Chapter XII: Book IX: 283 (3)

[286] Antoine Saint-Just (1767-1794) has been only once mentioned in the Memoirs (_Cf._ Vol. III., p. 196). He was born a few months after Barbaroux, and died three days later. This "black-haired, mild-toned youth," to quote Carlyle, was one of the most violent organizers of the Terror. He became President of the Convention in February 1794 and took charge of the reports against his colleagues Danton, Camille Desmoulins and others, who were promptly sent to the scaffold. Almost alone he defended Robespierre, was eventually involved in the same condemnation, and was guillotined with him on the 28th of July. Saint-Just cultivated the Muse: at the early age of twenty, he published _Organt_, a licentious poem in twenty cantos (1789). He also left the _Esprit de la Révolution_ (1791) and a number of Reports and Opinions delivered in the Convention.--T.

[287] _Cf._, in Chateaubriand's preface to his _Études historiques_, the table of the victims of the Terror, taken from the six volumes of Prudhomme, the Republican. There were 18,923 men not of noble birth, of different conditions; 2,231 wives of labourers or artisans; and 2,000 children guillotined, drowned and shot. In the Vendée, 15,000 women were killed, and almost all of these were peasant-women. Terrible as they are, these figures are very far below the reality.--B.

[288] Thiers was Premier and Foreign Minister from the 22nd of February to the 25th of August 1836 and, for the second time, from the 1st of March to the 28th of October 1840.--T.

[289] This is in allusion to an episode which occurred in 1834, of which the country-house of a ministerial deputy was the scene and M. Thiers, then Minister of the Interior, the hero. Dr. Bonnet de Malherbe, in his _Notes inédites sur M. Thiers_ (1888, p. 73) refers to it in the following words:

"One episode especially, the feast of Grand-Vaux, at the _château_
of the Comte Vigier, which the newspapers called the 'Orgy of
Grand-Vaux,' made a great stir at the time. M. Thiers, if the
chroniclers of the time are to be credited, played a part in it
which went far beyond the 'pranks' of the Marseilles school-boy,
and 'showed himself' in a 'posture' which was not exactly that of
which another minister spoke, with some emphasis, half a century
later. The _Quotidienne_ published a very spicy article in this
connection, nor was the _Charivari_ sparing in caricatures."--B.

[290] Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes (_circa_ 104--_circa_ 180), a Greek rhetorician celebrated for his munificence. He erected many public works at his own expense and restored several decayed towns in various parts of Greece.--T.

[291] Thiers had published his _Histoire de la Révolution française_ in 1823 to 1827. The _Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire_ did not appear till many years later (1845 to 1862).--T.

[292] The remains of Napoleon were brought back to France in 1840.--T.

[293] M. Thiers had said in the Tribune, under the Monarchy of July, in the course of the discussion of the law against the associations:

"France abhors the Republic; speak of it to her, and she recoils in
affright; she knows that that form of government turns to blood or
imbecility."

In 1872, Henry Reeve met him in Paris and describes the conversation as follows in his Journal:

"M. Thiers' conversation on the war, the Commune and the siege was
very interesting. He said to me:

"'_Certainement je suis pour la République! Sans la République
qu'est-ce que je serais, moi? Un bourgeois, Adolphe Thiers!_'

"He described the withdrawal of the troops from Paris, which was
his own act. Then the siege, which he claims to have directed, the
battery of _Mouton Tout_, adding:

"'_Nous avons enterré, en entrant à Paris, vingt mille cadavres!_'"

(JOHN KNOX LAUGHTON: _Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve_, Vol. II., p. 202).--B.

[294] At the same time that Chateaubriand was drawing this portrait of M. Thiers, another seer, Balzac, wrote in the _Chronique de Paris_, on the 12th of May 1836:

"M. Thiers has always wished for the same thing, he has never
had but one thought, one system, one aim; all his efforts have
been constantly directed towards it: he has always thought of M.
Thiers.... M. Thiers is a weather-cock which, in spite of its
incessant mobility, remains on the same building."--B.

[295] Simon Deutz was the converted Jew who betrayed the Duchesse de Berry's hiding-place to Thiers in 1832 (_cf._ Vol. III., p. 156).--T.

[296] DANTE: _Hell_, Canto I., 50.--B.

[297] The Sirens, daughters of Achelous and Calliope, represented as having the head, arms and bust of a young woman and the wings and lower part of the body of a bird.--T.

[298] _Cf._ VIR., _Geor._, IV., 82-83, 86-87:

Ipsi per medias acies, insignibus alis,
Ingentes animos angusto in pectore versant.
. . . . . . . .
Hi motus animorum atque hæc certamina tanta
Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt.--B.

[299] La Fayette died in Paris on the 19th of May 1834. He was already suffering from indisposition, when he insisted on following, on foot, the funeral of Dulong, the deputy killed in a duel by General Bugeaud. He took to his bed on returning home and did not leave it again.--B.

[300] Rivarol, in the early days of the Revolution, had nicknamed General La Payette "César-Gille."--B.

[301] La Fayette was mixed up in Caron's military conspiracy at Belfort in 1821 (_Cf._ Vol. IV., p. 211, nn. 4-5).--T.

[302] Having failed to secure his re-election as a deputy in 1824, La Fayette took advantage of this enforced rest to revisit America. He was absent from France for fourteen months.--B.

[303] Edward Everett (1794-1865), a celebrated American statesman, orator and author. He was professor of Greek at Harvard College from 1819 to 1825; editor of the _North American Review_ from 1820 to 1824; Member of Congress from Massachusetts from 1825 to 1835; Governor of Massachusetts from 1836 to 1840; Minister to England from 1841 to 1845; President of Harvard College from 1846 to 1849; Secretary of State from 1852 to 1853; and Senator from Massachusetts from 1853 to 1854. In 1860, he was the candidate for Vice-president of the Constitutional Union Party. His _Orations and Speeches on various Occasions_ were published in Boston, in 4 volumes, in 1850.--T.

[304] EVERETT: _An Oration pronounced at Cambridge before the Society of Phi Beta Kappa, August_ 26, 1824 (Boston, Mass.: 1824).--T.

[305] I omit six lines of verse.--T.

[306] La Fayette was married to Mademoiselle de Noailles on the 11th of April 1774; she died in 1807.--T.

[307] La Fayette's tomb is in one corner of the little Picpus Cemetery, near the Avenue de Saint-Mandé. At the end of the Picpus Cemetery is the _Cimetière des guillotinés_, where 1300 victims of the Revolution, executed at the Barrière du Trône, are interred. These include André Chénier, Lavoisier, General Beauharnais and many other bearers of noted names.--T.

[308] The Duc de Montmorency-Laval died in 1826.--T.

[309] A sort of cakes.--T.

[310] M. Dupin the Elder.--B.

[311] Georges de La Fayette.--_Author's Note._

Georges Washington de La Fayette (1779-1849), La Fayette's only son and a godson of Washington, sat in the Chamber of Deputies, on the Extreme Left, from 1827 to 1849.--T.

[312] Chateaubriand is wrong. The notice of _Ambroise_, a comic opera by Monvel and Nicolas Dalayrac occcurs in the _Gazette nationale, ou Le Moniteur universel_ of the 22nd of January 1793! but the report of the execution of Louis XVI. appears in the issue of the next day, Wednesday 23 January, two days after the tragedy took place. Immediately after the report comes this paragraph:

"That excellent patriot, Lepelletier Saint-Fargeau, member of the
Convention, was assassinated on Sunday at a tavern-keeper's, in the
Palais _ci-devant_ Royal, by a former body-guard called Paris. The
details of the crime were communicated to the National Convention;
they will be found in the report of Monday's sitting."

This report of "Monday's sitting" appears in the following Thursday's _Moniteur._--T.

[313] _Cf._ Vol. V., pp. 206.207.--T.

[314] At the time of the failure of the Duchesse de Berry's plans, followed by her arrest and imprisonment, feelings of irritation and regret reigned among the Royalists, of which several duels with members of the opposite party were the direct consequence. At the end of January 1833, Armand Carrel, after a certain article that appeared in the _National_, accepted a personal provocation and, from a list of ten names put before him, selected that of M. Roux-Laborie the Younger, who was personally quite unknown to him. Swords were the chosen weapons; the adversaries were both wounded: M. Roux-Laborie by two thrusts in the arm and hand; Carrel by a thrust in the stomach, which put his life in danger.--B.

[315] Émile de Girardin (1806-1881), the journalist and economist (_Cf._ Vol. IV., p. 21, n. 2). A duel was arranged between Girardin and Armand Carrel in consequence of articles published in their respective journals, the _Presse_ and the _National._ It was fought in the Bois de Vincennes; the weapons chosen were pistols. The two adversaries were placed at forty paces from one another, with powers each to walk ten paces and to fire at will, a very much more dangerous method than the firing at the word of command, at a fixed distance, which is generally practised to-day. After each taking a few steps, the two adversaries fired almost at the same time: Émile de Girardin was shot through the thigh and Carrel was hit in the pit of the stomach. He succumbed to acute peritonitis from the lesions caused by the bullet, which had torn the intestines.--B.

[316] _Cf._ p. 83, _supra._--T.

[317] SHAKESPEARE: _Hamlet_, Act III., sc. i.--T.

[318] Carrel's article on Sautelet's suicide (_Cf._ Vol. V., p. 83.--T.) appeared in the _Revue de Paris_ of June 1830, under the title of _Une Mort volontaire._--B.

[319] Armand Carrel was born, at Rouen, on the 8th of May 1800, the day on which Chateaubriand set foot at Calais (_Cf._ Vol. II., p. 148, n. 1).-T.

[320] _Cf._ Vol. V., pp. 120-122.--T.

[321] The gravity of Carrel's wound did not allow of his being conveyed to the house in which he lived, at No. 7, now No. 18, Rue Grange-Batelière. He was accordingly taken to one of his old school-fellows of the Military School, M. Adolphe Peyra, who was spending the summer at his mother's house at Saint-Mandé. M. Peyra was a retired officer in the Guards, who had himself fought many duels and had kept up friendly relations with Carrel, although they were in different camps: Peyra was an ardent Royalist.--B.

[322]

THE GRAVE-DIGGER'S RECEIPT.

"I have received from M. de Chateaubriand the sum of eighteen
francs that remained owing for the trellis-work which surrounds the
grave of M. Armand Carrel.

"SAINT-MANDÉ, 21 _June_ 1838.

"Paid: VAUDRAN."

"Received from M. de Chateaubriand the sum of twenty francs for
keeping up the grave of M. Carrel at Saint-Mandé.

"PARIS, 28 _September_ 1839.

"Paid: VAUDRAN."--B.
]

[323] Sabine Casimir Amable Voïart, Dame Tastu (1798-1885), author of several volumes of verse: _Poésies_(1826), _Chroniques de France_(1829), _Poésies nouvelles_ (1834), _Œuvres politiques_(1837). She also published a large number of educational books. Some of her poems, notably the _Ange gardien_, the _Dernier jour de l'année_ and the _Feuilles de saule_ are happily inspired and deserve to live.--B.

[324] Favorinus (_d. circa_ 135), a skeptical philosopher, a native of Arles, in Gaul, who taught rhetoric in Athens and in Rome under Hadrian.--T.

[325] 451-450 B.C.--T.

[326] Carmenta, the Arcadian prophetess, mother of Evander by Mercury.--T.

[327] Sappho (_b. circa_ 612 B.C.), the most famous of poetesses. She was surnamed the Tenth Muse.--T.

[328] Corinna (_fl. circa_ 470 B.C.), the Greek poetess, surnamed the Lyric Muse. She conquered Pindar in a trial of poetry and carried off the palm before him no less than five times.--T.

[329] Pindar (_circa_ 520 B.C.--_circa_ 450 B.C.), the greatest of the Greek lyric poets.--T.

[330] Marie de France (_fl._ 13th Century), author of a collection of fables entitled _Ysopet_, narrative poems entitled _Laïs_ and a Purgatory of St. Patrick. Her works were collected and published in Paris in 1832.--T.

[331] Beatrix Comtesse de Die in her own right (_fl._ 12th Century), author of a few Provençal poems.--T.

[332] _Cf._ Vol. II., p. 308, n. 6.--T.

[333] Loyse Labé, _Sonnets_, XIII., 1-2:

"Oh, if I were in that fair bosom rapt
Of him for whom I ever dying go!"--T.

[334] Clémence de Bourges was a young girl of Lyons, famous for her wit and her beauty and a friend and admirer of Loyse Labé. She died early, of a broken heart, and was given a magnificent funeral by the Lyonese. The poets of the day called her the "Pearl of Damsels, a truly Oriental pearl."--T.

[335] Margaret of Valois, Queen of Navarre (1492-1549), sister of Francis I. and married, in 1526, to Henry II. d'Albret, King of Navarre, is the author of the _Heptaméron des nouvelles de très-illustre et très-excellente princesse Marguerite de Valois_ (1558-1559), the _Miroir de l'âme pêcheresse_ (1533), _Marguerites de la Marguerite des princesses, très-illustre royne de Navarre_ (1547), the _Miroir de Jésus-Christ crucifié_ (1556) and Letters, published in the last century. The other Margaret is Margaret of France, Queen of Navarre (1552-1615), sister of Henry III. and married, in 1572, to Henry III. King of Navarre, later Henry IV. King of France, and left her admirable Memoirs for the enjoyment of posterity, with some Poems.--T.

[336] Mary Queen of Scots, France and (_de jure_) England (1542-1587). The only extant specimens of Mary's poetry, in addition to the reputed sonnets to Bothwell, are the verses on the death of her husband Francis II., printed by Brantôme in his Memoirs; a sonnet to Elizabeth in Latin and French; a _Méditation faite par la Reyne d'Escosse Douarière de France, recueillie d'un Livre des Consolations Divines_; and a sonnet written at Fotheringay, in the State Paper Office (_Cf._ the article in the _Dictionary of National Biography_, Vol. XXXVI., p. 389).--T.

[337] _Cf._ Vol. I., p. 21. I omit Madame Claude de Chateaubriand's sixty-sixth sonnet, which is quoted by her nephew many times removed.--T.

[338] Antoinette du Ligier de La Garde, Dame Deshoulières (1638-1694), married, in 1651, to Guillaume de Lafon de Boisguérin, Seigneur Deshoulières, enjoyed a great reputation under Louis XIV., when she was surnamed the Tenth Muse and the French Calliope. She is now remembered chiefly by her idyll of the _Moutons_, although her collected idylls, odes, elegiacs and songs, to say nothing of two highly unsuccessful tragedies, fill two, volumes 8vo.--T.

[339] Marie Anne Henriette Payan de L'Étang, Marquise d'Antremont, later Baronne de Bourdic, later Madame Viot (1746-1802) was three times married. She was already known for several pieces of verse inserted in the _Almanach des Muses_ when, for a while, she acquired a real fame through her _Ode au Silence_, which was long considered one of the master-pieces of the eighteenth century.--B.

[340] Hortense Allan de Méritens (1801-1879) published, as her first work, in 1821, a remarkable novel, the _Conjuration d'Amboise_, which was succeeded by _Sextus, ou le Romain des Maremmes_, the _Indienne, Settimia_ and others. In 1873 and 1874, she published, under the pseudonym of "Madame Prudence de Saman" and the title of the _Enchantements de Prudence_, a series of erotic confidences, or romantic autobiography, in which she mixes up Chateaubriand, Lamennais, Béranger and a score of others with her imaginary adventures.--B.

[341] Mélanie Villenave, Dame Waldor (1796-1871), author of some volumes of poems, of which the principal, entitled _Poésies du cœur_, had appeared in 1835. Her novels include _André le Vendéen_ (1843) and the _Moulin en deuil_ (1849).--B.

[342] Marceline Josèphe Félicité Desbordes, Dame Desbordes-Valmore (1786-1859) had appeared, with some success, at the Opéra-Comique, when, in 1817, she married François Prosper Lanchantin, known as Valmore, the actor, and left the stage. Her poetry is distinguished for sweetness and pathos, without affectation. That published before the time in which Chateaubriand is writing includes _Élégies et romances_ (1818), _Élégies et poésies nouvelles_ (1824) and the _Pleurs_ (1833). _Pauvres fleurs_ appeared in 1839 and _Bouquets et prières_ in 1843.--T.

[343] Anaïs Ménard, Dame Ségalas (_b._ 1814), published the _Algériennes_ in 1831, when only seventeen years of age. Next came the _Oiseaux de passage_ (1836) and, later, _Enfantines: poésies à ma fille_ (1844), the _Femme_ (1847) and _Nos bons Parisiens_ (1865). To these must be added a number of novels and plays of various descriptions. Madame Ségalas will, however, remain known mainly as the author of the _Enfantines_, a collection of verse that has had no less than ten editions.--B.

[344] Louise Révoil, Dame Colet (1815-1876), published her first volume, _Fleurs du Midi_, accompanied by two kindly letters from Chateaubriand, in 1836. From that year till the year of her death she did not cease writing in prose and verse. The list of her works, which include poems, novels, dramatic essays, travels and works on history and politics, would exceed the space of these notes. She obtained the prize for poetry at the French Academy four times between 1839 and 1854. For the rest, Madame Colet mixed romance with her life in such proportions that it is best to keep silence upon both the lady and her career.--B.

[345] Elisa Mercœur (1809-1835), the girl poet, died before the above lines were written. The first edition of her _Poésies_ appeared in 1827, when Mademoiselle Mercœur was only eighteen years old. Her Complete Works were published in 1843, in three volumes 8vo.--T.

[346] Maria Felicita Garcia, Dame Malibran, later Dame de Bériot (1808-1836), one of the most famous opera-singers of the time, was the daughter of Manuel del Popolo Vicente Garcia, the Spanish singer and composer. She made her first appearance in opera in London, on the 7th of June 1825, when she took the place of Madame Pasta, who was ill. She made a great sensation and was at once engaged for the rest of the season. In 1826, she went to New York and there, in the middle of a successful season, married Malibran, the French banker, who soon became bankrupt. She left him in 1827, returned to France and appeared for the first time in Paris, on the 12th of January 1828, in _Sémiramide._ Her success was prodigious and she continued to rouse unparalleled enthusiasm in all the great cities of Europe. On the 30th of March 1836, Madame Malibran married Charles Auguste de Bériot, the Belgian violinist; six months later, on the 23rd of September, she died, in Manchester, from the effects of a fall from her horse, in London, a few days earlier.--T.

[347] At this time (1833), George Sand had published only _Indiana_ (September 1832) and _Valentine_ (November 1832). _Lélia_ appeared in September 1833, the _Secrétaire intime_ and _Jacques_ in 1834.--T.

[348] In an article on Étienne Pivert de Sénancour's _Obermann_, in the _Revue des Deux-Mondes_ of 15 June 1833.--B.

[349] October 1834.--B.

[350] _Rêveries du promeneur solitaire_, published in 1782, four years after Rousseau's death.--T.

[351] _Études de la nature_(1784).--T.

[352] _Æn._, IV. 625.--T.

[353] LUCIAN: _Dialogues of the Courtezans_, VII.--_Author's Note._

[354] _Cf._ MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, II., 752-760.

"All on a sudden miserable pain
Surprised thee; dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast
Threw forth; till on the left side opening wide,
Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright,
Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess arm'd
Out of thy head I sprung: amazement seized
All the host of heaven; back they recoil'd afraid
At first, and cal I'd me Sin."--T.

[355] _Sic_, in all the editions.--T.

[356] Phila (_fl._ 370 B.C.), a celebrated Athenian courtezan and mistress to Hyperides the Attic orator.--T.

[357] Lais (_d. circa_ 340 B.C.), a noted Corinthian courtezan, said to have been advised to adopt her profession by Apelles. Demosthenes was one of her many lovers; Diogenes another. She was assassinated in Thessaly by a number of women jealous of their husbands' affections.--T.

[358] Gnathæna, a Greek poetess and courtezan, of an uncertain period. Some of her witty sayings are recorded by Athenæus.--T.

[359] Phryne (_fl. circa_ 328 B.C.), a celebrated Athenian hetaira, mistress to Praxiteles, one of whose many statues of her is known as the _Cnidian Aphrodite_, while Apelles took her for his model for the _Aphrodite Anadyomene._--T.

[360] Apelles (_fl. circa_ 332 B.C.), the famous Greek painter. His _Aphrodite Anadyomene_ (_vide supra_) was originally painted for the Temple of Æsculapius in Cos. It was afterwards bought by Augustus and placed in the Temple of Cæsar in Rome.--T.

[361] Praxiteles (_circa_ 360 B.C.--_circa_ 280 B.C.), the greatest Greek sculptor after Phidias. His _Aphrodite of Cnidus_ ranks as one of the most admired statues of antiquity. A replica of this statue is now in the Glyptothek in Munich.--T.

[362] Leæna (_fl._ 514 B.C.), the mistress of Harmodius and Aristogiton, the Athenian patriots.--T.

[363] Harmodius (_d._ 514 B.C.), who, with Aristogiton, delivered Athens from the tyranny of Hipparchus.--T.

[364] _Cf._, on the _Congrès de Vérone_, M. Biré's Appendix, Vol. IV., pp. 215-219.--T.

[365] Talleyrand died in Paris on the 17th of May 1838.--B.

[366] _Cf._ Vol. III., pp. 145 _et seq._--T.

[367] _Ibid._, pp. 171-175.--T.

[368] The Marquis de Maubreuil (_cf._ Vol. III., p. 86, n. 1), escaping from police surveillance, went, on the 20th of January, to Saint-Denis, during the celebration of the anniversary of the death of Louis XVI., and there, in the midst of the solemnity, he struck Talleyrand in the face and threw him to the ground. Maubreuil was charged with the offense and received sentence; but the affair made a terrible noise, of which Talleyrand's innumerable enemies did not fail to take advantage.--B.

[369] _Cf._ Vol. III., p. 147--T.

[370] Speech of the Prince de Talleyrand against the vote of one hundred millions proposed for the cost of the Spanish War (March 1823).--B.

[371] Elisabeth Pierre Comte de Montesquiou-Fézensac (1764-1834) was President of the Legislative Body in 1810, 1811 and 1813. He was created a count of the Empire in 1809 and, in the following year, was appointed Great Chamberlain of France in Talleyrand's stead.--B.

[372] The Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville (_Cf._ Vol. IV., p. 134, n. 1) was a member of the Chamber of Peers from 1814 to 1831.--B.

[373] Jean Girard Lacuée, Comte de Cessac (1752-1841) was an inspector-general of reviews under Napoleon (1806), a minister of State (1806) and Minister of the Board of Military Administration. He was a member of the French Academy.--B.

[374] The Comte Roederer, in his _Souvenirs_, describes a conversation which he had with the Emperor, at the Élysée, on the 6th of March 1809. The subject of the conversation was King Joseph, who, in his letters from Madrid to his wife and Napoleon, complained of his brother and threatened to leave the Throne of Spain to go and grow his small potatoes at Mortefontaine. Napoleon, in the course of this interview with Roederer, walked to and fro, and became more and more excited as he spoke of the contents of those letters:

"'He says that he wants to go to Mortefontaine, rather than stay
in a country bought by blood unjustly shed. And what is this
Mortefontaine? It is the price of the blood which I spilled in
Italy. Does he hold it from his father? Does he hold it from his
work? He holds it from me. Yes, I have spilt blood, but it is the
blood of my enemies, of the enemies of France. Does it become
him to use their language? Does he want to act like Talleyrand?
Talleyrand! I have covered him with honours, riches, diamonds. He
has employed all of that against me. He has betrayed me as much
as he could, on the first occasion that he had to do it in.... He
said, during my absence'--during the Spanish War--'that he had gone
on his knees to prevent the Spanish business; and he pestered me
for two years to undertake it! He maintained to me that I should
require only twenty thousand men; he gave me twenty memorandums
to prove it. He behaved in the same way in the affair of the Duc
d'Enghien; I knew nothing about him; it was Talleyrand who told me
about him.' The Emperor always pronounces it Taillerand. 'I did not
know where he was.' The Emperor stopped in front of me. 'It was he
who told me the place where he was and, after advising his death,
he bemoaned it with all his acquaintances.' The Emperor resumed
his walk and, in a calmer tone, after a short pause, continued, 'I
shall do him no harm; I am keeping him in all his offices; I even
have the same feelings for him that I used to have; but I have
taken from him the right to enter my closet at all times. He shall
never have a private conversation with me; he will no longer be
able to say that he has advised me or dissuaded me from one thing
or the other.'"

[375] _Cf._ Vol. II., pp. 281-282.--T.

[376] _Cf._ Vol. III., p. 144.--T.

[377] Talleyrand was appointed Minister of External Relations, on the 16th of July 1797, in succession to Charles Delacroix, the father of Eugène Delacroix the painter.--B.

[378] Yet Talleyrand's Memoirs were not published until 1891-1892. They were disappointing when published.--T.

[379] After the Revolution of July, Talleyrand accepted the London Embassy at the hands of the new Government (September 1830); he asked to be recalled on the 13th of November 1834.--B.

[380] Charles Frédéric Comte Reinhard (1761-1838), a retired head of a department at the Foreign Office and a native of Schöndorf, in Wurtemberg.--B.

[381] Talleyrand read his _Éloge de Reinhard_ at the Institute on the 3rd of March 1838. The room was crowded. M. Mignet, the Perpetual Secretary, went to meet him in the room adjoining the lecture-room. The prince, who was then in his eighty-fifth year, was not able to climb the stairs on foot; he was carried up by two men in livery. When he entered the lecture-room, leaning on M. Mignet's arm and on his crutch, the whole audience stood up. His speech was delivered in a very strong voice and was frequently interrupted by applause. The reading took less than half an hour in all, which constituted the whole performance. When it was over, the enthusiasm knew no bounds:

"On his way out," says Sainte-Beuve (_Nouveaux Lundis_, Vol. I., p. 110), "the prince had to pass through a double row of foreheads which bowed with redoubled reverence."--B.

[382] The Prince de Talleyrand died on the 17th of May 1838, at thirty-five minutes past three in the afternoon; he was horn on the 2nd of February 1754, and was consequently 84 years, 3 months and 15 days old. He was assisted in his last illness by the Abbé Dupanloup, the future Bishop of Orleans, who himself wrote the story of the prince's last moments. On the morning of the 17th of May, M. de Talleyrand had signed his retractation and a letter to the Pope; some hours later, the Abbé Dupanloup arrived. Upon a word from the abbé, saying that Monseigneur de Quélen, the Archbishop of Paris, would be happy to give his life for him, he raised himself a little and said, in a very distinct voice:

"Tell him that he can make a much better use of it."

"Prince," continued the abbé, "this morning you gave the Church a
great consolation; I now come, in the name of the Church, to offer
you the last consolations of faith, the last succour of religion.
You have been reconciled with the Catholic Church, which you had
offended; the moment is come to be reconciled with God by a new
confession and a sincere repentance for all the faults of your
life."

"Thereupon," in the words of the Abbé Dupanloup, "he made a
movement as though to come towards me; I went up to him, and,
at once grasping my two hands in his and pressing them with
extraordinary force and emotion, he did not leave go of them during
the whole time that his confession took to make; I had even to make
a great effort to release my hand from his, when the moment had
come to give him absolution. He received it with an humility, an
amount of feeling and faith that made me shed tears."

He also received Extreme Unction while fully conscious. Then the Abbé Dupanloup, kneeling beside him, recited the Litany of the Saints. When he came to the invocation of the martyrs and pronounced the name of St. Maurice, M. de Talleyrand's patron-saint, the prince was seen to bow his head and his glance to seek that of the Abbé Dupanloup, to prove to him that he was joining in those prayers. At three o'clock, seeing the last hour come, the Abbé Dupanloup began the Prayers for the Dying. The sick man appeared to join in them so visibly that one of those present remarked upon it:

"Monsieur l'abbé, see how he is praying!"

He was in fact seen, with eyes now open, now lowered, to follow with evidences of perfect understanding all that was happening around him. At last his strength suddenly failed him and his lips closed for ever.

The Abbé Dupanloup ends his narrative with these words:

"God sees the secrets of men's hearts; but I ask Him to give those
who thought that they might doubt M. de Talleyrand's sincerity, I
ask for them, at the hour of death, the same sentiments which I
beheld in M. de Talleyrand when dying, the memory of which will
never leave me."(_Cf._ LAGRANGE: _Vie de Monseigneur #/ Dupanloup_,
Vol. I., Chaps, XIV. and XV.)--B.

[383] Édouard Vicomte Walsh had, since the 25th of September 1835, had the management of the _Mode_, the liveliest of the royalist papers, published under the patronage of the Duchesse de Berry.--B.

[384] Charles X. died at Goritz, on the 6th of November 1836, of an attack of cholera, of which he had felt the first symptoms two days before, on St. Charles's Day, the 4th of November. The doctor asked to have the King's grandchildren taken away, because of the danger of the illness, but the Duc de Bordeaux declared that no consideration would prevent his following the impulse of his heart and Mademoiselle made the same reply as her brother. The King kissed them fondly and laid his hand upon their heads:

"May God protect you, my children!" he said. "Walk before Him in the paths of justice.... Do not forget me.... Pray sometimes for me!"

The Cardinal de Latil and Doctor Bougon, who had already met by the Duc de Berry's bed-side on the night of the 13th February 1820, met again, on the night of the 6th of November 1836, by the bed-side of Charles X. An altar had hurriedly been erected near the bed for the celebration of Mass. It was said by the Bishop of Hermopolis, Monseigneur de Frayssinous. At the end of the Mass, the King meditated an instant; he prayed for France and blessed her; and, as the bishop exhorted him to forgive, at that last moment, those who had done him so much harm:

"I have long forgiven them," he replied. "I forgive them again, at this moment, with all my heart; may the Lord be merciful to them and me."

"At one o'clock in the morning, on the 6th of November, M. Bougon announced that the King had but a few moments to live. All fell on their knees; M. le Dauphin (the Duc d'Angoulême) had his head bowed towards his father. Madame la Dauphine alone remained standing at the King's feet, with her hands joined, and seemed to be presiding over that scene of sorrow. At half past one, M. Bougon made a sign to the Duc de Blacas, who leant towards the Dauphin and said a few words to him in a low voice. Then the Prince respectfully closed his father's eyes, and Madame la Dauphine's sobs, bursting forth suddenly amid the silence of death that reigned in the room, announced that all was over." (NETTEMENT: _Histoire de quinze ans d'exil_, Vol. II., pp. 96 _et seq._)--B.

[385] "Sixty years with misfortunes the victim have decked!"--T.

[386] Romulus Momyllus Augustus, the last Roman Emperor of the West, nicknamed Augustulus because of his youth, was placed on the throne at a very early age, in 475, but compelled to abdicate in the following year by Odoacer King of the Heruli.--T.

[387] Henry Essex, Abbé Edgeworth de Firmont (1745-1807).--T.

[388] Philip II. Augustus (1165-1223), son of Louis VII., succeeded in 1180.--T.

[389] St. Louis IX. (1215-1270), son of Louis VIII., succeeded in 1226.--T.

[390] Robert II. (_circa_ 970-1031), son of Hugh Capet, succeeded in 996.--T.

[391] Henry IV. (1553-1610) succeeded Henry III. in 1569; and Louis XIV. (1638-1715), son of Louis XIII., succeeded in 1643.--T.

[392] Charles VIII. (1470-1498), surnamed the Affable or the Courteous, son of Louis XI., succeeded in 1483.--T.

[393] Philip III. (1245-1285), son of St. Louis IX., succeeded in 1270.--T.

[394] Charles V. (1337-1380), son of John II., succeeded in 1364.--T.

[395] Charles VII. (1403-1461), son of Charles VI., succeeded in 1422.--T.

[396] Charles VI. (1368-1422), son of Charles V., succeeded in 1380.--T.

[397] Louis XII. (1462-1515) succeeded his cousin Charles VIII. in 1498.--T.

[398] Francis I. (1494-1547) succeeded his cousin Louis XII. in 1515.--T.