that General Sébastiani hates music as much as his
wife loves it. He will not allow her to go to the Opera or to
concerts. One day, however, after many prayers, Madame Sébastiani
obtained permission to go to a concert at Lady Antrobus's. It was on
June 18, and the General was to call for his wife later. He arrived
simultaneously with the Duke of Wellington, who was in uniform and
surrounded by many officers, all coming from the great military dinner
given on the occasion of the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.
The singers were at the moment singing a hymn in honour of the
conqueror. Sébastiani was furious, and told M. de Bourqueney, his
First Secretary, who had gone with him, to tell Madame Sébastiani that
she must leave. She does not understand English, and therefore did not
grasp what the words of the cantata meant, and at first refused to
leave her place. M. de Bourqueney, stimulated by the furious gestures
of the General, almost dragged the poor woman out by force over the
seats. When she finally got to her husband he said to her, in his
pompous and sententious manner, "I told you, madame, that music would
be your ruin!"
It was this same M. Bourqueney, who was lately writing for the
_Journal des Débats_ before he went to London with Sébastiani, who had
the impudence to insinuate that he prepared for M. de Talleyrand from
Paris the speech which the Prince made to the King of England in
delivering the letters accrediting him to the Court of St. James's in
1830. The following is the history of this speech. M. de Talleyrand
was just finishing dressing to go to the King, and said to me that it
had occurred to him that it would not be amiss to say a word or two,
as was the old fashion. In the peculiar circumstances of the time he
thought it would be a good thing, but he had no time to prepare
anything. Then he added: "Come, Madame de Dino, sit down and find me a
few phrases, and please write them in your largest hand." I did so. He
changed two or three words in my draft, which I recopied while his
orders were being pinned on and his hat and cane were being brought.
This is the precise history of this little speech, which by its
fortunate allusions and a comparison between 1688 and 1830 attracted
some attention at the time.[58]
[58] This speech is given at the end of this volume. I shall
quote only the phrase here referred to. "England, like France,
repudiates in her foreign relations the principle of interfering
in the affairs of her neighbours, and the ambassador of a
monarchy established by the unanimous votes of a great people
feels himself at ease in a land of liberty, in the presence of a
scion of the illustrious House of Brunswick."
It is the same with the letter of resignation which M. de Talleyrand
wrote less than a year ago. The general idea is that M. Royer-Collard
was its author, so here again follows an exact account of what passed.
My conscience had told me that it was absolutely necessary that M. de
Talleyrand should send in his resignation, and I familiarised him by
degrees with this idea. I knew that he always found it difficult to
express his thoughts in words, and that he preferred to act. I had,
therefore, for a long time been considering what words it would be
best to use. At last, one day last November, when we were alone here,
I spoke again to M. de Talleyrand of the propriety, which was daily
growing more obvious, of his sending in his resignation--a step from
which he still shrank a little. He then said that the necessary letter
would be very hard to write. Thereupon I immediately gathered together
all that I had prepared in thought and put it into writing. I came
back in half an hour and read what I had written to M. de Talleyrand,
who was much struck with it and adopted it entire, all but two words,
which he thought affected. I then asked him to submit the proposed
letter to M. Royer-Collard, which he was quite willing to do. Next
morning I left for Châteauvieux. M. Royer-Collard thought well of the
letter, only putting at the end "the thoughts which it suggests"
instead of "the warning which it gives," as I had written, and
replacing one expression at the beginning, which he thought too
pompous, by another in better taste. Thus, without any further
alteration, this letter afterwards appeared in the _Moniteur_, and for
a good while occupied public attention. All the letters of this period
written by M. de Talleyrand to the King, Madame Adélaïde, and the Duke
of Wellington, were first thrown on paper by me and then rehandled by
him. It was only the first above-mentioned, which contained his
resignation, which was corrected by M. Royer-Collard. The others were
merely communicated to him, and he approved them all.
_Valençay, October 1, 1835._--Yesterday I went to Châteauvieux; the
weather was terrible.
M. Royer-Collard said that, of all the people he had ever met, the two
most alike were Charles X. and M. de la Fayette. They were both
equally mad, equally obstinate, and equally honest. Speaking of M.
Thiers, he said: "He is a good-humoured rascal with plenty of
cleverness and some sparks of greatness, but capable of losing an
empire by his recklessness and excitability." Referring to the recent
repressive laws, he said: "I have no love for dictators, but reason
tells me that they are necessary at times. Perhaps the present is one
of these times. But where are we to find the Dictator? If they frankly
proposed the King I could understand it, but to think of the present
Cabinet occupying such a position!"
_Valençay, October 4, 1835._--Yesterday I heard some singular stories
of M. Cousin, whose formerly revolutionary ideas have changed into
monarchical sentiments of the most exalted character. Some delightful
remarks on the subject are quoted. It seems that this illustrious Peer
has composed a monarchical and Catholic Catechism. The work being
completed it was laid before M. Guizot, who gave it his approval, as
did M. Persil, Minister of Public Worship. The book was printed, sent
out to educational establishments, and recommended to all the
institutions under the University. After all this there came a poor
priest with the book in his hand and proved that all these doctors had
only forgotten one little thing in the whole system of Catholic
doctrine, which was the doctrine of Purgatory, to which not the
slightest allusion was made throughout the catechism, verified and
approved as it was by M. Guizot, Minister of Public Instruction and a
Calvinist!
_Valençay, October 10, 1835._--A pedantic and ill-mannered Prefect
spitefully refused permission to M. de Talleyrand to plant a few
trees, saying that he was "_à cheval sur la loi_." "Dear me," replied
M. de Talleyrand, "you have chosen to ride a sorry jade!"
The celebrated Alfieri was at first attracted by the ideas of the
French Revolution, but became so disgusted with them, that he
determined to leave France. The reason of this was that one day he was
driving four-in-hand in the Bois de Boulogne at a great pace, himself
holding the reins, when the horses were requisitioned by force for the
public service. That very evening he announced his departure, and in
reply to entreaties that he should remain, he observed, "What on earth
is one to do in a country where the nobility have no daggers and the
priests no poison!"
_Valençay, October 16, 1835._--I am confronted with new anxieties. I
had heard that the Princesse de Talleyrand was in an alarming
condition, and that her end appeared to be approaching. The Baronne de
Talleyrand, who told me, asked me to prepare M. de Talleyrand for this
event. I confess I shrank from this mission. The gloomy ideas which
have so frequently recurred to M. de Talleyrand's mind for some time,
the depression caused by his great age, the anxiety which he feels at
the slightest symptoms, the sharp and painful impression made on him
by the deaths of his contemporaries--all this made me hesitate to tell
him that his wife's days were numbered. I was not afraid of the shock
of the bereavement, for his heart is not interested. But the
disappearance of a person much of his own age, with whom he had lived
and of whom he had once been fond, or who had been so indispensable to
him that he had given her his name--all this made me think that the
Princess's danger would affect him deeply.
I racked my brains to find some oblique way of getting at the subject
without speaking directly of a seizure. My first remarks were received
in silence, after which M. de Talleyrand immediately changed the
subject. Next day, however, he returned to it, but only to refer to
the embarrassment it would be to be in mourning if she did die, of the
funeral, and of the cards that would be sent out. If the Princess did
die, he said, he would go out of Paris for a week or a fortnight, and
all this he said, not only without any trace of grief, but even in a
tone of obvious relief. He immediately proceeded to enter on the
financial questions of importance which are involved in his wife's
death which would repossess him not only of her annuity, but also of
other monies in which she has only a life interest. All the rest of
the day M. de Talleyrand showed a kind of serenity and gaiety which I
have not seen in him for a long time, and which struck me so much,
that when I heard him positively humming a tune, I could not help
asking him "if it was the fact that he was soon to be a widower that
put him in such spirits." He made a face at me like a mischievous
child, and went on talking about all there would be to do if the
Princess were to die. He will have the satisfaction of an easier
income, which will be a relief to him, as for some years past his
revenues have, to his great annoyance, notably diminished owing to
several causes. Besides this, it is probably a relief to him (though
he will not acknowledge this even to me), to see a bond snapped which
was the greatest scandal of his life because it was the only one which
was irremediable.
_Valençay, October 18, 1835._--After several months of silence, during
which General Alava has come to grief at the head of the English
ruffians he took with him to Spain, I have received a letter from him
at Madrid, dated the 6th instant, which begins thus: "You were right,
my dear Duchesse, when you once said that to enter Spain with foreign
troops was to tempt Providence." The letter ends with another allusion
to my prediction, which seems to have come true to a degree which poor
absurd Alava can hardly bear. He insists, however, that he was in
honour bound to this partisan existence which he dignifies with the
epithet chivalrous, although it is merely Quixotic in the bad sense.
He does not need to explain why he refused the Premiership, but he
says he took the Ministry of Foreign Affairs because he saw the safety
of the Queen Regent was compromised. He does not say how. He then adds
that as soon as he was reassured on this point he retired completely
from the Cabinet, that his only desire is to resume his duties in
London as soon as the session of the Cortès is over. He seems to feel
the uncertainty of this, for he says, "Heaven alone knows what
obstacles may come between me and London before then." He ends by
saying that if he goes back to England it will be by sea in order to
avoid Paris which, according to him, is a very dangerous place for a
Spanish diplomatist.
As regards France, he says: "As they waited for the _casus fœderis_
before they acted, the _casus mortis_ in which we find ourselves,
relieves us of the necessity of thinking of our liberation, which is a
thing of which dead men have no need."
_Paris, October 23, 1835._--We have been back in Paris some days.
M. le Duc d'Orléans was speaking to me yesterday of the Neapolitan
marriage planned for his sister Princess Marie, which did not come
off, and he told me that he had applied to his brother-in-law, the
King of the Belgians, who is here just now, to find some younger son
of a great German House who would be willing to marry the Princess and
come and live at Paris. Princess Marie is clever, but her imagination
is vivid and restless; she is fond of the arts, and is little used to
restraint or to pomp and ceremony. They think she would be happier if
established in Paris, and certainly freer than she would be elsewhere.
No opportunity seems likely to occur of a foreign marriage; even the
chance of such a thing seems more remote. The Princess is
twenty-three, and the Queen is worried and anxious about it.
The pretensions of the King's children are in all things much reduced,
for M. Guizot said the other day, when M. de Bacourt was leaving for
Carlsruhe, that there might not be much to do, but there was one
thing, which was to preserve the last Princess of Baden for M. le Duc
d'Orléans. This Princess is the daughter of Stéphanie de Beauharnais.
I doubt if this marriage would be agreeable to the young Prince, who
only yesterday, _à propos_ of the Leuchtenbergs, said some hard things
of the Beauharnais family. He said they were all intriguers, and would
not make an exception even in favour of the Grand Duchess Stéphanie of
Baden who, in my opinion, deserves a place apart. She is not only a
kindly woman, but there is in her a touch of sublimity, though she is
a trifle too energetic and her pretensions to wit are excessive.
The Princesse de Talleyrand is better, and so little concerned about
her condition that all she thinks of is how to secure further
advantages for herself at her husband's death.
_Paris, October 24, 1835._--M. Pasquier told us yesterday that they
had been obliged to amputate one of Fieschi's finger-joints as a
result of the wound caused by the bursting of his infernal machine,
and that the patient grasped the injured finger with the other hand
before the surgeons began their work saying: "Little one, I am sorry,
but you are going to lose your head before I lose mine." His coolness,
courage and physical strength are only equalled by his excessive
vanity.
I find the Tuileries depressing, Madame Adélaïde aged, the King
flushed and stouter. They are both cast down by the departure of the
Prince Royal for Algeria. The punishment of an African brigand does
not seem a sufficient motive for risking so precious a life. They are
displeased with Ministers for having rather encouraged than checked
the adventurous and highly natural impulse of the young Prince.
The cholera has ceased neither at Toulon nor in Africa; it may yet
cause some calamity to the King. The failure of the Neapolitan
marriage disappoints, and the extreme coldness of the new Russian
Ambassador discourages them.
In the thirty-six hours he spent in Vienna with the ostensible purpose
of paying his respects to the last Emperor of Austria, and with the
real object of charming M. de Metternich through his wife, and the
Archduke Louis through the Archduchess Sophia, the Czar of Russia
rushed all over the city in a cab, forced the vault in which the last
Emperor is buried, and contrived to change his uniform four times!
_A propos_ of the appointment of Count Pahlen as Russian Ambassador in
France the Carlists are saying that nothing can more clearly prove the
_rapprochement_ of the Czar Nicholas with King Louis-Philippe than the
choice of the son of a murderer as Ambassador at the Court of the son
of a regicide.
_Paris, October 27, 1835._--M. de Talleyrand said yesterday that on
his return from America, after all the horrors of the Revolution, he
met Sieyès and asked him how he had got through that frightful time,
and what he did during those miserable years. "I lived," replied
Sieyès! It was in fact the best, and the most difficult, thing to do!