Chapter I: Front Matter

MY MEMOIRS

BY

ALEXANDRE DUMAS

TRANSLATED BY

E. M. WALLER

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

ANDREW LANG

VOL. III

1826 TO 1830

WITH A FRONTISPIECE

METHUEN & CO.

36 ESSEX STREET W.C.

LONDON

1907

CONTENTS

BOOK I

CHAPTER I

I become a fully fledged employé--Bad plays--Thibaut--My
studies with him--Where they have been of use to
me--_Amaury_ and the consumptives--My reading--Walter
Scott--Cooper--Byron--The pleasure of eating _sauerkraut_ at
the Parthenon.

CHAPTER II

Byron's childhood--His grief at being lame--Mary Duff--The
Malvern fortune-teller--How Byron and Robert Peel became
acquainted--Miss Parker--Miss Chaworth--Verses on her
portrait--Mrs. Musters--Lady Morgan--_English Bards and
Scotch Reviewers_--Byron's letters to his mother--He takes
his seat in the House of Lords.

CHAPTER III

Byron at Lisbon--How he quarrelled with his own
countrymen--His poem _Childe Harold_--His fits of mad folly
and subsequent depression--His marriage--His conjugal
squabbles--He again quits England--His farewell to wife
and child--His life and amours at Venice--He sets out for
Greece--His arrival at Missolonghi--His illness and death.

CHAPTER IV

Usurped celebrity--M. Lemercier and his works--Racan's white
hare--_Le Fiesque_ by M. Ancelot--The Romantic artists
--Scheffer--Delacroix--Sigalon--Schnetz--Coigniet--Boulanger
--Géricault--_La Méduse_ in the artist's studio--Lord
Byron's funeral obsequies in England--Sheridan's body
claimed for debt.

CHAPTER V

My mother comes to live with me--A Duc de Chartres born
to me--Chateaubriand and M. de Villèle--Epistolary
brevity--Re-establishment of the Censorship--A King of
France should never be ill--Bulletins of the health of
Louis XVIII.--His last moments and death--Ode by Victor
Hugo--M. Torbet and Napoleon's tomb--La Fayette's voyage to
America--The ovations showered upon him.

CHAPTER VI

Tallancourt and Betz--The café _Hollandais_--My Quiroga
cloak--First challenge--A lesson in shooting--The eve of
my duel--Analysis of my sensations--My opponent fails
to keep his appointment--The seconds hunt him out--The
duel--Tallancourt and the mad dog.

CHAPTER VII

The Duc d'Orléans is given the title of _Royal
Highness_--The coronation of Charles X.--Account of
the ceremony by Madame la Duchesse d'Orléans--Death of
Ferdinand of Naples--De La ville de Miremont--_Le Cid
d'Andalousie_--M. Pierre Lebrun--A reading at the camp at
Compiègne--M. Taylor is appointed a royal commissioner to
the Théâtre-Français--The curé Bergeron--M. Viennet--Two of
his letters--Pichat and his _Léonidas._

CHAPTER VIII

Death of General Foy--His funeral--The _Royal
Highness_--Assassination of Paul-Louis Courier--Death of the
Emperor Alexander--Comparison of England and Russia--The
reason why these two powers have increased during the last
century--How Napoleon meant to conquer India.

CHAPTER IX

The Emperor Alexander--Letter from Czar Nicolas to
Karamsine--History after the style of Suetonius and
Saint-Simon--Catherine and Potemkin--Madame Braniska--The
cost of the imperial cab-drive--A ball at M. de
Caulaincourt's--The man with the pipe--The emperor's boatman
and coachman.

CHAPTER X

Alexander leaves St. Petersburg--His presentiments of
his death--The two stars seen at Taganrog--The emperor's
illness--His last moments--How they learnt of his death in
St. Petersburg--The Grand-Duke Constantine--His character
and tastes--Why he renounced his right to the imperial
throne--Jeannette Groudzenska.

BOOK II

CHAPTER I

Rousseau and Romieu--Conversation with the porter--The eight
hours' candle--The _Deux Magots_--At what hour one should
wind up one's watch--M. le sous-préfet enjoys a joke--Henry
Monnier--A paragraph of information--On suppers--On cigars.

CHAPTER II

The lantern--_Le Chasse et l'Amour_--Rousseau's part
in it--The couplet about the hare--The _couplet de
facture_--How there may be hares _and_ hares--Reception
at l'Ambigu--My first receipts as an author--Who Porcher
was--Why no one might say anything against Mélesville.

CHAPTER III

The success of my first play--My three stories--M. Marle
and his orthography--Madame Setier--A bad speculation--The
_Pâtre,_ by Montvoisin--The _Oreiller_--Madame
Desbordes-Valmore--How she became a poetess--Madame Amable
Tastu--The _Dernier jour de l'année--Zéphire._

CHAPTER IV

Talma's illness--How he would have acted _Tasso_--His
nephews--He receives a visit from M. de Quélen--Why his
children renounced his faith--His death--_La Noce et
l'Enterrement_--Oudard lectures me on my fondness for
theatre-going--The capital reply that put the Palais-Royal
in a gay humour--I still keep the confidence of Lassagne
and de la Ponce--I obtain a success anonymously at the
Porte-Saint-Martin.

CHAPTER V

Soulié at the mechanical saw-mill--His platonic love of
gold--I desire to write a drama with him--I translate
_Fiesque_--Death of Auguste Lafarge--My pay is increased
and my position lowered--Félix Deviolaine, condemned by
the medical faculty, is saved by illness--_Louis XI. à
Péronne_--Talma's theatrical wardrobe--The _loi de justice
et d'amour_--The disbanding of the National Guard.

CHAPTER VI

English actors in Paris--Literary importations--_Trente
Ans_, or _la Vie d'un Joueur_--The _Hamlet_ of Kemble
and Miss Smithson--A bas-relief of Mademoiselle de
Fauveau--Visit to Frédéric Soulié--He declines to write
_Christine_ with me--A night attack--I come across Adèle
d'Alvin once more--I spend the night _au violon._

CHAPTER VII

Future landmarks--Compliments to the Duc de
Bordeaux--_Votes_--Cauchois-Lemaire's Orléaniste
brochure--The lake of Enghien--Colonel Bro's parrot--Doctor
Ferrus--Morrisel--A tip-top funeral cortège--Hunting in full
cry--An autopsy--Explanation of the death of the parrot.

CHAPTER VIII

Barthélemy and Méry--M. Éliça Gallay--Méry the
draught-player and anatomist--_L'Épître à Sidi Mahmoud_--The
Ponthieu library--Soulé--The _Villéliade_--Barthélemy the
printer--Méry the improvisator--The _Vœux de la nouvelle
année_--The pastiche of _Lucrèce._

CHAPTER IX

I pass from the Secretarial Department to the Record
Office--M. Bichet--Wherein I resemble Piron--My spare
time--M. Pieyre and M. Parseval de Grandmaison--A scene
missing in _Distrait_--_La Peyrouse_--A success all to
myself.

CHAPTER X

The painter Lethière--Brutus unveiled by M. Ponsard--Madame
Hannemann--Gohier--Andrieux--Renaud--Desgenettes--Larrey,
Augereau and the Egyptian mummy--Soldiers of the new
school--My dramatic education--I enter the offices of
the Forestry Department--The cupboard full of empty
bottles--Three days away from the office--Am summoned before
M. Deviolaine.

CHAPTER XI

Conclusion of _Christine_--A patron, after a fashion--Nodier
recommends me to Taylor--The Royal Commissary and the author
of _Hécube_--Semi-official reading before Taylor--Official
reading before the Committee--I am received with
acclamation--The intoxication of success--How history is
written--M. Deviolaine's incredulity--Picard's opinions
concerning my play--Nodier's opinion--Second reading at the
Théâtre-Français and definite acceptance.

CHAPTER XII

Cordelier-Delanoue--A sitting of the Athénée--M.
Villenave--His family--The one hundred and thirty-two
Nantais--Cathelineau--The hunt _aux bleus_--Forest--A
chapter of history--Sauveur--The Royalist
Committee--Souchu--The miraculous tomb--Carrier.

CHAPTER XIII

M. Villenave's house--The master's despotic rule--The
savant's coquetry--Description of the sanctuary of the
man of science--I am admitted, thanks to an autograph of
_Buonaparte_--The crevice in the wall--The eight thousand
folios--The pastel by Latour--Voyages of discovery for an
Elzevir or a _Faust_--The fall of the portrait and the death
of the original.

CHAPTER XIV

First representation of Soulié's _Roméo et Juliette_--Anaïs
and Lockroy--Why French actresses cannot act Juliet--The
studies of the Conservatoire--A second _Christine_ at
the Théâtre-Français--M. Évariste Dumoulin and Madame
Valmonzey--Conspiracy against me--I give up my turn to
have my play produced--How I found the subject of _Henri
III._--My opinion of that play.

CHAPTER XV

The reading of _Henri III._ at M. Villenave's and M.
Roqueplan's--Another reading at Firmin's--Béranger
is present--A few words about his influence and
popularity--Effect produced by my drama--Reception by
the Comédie-Française--Struggle for the distribution of
parts--M. de Broval's ultimatum--Convicted of the crime of
poetry I appeal to the Duc d'Orléans--His Royal Highness
withholds my salary--M. Laffitte lends me three thousand
francs--Condemnation of Béranger.

CHAPTER XVI

The Duc d'Orléans has my salary stopped--A scribbler
(_folliculaire_)--_Henri III._ and the Censorship--My mother
is seized with paralysis--Cazal--Edmond Halphen--A call on
the Duc d'Orléans--First night of _Henri III._--Effect is
produced on M. Deviolaine--M. de Broval's congratulations.

CHAPTER XVII

The day following my victory--_Henri III._ is interdicted--I
obtain an audience with M. de Martignac--He removes the
interdiction-_Les hommes-obstacles_--The Duc d'Orléans sends
for me into his box--His talk with Charles X. on the subject
of my drama--Another scribbler--Visit to Carrel--Gosset's
shooting-box and pistols No. 5--An impossible duel.

BOOK III

CHAPTER I

The Arsenal--Nodier's house--The master's
profile--The congress of bibliophiles--The three
candles--Debureau--Mademoiselle Mars and Merlin--Nodier's
family--His friends--In which houses I am at my best--The
salon of the Arsenal--Nodier as a teller of tales--The ball
and the warming-pan.

CHAPTER II

Oudard transmits to me the desires of the Duc
d'Orléans--I am appointed assistant librarian--How this
saved His Highness four hundred francs--Rivalry with
Casimir Delavigne--Petition of the Classical School
against Romantic productions--Letter of support from
Mademoiselle Duchesnois--A fantastic dance--The person
who called Racine a _blackguard_--Fine indignation of the
_Constitutionnel_--First representation of _Marino Faliero_

CHAPTER III

Mesmerism--Experiment during a trance--I submit to being
mesmerised--My observation upon it--I myself start to
mesmerise--Experiment made in a diligence--Another
experiment in the house of the _procureur de la République_
of Joigny--Little Marie D****--Her political predictions--I
cure her of fear.

CHAPTER IV

Fresh trials of newspaper editors--The
_Mouton-enragé_--Fontan--Harel's witticism concerning
him--The _Fils de l'Homme_ before the Police Court--The
author pleads his cause in verse--M. Guillebert's
prose--Prison charges at Sainte-Pélagie--Embarrassment of
the Duc d'Orléans about a historical portrait--The two
usurpations.

CHAPTER V

The things that are the greatest enemies to the
success of a play--The honesty of Mademoiselle Mars
as an actress--Her dressing-room--The habitués at her
supper-parties--Vatout--Denniée--Becquet--Mornay--Mademoiselle
Mars in her own home--Her last days on the stage--Material
result of the success of _Henri III._--My first
speculation--The recasting of _Christine_--Where I looked
for my inspiration--Two other ideas.

CHAPTER VI

Victor Hugo--His birth--His mother--Les Chassebœuf and
les Cornet--Captain Hugo--The signification of his
name--Victor's godfather--The Hugo family in Corsica--M.
Hugo is called to Naples by Joseph Bonaparte--He is
appointed colonel and governor of the province of
Avellino--Recollections of the poet's early childhood--Fra
Diavolo--Joseph, King of Spain--Colonel Hugo is made a
general, count, marquis and major-domo--The Archbishop
of Tarragona--Madame Hugo and her children in Paris--The
convent of Feuillantines.

CHAPTER VII

Departure for Spain--Journey from Paris to Bayonne--The
treasure--Order of march of the convoy--M. du Saillant--M.
de Cotadilla--Irun--Ernani--Salinas--The battalion
of _écloppés_ (cripples)--Madame Hugo's supplies of
provisions--The forty Dutch grenadiers--Mondragon--The
precipice--Burgos--Celadas--Alerte--The queen's review.

CHAPTER VIII

Segovia--M. de Tilly--The Alcazar--The doubloons--The
castle of M. de la Calprenède and that of a Spanish
grandee--The _bourdaloue_--Otero--The Dutchmen again--The
Guadarrama--Arrival at Madrid--The palace of Masserano--The
comet--The College--Don Manoël and Don Bazilio--Tacitus
and Plautus--Lillo--The winter of 1812 to 1813--The
Empecinado--The glass of _eau sucrée_--The army of
merinoes--Return to Paris.

CHAPTER IX

The college and the garden of the Feuillantines--Grenadier
or general--Victor Hugo's first appearance in public--He
obtains honourable mention at the Academy examination--He
carries off three prizes in the Jeux Floraux--_Han
d'Islande_--The poet and the bodyguard--Hugo's marriage--The
_Odes et Ballades_--Proposition made by cousin Cornet.

CHAPTER X

Léopoldine--The opinions of the son of the Vendéenne--The
Delon conspiracy--Hugo offers Delon shelter--Louis XVIII.
bestows a pension of twelve hundred francs on the author
of the _Odes et Ballades_--The poet at the office of the
director-general des postes--How he learns the existence
of the _cabinet noir_--He is made a chevalier of the
Legion d'honneur--Beauchesne-_Bug-Jargal_--The Ambassador
of Austria's soirée--_Ode à la Colonne_--_Cromwell_--How
_Marion Delorme_ was written.

CHAPTER XI

Reading of _Marion Delorme_ at the house of
Devéria--Steeplechase of directors--_Marion Delorme_ is
stopped by the Censorship--Hugo obtains an audience with
Charles X.--His drama is definitely interdicted--They send
him the brevet of a pension, which he declines--He sets to
work on _Hernani_ and completes it in twenty-four days.

CHAPTER XII

The invasion of barbarians--Rehearsals of
_Hernani_--Mademoiselle Mars and the lines about the
_lion_--The scene over the _portraits_--Hugo takes away
from Mademoiselle Mars the part of Doña Sol--Michelot's
flattering complaisance to the public--The quatrain about
the cupboard--Joanny.

CHAPTER XIII

Alfred de Vigny--The man and his works--Harel, the manager
at the Odéon--Downfall of Soulié's _Christine_--Parenthesis
about Lassailly--Letter of Harel, with preface by myself
and postscript by Soulié--I read my _Christine_ at
the Odéon--Harel asks me to put it into prose--First
representation of the _More de Venise_--The actors and the
papers.

CHAPTER XIV

Citizen-general Barras--Doctor Cabarrus introduces me to
him--Barras's only two regrets--His dinners--The Princess de
Chimay's footman--Fauche-Borel--The Duc de Bordeaux makes a
mess--History lesson given to an ambassador--Walter Scott
and Barras--The last happiness of the old _directeur_--His
death.

THE MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDRE DUMAS