Memoirs of the Duchesse de Dino Part 21

It is a pity, however, that the vegetation is, so to speak, fact.i.tious. 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.s through these streets and squares, which awake so many memories, almost all of them painful.

As we pa.s.sed 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 weatherc.o.c.k, 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 a.s.sist 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 a.s.sa.s.sinated 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 friends.h.i.+p. 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 pa.s.sed through his salon.... The affair of the escape of Pepin 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 Adelade look forward to seeing you among the greatest of their consolations. They need consolation, for I a.s.sure 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 a.s.suming 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 a.s.sa.s.sins! 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 pa.s.sion, 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 a.s.serts 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 Adelade 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 Vendome 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 Sebastiani are talked of even in the cabinet of Madame Adelade; and they seem in fact to pa.s.s 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 a.s.sa.s.sination. 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 a.s.sa.s.sin. 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 pa.s.s 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 _charge d'affaires_. This is all the worse, as he wrote a letter with his own hand to the widow of the Duc de Trevise, who had been Amba.s.sador 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 Hotel 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'Orleans regrets that the Wurtemberg 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'Orleans 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 Pepin, 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 Adelade 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 Compiegne, 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 _tete-a-tete_ 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'Orleans.

_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 pet.i.tions 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 chateau, which has so many a.s.sociations, is one of the most splendid and attractive abodes possible.

_Courtalin, September 13, 1835._[54]--Here they know all about what is pa.s.sing 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.

_Valencay, September 15, 1835._--To-day I dined at Beauregard with Madame de Sainte-Aldegonde. It is a fine house, an old hunting lodge of Francois I., which he used when stag hunting from Chambord, in the Forest of Rousse. 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 Valencay 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 a.s.surance of my old friends.h.i.+p 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 d.u.c.h.ess 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.

_Valencay, 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 gla.s.s 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 pa.s.sports are in any way irregular cut off. The fas.h.i.+on 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 n.o.ble lady in all respects, came to France under the Consulate to secure her removal from the list of _emigres_ and the restoration of such of her property as was still sequestrated.

She stayed with the Marechale de Beauveau, who was a friend of hers.

She had to write to Fouche requesting an interview, which being granted she went to the Hotel 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 d.u.c.h.ess, whom he referred to his princ.i.p.al 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 d.u.c.h.ess 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 d.u.c.h.ess 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 d.u.c.h.ess's name to be struck out at once and she got back her property.

_Valencay, 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 d.u.c.h.esse de Berry there, and is bound thence for Naples.

_Valencay, 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.

_Valencay, 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 circ.u.mstances 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.