Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence Volume II Part 23

'After the perplexing and embarra.s.sing scenes you have had to pa.s.s through, it must give you the most solid joy to see an armament going out to America.... I again congratulate you on this great and glorious event, to which you have contributed more than any other person.

'Silas Deane.'

"Alas, that was the last of my successes. A minister of the department to whom I showed that letter, alas, though up to that time he had treated me with the greatest kindness, suddenly changed his tone, and his style. I did my best to persuade him that I did not pretend in any way to appropriate to myself that glory, but to leave it entirely to him. The blow had carried, he had read the praise; I was lost in his favor. It was to take from him all idea of my ambition, to avert the storm, that I recommenced to amuse myself with frivolous theatrical plays, while keeping a profound silence upon my political actions. But that helped nothing. It is very true that a year later, the general Congress, having received my vivid complaints upon the delay of payment, wrote me the ... letter by the Honorable Mr.

John Jay, their president, the 15th of Jan. 1779....

"If it was not money, it was at least grat.i.tude. America, nearer the great services which I had rendered her, was not yet where she disputed her debts, fatiguing me with injustice, to wear out my life, if possible, and succeed in paying nothing. It is also true that the same year, the respectable Mr. Jefferson, to-day their minister in France, then Governor of Virginia, struck by the fearful losses which the depreciation of paper money would inflict upon me, wrote, to my general agent in America, M. de Francy, in these terms:

"'December 17, 1779.

"'Monsieur:

"'I am very much mortified that the depreciation of paper money, of which no one, I think, had the least idea at the time of the contract, pa.s.sed between the supercargo of the _Fier Roderigue_ (war vessel of mine, very richly charged, the cargo of which had been delivered on credit to Virginia, which state owes me still almost the whole, after more than twelve years have pa.s.sed), and that state has enveloped in the general loss M. de Beaumarchais, who has merited so well of us, and who has excited our greatest veneration by his affection for the true rights of man, his genius, his literary reputation, etc.

Signed, "'Thomas Jefferson.'

"In the work, which I am going to publish, where I will show the proofs of the excellence of all my s.h.i.+pments to that people, after exact inspection which they themselves made, before the departure of my vessels, well attested by their ministers, and the excuses which he made me, of which I have all the originals, the surprise will be to see the patience with which I have supported all the invectives of my enemies. But it would have been to disgrace _the greatest act of my life_, the honorable part which I had in the liberty of America, if I had mingled it with the discussions of a vile law suit.... It was my scorn, my indignation, which made me keep silence. It is broken; I will hold my tongue no more on that great object, _the glory of my entire life_. They say that my sordid avarice has been the cause of the misfortunes of the American people. _My_ avarice, mine, whose life is only a circle of generosity, of benevolence. I will not cease to prove it, since their savage libels have rendered so many men unjust. Not a single being, who went at that time from Europe to America, without having pecuniary obligations to me, of which nearly all are due me still; and no Frenchman has suffered in that country whom I have not aided with my purse. I invoke a witness, whom it does you honor to respect, the very valiant general of your troops. Ask him if my services did not hunt out unfortunate Frenchmen in every corner of America.

"Render justice to my good heart, n.o.ble Marquis de Lafayette; Your glorious youth, would it not have been ruined without my wise counsel and the advances of my money? You have very well repaid all that was loaned you by my orders; and I say it to your glory, you have added fifty louis more than were due to me, to join that money to the charitable inst.i.tution which I was founding of the _pauvres meres nourrices_....

"And you, Baron von Steuben, Comtes Pulasky, Bienousky, you, Troncon, Prudhomme, and a hundred others, who have never acquitted their debts to me, come out of your tombs and speak!

"Fifteen hundred thousand francs at least, of services rendered, fill a portfolio, which probably will never be acquitted by anyone, and more than a thousand unfortunates whose needs I have antic.i.p.ated are ready to raise their voice in my favor.... The third of my fortune is in the hands of my debtors, and since I have aided the poor of Sainte-Marguerite, four hundred letters at least are on my desk from unfortunates, raising their hands to me.... My heart is torn, but I cannot reply to all.

"September 2, 1789."

But from the accusations of his enemies, and the pleadings of his own cause, let us turn, before worse calamities overtake him, to contemplate anew the charming picture, which the interior of his home presents.

It was in 1791 that he took his family to occupy the splendid new residence which we have just now mentioned. Its mistress Madame de Beaumarchais was a woman of rare intelligence and energy of character; "her physiognomy," says Bonneville, "offered an expression full of vivacity and intelligence. The eye is superb, tempered by long lashes, heightened by the daring arch of the brows; the mouth is admirably well formed; the chin full, the complexion brilliant.... The reputation for beauty of Madame de Beaumarchais was general. The public ratified on all occasions, the praise of her friends. It is traditional in her family that she rarely left her home without being recognized and followed at a distance by a cortege of admirers, drawn not only by the celebrity of the name she bore, but also by the prestige of her bearing. Often, even, she was obliged to gain her carriage to avoid the importunity of the too flattering attentions.

"Beaumarchais, as he confesses perhaps superfluously, was far from being a devotee; still he respected the beliefs of others; he had desired especially that his daughter should be brought up piously. Eugenie was at this moment a pupil at the convent of Bon Secours; her father often went there to visit her. The Superior, who had had proof of the generous and good heart of the father of her pupil, permitted herself to speak of one of the school-mates of Eugenie who was unable to pay the expenses of her education. The author of the _Mariage de Figaro_ replied at once in the following delicate manner:

"'July 27, 1790.

"'I send you, Madame, a bill of 200 livres for your unfortunate pupil. This is for the year. I will have the honor of giving to you or to her, in money, the first time I go to the convent, three louis, which will make six francs a month for this year, the same as I give to my daughter; but I conjure you, Madam, that my help does not force or press her vocation. I should be distressed if she were in any way thwarted as to her future. I have not the honor of knowing her; it is the good which you have said of her which determined me. That she remains free, and less unhappy, this is all the thanks I ask; keep the secret for me. I am surrounded with virulent enemies.'

"One cannot," continues Bonneville, "hide oneself more gallantly, to do good.

"The prioress hastened to divulge the secret; and to the rough draft of the letter of Beaumarchais found among his papers, is attached a note in which his young protegee expressed with emotion all her grat.i.tude to her benefactor."

The violences directed against the religious establishments soon forced Beaumarchais to bring his daughter home. It was about this time that we find a letter, addressed by the author of the _Mariage de Figaro_, to the Munic.i.p.al officers of Paris, begging, with his characteristic energy, that the churches be opened, and more ma.s.ses be said in the Quartier-Vieille-rue-du-Temple.

"In this letter," says Lomenie, "it is the husband, the brother, but especially the father who speaks. The author of the _Mariage de Figaro_ adored his only daughter, he had just brought her home from the convent, and if he went himself very little to ma.s.s, he was not sorry to have her go for him. It is this side of Beaumarchais, so good, so simple, so jovial, so gay, that makes us love him, and which comes out with special force in a song which he wrote to celebrate the young girl's return under her father's roof. This song has been cla.s.sed as one of the best of the poetic inspirations of Beaumarchais. The turn _naf_ of the old popular songs is found in it, combined with a graceful mixture of friendliness, finesse and gaiety."

The charm of these verses, which it is impossible to render into English, gave the song a great popularity, and it circulated widely.

In it, there was question of the marriage of Mlle. Eugenie, where the father jestingly says: "My _gentilhomme_, is that all you are?

"Parchment and blazonry will never open my house.

"_If someone really tender, Sings thee songs in the air, Let me hear them For thy Father sees clear And I will say if there is reason That he should enter here._

"_Should some excellent young man See heaven in thy eyes, Say to him 'Beautiful astronomer, Speak to that good old man, He is my father, and there is reason That he should choose his son-in-law.'_

"_If he has some talent What matters his fortune?

Judge, writer, soldier, Esprit, virtue, sweet reason- These are the t.i.tles valued here._"

"The result of all this was that Beaumarchais was deluged," says Lomenie, "with the most singular demands in marriage for his daughter.

Here it is from a n.o.bleman, but one who makes no point of his blazon, who despises the fortune which he has not, who esteems only virtue, and who aspires to marry Mlle. Eugenie and her dot; there, from a father, perfectly unknown to Beaumarchais, who begs him to keep the daughter for his son, still in college; farther on it is a captain, who has only his sword, but who is worthy of being a Marshal of France. Politely to turn aside this avalanche of virtuous and disinterested suitors, the father of Eugenie wrote a letter which, with slight modifications, serves him for all, and of which the following is a sample:

"Paris, May 21, 1791.

"Although your letter, Monsieur, appears to have its origin in a simple jest, since it is serious and honest, I owe you a reply.

"You have been deceived regarding my daughter. Scarcely fourteen years old, she is far from the time when I will allow her to choose a master, reserving for myself in this only, the right to advise. Perhaps you are quite ignorant of the exact situation. I have only lately taken my daughter from the convent; the joy of her return drew from my indolence a song, which after having been sung at my table, went the rounds. The tone _bonhomme_ which I there took, joined to the jest of her future establishment, has made many persons think that I already thought of her settlement.

"But may I be preserved from engaging her before the time when her own heart will give her a consciousness of what it all means, and Monsieur, this will be an affair of years, not of months.

"What the song says jestingly, however, will certainly be my rule to enlighten her young heart. Fortune touches me less than talents and virtue, because I wish her to be happy....

"Beaumarchais."

But the young girl's presence under her father's roof was to be of short duration. Very soon, his anxiety for their safety led him to dispatch his family to Havre. For, says La Harpe,

"His house was placed at the entrance of that terrible faubourg like the Palace of Portici at the foot of Vesuvius.... The eruption of the volcano was as yet only at rare intervals; that of the faubourg was at every moment. It is inconceivable that under the lava always boiling, that house was not engulfed."

So it is here we will leave him to await alone,-except for his faithful Gudin-the coming of the storm, which his own writings had done so much to rouse, but which he neither desired, nor, to the end, comprehended.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOUSE OF BEAUMARCHAIS]

CHAPTER XXV

"_I know very well to live is to combat, and perhaps I should be afflicted at this if I did not know that in return to combat is to live._"

_Caron de Beaumarchais._

"_-Often broken-hearted, always consoled by the sublime principle of the compensation of good and evil-which was the ground of his optimism ..._"

_Lintilhac in Beaumarchais et Ses uvres._

House of Beaumarchais Searched-The 10th of August-Letter to his Family in Havre-Letter of Eugenie to her Father-Commissioned to Buy Guns for the Government-Goes to Holland as Agent of _Comite de Salut Public_-Declared an Emigre-Confiscation of his Goods-Imprisonment of his Family-The Ninth Thermidor Comes to Save Them-Life During the Terror-Julie again in Evidence-Beaumarchais's Name Erased From List of Emigres-Returns to France.

Early in 1792, Beaumarchais embarked in a new political and commercial operation which, says Lomenie, "was destined to embarra.s.s his fortune and to be the torment of his latter days. France was without arms and he undertook to procure them for her. It is difficult to understand that a man sixty years old, rich, fatigued by a most stormy existence, afflicted with increasing deafness, surrounded with enemies, and desirous only of repose should have allowed himself to be induced to attempt to bring into France sixty thousand guns detained in Holland under circ.u.mstances which rendered this operation as dangerous as it was difficult."