THE MEMOIRS OF VICTOR HUGO





CONTENTS.

PREFACE

AT RHEIMS, 1825-1838

RECOUNTED BY EYE-WITNESSES:
I. The Execution of Louis XVI.
II. The Arrival of Napoleon I. in Paris in 1815.

VISIONS OF THE REAL: 
I.   The Hovel.
II.  Pillage.
III. A Dream.
IV.  The Panel with the Coat of Arms.
V.   The Easter Daisy.

THEATRE:
I.   Joanny.
II.  Mademoiselle Mars.
III. Frédérick Lemaitre.
IV.  The Comiques.
V.   Mademoiselle Georges.
VI.  Tableaux Vivants.

AT THE ACADEMY

LOVE IN PRISON

AT THE TUILERIES, 1844-1848: 
I.   The King.
II.  The Duchess d'Orleans.
III. The Princes.

IN THE CHAMBER OF PEERS: Gen. Febvier

THE REVOLUTION OF 1848: 
I.   The Days of February.
II.  Expulsions and Evasions.
III. Louis Philippe in Exile.
IV.  King Jerome.
V.   The Days of June.
VI.  Chateaubriand.
VII. Debates on the Days of June.

1849: 
I.   The Jardin d'Hiver.
II.  General Bréa's Murderers.
III. The Suicide of Antonin Moyne.
IV.  A Visit to the Old Chamber of Peers.

SKETCHES MADE IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY:
I.    Odilon Barrot.
II.   Monsieur Thiers.
III.  Dufaure.
IV.   Changarnier.
V.    Lagrange.
VI.   Prudhon.
VII.  Blanqui.
VIII. Larmartine.
IX.   Boulay de la Meurthe.
X.    Dupin.

LOUIS BONAPARTE: 
I.   His Debuts.
II.  His Elevation to the Presidency.
III. His First Official Dinner.
IV.  The First Month.
V.   Feeling His Way.

THE SIEGE OF PARIS 

THE ASSEMBLY AT BORDEAUX






PREFACE.



This volume of memoirs has a double character--historical and
intimate.  The life of a period, the XIX Century, is bound up in
the life of a man, VICTOR HUGO.  As we follow the events set
forth we get the impression they made upon the mind of the
extraordinary man who recounts them; and of all the personages
he brings before us he himself is assuredly not the least
interesting.  In portraits from the brushes of Rembrandts there
are always two portraits, that of the model and that of the
painter.

This is not a diary of events arranged in chronological
order, nor is it a continuous autobiography.  It is less and
it is more, or rather, it is better than these.  It is a sort of
haphazard ~chronique~ in which only striking incidents and
occurrences are brought out, and lengthy and wearisome details
are avoided.  VICTOR HUGO'S long and chequered life was filled
with experiences of the most diverse character--literature and
politics, the court and the street, parliament and the theatre,
labour, struggles, disappointments, exile and triumphs.  Hence
we get a series of pictures of infinite variety.

Let us pass the gallery rapidly in review.

It opens in 1825, at Rheims, during the coronation of CHARLES X,
with an amusing ~causerie~ on the manners and customs of the
Restoration.  The splendour of this coronation ceremony was
singularly spoiled by the pitiable taste of those who had
charge of it.  These worthies took upon themselves to mutilate
the sculpture work on the marvellous façade and to "embellish"
the austere cathedral with Gothic decorations of cardboard.
The century, like the author, was young, and in some things
both were incredibly ignorant; the masterpieces of literature
were then unknown to the most learned ~littérateurs~: CHARLES
NODIER had never read the "Romancero", and VICTOR HUGO knew little
or nothing about Shakespeare.

At the outset the poet dominates in VICTOR HUGO; he belongs
wholly to his creative imagination and to his literary work.
It is the theatre; it is his "Cid", and "Hernani", with its stormy
performances; it is the group of his actors, Mlle. MARS, Mlle.
GEORGES, FREDERICK LEMAITRE, the French KEAN, with more genius;
it is the Academy, with its different kind of coteries.

About this time VICTOR HUGO questions, anxiously and not in
vain, a passer-by who witnessed the execution of LOUIS XVI, and
an officer who escorted Napoleon to Paris on his return from the
Island of Elba.

Next, under the title, "Visions of the Real", come some sketches
in the master's best style, of things seen "in the mind's eye,"
as Hamlet says.  Among them "The Hovel" will attract attention.
This sketch resembles a page from EDGAR POE, although it was 
written long before POE's works were introduced into France.

With "Love in Prison" VICTOR HUGO deals with social questions,
in which he was more interested than in political questions.
And yet, in entering the Chamber of Peers he enters public life.
His sphere is enlarged, he becomes one of the familiars of the
Tuileries.  LOUIS PHILIPPE, verbose and full of recollections
that he is fond of imparting to others, seeks the company and
appreciation of this listener of note, and makes all sorts of
confidences to him.  The King with his very haughty bonhomie
and his somewhat infatuated wisdom; the grave and sweet DUCHESS
D'ORLEANS, the boisterous and amiable princes--the whole
commonplace and home-like court--are depicted with kindliness
but sincerity.

The horizon, however, grows dark, and from 1846 the new peer of
France notes the gradual tottering of the edifice of royalty.
The revolution of 1848 bursts out.  Nothing could be more
thrilling than the account, hour by hour, of the events of the
three days of February. VICTOR HUGO is not merely a spectator
of this great drama, he is an actor in it.  He is in the
streets, he makes speeches to the people, he seeks to restrain
them; he believes, with too good reason, that the Republic is
premature, and, in the Place de la Bastille, before the 
evolutionary Faubourg Saint Antoine, he dares to proclaim the
Regency.

Four months later distress provokes the formidable insurrection
of June, which is fatal to the Republic.

The year 1848 is the stormy year.  The atmosphere is fiery, men
are violent, events are tragical.  Battles in the streets are
followed by fierce debates in the Assembly.  VICTOR HUGO takes
part in the mêlée.  We witness the scenes with him; he points
out the chief actors to us.  His "Sketches" made in the National
Assembly are "sketched from life" in the fullest acceptation of
the term.  Twenty lines suffice.  ODILON BARROT and CHANGARNIER,
PRUDHON and BLANQUI, LAMARTINE and "Monsieur THIERS" come, go,
speak--veritable living figures.

The most curious of the figures is LOUIS BONAPARTE when he
arrived in Paris and when he assumed the Presidency of the
Republic.  He is gauche, affected, somewhat ridiculous, 
distrusted by the Republicans, and scoffed at by the Royalists.
Nothing could be more suggestive or more piquant than the
inauguration dinner at the Elysee, at which VICTOR HUGO was one
of the guests, and the first and courteous relations between the
author of "Napoleon the Little" and the future Emperor who was
to inflict twenty years of exile upon him.

But now we come to the year which VICTOR HUGO has designated 
"The Terrible Year," the war, and the siege of Paris.  This part
of the volume is made up of extracts from note-books, private
and personal notes, dotted down from day to day.  Which is to 
say that they do not constitute an account of the oft-related
episodes of the siege, but tell something new, the little side
of great events, the little incidents of everyday life, the 
number of shells fired into the city and what they cost, the
degrees of cold, the price of provisions, what is being said,
sung, and eaten, and at the same time give the psychology of the
great city, its illusions, revolts, wrath, anguish, and also its
gaiety; for during these long months Paris never gave up hope
and preserved an heroic cheerfulness.

On the other hand a painful note runs through the diary kept
during the meeting of the Assembly at Bordeaux.  France is not
only vanquished, she is mutilated.  The conqueror demands a 
ransom of milliards--it is his right, the right of the
strongest; but he tears from her two provinces, with their
inhabitants devoted to France; it is a return towards barbarism.
VICTOR HUGO withdraws indignantly from the Assembly which has
agreed to endorse the Treaty of Frankfort.  And three days after
his resignation he sees CHARLES HUGO, his eldest son, die a
victim to the privations of the siege.  He is stricken at once
in his love of country and in his paternal love, and one can say
that in these painful pages, more than in any of the others, the
book is history that has been lived.

PAUL MAURICE.

Paris, Sept. 15, 1899.






AT RHEIMS.

1823-1838.




AT RHEIMS.

1823-1838.



It was at Rheims that I heard the name of Shakespeare for the
first time.  It was pronounced by Charles Nodier.  That was in
1825, during the coronation of Charles X.

No one at that time spoke of Shakespeare quite seriously.
Voltaire's ridicule of him was law.  Mme. de Staël had adopted
Germany, the great land of Kant, of Schiller, and of Beethoven.
Ducis was at the height of his triumph; he and Delille were
seated side by side in academic glory, which is not unlike
theatrical glory.  Ducis had succeeded in doing something with
Shakespeare; he had made him possible; he had extracted some
"tragedies" from him; Ducis impressed one as being a man who
could chisel an Apollo out of Moloch.  It was the time when Iago
was called Pezare; Horatio, Norceste; and Desdemona, Hedelmone.
A charming and very witty woman, the Duchess de Duras, used to
say: "Desdemona, what an ugly name!  Fie!"  Talma, Prince of
Denmark, in a tunic of lilac satin trimmed with fur, used to
exclaim: "Avaunt!  Dread spectre!"  The poor spectre, in fact,
was only tolerated behind the scenes.  If it had ventured to put
in the slightest appearance M. Evariste Dumoulin would have 
given it a severe talking to.  Some Génin or other would have
hurled at it the first cobble-stone he could lay his hand on--a
line from Boileau: ~L'esprit n'est point ému de ce qu'il ne croit
pas~.  It was replaced on the stage by an "urn" that Talma
carried under his arm.  A spectre is ridiculous; "ashes," that's
the style!  Are not the "ashes" of Napoleon still spoken of?  Is
not the translation of the coffin from St. Helena to the
Invalides alluded to as "the return of the ashes"?  As to the
witches of Macbeth, they were rigorously barred.  The 
hall-porter of the Théâtre-Français had his orders.  They would
have been received with their own brooms.

I am mistaken, however, in saying that I did not know 
Shakespeare.  I knew him as everybody else did, not having read
him, and having treated him with ridicule.  My childhood began,
as everybody's childhood begins, with prejudices.  Man finds
prejudices beside his cradle, puts them from him a little in the
course of his career, and often, alas! takes to them again in
his old age.

During this journey in 1825 Charles Nodier and I passed our time
recounting to each other the Gothic tales and romances that have
taken root in Rheims.  Our memories and sometimes our
imaginations, clubbed together.  Each of us furnished his
legend.  Rheims is one of the most impossible towns in the
geography of story.  Pagan lords have lived there, one of whom
gave as a dower to his daughter the strips of land in
Borysthenes called the "race-courses of Achilles." The Duke de
Guyenne, in the fabliaux, passes through Rheims on his way to
besiege Babylon; Babylon, moreover, which is very worthy of
Rheims, is the capital of the Admiral Gaudissius.  It is at
Rheims that the deputation sent by the Locri Ozolae to
Apollonius of Tyana, "high priest of Bellona," "disembarks."
While discussing this disembarkation we argued concerning the
Locri Ozolae.  These people, according to Nodier, were called
the Fetidae because they were half monkeys; according to myself,
because they inhabited the marshes of Phocis.  We reconstructed
on the spot the tradition of St.  Remigius and his adventures
with the fairy Mazelane.  The Champagne country is rich in
tales.  Nearly all the old Gaulish fables had their origin in
this province.  Rheims is the land of chimeras.  It is perhaps
for this reason that kings were crowned there.



Legends are so natural to this place, are in such good soil,
that they immediately began to germinate upon the coronation of
Charles X. itself.  The Duke of Northumberland, the
representative of England at the coronation ceremonies, was
reputed fabulously wealthy.  Wealthy and English, how could he
be otherwise than ~a la mode~?  The English, at that period, were
very popular in French society, although not among the people.
They were liked in certain salons because of Waterloo, which was
still fairly recent, and to Anglicize the French language was a
recommendation in ultra-fashionable society.  Lord
Northumberland, therefore, long before his arrival, was popular
and legendary in Rheims.  A coronation was a godsend to Rheims.
A flood of opulent people inundated the city.  It was the Nile
that was passing.  Landlords rubbed their hands with glee.

There was in Rheims in those days, and there probably
is to-day, at the corner of a street giving on to the square,
a rather large house with a carriage-entrance and a balcony,
built of stone in the royal style of Louis XIV., and facing the
cathedral.  About this house and Lord Northumberland the
following was related:

In January, 1825, the balcony of the house bore the notice:
"House for Sale."  All at once the "Moniteur" announced that the
coronation of Charles X. would take place at Rheims in the
spring.  There was great rejoicing in the city.  Notices of
rooms to let were immediately hung out everywhere.  The meanest
room was to bring in at least sixty francs a day.  One morning a
man of irreproachable appearance, dressed in black, with a white
cravat, an Englishman who spoke broken French, presented himself
at the house in the square.  He saw the proprietor, who eyed him
attentively.

"You wish to sell your house?" queried the Englishman.

"How much?"

"Ten thousand francs."

"But I don't want to buy it."

"What do you want, then?"

"Only to hire it."

"That's different.  For a year?"

"For six months?"

"No.  I want to hire it for three days."

"How much will you charge?"

"Thirty thousand francs."

The gentleman was Lord Northumberland's steward, who was looking
for a lodging for his master for the coronation ceremonies.  The
proprietor had smelled the Englishman and guessed the steward.  
The house was satisfactory, and the proprietor held out for his
price; the Englishman, being only a Norman, gave way to the
Champenois; the duke paid the 30,000 francs, and spent three
days in the house, at the rate of 400 francs an hour.



Nodier and I were two explorers.  When we travelled together, as
we occasionally did, we went on voyages of discovery, he in
search of rare books, I in search of ruins.  He would go into
ecstasies over a _Cymbalum Mound_ with margins, and I over a
defaced portal.  We had given each other a devil.  He said to
me: "You are possessed of the demon Ogive."  "And you," I
answered, "of the demon Elzevir."

At Soissons, while I was exploring Saint Jean-des-Vignes, he had
discovered, in a suburb, a ragpicker.  The ragpicker's basket is
the hyphen between rags and paper, and the ragpicker is the
hyphen between the beggar and the philosopher.  Nodier who gave
to the poor, and sometimes to philosophers, had entered the
ragpicker's abode.  The ragpicker turned out to be a book
dealer.  Among the books Nodier noticed a rather thick volume
of six or eight hundred pages, printed in Spanish, two columns
to a page, badly damaged by worms, and the binding missing from
the back.  The ragpicker, asked what he wanted for it, replied,
trembling lest the price should be refused: "Five francs," which
Nodier paid, also trembling, but with joy.  This book was the
_Romancero_ complete.  There are only three complete copies of
this edition now in existence.  One of these a few years ago
sold for 7,500 francs.  Moreover, worms are vying with each
other in eating up these three remaining copies.  The peoples,
feeders of princes, have something else to do than spend their
money to preserve for new editions the legacies of human
intellect, and the _Romancero_, being merely an Iliad, has not
been reprinted.



During the three days of the coronation there were great
crowds in the streets of Rheims, at the Archbishop's palace,
and on the promenades along the Vesdre, eager to catch a glimpse
of Charles X.  I said to Charles Nodier: "Let us go and see his
majesty the cathedral."

Rheims is a proverb in Gothic Christian art.  One speaks of the
"nave of Amiens, the bell towers of Chartres, the façade of
Rheims."  A month before the coronation of Charles X a swarm of
masons, perched on ladders and clinging to knotted ropes, spent
a week smashing with hammers every bit of jutting sculpture on
the façade, for fear a stone might become detached from one of
these reliefs and fall on the King's head.  The debris littered
the pavement and was swept away.  For a long time I had in my
possession a head of Christ that fell in this way.  It was
stolen from me in 1851.  This head was unfortunate; broken by a
king, it was lost by an exile.

Nodier was an admirable antiquary, and we explored the cathedral
from top to bottom, encumbered though it was with scaffolding,
painted scenery, and stage side lights.  The nave being only of
stone, they had hidden it by an edifice of cardboard, doubtless
because the latter bore a greater resemblance to the monarchy of
that period.  For the coronation of the King of France they had
transformed a church into a theatres and it has since been
related, with perfect accuracy, that on arriving at the entrance
I asked of the bodyguard on duty: "Where is my box?"

This cathedral of Rheims is beautiful above all cathedrals.  On
the façade are kings; on the absis, people being put to the
torture by executioners.  Coronation of kings with an
accompaniment of victims.  The façade is one of the most
magnificent symphonies ever sung by that music, architecture.
One dreams for a long time before this oratorio.  Looking up
from the square you see at a giddy height, at the base of the
two towers, a row of gigantic statues representing kings of
France.  In their hands they hold the sceptre, the sword, the
hand of justice, and the globe, and on their heads are antique
open crowns with bulging gems.  It is superb and grim.  You push
open the bell-ringer's door, climb the winding staircase, "the
screw of St. Giles," to the towers, to the high regions of
prayer; you look down and the statues are below you.  The row of
kings is plunging into the abysm.  You hear the whispering of
the enormous bells, which vibrate at the kiss of vague zephyrs
from the sky.

One day I gazed down from the top of the tower through
an embrasure.  The entire façade sheered straight below
me.  I perceived in the depth, on top of a long stone
support that extended down the wall directly beneath me
to the escarpment, so that its form was lost, a sort of
round basin.  Rain-water had collected there and formed
a narrow mirror at the bottom; there were also a tuft
of grass with flowers in it, and a swallow's nest.  Thus
in a space only two feet in diameter were a lake, a
garden and a habitation--a birds' paradise.  As I gazed
the swallow was giving water to her brood.  Round the
upper edge of the basin were what looked like crenelles,
and between these the swallow had built her nest.  I 
examined these crenelles.  They had the form of
fleurs-de-lys.  The support was a statue.  This happy little
world was the stone crown of an old king.  And if God were asked:
"Of what use was this Lothario, this Philip, this Charles,
this Louis, this emperor, this king?"  God peradventure
would reply: "He had this statue made and lodged a swallow."



The coronation occurred.  This is not the place to describe
it.  Besides my recollections of the ceremony of May
27, 1825, have been recounted elsewhere by another, more
ably than I could set them forth.

Suffice it to say that it was a radiant day.  God seemed
to have given his assent to the fête.  The long clear 
windows--for there are no more stained-glass windows at
Rheims--let in bright daylight; all the light of May was
in the church.  The Archbishop was covered with gilding
and the altar with rays.  Marshal de Lauriston, Minister of
the King's Household, rejoiced at the sunshine.  He came
and went, as busy as could be, and conversed in low tones
with Lecointe and Hittorf, the architects.  The fine morning
afforded the occasion to say, "the sun of the coronation,"
as one used to say "the sun of Austerlitz." And in the
resplendent light a profusion of lamps and tapers found
means to beam.

At one moment Charles X., attired in a cherry-coloured
simar striped with gold, lay at full length at the 
Archbishop's feet.  The peers of France on the right,
embroidered with gold, beplumed in the Henri IV. style, and
wearing long mantles of velvet and ermine, and the Deputies
on the left, in dress-coats of blue cloth with silver
fleurs-de-lys on the collars, looked on.

About all the forms of chance were represented there:
the Papal benediction by the cardinals, some of whom had
witnessed the coronation of Napoleon; victory by the marshals; 
heredity by the Duke d'Angoulême, dauphin; happiness 
by M.  de Talleyrand, lame but able to get about;
the rising and falling of stocks by M. de Villèle; joy by
the birds that were released and flew away, and the knaves
in a pack of playing-cards by the four heralds.

A vast carpet embroidered with fleurs-de-lys, made expressly
for the occasion, and called the "coronation carpet,"
covered the old flagstones from one end of the cathedral
to the other and concealed the tombstones in the pavement.
Thick, luminous smoke of incense filled the nave.
The birds that had been set at liberty flew wildly about in
this cloud.

The King changed his costume six or seven times.  The
first prince of the blood, Louis Philippe, Duke d'Orleans,
aided him.  The Duke de Bordeaux, who was five years
old, was in a gallery.



The pew in which Nodier and I were seated adjoined those
of the Deputies.  In the middle of the
ceremony, just before the King prostrated himself at the
feet of the Archbishop, a Deputy for the Doubs department,
named M. Hémonin, turned towards Nodier, who was close to
him, and with his finger on his lips, as a sign that he 
did not wish to disturb the Archbishop's orisons by
speaking, slipped something into my friend's hand.  This
something was a book.  Nodier took it and glanced over it.

"What is it?" I whispered.

"Nothing very precious," he replied.  "An odd volume
of Shakespeare, Glasgow edition."

One of the tapestries from the treasure of the church
hanging exactly opposite to us represented a not very
historical interview between John Lackland and Philip 
Augustus.  Nodier turned over the leaves of the book for a
few minutes, then pointed to the tapestry.

"You see that tapestry?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what it represents?"

"No."

"John Lackland."

"Well, what of it?"

"John Lackland is also in this book."

The volume, which was in sheep binding and worn at
the corners, was indeed a copy of _King John_.

M. Hémonin turned to Nodier and said: "I paid six
sous for it."

In the evening the Duke of Northumberland gave a
ball.  It was a magnificent, fairylike spectacle.  This
Arabian Nights ambassador brought one of these nights
to Rheims.  Every woman found a diamond in her bouquet.

I could not dance.  Nodier had not danced since he was
sixteen years of age, when a great aunt went into ecstasies
over his terpsichorean efforts and congratulated him in the
following terms: "~Tu est charmant, tu danses comme rim
chou~!" We did not go to Lord Northumberland's ball.

"What shall we do tonight?" said I to Nodier.
He held up his odd volume and answered:

"Let us read this."

We read.

That is to say, Nodier read.  He knew English (without
being able to speak it, I believe) enough to make it out.
He read aloud, and translated as he read.  At intervals,
while he rested, I took the book bought from the ragpicker
of Soissons, and read passages from the _Romancero_.  Like
Nodier, I translated as I read.  We compared the English
with the Castilian book; we confronted the dramatic with
the epic.  Nodier stood up for Shakespeare, whom he could
read in English, and I for the _Romancero_, which I could
read in Spanish.  We brought face to face, he the bastard
Faulconbridge, I the bastard Mudarra.  And little by little
in contradicting we convinced each other, and Nodier became
filled with enthusiasm for the _Romancero_, and I with
admiration for Shakespeare.

Listeners arrived.  One passes the evening as best one
can in a provincial town on a coronation day when one
doesn't go to the ball.  We formed quite a little club.  There
was an academician, M. Roger; a man of letters, M. d'Eckstein;
M. de Marcellus, friend and country neighbour of
my father, who poked fun at his royalism and mine; good
old Marquis d'Herbouville, and M. Hémonin, donor of the
book that cost six sous.

"It isn't worth the money!" exclaimed M. Roger.

The conversation developed into a debate.  Judgment
was passed upon _King John_.  M. de Marcellus declared
that the assassination of Arthur was an improbable incident.
It was pointed out to him that it was a matter of history.
It was with difficulty that he became reconciled to it.  For
kings to kill each other was impossible.  To M. de
Marcellus's mind the murdering of kings began on January 21.
Regicide was synonymous with '93.  To kill a king was
an unheard-of thing that the "populace" alone were capable
of doing.  No king except Louis XVI. had ever been
violently put to death.  He, however, reluctantly admitted
the case of Charles I.  In his death also he saw the
hand of the populace.  All the rest was demagogic lying
and calumny.

Although as good a royalist as he, I ventured to insinuate
that the sixteenth century had existed, and that it was the
period when the Jesuits had clearly propounded the question
of "bleeding the basilic vein," that is to say of cases
in which the king ought to be slain; a question which,
once brought forward, met with such success that it resulted
in two kings, Henry III. and Henry IV., being stabbed,
and a Jesuit, Father Guignard, being hanged.

Then we passed to the details of the drama, situations,
scenes, and personages.  Nodier pointed out that 
Faulconbridge is the same person spoken of by Mathieu Paris as
Falcasius de Trente, bastard of Richard Coeur de Lion.
Baron d'Eckstein, in support of this, reminded his hearers
that, according to Hollinshed, Faulconbridge, or Falcasius,
slew the Viscount de Limoges to avenge his father Richard,
who had been wounded unto death at the siege of Chaluz;
and that this castle of Chaluz, being the property of the
Viscount de Limoges, it was only right that the Viscount,
although absent, should be made to answer with his head
for the falling of an arrow or a stone from the castle upon
the King.  M. Roger laughed at the cry of "Austria
Limoges" in the play and at Shakespeare's confounding
the Viscount de Limoges with the Duke of Austria.  M.
Roger scored the success of the evening and his laughter
settled the matter.

The discussion having taken this turn I said nothing
further.  This revelation of Shakespeare had moved me.  His
grandeur impressed me.  _King John_ is not a masterpiece,
but certain scenes are lofty and powerful, and in the
motherhood of Constance there are bursts of genius.

The two books, open and reversed, remained lying upon
the table.  The company had ceased to read in order to
laugh.  Nodier at length became silent like myself.  We
were beaten.  The gathering broke up with a laugh, and
our visitors went away.  Nodier and I remained alone and
pensive, thinking of the great works that are unappreciated, 
and amazed that the intellectual education of the
civilized peoples, and even our own, his and mine, had 
advanced no further than this.

At last Nodier broke the silence.  I can see his smile now
as he said:

"They know nothing about the Romancero!"

I replied:

"And they deride Shakespeare!"

Thirteen years later chance took me to Rheims again.

It was on August 28, 1838.  It will be seen further on
why this date impressed itself on my memory.

I was returning from Vouziers, and seeing the two towers
of Rheims in the distance, was seized with a desire to
visit the cathedral again.  I therefore went to Rheims.

On arriving in the cathedral square I saw a gun drawn
up near the portal and beside it gunners with lighted fuses
in their hands.  As I had seen artillery there on May 27,
1825, I supposed it was customary to keep a cannon in the
square, and paid little attention to it.  I passed on and
entered the church.

A beadle in violet sleeves, a sort of priest, took me in
charge and conducted me all over the church.  The stones
were dark, the statues dismal, the altar mysterious.  No
lamps competed with the sun.  The latter threw upon the
sepulchral stones in the pavement the long white silhouettes
of the windows, which through the melancholy obscurity
of the rest of the church looked like phantoms lying
upon these tombs.  No one was in the church.  Not a
whisper, not a footfall could be heard.

This solitude saddened the heart and enraptured the soul.
There were in it abandonment, neglect, oblivion, exile, and
sublimity.  Gone the whirl of 1825.  The church had resumed 
its dignity and its calmness.  Not a piece of finery,
not a vestment, not anything.  It was bare and beautiful.
The lofty vault no longer supported a canopy.  Ceremonies
of the palace arc not suited to these severe places; a 
coronation ceremony is merely tolerated; these noble ruins are
not made to be courtiers.  To rid it of the throne and 
withdraw the king from the presence of God increases the
majesty of a temple.  Louis XIV. hides Jehovah from sight.

Withdraw the priest as well.  All that eclipsed it having
been taken away, you will see the light of day direct.  
Orisons, rites, bibles, formulas, refract and decompose the
sacred light.  A dogma is a dark chamber.  Through a
religion you see the solar spectre of God, but not God.
Desuetude and crumbling enhance the grandeur of a temple.
As human religion retires from this mysterious and
jealous edifice, divine religion enters it.  Let solitude reign
in it and you will feel heaven there.  A sanctuary deserted
and in ruins, like Jumièges, like St. Bertin, like Villers,
like Holyrood, like Montrose Abbey, like the temple of
Paestum, like the hypogeum of Thebes, becomes almost an
element, and possesses the virginal and religious grandeur
of a savannah or of a forest.  There something of the real
Presence is to be found.

Such places are truly holy; man has meditated and
communed with himself therein.  What they contained of
truth has remained and become greater.  The ~à-pcu-prês~
has no longer any voice.  Extinct dogmas have not left their
ashes; the prayer of the past has left its perfume.  There
is something of the absolute in prayer, and because of this,
that which was a synagogue, that which was a mosque, that
which was a pagoda, is venerable.  A stone on which that
great anxiety that is called prayer has left its impress is
never treated with ridicule by the thinker.  The trace left
by those who have bowed down before the infinite is always
imposing.

In strolling about the cathedral I had climbed to the
triforium, then under the arched buttresses, then to the top
of the edifice.  The timber-work under the pointed roof is
admirable; but less remarkable than the "forest" of
Amiens.  It is of chestnut-wood.

These cathedral attics are of grim appearance.  One
could almost lose one's self in the labyrinths of rafters,
squares, traverse beams, superposed joists, traves, 
architraves, girders, madriers, and tangled lines and curves.  One
might imagine one's self to be in the skeleton of Babel.
The place is as bare as a garret and as wild as a cavern.
The wind whistles mournfully through it.  Rats are at home
there.  The spiders, driven from the timber by the odour
of chestnut, make their home in the stone of the basement 
where the church ends and the roof begins, and
low down in the obscurity spin their webs in which you
catch your face.  One respires a mysterious dust, and the
centuries seem to mingle with one's breath.  The dust of
churches is not like the dust of houses; it reminds one of
the tomb, it is composed of ashes.

The flooring of these colossal garrets has crevices in it
through which one can look down into the abysm, the
church, below.  In the corners that one cannot explore are
pools of shadow, as it were.  Birds of prey enter through
one window and go out through the other.  Lightning is
also familiar with these high, mysterious regions.  Sometimes
it ventures too near, and then it causes the conflagration 
of Rouen, of Chartres, or of St. Paul's, London.

My guide the beadle preceded me.  He looked at the
dung on the floor, and tossed his head.  He knew the bird
by its manure, and growled between his teeth:

"This is a rook; this is a hawk; this is an owl."

"You ought to study the human heart," said I.

A frightened bat flew before us.

While walking almost at hazard, following this bat, looking 
at this manure of the birds, respiring this dust, in this
obscurity among the cobwebs and scampering rats, we came
to a dark corner in which, on a big wheelbarrow, I could
just distinguish a long package tied with string and that
looked like a piece of rolled up cloth.

"What is that?" I asked the beadle.

"That," said he, "is Charles X.'s coronation carpet."

I stood gazing at the thing, and as I did so--I am telling
truthfully what occurred--there was a deafening report
that sounded like a thunder-clap, only it came from below.
It shook the timber-work and echoed and re-echoed through
the church.  It was succeeded by a second roar, then a third,
at regular intervals.  I recognised the thunder of the cannon,
and remembered the gun I had seen in the square.

I turned to my guide:

"What is that noise?"

"The telegraph has been at work and the cannon has
been fired."

"What does it mean?" I continued.

"It means," said the beadle, "that a grandson has just
been born to Louis Philippe."

The cannon announced the birth of the Count de Paris.

These are my recollections of Rheims.






RECOUNTED BY EYE-WITNESSES

I.  THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI.
II. THE ARRIVAL OF NAPOLEON I IN PARIS IN 1815.




I.  THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI.



There were certain characteristic details connected with
the execution of Louis XVI. that are not recorded in history.
They were recounted to me by an eye-witness* and
are here published for the first time.

*  This eye witness was one Leboucher, who arrived in Paris from
Bourges in December, 1792, and was present at the execution of Louis
XVI.	In 1840 he recounted to Victor Hugo most of these details
which, as can easily be imagined, had impressed themselves deeply
upon his mind.

The scaffold was not, as is generally believed, erected
in the very centre of the Place, on the spot where the
obelisk now stands, but on a spot which the decree of
the Provisional Executive Council designates in these 
precise terms: "between the pied d'estal and the
Champs-Elysées."

What was this pedestal?  Present generations who
have seen so many things happen, so many statues crumble
and so many pedestals overthrown do not quite know what
meaning to give to this very vague designation, and would
be embarrassed to tell for what monument the mysterious
stone which the Executive Council of the Revolution
laconically calls the "pied d'estal" served as a base.  This
stone had borne the statue of Louis XV.

Let it be noted ~en passant~ that this strange Place which
had been called successively the Place Louis XV., Place
de la Revolution, Place de la Concorde, Place Louis XVI.,
Place du Garde-Meuble and Place des Champs-Elysées,
and which could not retain any name, could not keep any
monument either.  It has had the statue of Louis XV.,
which disappeared; an expiatory fountain which was to
have laved the bloody centre of the Place was projected,
but not even the first stone was laid; a rough model of a
monument to the Charter was made: we have never seen
anything but the socle of this monument.  Just when a
bronze figure representing the Charter of 1814 was about
to be erected, the Revolution of July arrived with the
Charter of 1830.  The pedestal of Louis XVIII. vanished, 
as fell the pedestal of Louis XV.  Now on this
same spot we have placed the obelisk of Sesostris.  It
required thirty centuries for the great Desert to engulf half
of it; how many years will the Place de la Revolution
require to swallow it up altogether?

In the Year II of the Republic, what the Executive
Council called the "pied d'estal" was nought but a
shapeless and hideous block.  It was a sort of sinister symbol
of the royalty itself.  Its ornaments of marble and bronze
had been wrenched off, the bare stone was everywhere split
and cracked.  On the four sides were large square gaps
showing the places where the destroyed bas reliefs
had been.  Scarcely could a remnant of the entablature
still be distinguished at the summit of the
pedestal, and beneath the cornice a string of ovolos, 
defaced and worn, was surmounted by what architects call
a "chaplet of paternosters." On the table of the 
pedestal one could perceive a heap of debris of all kinds,
in which tufts of grass were growing here and there.  This
pile of nameless things had replaced the royal statue.

The scaffold was raised a few steps distant from this
ruin, a little in rear of it.  It was covered with long
planks, laid transversely, that masked the framework.  A
ladder without banisters or balustrade was at the back, and
what they venture to call the head of this horrible 
construction was turned towards the Garde-Meuble.  A
basket of cylindrical shape, covered with leather, was
placed at the spot where the head of the King was to fall,
to receive it; and at one of the angles of the entablature,
to the right of the ladder, could be discerned a long wicker
basket prepared for the body, and on which one of the
executioners, while waiting for the King, had laid his hat.

Imagine, now, in the middle of the Place, these two
lugubrious things, a few paces from each other: the
pedestal of Louis XV. and the scaffold of Louis XVI.; that is
to say, the ruins of royalty dead and the martyrdom of
royalty living; around these two things four formidable
lines of armed men, preserving a great empty square in
the midst of an immense crowd; to the left of the scaffold,
the Champs-Elysees, to the right the Tuileries, which,
neglected and left at the mercy of the public had become
an unsightly waste of dirt heaps and trenches; and
over these melancholy edifices, over these black, leafless
trees, over this gloomy multitude, the bleak, sombre sky
of a winter morning, and one will have an idea of the
aspect which the Place de la Revolution presented at the
moment when Louis XVI., in the carriage of the Mayor
of Paris, dressed in white, the Book of Psalms clasped in
his hands, arrived there to die at a few minutes after ten
o'clock on January 21, 1793.

Strange excess of abasement and misery: the son of so
many kings, bound and sacred like the kings of Egypt,
was to be consumed between two layers of quicklime,
and to this French royalty, which at Versailles had
had a throne of gold and at St. Denis sixty sarcophagi
of granite, there remained but a platform of pine and a
wicker coffin.

Here are some unknown details.  The executioners numbered
four; two only performed the execution; the third
stayed at the foot of the ladder, and the fourth was on the
waggon which was to convey the King's body to the Madeleine
Cemetery and which was waiting a few feet from the
scaffold.

The executioners wore breeches, coats in the French
style as the Revolution had modified it, and three-cornered
hats with enormous tri-colour cockades.

They executed the King with their hats on, and it was
without taking his hat off that Samson, seizing by the hair
the severed head of Louis XVI., showed it to the people,
and for a few moments let the blood from it trickle upon
the scaffold.

At the same time his valet or assistant undid what
were called "les sangles" (straps); and, while the crowd
gazed alternately upon the King's body, dressed entirely
in white, as I have said, and still attached, with the hands
bound behind the back, to the swing board, and upon that
head whose kind and gentle profile stood out against the
misty, sombre trees of the Tuileries, two priests,
commissaries of the Commune, instructed to be present, as
Municipal officials, at the execution of the King, sat in the
Mayor's carriage, laughing and conversing in loud tones.
One of them, Jacques Roux, derisively drew the other's
attention to Capet's fat calves and abdomen.

The armed men who surrounded the scaffold had only
swords and pikes; there were very few muskets.  Most of
them wore large round hats or red caps.  A few platoons
of mounted dragoons in uniform were mingled with these
troops at intervals.  A whole squadron of dragoons was
ranged in battle array beneath the terraces of the
Tuileries.  What was called the Battalion of Marseilles
formed one of the sides of the square.

The guillotine--it is always with repugnance that one
writes this hideous word--would appear to the craftsmen
of to-day to be very badly constructed.  The knife was
simply suspended to a pulley fixed in the centre of the
upper beam.  This pulley and a rope the thickness of a
man's thumb constituted the whole apparatus.  The
knife, which was not very heavily weighted, was of small
dimensions and had a curved edge, which gave it the form
of a reversed Phrygian cap.  No hood was placed to shelter
the King's head and at the same time to hide and circumscribe
its fall.  All that crowd could see the head of 
Louis XVI. drop, and it was thanks to chance, thanks perhaps to
the smallness of the knife which diminished the
violence of the shock, that it did not bound beyond the
basket to the pavement.  Terrible incident, which often
occurred at executions during the Terror.  Nowadays
assassins and poisoners are decapitated more decently.
Many improvements in the guillotine have been made.

At the spot where the King's head fell, a long rivulet
of blood streamed down the planks of the scaffold to the
pavement.  When the execution was over, Samson threw
to the people the King's coat, which was of white molleton,
and in an instant it disappeared, torn by a thousand hands.

At the moment when the head of Louis XVI. fell, the
Abbé Edgeworth was still near the King.  The blood
spirted upon him.  He hastily donned a brown overcoat,
descended from the scaffold and was lost in the crowd.
The first row of spectators opened before him with a sort
of wonder mingled with respect; but after he had gone a
few steps, the attention of everybody was still so 
concentrated upon the centre of the Place where the event had
just been accomplished, that nobody took any further notice 
of Abbé Edgeworth.

The poor priest, enveloped in his thick coat which concealed
the blood with which he was covered, fled in bewilderment,
walking as one in a dream and scarcely knowing
where he was going.  However, with that sort of instinct
which preserves somnambulists he crossed the river,
took the Rue du Bac, then the Rue du Regard and thus
managed to reach the house of Mme. de Lézardière, near
the Barrière du Maine.

Arrived there he divested himself of his soiled clothing
and remained for several hours, in a state of collapse, without
being able to collect a thought or utter a word.

Some Royalists who rejoined him, and who had witnessed
the execution, surrounded the Abbé Edgeworth
and reminded him of the adieu he had addressed to the
King: "Son of St. Louis, ascend to heaven!"  These words,
however, memorable though they were, had left no trace
on the mind of him who had uttered them.  "We heard
them," said the witnesses of the catastrophe, still moved
and thrilled.  "It is possible," he replied, "but I do not
remember having said such a thing."

Abbé Edgeworth lived a long life without ever being
able to remember whether he really did pronounce these
words.

Mme. de Lézardière, who had been seriously ill for more
than a month, was unable to support the shock of the death
of Louis XVI.  She died on the very night of January 21.




II. ARRIVAL OF NAPOLEON IN PARIS.

March 20, 1815.



History and contemporaneous memoirs have truncated,
or badly related, or even omitted altogether, certain details
of the arrival of the Emperor in Paris on March 20, 1815.
But living witnesses are to be met with who saw them and
who rectify or complete them.

During the night of the 19th, the Emperor left Sens.
He arrived at three o'clock in the morning at Fontainebleau.
Towards five o'clock, as day was breaking, he
reviewed the few troops he had taken with him and those
who had rallied to him at Fontainebleau itself.  They
were of every corps, of every regiment, of all arms, a little
of the Grand Army, a little of the Guard.  At six o'clock,
the review being over, one hundred and twenty lancers
mounted their horses and went on ahead to wait for him
at Essonnes.  These lancers were commanded by Colonel
Galbois, now lieutenant general, and who has recently
distinguished himself at Constantine.

They had been at Essonnes scarcely three-quarters of
an hour, resting their horses, when the carriage of the
Emperor arrived.  The escort of lancers were in their 
saddles in the twinkling of an eye and surrounded the
carriage, which immediately started off again without having
changed horses.  The Emperor stopped on the way at the
large villages to receive petitions from the inhabitants and
the submission of the authorities, and sometimes to listen
to harangues.  He was on the rear seat of the carriage,
with General Bertrand in full uniform seated on his left.
Colonel Galbois galloped beside the door on the Emperor's
side; the door on Bertrand's side was guarded by a
quartermaster of lancers named Ferrès, to-day a wineshop
keeper at Puteaux, a former and very brave hussar whom
the Emperor knew personally and addressed by name.
No one on the road approached the Emperor.  Everything
that was intended for him passed through General 
Bertrand's hands.

Three or four leagues beyond Essonnes the imperial
cortege found the road suddenly barred by General 
Colbert, at the head of two squadrons and three regiments
echelonned towards Paris.

General Colbert had been the colonel of the regiment
of lancers from which the detachment that escorted
the Emperor had been drawn.  He recognised his lancers
and his lancers recognised him.  They cried: "General,
come over to us!"  The General answered: "My children,
do your duty, I am doing mine."  Then he turned
rein and went off to the right across country with a few
mounted men who followed him.  He could not have
resisted; the regiments behind him were shouting: "Long
live the Emperor!"

This meeting only delayed Napoleon a few minutes.
He continued on his way.  The Emperor, surrounded only
by his one hundred and twenty lancers, thus reached Paris.
He entered by the Barrière de Fontainebleau, took the
large avenue of trees which is on the left, the Boulevard
dim Mont-Parnasse, the other boulevards to the Invalides,
then the Pont do la Concorde, the quay along the river
and the gate of the Louvre.

At a quarter past eight o'clock in the evening he was at
the Tuileries.






VISIONS OF THE REAL.
I.   THE HOVEL.
II.  PILLAGE.
III. A DREAM.
IV.  THE PANEL WITH THE COAT OF ARMS.
V.   THE EASTER DAISY.




I.  THE HOVEL.



You want a description of this hovel?  I hesitated to
inflict it upon you.  But you want it.  I' faith, here it is!
You will only have yourself to blame, it is your fault.

"Pshaw!" you say, "I know what it is.  A bleared,
bandy ruin.  Some old house!"

In the first place it is not an old house, it is very much
worse, it is a new house.

Really, now, an old house!  You counted upon an old
house and turned up your nose at it in advance.  Ah! yes,
old houses; don't you wish you may get them!  A
dilapidated, tumble-down cottage!  Why, don't you know
that a dilapidated, tumble-down cottage is simply charming,
a thing of beauty?  The wall is of beautiful, warm and strong
colour, with moth holes, birds' nests, old nails on which the
spider hangs his rose-window web, a thousand amusing
things that break its evenness.  The window is only a
dormer, but from it protrude long poles on which all sorts
of clothing, of all sorts of colours, hang and dry in the
wind-white tatters, red rags, flags of poverty that give to
the hut an air of gaiety and are resplendent in the sunshine.
The door is cracked and black, but approach and examine
it; you will without doubt find upon it a bit of antique
ironwork of the time of Louis XIII., cut out like a piece
of guipure.  The roof is full of crevices, but in each crevice
there is a convolvulus that will blossom in the spring, or a
daisy that will bloom in the autumn.  The tiles are patched
with thatch.  Of course they are, I should say so!  It affords
the occasion to have on one's roof a colony of pink
dragon flowers and wild marsh-mallow.  A fine green grass
carpets the foot of this decrepit wall, the ivy climbs
joyously up it and cloaks its bareness--its wounds and its
leprosy mayhap; moss covers with green velvet the stone
seat at the door.  All nature takes pity upon this
degraded and charming thing that you call a hovel, and
welcomes it.  0 hovel! honest and peaceful old dwelling,
sweet and good to see! rejuvenated every year by April
and May! perfumed by the wallflower and inhabited by
the swallow!

No, it is not of this that I write, it is not, I repeat, of
an old house, it is of a new house,--of a new hovel, if you
will.

This thing has not been built longer than two years.  The
wall has that hideous and glacial whiteness of fresh plaster.
The whole is wretched, mean, high, triangular, and has the
shape of a piece of Gruyère cheese cut for a miser a
dessert.  There are new doors that do not shut properly,
window frames with white panes that are already spangled
here and there with paper stars.  These stars are cut
coquettishly and pasted on with care.  There is a frightful
bogus sumptuousness about the place that causes a painful
impression--balconies of hollow iron badly fixed to the
wall; trumpery locks, already rotten round the fastenings,
upon which vacillate, on three nails, horrible ornaments
of embossed brass that are becoming covered with
verdigris; shutters painted grey that are getting out of
joint, not because they are worm-eaten, but because they
were made of green wood by a thieving cabinet maker.

A chilly feeling comes over you as you look at the house.
On entering it you shiver.  A greenish humidity leaks at
the foot of the wall.  This building of yesterday is already
a ruin; it is more than a ruin, it is a disaster; one feels
that the proprietor is bankrupt and that the contractor has
fled.

In rear of the house, a wall white and new like the rest,
encloses a space in which a drum major could not lie at
full length.  This is called the garden.  Issuing shiveringly
from the earth is a little tree, long, spare and sickly,
which seems always to be in winter, for it has not a single
leaf.  This broom is called a poplar.  The remainder of the
garden is strewn with old potsherds and bottoms of bottles.
Among them one notices two or three list slippers.  In a
corner on top of a heap of oyster shells is an old tin
watering can, painted green, dented, rusty and cracked,
inhabited by slugs which silver it with their trails of slime.

Let us enter the hovel.  In the other you will find perhaps
a ladder "rickety," as Regnier says, "from the top
to the bottom." Here you will find a staircase.

This staircase, "ornamented" with brass-knobbed banisters,
has fifteen or twenty wooden steps, high, narrow,
with sharp angles, which rise perpendicularly to
the first floor and turn upon themselves in a spiral of about
eighteen inches in diameter.  Would you not be inclined
to ask for a ladder?

At the top of these stairs, if you get there, is the room.

To give an idea of this room is difficult.  It is the "new
hovel" in all its abominable reality.  Wretchedness is
everywhere; a new wretchedness, which has no past, no
future, and which cannot take root anywhere.  One divines
that the lodger moved in yesterday and will move out 
tomorrow.  That he arrived without saying whence he came,
and that he will put the key under the door when he goes
away.

The wall is "ornamented" with dark blue paper with
yellow flowers, the window is "ornamented" with a curtain
of red calico in which holes take the place of flowers.
There is in front of the window a rush-bottom chair with
the bottom worn out; near the chair a stove; on the stove a
stewpot; near the stewpot a flowerpot turned upside down
with a tallow candle stuck in the hole; near the flowerpot
a basketful of coal which evokes thoughts of suicide and
asphyxiation; above the basket a shelf encumbered with
nameless objects, distinguishable among which are a worn
broom and an old toy representing a green rider on a
crimson horse.  The mantelpiece, mean and narrow, is of
blackish marble with a thousand little white blotches.  It
is covered with broken glasses and unwashed cups.  Into
one of these cups a pair of tin rimmed spectacles is plunging.
A nail lies on the floor.  In the fireplace a dishcloth
is hanging on one of the fire-iron holders.  No fire either
in the fireplace or in the stove.  A heap of frightful
sweepings replaces the heaps of cinders.  No looking glass on the
mantelpiece, but a picture of varnished canvas representing
a nude negro at the knees of a white woman in a decolletée
ball dress in an arbour.  Opposite the mantelpiece, a man's
cap and a woman's bonnet hang from nails on either side
of a cracked mirror.

At the end of the room is a bed.  That is to say, a mattress
laid on two planks that rest upon a couple of trestles.  Over
the bed, other boards, with openings between them, support
an undesirable heap of linen, clothes and rags.  An
imitation cashmere, called "French cashmere," protrudes
between the boards and hangs over the pallet.

Mingled with the hideous litter of all these things are
dirtiness, a disgusting odour, spots of oil and tallow, and
dust everywhere.  In the corner near the bed stands an
enormous sack of shavings, and on a chair beside the sack
lies an old newspaper.  I am moved by curiosity to look at
the title and the date.  It is the "Constitutionnel" of April 25,
1843.

And now what can I add?  I have not told the most
horrible thing about the place.  The house is odious, the
room is abominable, the pallet is hideous; but all that is
nothing.

When I entered a woman was sleeping on the bed--a
woman old, short, thickset, red, bloated, oily, tumefied, fat,
dreadful, enormous.  Her frightful bonnet, which was
awry, disclosed the side of her head, which was grizzled,
pink and bald.

She was fully dressed.  She wore a yellowish fichu, a
brown skirt, a jacket, all this on her monstrous abdomen;
and a vast soiled apron like the linen trousers of a convict.

At the noise I made in entering she moved, sat up,
showed her fat legs, that were covered with unqualifiable
blue stockings, and with a yawn stretched her brawny arms,
which terminated with fists that resembled those of a
butcher.

I perceived that the old woman was robust and formidable.

She turned towards me and opened her eyes.  I could
not see them.

"Monsieur," she said, in a very gentle voice, "what do
you want?"

When about to speak to this being I experienced the
sensation one would feel in presence of a sow to which it
behoved one to say: "Madam."

I did not quite know what to reply, and thought for a
moment.  Just then my gaze, wandering towards the window,
fell upon a sort of picture that hung outside like a
sign.  It was a sign, as a matter of fact, a picture of a
young and pretty woman, decolletée, wearing an enormous
beplumed hat and carrying an infant in her arms;
the whole in the style of the chimney boards of the time of
Louis XVIII.  Above the picture stood out this inscription
in big letters:


                     Mme. BECOEUR

                       Midwife

                BLEEDS AND VACCINATES


"Madam," said I, "I want to see Mme. Bécoeur."

The sow metamorphosed into a woman replied with an
amiable smile:

"I am Mme. Bécoeur, Monsieur."




II.  PILLAGE.

THE REVOLT IN SANTO DOMINGO.



I thought that I must be dreaming.  None who did not
witness the sight could form any idea of it.  I will, however,
endeavour to depict something of it.  I will simply recount
what I saw with my own eyes.  This small portion of
a great scene minutely reproduced will enable you to form
some notion as to the general aspect of the town during the
three days of pillage.  Multiply these details ~ad libitum~
and you will get the ensemble.

I had taken refuge by the gate of the town, a puny barrier
made of long laths painted yellow, nailed to cross laths
and sharpened at the top.  Near by was a kind of shed in
which some hapless colonists, who had been driven from
their homes, had sought shelter.  They were silent and
seemed to be petrified in all the attitudes of despair. Just 
outside of the shed an old man, weeping, was seated on the
trunk of a mahogany tree which was lying on the ground
and looked like the shaft of a column.  Another vainly
sought to restrain a white woman who, wild with fright,
was trying to flee, without knowing where she was going,
through the crowd of furious, ragged, howling negroes.

The negroes, however, free, victorious, drunk, mad, paid
not the slightest attention to this miserable, forlorn group
of whites.  A short distance from us two of them, with
their knives between their teeth, were slaughtering an ox,
upon which they were kneeling with their feet in its blood.
A little further on two hideous negresses, dressed as
marchionesses, covered with ribbons and pompons, their
breasts bare, and their heads encumbered with feathers and
laces, were quarrelling over a magnificent dress of Chinese
satin, which one of them had grasped with her nails while
the other hung on to it with her teeth.  At their feet a
number of little blacks were ransacking a broken trunk
from which the dress had been taken.

The rest was incredible to see and impossible to describe.
It was a crowd, a mob, a masquerade, a revel, a hell, a 
terrible buffoonery.  Negroes, negresses and mulattoes, in
every posture, in all manner of disguises, displayed all sorts
of costumes, and what was worse, their nudity.

Here was a pot-bellied, ugly mulatto, of furious mien,
attired like the planters, in a waistcoat and trousers of
white material, but with a bishop's mitre on his head and a
crosier in his hand.  Elsewhere three or four negroes with
three-cornered hats stuck on their heads and wearing red
or blue military coats with the shoulder belts crossed upon
their black skin, were harassing an unfortunate militiaman
they had captured, and who, with his hands tied behind his 
back, was being dragged through the town.  With
loud bursts of laughter they slapped his powdered hair
and pulled his long pigtail.  Now and then they would
stop and force the prisoner to kneel and by signs give him
to understand that they were going to shoot him there.
Then prodding him with the butts of their rifles they
would make him get up again, and go through the same
performance further on.

A number of old mulattresses had formed a ring and
were skipping round in the midst of the mob.  They were
dressed in the nattiest costumes of our youngest and
prettiest white women, and in dancing raised their skirts
so as to show their lean, shrivelled legs and yellow thighs.
Nothing queerer could be imagined than all these charming
fashions and finery of the frivolous century of Louis
XV., these Watteau shepherdess costumes, furbelows,
plumes and laces, upon these black, ugly-faced, flat-nosed,
woolly-headed, frightful people.  Thus decked out they
were no longer even negroes and negresses; they were apes
and monkeys.

Add to all this a deafening uproar.  Every mouth that
was not making a contortion was emitting yells.

I have not finished; you must accept the picture complete
to its minutest detail.

Twenty paces from me was an inn, a frightful hovel,
whose sign was a wreath of dried herbs hung upon a pickaxe.
Nothing but a roof window and three-legged tables.
A low ale-house, rickety tables.  Negroes and mulattoes
were drinking there, intoxicating and besotting themselves,
and fraternising.  One has to have seen these things to
depict them.  In front of the tables of the drunkards a
fairly young negress was displaying herself.  She was
dressed in a man's waistcoat, unbuttoned, and a woman's
skirt loosely attached.  She wore no chemise and her
abdomen was bare.  On her head was a magistrate's wig.  On
one shoulder she carried a parasol, and on the other a rifle
with bayonet fixed.

A few whites, stark naked, ran about miserably in the
midst of this pandemonium.  On a litter was being borne
the nude body of a stout man, in whose breast a dagger
was sticking as a cross is stuck in the ground.

On every hand were gnomes bronze-coloured, red, black,
kneeling, sitting, squatting, heaped together, opening
trunks, forcing locks, trying on bracelets, clasping
necklaces about their necks, donning coats or dresses, breaking,
ripping, tearing.  Two blacks were trying to get into the
same coat; each had got an arm on, and they were belabouring
each other with their disengaged fists.  It was the second
stage of a sacked town.  Robbery and joy had succeeded
rage.  In a few corners some were still engaged in killing,
but the great majority were pillaging.  All were carrying
off their booty, some in their arms, some in baskets on their
backs, some in wheelbarrows.

The strangest thing about it all was that in the midst of
the incredible, tumultuous mob, an interminable file of
pillagers who were rich and fortunate enough to possess
horses and vehicles, marched and deployed, in order and
with the solemn gravity of a procession.  This was quite a
different kind of a medley!

Imagine carts of all kinds with loads of every description:
a four-horse carriage full of broken crockery and
kitchen utensils, with two or three dressed-up and beplumed
negroes on each horse; a big wagon drawn by oxen
and loaded with bales carefully corded and packed, damask
armchairs, frying pans and pitchforks, and on top of this
pyramid a negress wearing a necklace and with a feather
stuck in her hair; an old country coach drawn by a
single mule and with a load of ten trunks and, ten negroes,
three of whom were upon the animal's back.  Mingle with
all this bath chairs, litters and sedan chairs piled high with
loot of all kinds, precious articles of furniture with the
most sordid objects.  It was the hut and the drawing-room
pitched together pell-mell into a cart, an immense removal
by madmen defiling through the town.

What was incomprehensible was the equanimity with
which the petty robbers regarded the wholesale robbers.
The pillagers afoot stepped aside to let the pillagers in
carriages pass.

There were, it is true, a few patrols, if a squad of five or
six monkeys disguised as soldiers and each beating at his
own sweet will on a drum can be called a patrol.

Near the gate of the town, through which this immense
stream of vehicles was issuing, pranced a mulatto, a tall,
lean, yellow rascal, rigged out in a judge's gown and white
tie, with his sleeves rolled up, a sword in his hand, and his
legs bare.  He was digging his heels into a fat-bellied horse
that pawed about in the crowd.  He was the magistrate
charged with the duty of preserving order at the gate.

A little further on galloped another group.  A negro in
a red coat with a blue sash, a general's epaulettes and an
immense hat surcharged with tri-colour feathers, was
forcing his way through the rabble.  He was preceded by
a horrible, helmetted negro boy beating upon a drum, and
followed by two mulattoes, one in a colonel's coat, the other
dressed as a Turk with a hideous Mardi Gras turban on
his ugly Chinese-like head.

Out on the plain I could see battalions of ragged soldiers
drawn up round a big house, on which was a crowded balcony
draped with a tri-colour flag.  It had all the appearance
of a balcony from which a speech was being delivered.

Beyond these battalions, this balcony, this flag and this
speech was a calm, magnificent prospect-trees green and
charming, mountains of superb shape, a cloudless sky, the
ocean without a ripple.

Strange and sad it is to see the grimace of man made
with such effrontery in presence of the face of God!




III.  A DREAM.

September 6, 1847.



Last night I dreamed this--we had been talking all the
evening about riots, a propos of the troubles in the Rue
Saint Honoré:

I entered an obscure passage way.  Men passed and elbowed
me in the shadow.  I issued from the passage.  I
was in a large square, which was longer than it was wide,
and surrounded by a sort of vast wall, or high edifice that
resembled a wall, which enclosed it on all four sides.  There
were neither doors nor windows in this wall; just a few
holes here and there.  At certain spots it appeared to have
been riddled with shot; at others it was cracked and hanging
over as though it had been shaken by an earthquake.
It had the bare, crumbling and desolate aspect of places in
Oriental cities.

No one was in sight.  Day was breaking.  The stone was
grey, the sky also.  At the extremity of the place I perceived
four obscure objects that looked liked cannon levelled
ready for firing.

A great crowd of ragged men and children rushed by me
with gestures of terror.

"Save us!" cried one of them.  "The grape shot is
coming!"

"Where are we?" I asked.  "What is this place?"'

"What! do you not belong to Paris?" responded the
man.  "This is the Palais-Royal."

I gazed about me and, in effect, recognised in this frightful,
devastated square in ruins a sort of spectre of the
Palais-Royal.

The fleeing men had vanished, I knew not whither.

I also would have fled.  I could not.  In the twilight I
saw a light moving about the cannon.

The square was deserted.  I could hear cries of: "Run!
they are going to shoot!" but I could not see those who
uttered them.

A woman passed by.  She was in tatters and carried a
child on her back.  She did not run.  She walked slowly.
She was young, cold, pale, terrible.

As she passed me she said: "It is hard lines! Bread is
at thirty-four sous, and even at that the cheating bakers
do not give full weight."

I saw the light at the end of the square flare up and
heard the roar of the cannon.  I awoke.

Somebody had just slammed the front door.




IV.  THE PANEL WITH THE COAT OF ARMS.



The panel which was opposite the bed had been so
blackened by time and effaced by dust that at first he
could distinguish only confused lines and undecipherable
contours; but the while he was thinking of other things
his eyes continually wandered back to it with that
mysterious and mechanical persistence which the gaze
sometimes has.  Singular details began to detach themselves
from the confused and obscure whole.  His curiosity was
roused.  When the attention becomes fixed it is like a
light; and the tapestry growing gradually less cloudy
finally appeared to him in its entirety, and stood out
distinctly against the sombre wall, as though vaguely
illumined.

It was only a panel with a coat of arms upon it, the
blazon, no doubt, of former owners of the château; but
this blazon was a strange one.

The escutcheon was at the foot of the panel, and it was
not this that first attracted attention.  It was of the bizarre
shape of German escutcheons of the fifteenth century.  It
was perpendicular and rested, although rounded at the base,
upon a worn, moss covered stone.  Of the two upper angles,
one bent to the left and curled back upon itself like the
turned down corner of a page of an old book; the other,
which curled upward, bore at its extremity an immense
and magnificent morion in profile, the chinpiece of which
protruded further than the visor, making the helm
look like a horrible head of a fish.  The crest was
formed of two great spreading wings of an eagle, one
black, the other red, and amid the feathers of these wings
were the membranous, twisted and almost living branches
of a huge seaweed which bore more resemblance to a
polypus than to a plume.  From the middle of the plume
rose a buckled strap, which reached to the angle of a rough
wooden pitchfork, the handle of which was stuck in the
ground, and from there descended to a hand, which held it.

To the left of the escutcheon was the figure of a woman,
standing.  It was an enchanting vision.  She was tall and
slim, and wore a robe of brocade which fell in ample folds
about her feet, a ruff of many pleats and a necklace of
large gems.  On her head was an enormous and superb turban
of blond hair on which rested a crown of filigree that
was not round, and that followed all the undulations of the
hair.  The face, although somewhat too round and large,
was exquisite.  The eyes were those of an angel, the mouth
was that of a virgin; but in those heavenly eyes there was
a terrestrial look and on that virginal mouth was the smile
of a woman.  In that place, at that hour, on that tapestry,
this mingling of divine ecstasy and human voluptuousness
had something at once charming and awful about it.

Behind the woman, bending towards her as though whispering
in her ear, appeared a man.

Was he a man?  All that could be seen of his body--legs,
arms and chest--was as hairy as the skin of an ape;
his hands and feet were crooked, like the claws of a tiger.
As to his visage, nothing more fantastic and frightful could
be imagined.  Amid a thick, bristling beard, a nose like an
owl's beak and a mouth whose corners were drawn by a
wild-beast-like rictus were just discernible.  The eyes
were half hidden by his thick, bushy, curly hair.  Each
curl ended in a spiral, pointed and twisted like a gimlet,
and on peering at them closely it could be seen that each
of these gimlets was a little viper.

The man was smiling at the woman.  It was disquieting
and sinister, the contact of these two equally chimerical
beings, the one almost an angel, the other almost a monster;
a revolting clash of the two extremes of the ideal.  The
man held the pitchfork, the woman grasped the strap with
her delicate pink fingers.

As to the escutcheon itself, it was sable, that is to say,
black, and in the middle of it appeared, with the vague
whiteness of silver, a fleshless, deformed thing, which, like
the rest, at length became distinct.  It was a death's head.
The nose was lacking, the orbits of the eyes were hollow
and deep, the cavity of the ear could be seen on the right
side, all the seams of the cranium could be traced, and
there only remained two teeth in the jaws.

But this black escutcheon, this livid death's head,
designed with such minuteness of detail that it seemed to
stand out from the tapestry, was less lugubrious than the
two personages who held up the hideous blazon and who
seemed to be whispering to each other in the shadow.

At the bottom of the panel in a corner was the date:
1503.




V.  THE EASTER DAISY.

May 29, 1841.



A few days ago I was passing along the Rue de
Chartres.*  A palisade of boards, which linked two islands
of high six-story houses, attracted my attention.  It threw
upon the pavement a shadow which the sunshine, penetrating
between the badly joined boards, striped with beautiful
parallel streaks of gold, such as one sees on the fine black
satins of the Renaissance.  I strolled over to it and peered
through the cracks.

*  The little Rue de Chartres was situated on the site now occupied
by the Pavilion de Rohan.  It extended from the open ground of the
Carrousel to the Place du Palais-Royal.  The old Vaudeville Theatre
was situated in it.

This palisade encloses the site on which was built the
Vaudeville Theatre, that was destroyed by fire two years
ago, in June, 1839.

It was two o'clock in the afternoon, the sun shone hotly,
the street was deserted.

A sort of house door, painted grey, still ornamented with
rococo carving and which a hundred years ago probably
was the entrance to the boudoir of some little mistress, had
been adjusted to the palisade.  There was only a latch to
raise, and I entered the enclosure.

Nothing could be sadder or more desolate.  A chalky
soil.  Here and there blocks of stone that the masons had
begun to work upon, but had abandoned, and which were
at once white as the stones of sepulchres and mouldy as
the stones of ruins.  No one in the enclosure.  On the walls
of the neighbouring houses traces of flame and smoke still
visible.

However, since the catastrophe two successive springtides
had softened the ground, and in a corner of the
trapezium, behind an enormous stone that was becoming
tinted with the green of moss, and beneath which were
haunts of woodlice, millepeds, and other insects, a little
patch of grass had grown in the shadow.

I sat on the stone and bent over the grass.

Oh! my goodness! there was the prettiest little Easter
daisy in the world, and flitting about it was a charming
microscopical gnat.

This flower of the fields was growing peaceably and in
accordance with the sweet law of nature, in the open, in the
centre of Paris, between a couple of streets, two paces from
the Palais-Royal, four paces from the Carrousel, amid
passers-by, omnibuses and the King's carriages.

This wild flower, neighbour of the pavement, opened up
a wide field of thought.  Who could have foreseen, two
years ago, that a daisy would be growing on this spot!  If, as
on the ground adjoining, there had never been anything but
houses, that is to say, proprietors, tenants, and hail porters,
careful residents extinguishing candle and fire at night
before going to sleep, never would there have been a wild
flower here.

How many things, how many plays that failed or were
applauded, how many ruined families, how many incidents,
how many adventures, how many catastrophes were
summed up in this flower!  To all those who lived upon the
crowd that was nightly summoned here, what a spectre
this flower would have been had it appeared to them two
years ago!  What a labyrinth is destiny and what
mysterious combinations there were that led up to the advent
of this enchanting little yellow sun with its white rays.
It required a theatre and a conflagration, which are the
gaiety and the terror of a city, one of the most joyous
inventions of man and one of the most terrible visitations of
God, bursts of laughter for thirty years and whirlwinds of
flame for thirty horn's to produce this Easter daisy, the de-
light of a gnat.






THEATER

I.   JOANNY.
II.  MADEMOISELLE MARS.
III. FREDERICK LEMAITRE.
IV.  THE COMIQUES.
V.   MADEMOISELLE GEORGES.
VI.  TABLEAUX VIVANTS.






THEATRE



JOANNY.

March 7, 1830, Midnight.


  
They have been playing "Hernani" at the Théâtre-Français
since February 25.  The receipts for each performance
have been five thousand francs.  The public
every night hisses all the verses.  It is a rare uproar.  The
parterre hoots, the boxes burst with laughter.  The actors
are abashed and hostile; most of them ridicule what they
have to say.  The press has been practically unanimous
every morning in making fun of the piece and the author.
If I enter a reading room I cannot pick up a paper without
seeing: "Absurd as "Hernani"; silly, false, bombastic,
pretentious, extravagant and nonsensical as "Hernani"." If I
venture into the corridors of the theatre while 
the performance is in progress I see spectators issue from their
boxes and slam the doors indignantly.  Mlle. Mars
plays her part honestly and faithfully, but laughs at it,
even in my presence.  Michelot plays his resignedly and
laughs at it behind my back.  There is not a scene shifter,
not a super, not a lamp lighter but points his finger at me.

To-day I dined with Joanny, who had invited me.
Joanny plays Ruy Gomez.  He lives at No. 1 Rue du
Jardinet, with a young seminarist, his nephew.  The
dinner party was sober and cordial.  There were some
journalists there, among others M. Merle, the husband of Mme.
Dorval.  After dinner, Joanny, who has the most beautiful
white hair in the world, rose, filled his glass, turned
towards me.  I was on his right hand.  Here literally is
what he said to me; I have just returned home and
I write his words:

"Monsieur Victor Hugo, the old man, now unknown,
who two hundred years ago filled the role of Don Diègue
in "Le Cid" was not more penetrated with respect and
admiration in presence of the great Corneille than the old
man who plays Don Buy Gomez is to-day in your presence."




MADEMOISELLE MARS.



In her last illness Mlle. Mars was often delirious.  One
evening the doctor arrived.  She was in the throes of a
high fever, and her mind was wandering.  She prattled
about the theatre, her mother, her daughter, her niece
Georgina, about all that she held dear; she laughed, wept,
screamed, sighed deeply.

The doctor approached her bed and said to her: "Dear
lady, calm yourself, it is I."  She did not recognise him
and her mind continued to wander.  He went on: "Come,
show me your tongue, open your mouth."  Mlle. Mars
gazed at him, opened her mouth and said: "Here, look.
Oh! all my teeth are my very own!"

Célimène still lived.




FREDERICK LEMAITRE.



Frédérick Lemaitre is cross, morose and kind.  He lives
in retirement with his children and his mistress, who at
present is Mlle. Clarisse Miroy.

Frédérick likes the table.  He never invites anybody to
dinner except Porcher, the chief of the claque.*  
Fredérick and Porcher "thee-thou" each other.  Porcher
has common sense, good manners, and plenty of money,
which he lends gallantly to authors whose rent is due.
Porcher is the man of whom Harel said: "He likes,
protects and disdains Literary men."
	
*  A band of men and boys who are paid to applaud a piece or a
certain actor or actress at a given signal.  The applause contractor, or
~chef de claque~, is an important factor in French theatrical affairs.

Frédérick has never less than fifteen dishes at his table.
When the servant brings them in he looks at them and
judges them without tasting them.  Often he says:

"That is bad."

"Have you eaten of it?"

"No, God forbid!"

"But taste it."

"It is detestable."

"I will taste it," says Clarisse.

"It is execrable.  I forbid you to do so."

"But let me try it."

"Take that dish away! It is filthy!" And he sends
for his cook and rates her soundly.

He is greatly feared by all his household.  His domestics
live in a state of terror.  At table, if he does not speak,
no one utters a word.  Who would dare to break the
silence when he is mute?  One would think it was a dinner
of dumb people, or a supper of Trappists, except for
the good cheer.  He likes to wind up the repast with fish.
If there is turbot he has it served after the creams.  He
drinks, when dining, a bottle and a half of Bordeaux wine.
Then, after dinner, he lights his cigar, and while smoking
drinks two other bottles of wine.

For all that he is a comedian of genius and a very good
fellow.  He is easily moved to tears, which start to his
eyes at a word said to him angrily or reproachfully.


This dates back to 1840.  Mlle. Atala Beaudouin (the
actress who under the name of Louise Beaudouin created
the role of the Queen in Ruy Bias) had left Frédérick
Lemaître, the great and marvellous comedian.  Frédérick
adored her and was inconsolable.

Mlle. Atala's mother had strongly advised her daughter
on this occasion.  Frédérick was occasionally violent,
notwithstanding that he was very amorous; and, besides, a
Russian prince had presented himself.  In short, Mlle.
Atala persisted in her determination and positively refused
to see Frederick.

Frederick made frightful threats, especially against the
mother.  One morning there was a violent ringing at Mlle.
Atala's bell.  Her mother opened the door and recoiled in
terror.  It was Frédérick.  He entered, dropped into the
chair that was handiest to him, and said to the old woman:

"Don't be afraid, I haven't come to kick your--,
I have come to weep."




THE COMIQUES

September, 1846



Potier, having grown old, played at the Porte Saint
Martin towards the close of his life.  He was the same in
the street as he was on the stage.  Little boys would
follow him, saying: "There is Potier!"  He had a small
cottage near Paris and used to come to rehearsals mounted
on a small horse, his long thin legs dangling nearly to the
ground.

Tiercelin was a Hellenist.  Odry is a connoisseur of
chinaware.  The elephantine Lepeintre junior runs into
debt and lives the life of a ~coquin de neuveu~.

Alcide Tousez, Sainville and Ravel carry on in the
green room just as they do on the stage, inventing 
cock-and-bull yarns and cracking jokes.

Arnal composes classic verse, admires Samson, waxes
wrath because the cross has not been conferred upon him.
And, in the green room, with rouge on his nose and cheeks
and a wig on his head, talks, between two slaps in the face
given or received, about Guizot's last speech, free trade
and Sir Robert Peel; he interrupts himself, makes his
entry upon the stage, plays his part, returns and gravely
resumes: "I was saying that Robert Peel----"

Poor Arnal recently was driven almost insane.  He had
a mistress whom he adored.  This woman fleeced him.
Having become rich enough she said to him: "Our position
is an immoral one and an end must be put to it.  An
honest man has offered me his name and I am going to get
married."  Arnal was disconsolate.  "I give you the
preference," said the belle, "marry me."  Arnal is married.
The woman left him and has become a bourgeoise.
Arnal nearly lost his reason through grief.  This does
not prevent him from playing his pasquinades every night
at the Vaudeville.  He makes fun of his ugliness, of his
age, of the fact that he is pitted with small-pox--laughs
at all those things that prevented him from pleasing the
woman he loved, and makes the public laugh--and his
heart is broken.  Poor red queue!  What eternal and
incurable sorrows there be in the gaiety of a buffoon!  What
a lugubrious business is that of laughter!






MADEMOISELLE GEORGES.

October, 23, 1867.



Mlle. George came to see me to-day.  She was sad, and
elegantly dressed in a blue dress with white stripes.  She
said: "I am weary and disgusted.  I asked for Mars' reversion.
They granted me a pension of two thousand
francs which they do not pay.  Just a mouthful of bread,
and even that I do not get a chance to eat!  They wanted
to engage me at the Historique (at the Théâtre Historique).
I refused.  What could I do there among
those transparencies!  A stout woman like me!  Besides,
where are the authors? Where are the pieces?  Where
are the roles?  As to the provinces, I tried touring last
year, but it is impossible without Harel.*  I don't know
how to manage actors.  How do you think I can get on
with these evil doers?  I was to have finished the 24th.
I paid them on the 20th, and fled.  I returned to Paris to
visit poor Harel's tomb.  It is frightful, a tomb!  It is
horrible to see his name there on the stone!  Yet I did
not weep.  I was dry-eyed and cold.  What a strange
thing is life!  To think that this man who was so clever,
so witty, should die an idiot!  He passed his days doing
like this with his fingers.  Not a spark of reason remained.
It is all over.  I shall have Rachel at my benefit; I shall
play with her that chestnut "Iphigênie".  We shall make
money, but I don't care.  Besides, I'm sure she wouldn't
play Rodogune!  I will also play, if you will permit me,
an act of "Lucrèce Borgia".  You see, I am for Rachel;
she is an artful one, if you like.  See how she checkmates
those rascally French actors!  She renews her engagements,
assures for herself pyrotechnics, vacations, heaps
of gold.  When the contract is signed she says: "By the
bye, I forgot to tell you that I have been enceinte for
four months; it will be five months before I am able to
play."  She does well.  If I had done the same thing I
shouldn't have to die like a dog on a litter of straw.
Tragedians, you see, are comedians after all.  That poor
Dorval, what has become of her, do you know?  There
is one to be pitied, if you like!  She is playing I know not
where, at Toulouse, at Carpentras, in barns, to earn her
living!  She is reduced like me to showing her bald head
and dragging her poor old carcass on badly planed boards
behind footlights of four tallow candles, among strolling
actors who have been to the galleys, or who ought to be
there!  Ah! Monsieur Hugo, all this is nothing to you
who are in good health and well off, but we are poor
miserable creatures!"

*  M. Harel was manager of the Porte St. Martin Theatre.  Mlle.
Georges lived with him.






TABLEAUX VIVANTS



In the year 1846 there was a spectacle that caused a
furore in Paris.  It was that afforded by women attired
only in pink tights and a gauze skirt executing poses
that were called ~tableaux vivants~, with a few men to
complete the groups.  This show was given at the Porte Saint
Martin and at the Cirque.  I had the curiosity one night
to go and see the women behind the scenes.  I went to the
Porte Saint Martin, where, I may add in parentheses, they
were going to revive "Lucrêce Borgia".  Villemot, the stage
manager, who was of poor appearance but intelligent,
said: "I will take you into the gynecium."

A score of men were there--authors, actors, firemen,
lamp lighters, scene shifters--who came, went, worked or
looked on, and in the midst of them seven or eight women,
practically nude, walked about with an air of the most
naïve tranquillity.  The pink tights that covered them
from the feet to the neck were so thin and transparent that
one could see not only the toes, the navel, and the breasts,
but also the veins and the colour of the least mark on the
skin on all parts of their bodies.  Towards the abdomen,
however, the tights became thicker and only the form was
distinguishable.  The men who assisted them were similarly
arranged.  All these people were English.

At intervals of five minutes the curtain parted and
they executed a ~tableau~.  For this they were posed
in immobile attitudes upon a large wooden disc which
revolved upon a pivot.  It was worked by a child
of fourteen who reclined on a mattress beneath it.  Men
and women were dressed up in chiffons of gauze or merino
that were very ugly at a distance and very ignoble ~de prês~.
They were pink statues.  When the disc had revolved
once and shown the statues on every side to the public
crowded in the darkened theatre, the curtain closed again,
another tableau was arranged, and the performance
recommenced a moment later.

Two of these women were very pretty.  One resembled
Mme. Rey, who played the Queen in "Ruy Blas" in 1840;
it was this one who represented Venus.  She was
admirably shaped.  Another was more than pretty: she
was handsome and superb.  Nothing more magnificent
could be seen than her black, sad eyes, her disdainful
mouth, her smile at once bewitching and haughty.  She
was called Maria, I believe.  In a tableau which
represented "A Slave Market," she displayed the imperial
despair and the stoical dejection of a nude queen offered
for sale to the first bidder.  Her tights, which were torn
at the hip, disclosed her firm white flesh.  They were,
however only poor girls of London.  All had dirty finger nails.

When they returned to the green room they laughed
as freely with the scene shifters as with the authors, and
talked broken French while they adjusted all kinds of
frightful rags upon their charming visages.  Their smile
was the calm smile of perfect innocence or of complete
corruption.







AT THE ACADEMY.






AT THE ACADEMY.

Session of November 23, 1843.



CHARLES NODIER.--The Academy, yielding to custom,
has suppressed universally the double consonant in verbs
where this consonant supplanted euphoniously the ~d~ of the
radical ~ad~.

MYSELF.--I avow my profound ignorance.  I had no
idea that custom had effected this suppression and that
the Academy had sanctioned it.  Thus one should no
longer write ~atteindre, approuver, appeler, apprehender~,
etc., but ~ateindre, aprouver, apeler, apréhender~?

M. VICTOR COUSIN.--I desire to point out to M. Hugo
that the alterations of which he complains come from the
movement of the language, which is nothing else than decadence.

MYSELF.--M. Cousin having addressed a personal observation
to me, I beg to point out to him in turn that
his opinion is, in my estimation, merely an opinion and
nothing more.  I may add that, as I view it, "movement
of the language" and decadence have nothing in common.
Nothing could be more distinct than these two things.
Movement in no way proves decadence.  The language
has been moving since the first day of its formation; can
it be said to be deteriorating?  Movement is life; decadence
is death.

M. COUSIN.--The decadence of the French language began in 1789.

MYSELF.--At what hour, if you please?

                   ----------


October 8, 1844.

This is what was told to me at to-day's session:

Salvandy recently dined with Villemain.  The repast
over, they adjourned to the drawing-room, and conversed.
As the clock struck eight Villemain's three little daughters
entered to kiss their father good night.  The youngest is
named Lucette; her birth cost her mother her reason; she
is a sweet and charming child of five years.

"Well, Lucette, dear child," said her father, "won't
you recite one of Lafontaine's fables before you go to
bed?"

"Here," observed M. de Salvandy, "is a little person
who to-day recites fables and who one of these days will
inspire romances."

Lucette did not understand.  She merely gazed with
her big wondering eyes at Salvandy who was lolling in his
chair with an air of benevolent condescension.

"Well, Lucette." he went on, "will you not recite a
fable for us?"

The child required no urging, and began in her naïve
little voice, her fine, frank, sweet eyes still fixed upon 
Salvandy:

One easily believes one's self to be somebody in France.

                   ----------


1845.

During the run of M. Ponsard's "Lucrece", I had the 
following dialogue with M. Viennet at a meeting of the
Academy:

M. VIENNET.--Have you seen the "Lucrece" that is being
played at the Odéon?

MYSELF.--NO.

M. VIENNET.--It is very good.

MYSELF.--Really, is it good?

M. VIENNET.--It is more than good, it is fine.

MYSELF.--Really, is it fine?

M. VIENNET.--It is more than fine, it is magnificent.

MYSELF.--Really, now, magnificent?

M. VIENNET.--Oh! magnificent!

MYSELF.--Come, now, is it as good as "Zaire"?

M. VIENNET.--Oh! no!  Oh! you are going too far,
you know.  Gracious!  "Zaire"!  No, it is not as good as
"Zaire".

MYSELF.--Well, you see, "Zaire" is a very poor piece indeed!

                   ----------


AN ELECTION SESSION.

February 11, 1847.

Thirty-one Academicians present.  Sixteen votes are
necessary.

              First ballot.

      Emile Deschamps    2   votes.
	Victor Leclerc    14     "
	Empis	            15     "

Lamartine and M. Ballanche arrive at the end of the first
ballot.  M. Thiers arrives at the commencement of the
second; which makes 34.

The director asks M. Thiers whether he has promised
his vote.  He laughingly replies: "No," and adds: "I
have offered it." (Laughter.)

M. Cousin, to M. Lebrun, director: "You did not employ
the sacramental expression.  One does not ask an
Academician whether he has *promised* his vote, but
whether he has *pledged* it."


              Second ballot.

      Emile Deschamps    2 votes.
      Empis             18   "
      Victor Leclerc    14   "


M. Empis is elected.  The election was decided by
Lamartine and M. Ballanche.

On my way out I meet Leon Gozlan, who says to me:
"Well?"

I reply: "There has been an election.  It is Empis."

"How do you look at it?" he asks.

"In both ways."

"Empis?---"  

"And ~tant pis~!"

                   ----------



March 16, 1847.



At the Academy to-day, while listening to the poems,
bad to the point of grotesqueness, that have been sent for
the competition of 1847, M. de Barante remarked:
"Really, in these times, we no longer know how to make
mediocre verses."

Great praise of the poetical and literary excellence of
these times, although M. de Barante was not conscious of it.



April 22, 1847.

Election of M. Ampere.  This is an improvement upon
the last.  A slow improvement.  But Academies, like old
people, go slowly.

During the session and after the election Lamartine sent
to me by an usher the following lines:

              C'est un état peu prospere
              D'aller d'Empis en Ampere.

I replied to him by the same usher:

              Toutefois ce serait pis
              D'aller d'Ampere en Empis.

                   ----------



October 4, 1847.

I have just heard M. Viennet say: "I think in bronze."

                   ----------


December 29, 1848.  Friday.

Yesterday, Thursday, I had two duties to attend to at
one and the same time, the Assembly and the Academy;
the salt question on the one hand, on the other the much
smaller question of two vacant seats.  Yet I gave the
preference to the latter.  This is why:  At the Palais
Bourbon the Cavaignac party had to be prevented from
killing the new Cabinet; at the Palais Mazarin the
Academy had to be prevented from offending the memory
of Chateaubriand.  There are cases in which the dead
count for more than the living; I went to the Academy.

The Academy last Thursday had suddenly decided, at
the opening of the session, at a time when nobody had yet
put in an appearance, when there were only four or five
round the green table, that on January 11 (that is to say,
in three weeks) it would fill the two seats left vacant by
MM. de Chateaubriand and Vatout.  This strange
alliance, I do not say of names, but of words,--"replace
MM. de Chateaubriand and Vatout,"--did not stop it for
one minute.  The Academy is thus made; its wit and
that wisdom which produces so many follies, are composed
of extreme lightness combined with extreme heaviness.
Hence a good deal of foolishness and a good many foolish
acts.

Beneath this lightness, however, there was an intention.
This giddiness was fraught with deep meaning.  The brave
party that leads the Academy, for there are parties
everywhere, even at the Academy, hoped, public attention being
directed elsewhere, politics absorbing everything, to
juggle the seat of Chateaubriand pell-mell with the seat
of M. Vatout; two peas in the same goblet.  In this way
the astonished public would turn round one fine morning
and simply see M. de Noailles in Chateaubriand's seat:
a small matter, a great lord in the place of a great writer!

Then, after a roar of laughter, everybody would go
about his business again, distractions would speedily come,
thanks to the veering of politics, and, as to the Academy,
oh! a duke and peer the more in it, a little more ridicule
upon it, what would that matter?  It would go on just the
same!

Besides, M. de Noailles is a considerable personage.
Bearing a great name, being lofty of manner, enjoying
an immense fortune, of certain political weight under
Louis Philippe, accepted by the Conservatives although,
or because, a Legitimist, reading speeches that were
listened to, he occupied an important place in the Chamber
of Peers; which proves that the Chamber of Peers occupied
an unimportant place in the country.

Chateaubriand, who hated all that could replace him
and smiled at all that could make him regretted, had had
the kindness to tell him sometimes, by Mme. Récamier's
fireside, "that he hoped he would be his successor;" which
prompted M. de Noailles to dash off a big book in two
volumes about Mme. de Maintenon, at the commencement of
which, on the first page of the preface, I was stopped by a
lordly breach of grammar.

This was the state of things when I concluded to go to
the Academy.

The session which was announced to begin at two
o'clock, as usual, opened, as usual, at a quarter past three.
And at half past three-- 

At half past three the candidacy of Monsieur the Duke
do Noailles, *replacing* Chateaubriand, was irresistibly 
acclaimed.

Decidedly, I ought to have gone to the Assembly.



March 26, 1850.  Tuesday.


I had arrived early, at noon.

I was warming myself, for it is very cold, and the ground
is covered with snow, which is not good for the apricot
trees.  M. Guizot, leaning against the mantelpiece, was
saying to me:

"As a member of the dramatic prize committee, I read
yesterday, in a single day, mind you, no fewer than six
plays!"

"That," I responded, "was to punish you for not having
seen one acted in eighteen years."

At this moment M. Thiers came up and the two men
exchanged greetings.  This is how they did it:

M. THIERS: Good afternoon, Guizot.

M. GUIZOT: Good afternoon, Monsieur.

                   ----------



AN ELECTION SESSION.

March 28, 1850.

M. Guizot presided.  At the roll call, when M. Pasquier's
name was reached he said: "Monsieur the Chancellor--"
When he got to that of M. Dupin, President of the
National Assembly, he called: "Monsieur Dupin."


              First ballot.
      Alfred de Musset    5 votes.
      M. Nisard           23  "

M. Nisard is elected.

                   ----------



To-day, September 12, the Academy worked at the dictionary.
A propos of the word "increase," this example,
taken from the works of Mme. de Staël, was proposed:

"Poverty increases ignorance, and ignorance poverty."

Three objections were immediately raised:

1.  Antithesis.

2.  Contemporary writer.

3.  Dangerous thing to say.

The Academy rejected the example.






LOVE IN PRISON.






LOVE IN PRISON.





I.



BESIDES misdeeds, robberies, the division of spoils after
an ambuscade, and the twilight exploitation of the barriers
of Paris, footpads, burglars, and gaol-birds generally have
another industry: they have ideal loves.

This requires explanation.

The trade in negro slaves moves us, and with good reason;
we examine this social sore, and we do well.  But let
us also learn to lay bare another ulcer, which is more
painful, perhaps: the traffic in white women.

Here is one of the singular things connected with and
characteristic of this poignant disorder of our civilization:

Every gaol contains a prisoner who is known as the "artist."

All kinds of trades and professions peculiar to prisons
develop behind the bars.  There is the vendor of 
liquorice-water, the vendor of scarfs, the writer, the advocate, the
usurer, the hut-maker, and the barker.  The artist takes
rank among these local and peculiar professions between
the writer and the advocate.

To be an artist is it necessary to know how to draw?  By
no means.  A bit of a bench to sit upon, a wall to lean
against, a lead pencil, a bit of pasteboard, a needle stuck
in a handle made out of a piece of wood, a little Indian
ink or sepia, a little Prussian blue, and a little vermilion in
three cracked beechwood spoons,--this is all that is
requisite; a knowledge of drawing is superfluous.  Thieves are
as fond of colouring as children are, and as fond of tattooing
as are savages.  The artist by means of his three spoons
satisfies the first of these needs, and by means of his needle
the second.  His remuneration is a "nip" of wine.

The result is this:

Some prisoners, say, lack everything, or are simply
desirous of living more comfortably.  They combine, wait
upon the artist, offer him their glasses of wine or their bowls
of soup, hand him a sheet of paper and order of him a
bouquet.  In the bouquet there must be as many flowers
as there are prisoners in the group.  If there be three
prisoners, there must be three flowers.  Each flower bears
a figure, or, if preferred, a number, which number is that
of the prisoner.

The bouquet when painted is sent, through the mysterious
means of communication between the various prisons that
the police are powerless to prevent, to Saint Lazare.  Saint
Lazare is the women's prison, and where there are women
there also is pity.  The bouquet circulates from hand to
hand among the unfortunate creatures that the police
detain administratively at Saint Lazare; and in a few days
the infallible secret post apprises those who sent the
bouquet that Palmyre has chosen the tuberose, that Fanny
prefers the azalea, and that Seraphine has adopted the
geranium.  Never is this lugubrious handkerchief thrown
into the seraglio without being picked up.

Thenceforward the three bandits have three servants
whose names are Palmyre, Fanny, and Seraphine.  
Administrative detentions are relatively of short duration.
These women are released from prison before the men.
And what do they do?  They support them.  In elegant
phraseology they are providences; in plain language they
are milch-cows.

Pity has been transformed into love.  The heart of woman
is susceptible of such sombre graftings.  These women say:

"I am married."  They are married indeed.  By whom?
By the flower.  With whom?  With the abyss.  They are
fiancées of the unknown.  Enraptured and enthusiastic
fiancées.  Pale Sulamites of fancy and fog.  When the
known is so odious, how can they help loving the unknown?

In these nocturnal regions and with the winds of
dispersion that blow, meetings are almost impossible.  The
lovers see each other in dreams.  In all probability the
woman will never set eyes on the man.  Is he young?  Is
he old?  Is he handsome?  Is he ugly?  She does not
know; she knows nothing about him.  She adores him.
And it is because she does not know him that she loves
him.  Idolatry is born of mystery.

This woman, drifting aimlessly on life's tide, yearns for
something to cling to, a tie to bind her, a duty to perform.
The pit from amid its scum throws it to her; she accepts
it and devotes herself to it.  This mysterious bandit,
transformed into heliotrope or iris, becomes a religion to her.
She espouses him in the presence of night.  She has a
thousand little wifely attentions for him; poor for herself,
she is rich for him; she whelms this manure with her delicate
solicitude.  She is faithful to him with all the fidelity
of which she is still capable; the incorruptible emanates
from the corruptible.  Never does this woman betray her
love.  It is an immaterial, pure, ethereal love, subtile as the
breath of spring, solid as brass.

A flower has done all this.  What a well is the human
heart, and how giddy it makes one to peer into it!  Lo!
the cloaca.  Of what is it thinking?  Of perfume.  A
prostitute loves a thief through a lily.  What plunger into
human thought could reach the bottom of this?  Who shall
fathom this immense yearning for flowers that springs from
mud?  In the secret self of these hapless women is a
strange equilibrium that consoles and reassures them.  A
rose counterbalances an act of shame.

Hence these amours based on and sustained by illusion.
This thief is idolized by this girl.  She has not seen his face,
she does not know his name; she sees him in visions induced
by the perfume of jessamine or of pinks.  Henceforward
flower-gardens, the May sunshine, the birds in their nests,
exquisite tints, radiant blossoms, boxes of orange trees and
daphne odora, velvet petals upon which golden bees alight,
the sacred odours of spring-tide, balms, incense, purling
brooks, and soft green grass are associated with this bandit.
The divine smile of nature penetrates and illumines him.

This desperate aspiring to paradise lost, this deformed
dream of the beautiful, is not less tenacious on the part of
the man.  He turns towards the woman; and this preoccupation,
become insensate, persists even when the dreadful
shadow of the two red posts of the guillotine is thrown
upon the window of his cell.  The day before his execution
Delaporte, chief of the Trappes band, who was wearing
the strait-jacket, asked of the convict Cogniard, whom,
through the grating in the door of the condemned cell,
he saw passing by: "Are there any pretty women in the
visitors' parlor this morning?"  Another condemned man,
Avril (what a name!), in this same cell, bequeathed all
that he possessed--five francs--to a female prisoner whom
he had seen at a distance in the women's yard, "in order
that she may buy herself a fichu a la mode."

Between the male and female wretch dreams build a
Bridge of Sighs, as it were.  The mire of the gutter
dallies with the door of a prison cell.  The Aspasia of the
street-corner aspires and respires with the heart of the
Alcibiades who waylays the passer-by at the corner of a wood.

You laugh?  You should not.  It is a terrible thing.




II.



The murderer is a flower for the courtesan.  The prostitute
is the Clytia of the assassin sun.  The eye of the woman
damned languourously seeks Satan among the myrtles.

What is this phenomenon?  It is the need of the ideal.
A sublime and awful need.

A terrible thing, I say.

Is it a disease?  Is it a remedy?  Both.  This noble
yearning is at the same time and for the same beings a
chastisement and a reward; a voluptuousness full of
expiation; a chastisement for faults committed, a recompense
for sorrows borne!  None may escape it.  It is a hunger of
angels felt by demons.  Saint Theresa experiences it,
Messalina also.  This need of the immaterial is the most deeply
rooted of all needs.  One must have bread; but before
bread, one must have the ideal.  One is a thief, one is a
street-walker--all the more reason.  The more one drinks
of the darkness of night the more is one thirsty for the
light of dawn.  Schinderhannes becomes a cornflower,
Poulailler a violet.  Hence these sinisterly ideal weddings.

And then, what happens?

What I have just said.

Cloaca, but abyss.  Here the human heart opens partly,
disclosing unimaginable depths.  Astarte becomes platonic.
The miracle of the transformation of monsters by love is
being accomplished.  Hell is being gilded.  The vulture
is being metamorphosed into a bluebird.  Horror ends in the
pastoral.  You think you are at Vouglans's and 
Parent-Duchâtelet's; you are at Longus's.  Another step and you
will stumble into Berquin's.  Strange indeed is it to
encounter Daphnis and Chloe in the Forest of Bondy!

The dark Saint Martin Canal, into which the footpad
pushes the passer-by with his elbow as he snatches his 
victim's watch, traverses the Tender and empties itself into
the Lignon.  Poulmann begs a ribbon bow; one is tempted
to present a shepherdess's crook to Papavoine.  Through
the straw of the sabot one sees gossamer wings appearing
on horrible heels.  The miracle of the roses is performed
for Goton.  All fatalities combined have for result a flower.
A vague Rambouillet Palace is superposed upon the forbidding
silhouette of the Salpêtrière.  The leprous wall of
evil, suddenly covered with blossoms, affords a pendant to
the wreath of Juliet.  The sonnets of Petrarch, that flight
of the ideal which soars in the shadow of souls, venture
through the twilight towards this abjection and suffering,
attracted by one knows not what obscure affinity, even as
a swarm of bees is sometimes seen humming over a dungheap
from which arises, perceptible to the bees alone and
mingling with the miasms, the perfume of a hidden flower.
The gemoniae are Elysian.  The chimerical thread of celestial
unions floats 'neath the darkest vault of the human
Erebus and binds despairing hearts to hearts that are
monstrous.  Manon through the infinite sends to Cartouche a
smile ineffable as that with which Everallin entranced Fingal.
From one pole of misery to the other, from one gehenna to
another, from the galleys to the brothel, tenebrous
mouths wildly exchange the kiss of azure.

It is night.  The monstrous ditch of Clamart opens.
From it arises a miasm, a phosphorescent glow.  It shines
and flickers in two separate tarts; it takes shape, the
head rejoins the body, it is a phantom; the phantom
gazes into the darkness with wild, baleful eyes, rises, grows
bigger and blue, hovers for an instant and then speeds away
to the zenith to open the door of the palace of the sun
where butterflies flit from flower to flower and angels
flit from star to star.

In all these strange, concordant phenomena appears the
inadmissibility of the principle that is all of man.  The
mysterious marriage which we have just related, marriage
of servitude with captivity, exaggerates the ideal from the
very fact that it is weighed down by all the most hideous
burdens of destiny.  A frightful combination!  It is the
From it rises a miasm, a phosphorescent glow.  It shines
meeting of these two redoubtable words in which human
existence is summed up: enjoy and suffer.

Alas!  And how can we prevent this cry from escaping
us?  For these hapless ones, enjoy, laugh, sing, please, and
love exist, persist; but there is a death-rattle in sing, a
grating sound in laugh, putrefaction in enjoy, there are
ashes in please, there is night in love.  All these joys are
attached to their destiny by coffin-nails.

What does that matter?  They thirst for these lugubrious,
chimerical glimpses of light that are full of dreams.

What is tobacco, that is so precious and so dear to the
prisoner?  It is a dream.  "Put me in the dungeon," said
a convict, "but give me some tobacco."  In other words:
"Throw me into a pit, but give me a palace."  Press the
prostitute and the bandit, mix Tartarus and Avernus, stir
the fatal vat of social mire, pile all the deformities of
matter together, and what issues therefrom?  The immaterial.

The ideal is the Greek fire of the gutter.  It burns there.
Its brightness in the impure water dazzles the thinker
and touches his heart.  Nini Lassive stirs and brightens
with Fiesehi's bilets-doux that sombre lamp of Vesta which
is in the heart of every woman, and which is as
inextinguishable in that of the courtesan as in that of the
Carmelite.  This is what explains the word "virgin," accorded
by the Bible equally to the foolish virgin and to the wise
virgin.

That was so yesterday, it is so to-day.  Here again the
surface has changed, the bottom remains the same.  The
frank harshness of the Middle Ages has been somewhat
softened in our times.  Ribald is pronounced light o' love;
Toinon answers to the name of Olympia or Imperia;
Thomasse-la-Maraude is called Mme. de Saint Alphonse.
The caterpillar was real, the butterfly is false; that is the
only change.  Clout has become chiffon.

Regnier used to say "sows "; we say "fillies."

Other fashions; same manners.

The foolish virgin is lugubriously immutable.




III.



Whosoever witnesses this kind of anguish witnesses the
extreme of human misfortune.

Dark zones are these.  Baleful night bursts and spreads
o'er them.  Evil accumulated dissolves in misfortune upon
them, they are swept with blasts of despair by the tempest
of fatalities, there a downpour of trials and sorrows streams
upon dishevelled heads in the darkness; squalls, hail, a
hurricane of distress, swirl and whirl back and forth
athwart them; it rains, rains without cease: it rains
horror, it rains vice, it rains crime, it rains the blackness of
night; yet we must explore this obscurity, and in the
sombre storm the mind essays a difficult flight, the flight of
a wet bird, as it were.

There is always a vague, spectral dread in these low
regions where hell penetrates; they are so little in the
human order and so disproportionate that they create
phantoms.  It is hardly surprising, therefore, that a legend
should be connected with this sinister bouquet offered by
Bicêtre to La Salpêtrière or by La Force to Saint Lazare;
it is related at night in the cells and wards after the
keepers have gone their rounds.

It was shortly after the murder of the money-changer
Joseph.  A bouquet was sent from La Force to a woman's
prison, Saint Lazare or the Madelonnettes.  In this
bouquet was a sprig of white lilac which one of the women
prisoners selected.

A month or two elapsed; the woman was released from
prison.  She was extremely enamoured, through the white
lilac, of the unknown master she had given to herself.  She
began to perform for him her strange function of sister,
mother, and mystic spouse, ignorant of his name, knowing
only his prison number.  All her miserable savings,
religiously deposited with the clerk of the prison, went to
this man.  In order the better to affiance herself to him,
she took advantage of the advent of spring to cull a sprig
of real lilac in the fields.  This sprig of lilac, attached by
a piece of sky-blue ribbon to the head of his bed, formed
a pendant to a sprig of consecrated box, an ornament which
these poor desolate alcoves never lack.  The lilac withered
thus.

This woman, like all Paris, had heard of the affair of
the Palais-Royal and of the two Italians, Malagutti and
Ratta, arrested for the murder of the money-changer.

She thought little about the tragedy, which did not concern
her, and lived only in her white lilac.  This lilac was
all in all to her; she thought only of doing her "duty"
to it.

One bright, sunny day she was seated in her room, sewing
some garment or other for her sorry evening toilet.
Now and then she looked up from her work at the lilac
that hung at the head of the bed.  At one of these
moments while her gaze was fixed upon the sprig of faded
flower the clock struck four.

Then she fancied she saw an extraordinary thing.

A sort of crimson pearl oozed from the extremity of the
stalk of the flower, grew larger, and dripped on to the
white sheet of the bed.

It was a spot of blood.

That day, at that very hour, Ratta and Malagutti were
executed.

It was evident that the white lilac was one of these two.
But which one?

The hapless girl became insane and had to be confined
in La Salpêtrière.  She died there.  From morn to night,
and from night to morn, she would gibber: "I am Mme.
Ratta-Malagutti."

Thus are these sombre hearts.




IV.



Prostitution is an Isis whose final veil none has raised.
There is a sphinx in this gloomy odalisk of the frightful
Sultan Everybody.  None has solved its enigma.  It is
Nakedness masked.  A terrible spectacle!

Alas! in all that we have just recounted man is abominable,
woman is touching.

How many hapless ones have been driven to their fall!

The abyss is the friend of dreams.  Fallen, as we have
said, their lamentable hearts have no other resource than
to dream.

What caused their ruin was another dream, the dreadful
dream of riches; nightmare of glory, of azure, and ecstasy
which weighs upon the chest of the poor; flourish of
trumpets heard in the gehenna, with the triumph of the
fortunate appearing resplendent in the immense night;
prodigious overture full of dawn!  Carriages roll, gold falls
in showers, laces rustle.

Why should I not have this, too?  Formidable thought!

This gleam from the sinister vent-hole dazzled them; this
puff of the sombre vapour inebriated them, and they were
lost, and they were rich.

Wealth is a fatal distant light; woman flies frantically
towards it.  This mirror catches this lark.

Wherefore they have been rich.  They, too, have had
their day of enchantment, their minute of fête, their
sparkle.

They have had that fever which is fatal to modesty.
They have drained the sonorous cup that is full of
nothingness.  They have drunk of the madness of forgetfulness.
What a flattering hope!  What temptation!  To do nothing
and have everything; a]as! and also to have nothing,
not even one's own self.  To be slave-flesh, to be beauty
for sale, a woman fallen to a thing!  They have dreamed
and they have had--which is the same thing, complete
possession being but a dream--mansions, carriages, servants in
livery, suppers joyous with laughter, the house of gold,
silk, velvet, diamonds, pearls, life giddy with
voluptuousness--every pleasure.

Oh! how much better is the innocence of those poor little
barefooted ones on the shore of the sea, who hear at
nightfall the tinkling of the cracked bells of the goats on the
cliffs!

There was a disastrous morrow to these brief, perfidious
joys that they had savoured.  The word love signified
hatred.  The invisible doubles the visible, and it is
lugubrious.  Those who shared their raptures, those to whom
they gave all, received all and accepted nothing.  They--the
fallen ones--sowed their seed in ashes.  They were
deserted even as they were being embraced.  Abandonment
sniggered behind the mask of the kiss.

And now, what are they to do?  They must perforce
continue to love.




V.



Oh! if they could, the unhappy creatures, if they could
put from them their hearts, their dreams, harden themselves
with a hardness that could not be softened, be forever cold
and passionless, tear out their entrails, and, since they are
filth, become monsters!  If they could no longer think!  If
they could ignore the flower, efface the star, stop up the
mouth of the pit, close heaven!  They would at least no
longer suffer.  But no.  They have a right to marriage, they
have a right to the heart, they have a right to torture, they
have a right to the ideal.  No chilling of their hearts can put
out the internal fire.  However cold they may be they burn.
This, we have said, is at once their misery and their crown.
This sublimeness combines with their abjection to overwhelm
them and raise them up.  Whether they will or not,
the inextinguishable does not become extinguished.  Illusion
is untamable.  Nothing is more invincible than
dreams, and man is almost made up of dreams.  Nature
will not agree to be insolvable.  One must contemplate,
aspire, love.  If need be marble will set the example.  The
statue becomes a woman rather than the woman a statue.

The sewer is a sanctuary in spite of itself.  It is
unhealthy, there is vitiated air in it, but the irresistible
phenomenon is none the less accomplished; all the holy
generosities bloom livid in this cave.  Cynicism and the
secret despair of pity are driven back by ecstasy, the
magnificences of kindness shine through infamy; this orphan
creature feels herself to be wife, sister, mother; and this
fraternity which has no family, and this maternity which
has no children, and this adoration which has no altar, she
casts into the outer darkness.  Some one marries her.
Who?  The man in the gloom.  She sees on her finger the
ring made of the mysterious gold of dreams.  And she
sobs.  Torrents of tears well from her eyes.  Sombre delights!

And at the same time, let us repeat it, she suffers
unheard-of tortures.  She does not belong to him to whom
she has given herself.  Everybody takes her away again.
The brutal public hand holds the wretched creature and
will not let her go.  She fain would flee.  Flee whither?
From whom?  From you, herself, above all from him whom
she loves, the funereal ideal man.  She cannot.

Thus, and these are extreme afflictions, this hapless
wight expiates, and her expiation is brought upon her by
her grandeur.  Whatever she may do, she has to love.  She
is condemned to the light.  She has to condole, she has to
succour, she has to devote herself, she has to be kind.  A
woman who has lost her modesty, fain would know love
no more; impossible.  The refluxes of the heart are as
inevitable as those of the sea; the lights of the heart are as
fixed as those of the night.

There is within us that which we can never lose.  Abnegation,
sacrifice, tenderness, enthusiasm, all these rays
turn against the woman within her inmost self and attack
and burn her.  All these virtues remain to avenge themselves
upon her.  When she would have been a wife, she is
a slave.  Hers is the hopeless, thankless task of lulling a
brigand in the blue nebulousness of her illusions and of
decking Mandrin with a starry rag.  She is the sister of
charity of crime.  She loves, alas!  She endures her
inadmissible divinity; she is magnanimous and thrills at so
being.  She is happy with a horrible happiness.  She enters
backwards into indignant Eden.

We do not sufficiently reflect upon this that is within us
and cannot be lost.

Prostitution, vice, crime, what matters!

Night may become as black as it likes, the spark is still
there.  However low you go there is light.  Light in the
vagabond, light in the mendicant, light in the thief, light
in the street-walker.  The deeper you go the more the
miraculous light persists in showing itself.

Every heart has its pearl, which is the same for the heart
gutter and the heart ocean--love.

No mire can dissolve this particle of God.

Wherefore, there, at the extreme of gloom, of despondency,
of chill-heartedness and abandonment; in this obscurity,
in this putrefaction, in these gaols, in these dark
paths, in this shipwreck; beneath the lowest layer of the
heap of miseries, under the bog of public disdain which
is ice and night; behind the eddying of those frightful
snowflakes the judges, the gendarmes, the warders and the
executioners for the bandit, the passers-by for the
prostitute, which cross each other, innumerable, in the dull grey
mist that for these wretches replace the sun; beneath these
pitiless fatalities; beneath this bewildering maze of vaults,
some of granite, the others of hatred; at the deepest depths
of horror; in the midst of asphyxiation; at the bottom of
the chaos of all possible blacknesses; under the frightful
thickness of a deluge composed of expectorations, there
where all is extinct, where all is dead, something moves
and shines.  What is it?  A flame.

And what flame?

The soul.

O adorable prodigy!

Love, the ideal, is found even in the Pit.






AT THE TUILERIES.

1844-1848.

I.    THE KING.
II.   THE DUCHESS D'ORLEANS.
III.  THE PRINCES.






AT THE TUILERIES.

1844-1848.




I.   THE KING.*

June, 28, 1844.



* Louis Philippe.

The King told me that Talleyrand said to him one day:

"You will never be able to do anything with Thiers,
although he would make an excellent tool.  He is one
of those men one cannot make use of unless one is able to
satisfy them. Now, he never will be satisfied.  It is
unfortunate for him, as for you, that in our times, he cannot
be made a cardinal."

A propos of the fortifications of Paris, the King told me
how the Emperor Napoleon learned the news of the taking
of Paris by the allies.

The Emperor was marching upon Paris at the head of
his guard.  Near Juvisy, at a place in the Forest of
Fontainebleau where there is an obelisk ("that I never see
without feeling heavy at heart," remarked the King), a
courier on his way to meet Napoleon brought him the news
of the capitulation of Paris.  Paris had been taken.  The
enemy had entered it.  The Emperor turned pale.  He
hid his face in his hands and remained thus, motionless,
for a quarter of an hour.  Then, without saying a word,
he turned about and took the road back to Fontainebleau.

General Athalin witnessed this scene and recounted it
to the King.

                   ----------



July, 1844.

A few days ago the King said to Marshal Soult (in
presence of others):

"Marshal, do you remember the siege of Cadiz?"

"Rather, sire, I should think so.  I swore enough before
that cursed Cadiz.  I invested the place and was forced to
go away as I had come."

"Marshal, while you were before it, I was inside it."

"I know, sire."

"The Cortes and the English Cabinet offered me the
command of the Spanish army."

"I remember it."

"The offer was a grave one.  I hesitated long.  Bear
arms against France!  For my family, it is possible; but
against my country!  I was greatly perplexed.  At this
juncture you asked me, through a trusty person, for a
secret interview in a little house situated on the Cortadura,
between the city and your camp.  Do you remember the
fact, Monsieur the Marshal?"

"Perfectly, sire; the day was fixed and the interview
arranged."

"And I did not turn up."

"That is so."

"Do you know why?"

"I never knew."

"I will tell you.  As I was preparing to go to meet you,
the commander of the English squadron, apprised of the
matter, I know not how, dropped upon me brusquely and
warned me that I was about to fall into a trap; that
Cadiz being impregnable, they despaired of seizing me,
but that at the Cortadura I should be arrested by you;
that the Emperor wished to make of the Duke d'Orleans
a second volume of the Duke d'Enghien, and that you
would have me shot immediately.  There, really," added
the King with a smile, "your hand on your conscience,
were you going to shoot me?"

The Marshal remained silent for a moment, then replied,
with a smile not less inexpressible than that of the King:

"No, sire; I wanted to compromise you."

The subject of conversation was changed.  A few
minutes later the Marshal took leave of the King, and the
King, as he watched him go, said with a smile to the person
who heard this conversation:

"Compromise! compromise!  To-day it is called
compromise.  In reality, he would have shot me!"

                   ----------



August 4, 1844.

Yesterday the King said to me:

"One of my embarrassments at present, in all this affair
of the University and the clergy, is M. Affre."*

*  Archbishop Affre was shot and killed in the Faubourg Saint
Antoine on September 25, 1848, while trying to stop the fighting
between the troops and insurgents.

"Then why, sire," said I, "did you appoint him?"

"I made a mistake, I admit.  I had at first appointed
to the archbishopric of Paris the Cardinal of Arras, M. de
la Tour d'Auvergne."

"It was a good choice," I observed.

"Yes, good.  He is insignificant.  An honest old man of
no account.  An easy-going fellow.  He was much sought
after by the Carlists.  Greatly imposed upon.  His whole
family hated me.  He was induced to refuse.  Not knowing
what to do, and being in haste, I named M. Affre.  I
ought to have been suspicious of him.  His countenance
is neither open nor frank.  I took his underhand air for
a priestly air; I did wrong.  And then, you know, it was
in 1840.  Thiers proposed him to me, and urged me to
appoint him.  Thiers is no judge of archbishops.  I did
it without sufficient reflection.  I ought to have
remembered what Talleyrand said to me one day: 'The
Archbishop of Paris must always be an old man.  The see is
quieter and becomes vacant more frequently.' I appointed
M. Affre, who is young; it was a mistake.  However, I
will re-establish the chapter of St. Denis and appoint
as primate of it the Cardinal de la Tour d'Auvergne.
The Papal Nuncio, to whom I spoke of my project just
now, laughed heartily at it, and said: 'The Abbé Affre
will commit some folly.  Should he go to Rome the Pope
will receive him very badly.  He has acted pusillanimously
and blunderingly on all occasions since he has
been an archbishop.  An archbishop of Paris who has any
wit ought always to be on good terms with the King here
and the Pope yonder.'"

                    ----------




August, 1844.

A month or two ago the King went to Dreux.  It was
the anniversary of the death of the Duke d'Orleans.  The
King had chosen this day to put the coffins of his relatives
in the family vault in order.

Among the number was a coffin that contained all the
bones of the princes of the House of Orleans that the
Duchess d'Orleans, mother of the King, had been able to
collect after the Revolution, when the sepulchre was
violated and they were dispersed.  The coffin, placed in
a separate vault, had recently been smashed in by the fall
of an arch.  The debris of the arch, stones and plaster,
had become mingled with the bones.

The King had the coffin brought and opened before him.
He was alone in the vault with the chaplain and two
aides-de-camp.  Another coffin, larger and stronger, had been
prepared.  The King himself, with his own hands, took,
one after the other, the bones of his ancestors from
the broken coffin and arranged them carefully in the new
one.  He would not permit any one else to touch them.
From time to time he counted the skulls and said: "This
is Monsieur the Duke de Penthièvre.  This is Monsieur
the Count de Beaujolais."  Then to the best of his ability
and as far as he was able to he completed each group of
bones.

This ceremony lasted from nine o'clock in the morning
until seven o'clock in the evening without the King taking
either rest or nourishment.

                   ----------



August, 1844.

Yesterday, the 15th, after having dined at M. Villemain's,
who lives in a country house near Neuilly, I called
upon the King.

The King was not in the salon, where there were only
the Queen, Madame Adelaide and a few ladies, among
them Mme. Firmin-Rogier, who is charming.  There
were many visitors, among others the Duke de Brogue
and M. Rossi, who were of the dinner party at which I had
been present, M. de Lesseps, who lately distinguished
himself as consul at Barcelona, M. Firmin-Rogier and the
Count d'Agout.

I bowed to the Queen, who spoke to me at length about
the Princess de Joinvile, who was delivered the day
before yesterday, and whose baby arrived on the very day the
news of the bombardment of Tangier by its father was
received.  It is a little girl.  The Princess de Joinvile
passes the whole day kissing her and saying: "How
pretty she is!" with that sweet southern accent which the
raillery of her brothers-in-law has not yet caused her to
lose.

While I was talking to the Queen, the Duchess d'Orleans,
dressed in black, came in and sat beside Madame
Adelaide, who said to her: "Good evening, dear Helene."

A moment afterwards, M. Guizot, in black, wearing
a chain of decorations, with a red ribbon in his buttonhole
and the badge of the Legion of Honour on his coat, and
looking pale and grave, crossed the salon.  I grasped his
hand as he passed and he said:

"I have sought you vainly during the past few days.
Come and spend a day with me in the country.  We have
a lot to talk about.  I am at Auteuil, No. 4, Place
d'Agueneau."

"Will the King come to-night?" I asked.

"I do not think so," he replied.  "He is with Admiral
de Mackau.  There is serious news.  He will be occupied
all the evening."

Then M. Guizot went away.

It was nearly ten o'clock, and I also was about to take
my departure when one of Madame Adelaide's ladies of
honour, sent by the Princess, came and told me that the
King desired to speak with me and requested that I would
remain.  I returned to the salon, which had become
almost empty.

A moment later, as ten o'clock was striking, the King
came in.  He wore no decorations and had a preoccupied
air.  As he passed by he said to me:

"Wait until I have gone my round; we shall have a
little more time when everybody has left.  There are only
four persons here now and I have only four words to say
to them."

In truth, he only tarried a moment with the Prussian
Ambassador and M. de Lesseps, who had to communicate
to him a letter from Alexandria relative to the strange
abdication of the Pacha of Egypt.

Everybody took leave, and then the King came to me,
thrust his arm in mine and led me into the large
anteroom where he seated himself, and bade me be seated,
upon a red lounge which is between two doors opposite the
fireplace.  Then he began to talk rapidly, energetically,
as though a weight were being lifted from his mind:

"Monsieur Hugo, I am pleased to see you.  What do
you think of it all?  All this is grave, yet it appears graver
than it really is.  But in politics, I know, one has
sometimes to take as much into account that which appears
grave as that which is grave.  We made a mistake in taking
this confounded protectorate.*  We thought we were
doing something popular for France, and we have done
something embarrassing for the world.  The popular effect
was mediocre; the embarrassing effect is enormous.
What did we want to hamper ourselves with Tahiti (the
King pronounced it Taëte) for?  What to us was this pinch
of tobacco seeds in the middle of the ocean?  What is the
use of lodging our honour four thousand leagues away in
the box of a sentry insulted by a savage and a madman?
Upon the whole there is something laughable about it.
When all is said and done it is a small matter and nothing
big will come of it.  Sir Robert Peel has spoken
thoughtlessly.  He has acted with schoolboy foolishness.  He has
diminished his consideration in Europe.  He is a serious
man, but capable of committing thoughtless acts.  Then
he does not know any languages.  Unless he be a genius
there are perforce gaps in the ideas of a man who is not
a linguist.  Now, Sir Robert has no genius.  Would you
believe it?  He does not know French.  Consequently
he does not understand anything about France.  French
ideas pass before him like shadows.  He is not malevolent,
no; he is not open, that is all.  He has spoken without
reflection.  I judged him to be what he is forty years ago.
It was, too, forty years ago that I saw him for the first
time.  He was then a young man and secretary of the
Earl of--(I did not quite catch the name.  The King
spoke quickly).  I often visited that house.  I was then
in England.  When I saw young Peel I felt sure that he
would go a long way, but that he would stop.  Was I
mistaken?  There are Englishmen, and of the highest rank,
who do not understand Frenchmen a bit.  Like that poor
Duke of Clarence, who afterwards was William IV.  He
was but a sailor.  One must beware of the sailor mind, as
I often say to my son Joinville.  He who is only a sailor
is nothing on land.  Well, this Duke of Clarence used to
say to me: 'Duke d'Orleans, a war between France and
England is necessary every twenty years.  History shows
it.' I would reply: 'My dear duke, of what use are
people of intelligence if they allow mankind to do the same
foolish things over and over again?'  The Duke of Clarence,
like Peel, did not know a word of French.

* The protectorate of Tahiti.

"What a difference between these men and Huskisson!
You know, Huskisson who was killed on a railway.
He was a masterly man, if you like.  He knew
French and liked France.  He had been my comrade at
the Jacobins' Club.  I do not say this in bad part.  He
understood everything.  If there were in England now a
man like him, he and I would ensure the peace of the
world.--Monsieur Hugo, we will do it without him. I
will do it alone.  Sir Robert Peel will reconsider what he
has said.  Egad! he said that!  Does he even know why
or how?

"Have you seen the English Parliament?  You speak
from your place, standing, in the midst of your own party;
you are carried away; you say more often than not what
others think instead of what you think yourself.  There is
a magnetic communication.  You are subjected to it.
You rise (here the King rose and imitated the gesture of an
orator speaking in Parliament).  The assembly ferments
all round and close to you; you let yourself go.  On this
side somebody says: 'England has suffered a gross insult;'
and on that side: 'with gross indignity.' It is simply
applause that is sought on both sides.  Nothing more.
But this is bad.  It is dangerous.  It is baleful.  In
France our tribune which isolates the orator has many
advantages.

"Of all the English statesmen, I have known only one
who was able to withstand this influence of assemblies.
He was M. Pitt.  M. Pitt was a clever man, although he
was very tall.  He had an air of awkwardness and spoke
hesitatingly.  His lower jaw weighed a hundredweight.
Hence a certain slowness which forcibly brought prudence
into his speeches.  Besides, what a statesman this Pitt
was!  They will render justice to him one of these days,
even in France.  Pitt and Coburg are still being harped
upon.  But it is a childish foolishness that will pass.  M.
Pitt knew French.  To carry on politics properly we must
have Englishmen who know French and Frenchmen who
know English.

"Look here, I am going to England next month.  I
shall be very well received: I speak English.  And then,
Englishmen appreciate the fact that I have studied them
closely enough not to detest them.  For one always begins
by detesting the English.  This is an effect of the surface.
I esteem them, and pride myself upon the fact.  Between
ourselves, there is one thing I apprehend in going to
England, and that is, a too warm welcome.  I shall have to
elude an ovation.  Popularity there would render me
unpopular here.  But I must not get myself badly received
either.  Badly received there, taunted here.  Oh! it is
not easy to move when one is Louis Philippe, is it,
Monsieur Hugo?

"However, I will endeavour to manage it better than
that big stupid the Emperor of Russia, who went riding
full gallop in search of a fall.  There is an addle-pate for
you.  What a simpleton!  He is nothing but a Russian
corporal, occupied with a boot-heel and a gaiter button.
What an idea to arrive in London on the eve of the Polish
ball!  Do you think I would go to England on the eve of
the anniversary of Waterloo?  What is the use of running
deliberately into trouble?  Nations do not derange their
ideas for us princes.

"Monsieur Hugo!  Monsieur Hugo! intelligent princes
are very rare.  Look at this Pacha of Egypt, who had a
bright mind and who abdicates, like Charles V., who,
although he was not without genius, committed the same
foolish action.  Look at this idiotic King of Morocco!
What a job to govern amid this mob of bewildered
Kings.  They won't force me into committing the great
mistake of going to war.  I am being pushed, but they
won't push me over.  Listen to this and remember it: the
secret of maintaining peace is to look at everything from
the good side and at nothing from the bad point of view.
Oh! Sir Robert Peel is a singular man to speak so wildly.
He does not know all our strength.  He does not reflect!

"The Prince of Prussia made a very true remark to my
daughter at Brussels last winter: 'What we envy France,
is Algeria.  Not on account of the territory, but on
account of the war.  It is a great and rare good fortune for
France to have at her doors a war that does not trouble
Europe and which is making an army for her.  We as yet
have only review and parade soldiers.  When a collision
occurs we shall only have soldiers who have been made by
peace.  France, thanks to Algiers, will have soldiers made
by war.' This is what the Prince of Prussia said, and it
was true.

"Meanwhile, we are making children, too.  Last month
it was my daughter of Nemours, this month it is my
daughter of Joinville.  She has given me a princess.
I would have preferred a prince.  But, pish! in view
of the fact that they are trying to isolate my house
among the royal houses of Europe future alliances must
be thought of.  Well, my grandchildren will marry
among themselves.  This little one who was born
yesterday will not lack cousins, nor, consequently, a husband."

Here the King laughed, and I rose.  He had spoken
almost without interruption for an hour and a quarter.
I had only said a few words here and there.  During this
sort of long monologue Madame Adelaide passed as she
retired to her apartments.  The King said to her: "I will
join you directly," and he continued his conversation with
me.  It was nearly half-past eleven when I quitted the
King.



It was during this conversation that the King said to
me:

"Have you ever been to England?"

"No, sire."

"Well, when you do go--for you will go--you will see
how strange it is.  It resembles France in nothing.  Over
there are order, arrangement, symmetry, cleanliness,
wellmown lawns, and profound silence in the streets.  The
passers-by are as serious and mute as spectres.  When,
being French and alive, you speak in the street, these spectres
look back at you and murmur with an inexpressible mixture
of gravity and disdain: 'French people!' When I
was in London I was walking arm-in-arm with my wife and
sister.  We were conversing, not in a too loud tone of voice,
for we are well-bred persons, you know; yet all the
passers-by, bourgeois and men of the people, turned to gaze at us
and we could hear them growling behind us: 'French
people!  French people!'"



September 5, 1844.

The King rose, paced to and fro for a few moments, as
though violently agitated, then came and sat beside me
and said:


"Look here, you made a remark to Villemain that he
repeated to me.  You said to him:

"'The trouble between France and England a propos
of Tahiti and Pritchard reminds me of a quarrel in a café
between a couple of sub-lieutenants, one of whom has
looked at the other in a way the latter does not like.  A
duel to the death is the result.  But two great nations
ought not to act like a couple of musketeers.  Besides, in
a duel to the death between two nations like England and
France, it is civilization that would be slain.'

"This is really what you said, is it not?"

"Yes, Sire."

"I was greatly struck by your observation, and this very
evening I reproduced it in a letter to a crowned head, for
I frequently write all night long.  I pass many a night
doing over again what others have undone.  I do not say
anything about it.  So far from being grateful to me they
would only abuse me for it.  Oh! yes, mine is hard work
indeed.  At my age, with my seventy-one years, I do not
get an instant of real repose either by day or by night.  I
am always unquiet, and how can it be otherwise when
I feel that I am the pivot upon which Europe revolves?"



September 6, 1844.

The King said to me yesterday:

"What makes the maintenance of peace so difficult is
that there are two things in Europe that Europe detests,
France and myself--myself even more than France.  I
am talking to you in all frankness.  They hate me because
I am Orleans; they hate me because I am myself.  As
for France, they dislike her, but would tolerate her in other
hands.  Napoleon was a burden to them; they overthrew
him by egging him on to war of which he was so fond.
I am a burden to them; they would like to throw me down
by forcing me to break that peace which I love."

Then he covered his eyes with his hands, and leaning
his head back upon the cushions of the sofa, remained thus
for a space pensive, and as though crushed.

                    ----------



September 6, 1844.

"I only met Robespierre in society once," said the
King to me.  "It was at a place called Mignot, near Poissy,
which still exists.  It belonged to a wealthy cloth
manufacturer of Louviers, named M. Decréteau.  It was in
ninety-one or two.  M. Decréteau one day invited me to
dinner at Mignot.  I went.  When the time came we took
our places at table.  The other guests were Robespierre
and Pétion, but I had never before seen Robespierre.
Mirabeau aptly traced his portrait in a word when he said
that his face was suggestive of that of 'a cat drinking
vinegar.' He was very gloomy, and hardly spoke.  When he did
let drop a word from time to time, it was uttered sourly and
with reluctance.  He seemed to be vexed at having come,
and because I was there.

"In the middle of the dinner, Pétion, addressing M.
Decréteau, exclaimed: 'My dear host, you must get this
buck married!'  He pointed to Robespierre.

"'What do you mean, Pétion?' retorted Robespierre.

"'Mean,' said Pétion, 'why, that you must get married.
I insist upon marrying you.  You are full of sourness,
hypochondria, gall, bad humour, biliousness and 
atrabiliousness I am fearful of all this on our account.  What you
want is a woman to sweeten this sourness and transform
you into an easy-going old fogey.'

"Robespierre tossed his head and tried to smile, but
only succeeded in making a grimace.  It was the only
time," repeated the King, "that I met Robespierre in
society.  After that I saw him in the tribune of the
Convention.  He was wearisome to a supreme degree, spoke
slowly, heavily and at length, and was more sour, more
gloomy, more bitter than ever.  It was easy to see that
Pétion had not married him."



September 7, 1844.

Said the King to me last Thursday:

"M. Guizot has great qualities and immense defects.
(Queerly enough, M. Guizot on Tuesday had made
precisely the same remark to me about the King, beginning
with the defects.)  M. Guizot has in the highest degree,
and I esteem him for it profoundly, the courage of his
unpopularity among his adversaries; among his friends he
lacks it.  He does not know how to quarrel momentarily
with his partisans, which was Pitt's great art.  In the
affair of Tahiti, as in that of the right of search, M. Guizot
is not afraid of the Opposition, nor of the press, nor of the
Radicals, nor of the Carlists, nor of the Legitimists, nor of
the hundred thousand howlers in the hundred thousand
public squares of France; he is afraid of Jacques Lefebvre.
What will Jacques Lefebvre say?  And Jacques Lefebvre
is afraid of the Twelfth Arrondissement.*  What
will the Twelfth Arrondissement say?  The Twelfth
Arrondissement does not like the English: we must stand firm
against the English; but it does not like war: we must
give way to the English.  Stand firm and give way.
Reconcile that.  The Twelfth Arrondissement governs
Jacques Lefebvre, Jacques ]Lefebvre governs Guizot; a
little more and the Twelfth Arrondissement will govern
France.  I say to Guizot: 'What are you afraid of?
Have a little pluck.  Have an opinion.' But there they
all stand, pale and motionless and make no reply.  Oh!
fear! Monsieur Hugo, it is a strange thing, this fear of
the hubbub that will be raised outside!  It seizes upon
this one, then that one, then that one, and it goes the
round of the table.  I am not a Minister, but if I were,
it seems to me that I should not be afraid.  I should see
the right and go straight towards it.  And what greater
aim could there be than civilization through peace?"

* Twelfth District of Paris.



The Duke d'Orleans, a few years ago, recounted to me
that during the period which followed immediately upon
the revolution of July, the King gave him a seat at his
council table.  The young Prince took part in the
deliberations of the Ministers.  One day M. Merilhou, who
was Minister of Justice, fell asleep while the King was
speaking.

"Chartres," said the King to his son, "wake up Monsieur
the Keeper of the Seals."

The Duke d'Orleans obeyed.  He was seated next to
M. Merilhou, and nudged him gently with his elbow.
The Minister was sleeping soundly; the Prince recommenced,
but the Minister slept on.  Finally the Prince
laid his hand upon M. Merilhou's knee.  The Minister
awoke with a start and exclaimed:

"Leave off, Sophie, you are tickling me!"

This is how the word "subject" came to be eliminated
from the preamble of laws and ordinances.

M. Dupont de l'Eure, in 1830, was Minister of Justice.
On August 7, the very day the Duke d'Orleans took the
oath as King, M. Dupont de l'Eure laid before him a law
to sign.  The preamble read: "Be it known and decreed
to all our subjects," etc.  The clerk who was instructed to
copy the law, a hot-headed young fellow, objected to the
word "subjects," and did not copy it.

The Minister of Justice arrived.  The young man was
employed in his office.

"Well," said the Minister, "is the copy ready to be
taken to the King for signature?"

"No, Monsieur the Minister," replied the clerk.

Explanations.  M. Dupont de l'Eure listened, then
pinching the young man's ear said, half smilingly, half
angrily:

"Nonsense, Monsieur the Republican, you just copy it
at once."

The clerk hung his head, like a clerk that he was, and
copied it.

M. Dupont, however, laughingly told the King about it.
The King did not laugh.  Everything appeared to be a
serious matter at that time.  M. Dupin senior, Minister
without a portfolio, had entered the council chamber.  He
avoided the use of the word and got round the obstacle.  He
proposed this wording, which was agreed to and has always
been used since: "Be it known and decreed to all."



1847.

The State carriage of Louis Philippe was a big blue
coach drawn by eight horses.  The interior was of gold
coloured damask.  On the doors was the King's monogram
surmounted by a crown, and on the panels were royal
crowns.  The roof was bordered by eight little silver
crowns.  There was a gigantic coachman on the box and
three lackeys behind.  All wore silk stockings and the
tri-colour livery of the d'Orleans.

The King would enter the carriage first and seat himself
in the right hand corner.  Then the Duke de
Nemours would take his place beside the King.  The
three other princes would follow and seat themselves, M.
de Joinville opposite the King, M. de Montpensier
opposite M. de Nemours, and M. d'Aumale in the middle.

The day the King attended Parliament, the grand
deputations from both Houses, twelve peers and twenty-five
deputies chosen by lot, awaited him on the grand staircase
of the Palais Bourbon.  As the sessions were nearly
always held in winter, it was very cold on the stairs, a
biting wind made all these old men shiver, and there are
old generals of the Empire who did not die as the result
of having been at Austerlitz, at Friedland, at the cemetery
at Eylau, at the storming of the grand redoubt at Moskowa
and under the fire of the Scottish squares at
Waterloo, but of having waited in the cold upon these
stairs.

The peers stood to the right and the deputies to the
left, leaving the middle of the stairs clear.  The staircase
was partitioned off with hangings of white drill with blue
stripes, which was a poor protection against draughts.
Where are the good and magnificent tapestries of Louis
XIV.?  They were indeed royal; wherefore they were
taken down.  Drill is a common material and more pleasing
to the deputies.  It charms and it freezes them.

The Queen arrived first with the princesses, but without
the Duchess d'Orleans, who came separately with the
Count de Paris.  These ladies walked quickly upstairs,
bowing to right and left, without speaking, but graciously,
followed by a swarm of aides-de-camp and grim turbaned
old women whom M. de Joinville called "the Queen's
Turks"--Mmes. de Dolokieu, de Chanaleilles, etc.

At the royal session of 1847, the Queen gave her arm to
the Duchess de Montpensier.  The princess was muffled up
on account of the cold.  I could see only a big red nose.
The three other princesses walked behind, chatting and
laughing.  M. Anatole de Montesquiou came next in the
much worn uniform of a major-general.

The King arrived about five minutes after the Queen;
he walked upstairs even more quickly than she had done,
followed by the princes running like schoolboys, and bowed
to the peers on the right and the deputies on the left.  He
tarried a moment in the throne-room and exchanged a few
greetings with the members of the two deputations.  Then
he entered the large hall.

The speech from the throne was written on parchment,
on both sides of the sheet, and usually filled four pages.
The King read it in a firm, well modulated voice.

Marshal Soult was present, resplendent with decorations,
sashes, and gold lace, and complaining of his rheumatism.
M. Pasquier, the Chancellor, did not put in an appearance.
He had excused himself on the plea of the cold and of his
eighty years.  He had been present the year before.  It
was the last time.



In 1847 I was a member of the grand deputation.  While
I strolled about the waiting room, conversing with M.
Villemain about Cracow, the Vienna treaties and the
frontier of the Rhine, I could hear the buzzing of the groups
around me, and scraps of conversation reached my ears.

COUNT DE LAGRANGE.--Ah! here comes the Marshal (Soult).

BARON PEDRE LACAZE.--He is getting old.

VISCOUNT CAVAIGNAC.--Sixty-nine years!

MARQUIS DR RAIGECOURT.--Who is the dean of the
Chamber of Peers at present?

DUKE DE TREVISE.--M. de Pontecoulant, is he not?

MARQUIS DE LAPLACE.--NO, President Boyer.  He is
ninety-two.

PRESIDENT BARTHE.--He is older than that.

BARON D'OBERLIN.--He no longer comes to the Chamber.

M. VIENNET.--They say that M. Rossi is returning from Rome.

DUKE DE FESENZAC.--Well, I pity him for quitting
Rome.  It is the finest and most amiable city in the world.
I hope to end my days there.

COUNT DE MONTALEMBERT.--And Naples!

BARON THENARD.--I prefer Naples.

M. FULCHIRON.--Yes, Naples, that's the place.  By the
by, I was there when poor Nourrit killed himself.  I was
staying in the house next to his.

BARON CHARLES DUPIN.--He took his life?  It was not
an accident?

M. FULCHIRON.--Oh! it was a case of suicide, sure
enough.  He had been hissed the previous day.  He could
not stand that.  It was in an opera composed expressly for
him--"Polyceucte."  He threw himself from a height of sixty
feet.  His voice did not please that particular public.
Nourrit was too much accustomed to sing Glück and
Mozart.  The Neapolitans said of him: "Vecchico canto."

BARON DUPIN.--Poor Nourrit! why did he not wait!
Duprez has lost his voice.  Eleven years ago Duprez
demolished Nourrit; to-day Nourrit would demolish Duprez.

MARQUIS DE BOISSY.--How cold it is on this staircase.

COUNT PHILIPPE DE SEGUR.--It was even colder at the
Academy the other day.  That poor Dupaty is a good man,
but he made a bad speech.

BARON FEUTRIER.--I am trying to warm myself.  What
a frightful draught!  It is enough to drive one away.

BARON CHARLES DUPIN.--M. Français de Nantes had
conceived this expedient to rid himself of those who came
to solicit favours and abridge their solicitations: he was
given to receiving people between two doors.

M. Thiers at this time had a veritable court of deputies
about him.  After the session he walked out in front of me.
A gigantic deputy, whose back only I could see, stepped
aside, saying: "Make way for historical men!"  And the
big man let the little man pass.

Historical?  May be.  In what way?




II. THE DUCHESS D'ORLEANS.



Madame the Duchess d'Orleans is a rare woman, of
great wit and common sense.  I do not think that she is
fully appreciated at the Tuileries.  The King, though,
holds her in high esteem and often engages in long
conversations with her.  Frequently he gives her his arm to
escort her from the family drawing-room to her
apartments.  The royal daughters-in-law do not always appear
to act as kindly towards her.

                    ----------



February 26, 1844.

Yesterday the Duchess d'Orleans said to me:

"My son is not what one would call an amiable child.
He is not one of those pretty little prodigies who are an
honour to their mothers, and of whom people say: 'What
a clever child!  What wit!  What grace!'  He has a kind
heart, I know; he has wit, I believe; but nobody knows and
believes this save myself.  He is timid, wild, uncommunicative,
easily scared.  What will he become?  I have no
idea.  Often at his age a child in his position understands
that he must make himself agreeable, and, little as he is,
sets himself to play his role.  Mine hides himself in his
mother's skirt and lowers his eyes.  But I love him, just
as he is.  I even prefer him this way.  I like a savage
better than a comedian."

                    ----------



August, 1844.

The Count de Paris has signed the birth certificate of
the Princess Françoise de Joinville.  It was the first time
that the little prince had signed his name.  He did not
know what was wanted of him, and when the King handed
him the certificate and said "Paris, sign your name," the
child refused.  The Duchess d'Orleans took him on her
knee and whispered something to him.  Then the child
took the pen, and at the dictation of his grandfather wrote
upon the certificate L.  P.  d.  O.  He made the O much too
large and wrote the other letters awkwardly, and was very
much embarrassed and shy.

He is charming, though, and adores his mother, but he
hardly knows that his name is Louis Philippe d'Orleans.
He writes to his comrades, to his tutor, and to his mother,
but he signs his little missives "Paris." It is the only name
he knows himself by.

This evening the King sent for M. Regnier, the prince's
tutor, and gave him orders to teach the Count de Paris to
sign his name.

                    ----------



1847.

The Count de Paris is of a grave and sweet disposition;
he learns well.  He is imbued with a natural tenderness,
and is kind to those who suffer.

His young cousin of Wurtemberg, who is two months
older, is jealous of him; as his mother, the Princess Marie,
was jealous of the mother of the Count de Paris.  During
the lifetime of the Duke d'Orleans little Wurtemberg was
long the object of the Queen's preferences, and, in the little
court of the corridors and bedchambers, it was the custom
to flatter the Queen by comparisons between the one and
the other that were always favourable to Wurtemberg.
To-day that inequality has ceased.  The Queen, by a touching
sentiment, inclined towards little Wurtemberg because
he had lost his mother; now there is no reason why she
should not lean towards the Count de Paris, seeing that he
has lost his father.

Little Michel Ney plays with the two princes every
Sunday.  He is eleven years old, and the son of the Duke
d'Elchingen.  The other day he said to his mother:

"Wurtemberg is an ambitious fellow.  When we play
he always wants to be the leader.  Besides, he insists upon
being called Monseigneur.  I don't mind calling him
Monseigneur, but I won't let him be leader.  One day I
invented a game, and I said to him: 'No, Monseigneur, you
are not going to be the leader.  I will be leader, for I
invented the game, and Chabannes will be my lieutenant.
You and the Count de Paris will be soldiers.'  Paris was
willing, but Wurtemberg walked away.  He is an ambitious fellow."

Of these young mothers of the Château, apart from the
Duchess d'Orleans, Mme. de Joinville is the only one who
does not spoil her children.  At the Tuileries, everybody,
even the King himself, calls her little daughter
"Chiquette."  The Prince of Joinville calls his wife
"Chicarde" since the pierrots' ball, hence "Chiquette."  At
this pierrots' ball the King exclaimed: "How Chicarde
is amusing herself!"  The Prince de Joinville danced all
the risquée dances.  Mme. de Montpensier and Mme.
Liadères were the only ones who were not decolletees.  "It
is not in good taste," said the Queen.  "But it is pretty,"
observed the King.




III.  THE PRINCES.

1847.



At the Tuileries the Prince de Joinville passes his time
doing all sorts of wild things.  One day he turned on all
the taps and flooded the apartments.  Another day he cut
all the bell ropes.  A sign that he is bored and does not
know what to do with himself.

And what bores these poor princes most is to receive and
talk to people ceremoniously.  This is almost a daily
obligation.  They call it--for princes have their
slang--"performing the function."  The Duke de Montpensier
is the only one who performs it gracefully.  One day the Duchess
d'Orleans asked him the reason.  He replied: 'It amuses me."

He is twenty years old, he is beginning.

When the marriage of M. de Montpensier with the
Infanta was published, the King of the Belgians was sulky
with the Tuileries.  He is an Orleans, but he is a Coburg.
It was as though his left hand had smitten his right cheek.

The wedding over, while the young couple were making
their way from Madrid to Paris, King Leopold arrived at
Saint Cloud, where King Louis Philippe was staying.  The
King of the Belgians wore an air of coldness and severity.
Louis Philippe, after dinner, took him aside into a recess
of the Queen's drawing-room, and they conversed for fully
an hour.  Leopold's face preserved its thoughtful and
*English* expression.  However at the conclusion of the
conversation, Louis Philippe said to him:

"See Guizot."

"He is precisely the man I do not want to see."

"See him," urged the King.  "We will resume this
conversation when you have done so."

The next day M. Guizot waited upon King Leopold.  He
had with him an enormous portfolio filled with papers.
The King received him.  His manner was cold in the
extreme.  Both were reserved.  It is probable that M. Guizot
communicated to the King of the Belgians all the
documents relative to the marriage and all the diplomatic
papers.  No one knows what passed between them.  What
is certain is that when M. Guizot left the King's room
Leopold's air was gracious, though sad, and that he was heard
to say to the Minister as he took leave of him: "I came
here greatly dissatisfied with you.  I shall go away
satisfied.  You have, in fact, in this affair acquired a new title
to my esteem and to our gratitude.  I intended to scold
you; I thank you."

These were the King's own words.



The Prince de Joinville's deafness increases.  Sometimes
it saddens him, sometimes he makes light of it.  One
day he said to me: "Speak louder, I am as deaf as a post."
On another occasion he bent towards me and said with a
laugh:

"~J'abaisse le pavillion de l'oreille.~"

"It is the only one your highness will ever lower," I replied.

M. de Joinville is of somewhat queer disposition.  Now
he is joyous to the point of folly, anon gloomy as a
hypochondriac.  He is silent for three days at a time, or his bursts
of laughter are heard in the very attics of the Tuileries.
When he is on a voyage he rises at four o'clock in the
morning, wakes everybody up and performs his duties as
a sailor conscientiously.  It is as though he were to win his
epaulettes afterwards.

He loves France and feels all that touches her.  This
explains his fits of moodiness.  Since he cannot talk as he
wants to, he keeps his thoughts to himself, and this sours
him, He has spoken more than once, however, and
bravely.  He was not listened to and he was not heeded.
"They needn't talk about me," he said to me one day, "it
is they who are deaf!"

Unlike the late Duke d'Orleans, he has no princely
coquettishness, which is such a victorious grace, and has no
desire to appear agreeable.  He rarely seeks to please
individuals.  He loves the nation, the country, his profession,
the sea.  His manner is frank, he has a taste for noisy
pleasures, a fine appearance, a handsome face, with a kind heart,
and a few feats of arms to his credit that have been
exaggerated; he is popular.

M. de Nemours is just the contrary.  At court they say:
"There is something unlucky about the Duke de Nemours."

M. de Montpensier has the good sense to love, to esteem
and to honour profoundly the Duchess d'Orleans.

The other day there was a masked and costumed ball,
but only for the family and the intimate court circle--the
princesses and ladies of honour.  M. de Joinville
appeared all in rags, in complete Chicard costume.  He was
extravagantly gay and danced a thousand unheard-of
dances.  These capers, prohibited elsewhere, rendered the
Queen thoughtful.  "Wherever did he learn all this?"
she asked, and added: "What naughty dances!  Fie!"
Then she murmured: "How graceful he is!"

Mme. de Joinville was dressed as a bargee and affected
the manner of a street gamin.  She likes to go to those
places that the court detests the most, *the theatres and
concerts of the boulevards*.

The other day she greatly shocked Mme. de Hall, the
wife of an admiral, who is a Protestant and Puritan, by
asking her: "Madame, have you seen the "Closerie des
Genêts"?"



The Prince de Joinville had imagined a nuisance that
exasperated the Queen.  He procured an old barrel organ
somewhere, and would enter her apartments playing it and
singing in a hoarse, grating voice.  The Queen laughed at
first.  But it lasted a quarter of an hour, half an hour.
"Joinville, stop it!"  He continued to grind away.
"Joinville, go away!"  The prince, driven out of one door,
entered by another with his organ, his songs and his
hoarseness.  Finally the Queen fled to the King's apartments.

The Duchess d'Aumale did not speak French very
fluently; but as soon as she began to speak Italian, the
Italian of Naples, she thrilled like a fish that falls back
into the water, and gesticulated with Neapolitan verve.
"Put your hands in your pockets," the Duke d'Aumale
would say to her.  "I shall have to have your hands tied.
Why do you gesticulate like that?"

"I didn't notice it," the princess would reply.

"That is true, she doesn't notice it," said the Prince to
me one day.  "You wouldn't believe it, but my mother,
who is so dignified, so cold, so reserved when she is
speaking French, begins gesticulating like Punchinello when by
chance she speaks Neapolitan."

The Duke de Montpensier salutes passers-by graciously
and gaily.  The Duke d'Aumale does not salute more often
than he is compelled to; at Neuilly they say he is afraid
of ruffling his hair.  The Duke de Nemours manifests less
eagerness than the Duke de Montpensier and less negligence
than the Duke d'Aumale; moreover, women say
that when saluting them he looks at them in a most
embarrassing way.



Donizetti's "Elixir of Love" was performed at court on
February 5, 1847, by the Italian singers, the Persiani,
Mario, Tagliafico.  Ronconi acted (acted is the word, for
he acted very well) the role of Dulcamara, usually
represented by Lablache.  It was in the matter of size, but not
of talent, a giant in the place of a dwarf.  The decoration
of the theatre at the Tuileries was then still the same as
it had been in the time of the Empire--designs in gold on
a grey background, the ensemble being cold and pale.

There were few pretty women present.  Mme. Cuvillier-Floury
was the prettiest; Mme. V. H. the most handsome.
The men were in uniform or full evening dress.  Two officers
of the Empire were conspicuous in their uniforms of
that period.  Count Dutaillis, a one-armed soldier of the
Empire, wore the old uniform of a general of division,
embroidered with oak leaves to the facings.  The big straight
collar reached to his occiput; his star of the Legion of
Honour was all dented; his embroidery was rusty and
dull.  Count de Lagrange, an old beau, wore a white
spangled waistcoat, black silk breeches, white, or rather
pink, stockings; shoes with buckles on them, a sword at
his side, a black dress coat, and a peer's hat with white
plumes in it.  Count Dutaillis was a greater success than
Count de Lagrange.  The one recalled Monaco and Trenitz;
the other recalled Wagram.

M. Thiers, who the previous day had made a somewhat
poor speech, carried opposition to the point of wearing a
black cravat.

The Duchess de Montpensier, who had attained her fifteenth
birthday eight days before, wore a large crown of
diamonds and looked very pretty.  M. de Joinville was
absent.  The three other princes were there in
lieutenant-general's uniform with the star and grand cordon of the
Legion of Honour.  M. de Montpensier alone wore the
order of the Golden Fleece.

Mme. Ronconi, a handsome person, but of a wild and
savage beauty, was in a small box on the stage, in rear
of the proscenium.  She attracted much attention.

There was no applause, which chilled the singers and
everybody else.

Five minutes before the piece terminated the King began
to pack up.  He folded his programme and put it in his
pocket, then he wiped the glasses of his opera-glass, closed
it up carefully, looked round for the case which he had laid
on his chair, placed the glass in it and adjusted the hooks
very scrupulously.  There was a good deal of character in
his methodical manner.

M. de Rambuteau was there.  His latest "rambutisms"
(the word was Alexis de Saint-Priest's) were recounted
among the audience.  It was said that on the last day of
the year M. de Rambuteau wrote on his card: "M. de
Rambuteau et Venus," or as a variation: "M. de Rambuteau,
Venus en personne."



Wednesday, February 24, the Duke de Nemours gave a
concert at the Tuileries.  The singers were Mlle. Grisi,
Mme. Persiani, a Mme. Corbari, Mario, Lablache and
Ronconi.  M. Aubert, who conducted, did not put any of
his own music on the programme: Rossini, Mozart, and
Donizetti, that was all.

The guests arrived at half-past eight.  The Duke de
Nemours lives on the first floor of the Pavilion de Marsan,
over the apartments of the Duchess d'Orleans.  The guests
waited in a first salon until the doors of the grand salon
were opened, the women seated, the men standing.  As
soon as the prince and princess appeared the doors were
thrown wide open and everybody went in.  This grand salon
is a very fine room.  The ceiling is evidently of the time
of Louis XIV.  The wails are hung with green damask
striped with gold.  The inner window curtains are of red
damask.  The furniture is in green and gold damask.  The
ensemble is royal.

The King and Queen of the Belgians were at this
concert.  The Duke de Nemours entered with the Queen, his
sister, upon his arm, the King giving his arm to the
Duchess de Nemours.  Mmes. d'Aumale and de Montpensier
followed.  The Queen of the Belgians resembles
the Queen of the French, save in the matter of age.  She
wore a sky-blue toque, Mme. d'Aumale a wreath of roses,
Mme. de Montpensier a diadem of diamonds, Mme. de Nemours
her golden hair.  The four princesses sat in high-backed
chairs opposite the piano; all the other women sat
behind them; the men were in the rear, filling the doorway
and the first salon.  The King of the Belgians has a rather
handsome and grave face, and a delicate and agreeable
smile; he was seated to the left of the princesses.

The Duke de Brogue sat on his left.  Next to the Duke
were Count Mole and M. Dupin senior.  M. de Salvandy,
seeing an empty chair to the right of the King, seated
himself upon it.  All five wore the red sash, including M.
Dupin.  These four men about the King of the Belgians
represented the old military nobility, the parliamentary
aristocracy, the pettifogging bourgeoisie, and moonshine
literature; that is to say, a little of what France possesses
that is illustrious, and a little of what she possesses that is
ridiculous.

MM. d'Aumale and de Montpensier were to the right
in the recess of a window with the Duke of Wurtemberg,
whom they called their "brother Alexander." All the
princes wore the grand cordon and star of Leopold in
honour of the King of the Belgians; MM. de Nemours
and de Montpensier also wore the Golden Fleece.  The
Fleece of M. de Montpensier was of diamonds, and magnificent.

The Italian singers sang standing by the piano.  When
seated they occupied chairs with wooden backs.

The Prince de Joinville was absent, as was also his wife.
It was said that lately he was the hero of a love affair.  M.
de Joinville is prodigiously strong.  I heard a big lackey
behind me say: "I shouldn't care to receive a slap from
him."  While he was strolling to his rendezvous M. de
Joinville thought he noticed that he was being followed.
He turned back, went up to the fellow and struck him.

After the first part of the concert MM. d'Aumale and
de Montpensier came into the other salon where I had taken
refuge with Théophile Gautier, and we chatted for fully
an hour.  The two princes spoke to me at length about
literary matters, about "Les Burgraves," "Ruy Blas," "Lucrèce
Borgia," Mme. Halley, Mlle. Georges, and Frédérick
Lemaitre.  Also a good deal about Spain, the royal
wedding, bull-fights, hand-kissings, and etiquette, that M. de
Montpensier "detests."  "The Spaniards love royalty," he
added, "and especially etiquette.  In politics as in religion
they are bigots rather than believers.  They were greatly
shocked during the wedding fetes because the Queen one
day dared to venture out afoot!"

MM. d'Aumale and de Montpensier are charming young
men, bright, gay, gracious, witty, sincere, full of that ease
that communicates itself to others.  They have a fine air.
They are princes; they are perhaps men of intellect.  M.
de Nemours is embarrassed and embarrassing.  When he
comes towards you with his blond whiskers, his blue eyes,
his red sash, his white waistcoat and his melancholy air he
perturbs you.  He never looks you in the face.  He always
casts about for something to say and never knows what he
does say.




November 5, 1847.

Four years ago the Duke d'Aumale was in barracks at
Courbevoie with the 17th, of which he was then colonel.
During the summer, in the morning, after the manoeuvres
which took place at Neuilly, he frequently strolled back
along the river bank, alone, his hands behind his back.
Nearly every day he happened upon a pretty girl
named Adele Protat, who every morning went from
Courbevoie to Neuilly and returned at the same hour as M.
d'Aumale.  The young girl noticed the young officer in
undress uniform, but was not aware that he was a prince.
At length they struck up an acquaintance, and walked and
chatted together.  Under the influence of the sun, the
flowers, and the fine mornings something very much like
love sprang up between them.  Adele Protat thought she
had to do with a captain at the most.  He said to her:
"Come and see me at Courbevoie." She refused.  Feebly.

One evening she was passing near Neuilly in a boat.
Two young men were bathing.  She recognized her officer.

"There is the Duke d'Aumale," said the boatman.

"Really!" said she, and turned pale.

The next day she had ceased to love him.  She had seen
him naked, and knew that he was a prince.






IN THE CHAMBER OF PEERS.





IN THE CHAMBER OF PEERS.

1846.



Yesterday, February 22, I went to the Chamber of
Peers.  The weather was fine and very cold, in spite of the
noonday sun.  In the Rue de Tournon I met a man in the
custody of two soldiers.  The man was fair, pale, thin,
haggard; about thirty years old; he wore coarse linen
trousers; his bare and lacerated feet were visible in his
sabots, and blood-stained bandages round his ankles took
the place of stockings; his short blouse was soiled with
mud in the back, which indicated that he habitually slept
on the ground; his head was bare, his hair dishevelled.
Under his arm was a loaf.  The people who surrounded
him said that he had stolen the loaf, and it was for this
that he had been arrested.

When they reached the gendarmerie barracks one of the
soldiers entered, and the man stayed at the door guarded by
the other soldier.

A carriage was standing at the door of the barracks.  It
was decorated with a coat of arms; on the lanterns was a
ducal coronet; two grey horses were harnessed to it;
behind it were two lackeys.  The windows were raised, but
the interior, upholstered in yellow damask, was visible.
The gaze of the man fixed upon this carriage, attracted mine.
In the carriage was a woman in a pink bonnet and costume
of black velvet, fresh, white, beautiful, dazzling, who was
laughing and playing with a charming child of sixteen
months, buried in ribbons, lace and furs.

This woman did not see the terrible man who was
gazing at her.

I became pensive.

This man was no longer a man for me; he was the
spectre of misery, the brusque, deformed, lugubrious
apparition in full daylight, in full sunlight, of a revolution
that is still plunged in darkness, but which is approaching.
In former times the poor jostled the rich, this spectre
encountered the rich man in all his glory; but they did not
look at each other, they passed on.  This condition of
things could thus last for some time.  The moment this
man perceives that this woman exists, while this woman
does not see that this man is there, the catastrophe is inevitable.




GENERAL FABVIER



Fabvier had fought valiantly in the wars of the Empire;
he fell out with the Restoration over the obscure affair
of Grenoble.  He expatriated himself about 1816.  It
was the period of the departure of the eagles.  Lallemand
went to America, Allard and Vannova to India, Fabvier to
Greece.

The revolution of 1820 broke out.  He took an heroic
part in it.  He raised a corps of four thousand palikars, to
whom he was not a chief, but a god.  He gave them
civilization and taught them barbarity.  He was rough and
brave above all of them, and almost ferocious, but with that
grand, Homeric ferocity.  One might have thought that he
had come from a tent of the camp of Achilles rather than
from the camp of Napoleon.  He invited the English
Ambassador to dinner at his bivouac; the Ambassador found
him seated by a big fire at which a whole sheep was roasting;
when the animal was cooked and unskewered, Fabvier placed
the heel of his bare foot upon the neck of the smoking and
bleeding sheep and tore off a quarter, which he offered to
the Ambassador.  In bad times nothing daunted him.  He was
indifferent alike to cold, heat, fatigue and hunger; he never
spared himself.  The palikars used to say: "When the soldier
eats cooked grass Fabvier eats it green."

I knew his history, but I had not seen him when, in
1846, General Fabvier was made a peer of France.  One
day he had a speech to make, and the Chancellor
announced: "Baron Fabvier has the tribune."  I expected
to hear a lion, I thought an old woman was speaking.

Yet his face was a truly masculine one, heroic and
formidable, that one might have fancied had been moulded
by the hand of a giant and which seemed to have
preserved a savage and terrible grimace.  What was so strange
was the gentle, slow, grave, contained, caressing voice that
was allied to this magnificent ferocity.  A child's voice
issued from this tiger's mouth.

General Fabvier delivered from the tribune speeches
learned by heart, graceful, flowery, full of allusions to the
woods and country--veritable idylls.  In the tribune this
Ajax became a Némorin.

He spoke in low tones like a diplomat, he smiled like a
courtier.  He was not averse to making himself agreeable
to princes.  This is what the peerage had done for him.  He
was only a hero after all.



August 22, 1846.

The Marquis de Boissy has assurance, coolness, self-possession,
a voice that is peculiar to himself, facility of speech,
wit occasionally, the quality of imperturbability, all the
accessories of a great orator.  The only thing he lacks is
talent.  He wearies the Chamber, wherefore the Ministers
do not consider themselves bound to answer him.  He talks
as long as everybody keeps quiet.  He fences with the
Chancellor as with his particular enemy.

Yesterday, after the session which Boissy had entirely
occupied with a very poor speech, M. Guizot said to me:

"It is an affliction.  The Chamber of Deputies would
not stand him for ten minutes after the first two times.
The Chamber of Peers extends its high politeness to him,
and it does wrong.  Boissy will not be suppressed until the
day the whole Chamber rises and walks out when he asks
permission to speak."

"You cannot think of such a thing," said I.  "Only he
and the Chancellor would be left.  It would be a duel
without seconds."

                    ----------


It is the custom of the Chamber of Peers never to repeat
in its reply to the speech from the throne the titles that
the King gives to his children.  It is also the custom never to
give the princes the title of Royal Highness when speaking
of them to the King.  There is no Highness in presence of
his Majesty.

To-day, January 18, the address in reply to the speech
from the throne was debated.  Occasionally there are
flashes of keen and happy wit in M. de Boissy's nonsense.
He remarked to-day: "I am not of those who are grateful
to the government for the blessings of providence."

As usual he quarrelled with the Chancellor.  He was
making some more than usually roving excursion from the
straight path.  The Chamber murmured and cried: "Confine
yourself to the question." The Chancellor rose:

"Monsieur the Marquis de Boissy," he said, "the Chamber
requests that you will confine yourself to the question
under discussion.  It has saved me the trouble of asking
you to do so." ("Our colleague might as well have said
'spared me!'"  I whispered to Lebrun.)

"I am delighted on your account, Monsieur the
Chancellor," replied M. de Boissy, and the Chamber laughed.

A few minutes later, however, the Chancellor took his
revenge.  M. de Boissy had floundered into some quibble
about the rules.  It was late.  The Chamber was becoming
impatient.

"Had you not raised an unnecessary incident," observed
the Chancellor, "you would have finished your speech a
long time ago, to your own satisfaction and that of
everybody else."

Whereat everybody laughed.

"Don't laugh!" exclaimed the Duke de Mortemart.
"Laughter diminishes the prestige of a constituted body."

M. de Pontécoulant said: "M. de Boissy teases Monsieur
the Chancellor, Monsieur the Chancellor torments
M. de Boissy.  There is a lack of dignity on both sides!"

During the session the Duke de Mortemart came to my
bench and we spoke about the Emperor.  M. de Mortemart
went through all the great wars.  He speaks nobly of him.
He was one of the Emperor's orderlies in the Campaign of
1812.

"It was during that campaign that I learned to know the
Emperor," he said.  "I was near him night and day.  I
saw him shave himself in the morning, sponge his chin,
pull on his boots, pinch his valet's ear, chat with the
grenadier mounting guard over his tent, laugh, gossip, make
trivial remarks, and amid all this issue orders, trace plans,
interrogate prisoners, decree, determine, decide, in a
sovereign manner, simply, unerringly, in a few minutes,
without missing anything, without losing a useful detail or a
second of necessary time.  In this intimate and familiar life
of the bivouac flashes of his intellect were seen every
moment.  You can believe me when I say that he belied the
proverb: 'No man is great in the eyes of his valet.'"

"Monsieur the Duke," said I, "that proverb is wrong.
Every great man is a great man in the eyes of his valet."

At this session the Duke d'Aumale, having attained his
twenty-fifth birthday, took his seat for the first time.  The
Duke de Nemours and the Prince de Joinville were seated
near him in their usual places behind the ministerial bench.
They were not among those who laughed the least.

The Duke de Nemours, being the youngest member of
his committee, fulfilled the functions of secretary, as is
customary.  M. de Montalembert wanted to spare him the
trouble.  "No," said the prince, "it is my duty."  He
took the urn and, as secretary, went the round of the table
to collect the votes.

                    ----------


At the close of the session of January 21, 1847, at which
the Chamber of Peers discussed Cracow and kept silent
concerning the frontier of the Rhine, I descended the grand
staircase of the Chamber in company with M. de
Chastellux.  M. Decazes stopped me and asked:

"Well, what have you been doing during the session?"

"I have been writing to Mme. Dorval." (I held the
letter in my hand.)

"What a fine disdain!  Why did you not speak?"

"On account of the old proverb: 'He whose opinion is
not shared by anybody else should think, and say nothing.'

"Did your opinion, then, differ from that of the others?"

"Yes, from that of the whole Chamber."

"What did you want then?"

"The Rhine."

"Whew! the devil!"

"I should have protested and spoken without finding
any echo to my words; I preferred to say nothing."

"Ah! the Rhine!  To have the Rhine!  Yes, that is a
fine idea.  Poetry! poetry!"

"Poetry that our fathers made with cannon and that we
shall make again with ideas!"

"My dear colleague," went on M. Decazes, "we must
wait.  I, too, want the Rhine.  Thirty years ago I said to
Louis XVIII.: 'Sire, I should be inconsolable if I thought
I should die without seeing France mistress of the left bank
of the Rhine.  But before we can talk about that, before
we can think of it even, we must beget children.'"

"Well," I replied, "that was thirty years ago.  We have
begotten the children."

                    ----------


April 23, 1847.

The Chamber of Peers is discussing a pretty bad bill on
substitutions for army service.  To-day the principal
article of the measure was before the House.

M. de Nemours was present.  There are eighty
lieutenant-generals in the Chamber.  The majority considered
the article to be a bad one.  Under the eye of the Duke de
Nemours, who seemed to be counting them, all rose to vote
in favour of it.

The magistrates, the members of the Institute and the
ambassadors voted against it.

I remarked to President Franck-Carré, who was seated
next to me: "It is a struggle between civil courage and
military poltroonery."

The article was adopted.



June 22, 1847.

The Girardin* affair was before the Chamber of Peers
to-day.  Acquittal.  The vote was taken by means of balls,
white ones for condemnation, black ones for acquittal.
There were 199 votes cast, 65 white, 134 black.  In placing
my black ball in the urn I remarked: "In blackening him
we whiten him."

*  Emile de Girardin had been prosecuted for publishing an
article in a newspaper violently attacking the government.

I said to Mme. D--: "Why do not the Minister and
Girardin provoke a trial in the Assize Court?"

She replied: "Because Girardin does not feel himself
strong enough, and the Minister does not feel himself pure
enough."

MM. de Montalivet and Mole and the peers of the Château
voted, queerly enough, for Girardin against the
Government.  M. Guizot learned the result in the Chamber of
Deputies and looked exceedingly wrath.

                    ----------


June 28, 1847.

On arriving at the Chamber I found Franck-Carre
greatly scandalised.

In his hand was a prospectus for champagne signed by
the Count de Mareuil, and stamped with a peer's mantle
and a count's coronet with the de Mareuil arms.  He had
shown it to the Chancellor, who had replied: "I can do
nothing!"

"I could do something, though, if a mere councillor
were to do a thing like that in my court," said
Franck-Carré to me.  "I would call the Chambers together and
have him admonished in a disciplinary manner."

                    ----------


1848.

Discussion by the committees of the Chamber of Peers
of the address in reply to the speech from the throne.

I was a member of the fourth committee.  Among other
changes I demanded this.  There was: "Our princes, your
well-beloved children, are doing in Africa the duties of
servants of the State."  I proposed: "The princes, your
well-beloved children, are doing," etc., "their duty as
servants of the State." This fooling produced the effect
of a fierce opposition.

                    ----------


January 14, 1848.

The Chamber of Peers prevented Alton-Shée from
pronouncing in the tribune even the name of the Convention.
There was a terrific knocking upon desks with paper-knives
and shouts of "Order!  Order!" and he was compelled
almost by force to descend from the tribune.

I was on the point of shouting to them: "You are imitating
a session of the Convention, but only with wooden knives!"

I was restrained by the thought that this ~mot~, uttered
during their anger, would never be forgiven.  For myself
I care little, but it might affect the calm truths which I
may have to tell them and get them to accept later on.






THE REVOLUTION OF 1848.

I.     THE DAYS OF FEBRUARY.
II.    EXPULSIONS AND EVASIONS.  
III.   LOUIS PHILIPPE IN EXILE.
IV.    KING JEROME.
V.     THE DAYS OF JUNE.
VI.    CHATEAUBRIAND.
VII.   DEBATES ON THE DAYS OF JUNE.





THE REVOLUTION OF 1848.

I.   THE DAYS OF FEBRUARY.




THE TWENTY-THIRD.



As I arrived at the Chamber of Peers--it was 3 o'clock
precisely--General Rapatel came out of the cloak-room
and said: "The session is over."

I went to the Chamber of Deputies.  As my cab turned
into the Rue de Lille a serried and interminable column of
men in shirt-sleeves, in blouses and wearing caps, and
marching arm-in-arm, three by three, debouched from the
Rue Bellechasse and headed for the Chamber.  The other
extremity of the street, I could see, was blocked by deep
rows of infantry of the line, with their rifles on their arms.
I drove on ahead of the men in blouses, with whom many
women had mingled, and who were shouting: "Hurrah for
reform!"  "Hurrah for the line!"  "Down with Guizot!"
They stopped when they arrived within rifle-shot
of the infantry.  The soldiers opened their ranks to let
me through.  They were talking and laughing.  A very
young man was shrugging his shoulders.

I did not go any further than the lobby.  It was filled
with busy and uneasy groups.  In one corner were M. Thiers,
M. de Rémusat, M. Vivien and M. Merruau (of the
"Constitutionnel"); in another M. Emile de Girardin,
M. d'Alton-Shée and M. de Boissy, M. Franck-Carré,
M. d'Houdetot, M. de Lagrenée.  M. Armand Marrast was
talking aside with M. d'Alton.  M. de Girardin stopped
me; then MM. d'Houdetot and Lagrenée.  MM. Franck-Carré
and Vignier joined us.  We talked.  I said to them:

"The Cabinet is gravely culpable.  It forgot that in
times like ours there are precipices right and left and that
it does not do to govern too near to the edge.  It says to
itself : 'It is only a riot,' and it almost rejoices at
the outbreak.  It believes it has been strengthened by
it; yesterday it fell, to-day it is up again!  But, in the
first place, who can tell what the end of a riot will be?
Riots, it is true, strengthen the hands of Cabinets, but
revolutions overthrow dynasties.  And what an imprudent
game in which the dynasty is risked to save the ministry!
The tension of the situation draws the knot tighter, and
now it is impossible to undo it.  The hawser may break
and then everything will go adrift.  The Left has
manoeuvred imprudently and the Cabinet wildly.  Both
sides are responsible.  But what madness possesses the
Cabinet to mix a police question with a question of liberty
and oppose the spirit of chicanery to the spirit of
revolution?  It is like sending process-servers with stamped paper
to serve upon a lion.  The quibbles of M. Hébert in presence
of a riot!  What do they amount to!"

As I was saying this a deputy passed us and said:

"The Ministry of Marine has been taken."

"Let us go and see!" said Franc d'Houdetot to me.



We went out.  We passed through a regiment of infantry
that was guarding the head of the Pont de la Concorde.
Another regiment barred the other end of it.  On the
Place Louis XV. cavalry was charging sombre and immobile
groups, which at the approach of the soldiers fled like
swarms of bees.  Nobody was on the bridge except a
general in uniform and on horseback, with the cross of a
commander (of the Legion of Honour) hung round his
neck--General Prévot.  As he galloped past us he shouted:
"They are attacking!"

As we reached the troops at the other end of the bridge
a battalion chief, mounted, in a bernouse with gold stripes
on it, a stout man with a kind and brave face, saluted
M. d'Houdetot.

"Has anything happened?" Franc asked.

"It happened that I got here just in time!" replied the
major.

It was this battalion chief who cleared the Palace of the
Chamber, which the rioters had invaded at six o'clock in
the morning.

We walked on to the Place.  Charging cavalry was
whirling around us.  At the angle of the bridge a dragoon
raised his sword against a man in a blouse.  I do not think
he struck him.  Besides, the Ministry of Marine had not
been "taken."  A crowd had thrown a stone at one of the
windows, smashing it, and hurting a man who was peeping
out.  Nothing more.

We could see a number of vehicles lined up like a barricade
in the broad avenue of the Champs-Elysées, at the rond-point.

"They are firing, yonder," said d'Houdetot.  "Can you
see the smoke?"

"Pooh!" I replied.  "It is the mist of the fountain.
That fire is water."

And we burst into a laugh.

An engagement was going on there, however.  The people
had constructed three barricades with chairs.  The
guard at the main square of the Champs-Elysées had
turned out to pull the barricades down.  The people had
driven the soldiers back to the guard-house with volleys
of stones.  General Prévot had sent a squad of Municipal
Guards to the relief of the soldiers.  The squad had been
surrounded and compelled to seek refuge in the guard-house
with the others.  The crowd had hemmed in the
guard-house.  A man had procured a ladder, mounted to
the roof, pulled down the flag, torn it up and thrown it to
the people.  A battalion had to be sent to deliver the guard.

"Whew!" said Franc d'Houdetot to General Prévot,
who had recounted this to us.  "A flag taken!"

"Taken, no!  Stolen, yes!" answered the general quickly.

M. Pèdre-Lacaze came up arm-in-arm with Napoleon
Duchatel.  Both were in high spirits.  They lighted their
cigars from Franc d'Houdetot's cigar and said:

"Do you know?  Genoude is going to bring in an impeachment
on his own account.  They would not allow him
to sign the Left's impeachment.  He would not be beaten,
and now the Ministry is between two fires.  On the left, the
entire Left; on the right, M. de Genoude."

Napoleon Duchâtel added: "They say that Duvergier
de Hauranne has been carried about in triumph on the
shoulders of the crowd."

We had returned to the bridge.  M. Vivien was crossing,
and came up to us.  With his big, old, wide-brimmed
hat and his coat buttoned up to his cravat the ex-Minister
Of Justice looked like a policeman.

"Where are you going?" he said to me.  "What is
happening is very serious!"

Certainly at this moment one feels that the whole constitutional
machine is rocking.  It no longer rests squarely
on the ground.  It is out of plumb.  One can hear it
cracking.

The crisis is complicated by the disturbed condition of
the whole of Europe.

The King, nevertheless, is very calm, and even cheerful.
But this game must not be played too far.  Every rubber
won serves but to make up the total of the rubber lost.

Vivien recounted to us that the King had thrown an
electoral reform bill into his drawer, saying as he did so:
"That is for my successor!" "That was Louis XV.'s ~mot~,"
added Vivien, "supposing reform should prove to be
the deluge."

It appears to be true that the King interrupted M.
Salandrouze when he was laying before him the grievances
of the "Progressists," and asked him brusquely: "Are you
selling many carpets?"*

* M. Salandrouze was a manufacturer of carpets.

At this same reception of the Progressists the King noticed
M. Blanqui, and graciously going up to him asked:

"Well, Monsieur Blanqui, what do people talk about?
What is going on?"

"Sire," replied M. Blanqui, "I ought to tell the King
that in the departments, and especially at Bordeaux, there
is a great deal of agitation."

"Ah!" interrupted the King.  "More agitation!" and he
turned his back upon M. Blanqui.

While we were talking Vivien exclaimed: "Listen!  I
fancy I can hear firing!"

A young staff officer, addressing General d'Houdetot
with a smile, asked: "Are we going to stay here long?"

"Why?" said Franc d'Houdetot.

"Well, I am invited out to dinner," said the officer.

At this moment a group of women in mourning and children
dressed in black passed rapidly along the other pavement
of the bridge.  A man held the eldest child by the
hand.  I looked at him and recognized the Duke de Montebello.

"Hello!" exclaimed d'Houdetot, "the Minister of
Marine!" and he ran over and conversed for a moment
with M. de Montebello.  The Duchess had become frightened,
and the whole family was taking refuge on the left
bank of the river.

Vivien and I returned to the Palace of the Chamber.
D'Houdetot quitted us.  In an instant we were surrounded.
Said Boissy to me:

"You were not at the Luxembourg?  I tried to speak upon
the situation in Paris.  I was hooted.  At the ~mot~, 'the
capital in danger,' I was interrupted, and the Chancellor,
who had come to preside expressly for that purpose, called
me to order.  And do you know what General Gourgaud
said to me?  'Monsieur de Boissy, I have sixty guns with
their caissons filled with grape-shot.  I filled them myself.'
I replied: 'General, I am delighted to know what is really
thought at the Château about the situation.'"

At this moment Durvergier de Hauranne, hatless, his
hair dishevelled, and looking pale but pleased, passed by
and stopped to shake hands with me.

I left Duvergier and entered the Chamber.  A bill relative
to the privileges of the Bank of Bordeaux was being
debated.  A man who was talking through his nose occupied
the tribune, and M. Sauzet was reading the articles of
the bill with a sleepy air.  M. de Belleyme, who was coming
out, shook hands with me and exclaimed: "Alas!"

Several deputies came up to me, among them M. Marie,
M. Roger (of Loiret), M. de Rémusat, and M. Chambolle.
I related to them the incident of the tearing down of the
flag, which was serious in view of the audacity of the attack.

"What is even more serious," said one of them, "is that
there is something very bad behind all this.  During the
night the doors of more than fifteen mansions were marked
with a cross, among the marked houses being those of the
Princess de Liéven, in the Rue Saint Florentin, and of
Mme. de Talhouët."

"Are you sure of this?" I asked.

"With my own eyes I saw the cross upon the door of
Mme. de Liéven's house," he replied.

President Franck-Carré met M. Duchâtel this morning
and said: "Well, how goes it?"

"All is well," answered the Minister.

"What are you going to do about the riot?"

"I am going to let the rioters alone at the rendezvous
they arranged for themselves.  What can they do in the
Place Louis XV. and the Champs-Elysées?  It is raining.
They will tramp about there all day.  To-night they will
be tired out and will go home to bed."

M. Etienne Arago entered hastily at this juncture and
said: "There are seven wounded and two killed already.
Barricades have been erected in the Rue Beaubourg and
in the Rue Saint Avoye."

After a suspension of the session M. Guizot arrived.  He
ascended the tribune and announced that the King had
summoned M. Mole, to charge him with the formation of
a new Cabinet.

Triumphant shouts from the Opposition, shouts of rage
from the majority.

The session ended amid an indescribable uproar.



I went out with the deputies and returned by way of the quays.

In the Place de la Concorde the cavalry continued to
charge.  An attempt to erect two barricades had been made
in the Rue Saint Honoré.  The paving-stones in the Marché
Saint Honoré were being torn up.  The overturned omni-buses,
of which the barricades had been made, had been
righted by the troops.  In the Rue Saint Honoré the crowd
let the Municipal Guards go by, and then stoned them in
the back.  A multitude was swarming along the quays like
irritated ants.  A very pretty woman in a green velvet hat
and a large cashmere shawl passed by amid a group of
men wearing blouses and with bared arms.  She had raised
her skirt very high on account of the mud, with which she
was much spattered; for it was raining every minute.  The
Tuileries were closed.  At the Carrousel gates the crowd
had stopped and was gazing through the arcades at the
cavalry lined up in battle array in front of the palace.

Near the Carrousel Bridge I met M. Jules Sandeau.
"What do you think of all this?" he queried.

"That the riot will be suppressed, but that the revolution
will triumph."

On the Quai de la Ferraille I happened upon somebody
else I knew.  Coming towards me was a man covered with
mud to the neck, his cravat hanging down, and his hat
battered.  I recognized my excellent friend Antony
Thouret.  Thouret is an ardent Republican.  He had been
walking and speech-making since early morning, going
from quarter to quarter and from group to group.

"Tell me, now, what you really want?" said I.  "Is it
the Republic?"

"Oh! no, not this time, not yet," he answered.  "What
we want is reform--no half measures, oh! dear no, that
won't do at all.  We want complete reform, do you
hear?  And why not universal suffrage?"

"That's the style!" I said as we shook hands.

Patrols were marching up and down the quay, while the
crowd shouted "Hurrah for the line!"  The shops were
closed and the windows of the houses open.

In the Place du Châtelet I heard a man say to a group:

"It is 1830 over again!"

I passed by the Hotel de Ville and along the Rue Saint
Avoye.  At the Hotel de Ville all was quiet.  Two National
Guards were walking to and fro in front of the gate,
and there were no barricades in the Rue Saint Avoye.  In
the Rue Rambuteau a few National Guards, in uniform,
and wearing their side arms, came and went.  In the Temple
quarter they were beating to arms.

Up to the present the powers that be have made a show
of doing without the National Guard.  This is perhaps
prudent.  A force of National Guards was to have taken a
hand.  This morning the guard on duty at the Chamber
refused to obey orders.  It is said that a National Guardsman
of the 7th Legion was killed just now while interposing
between the people and the troops.



The Mole Ministry assuredly is not a Reform one, but
the Guizot Ministry had been for so long an obstacle to
reform!  Its resistance was broken; this was sufficient to
pacify and content the child-like heart of the generous
people.  In the evening Paris gave itself up to rejoicing.  The
population turned out into the streets; everywhere was
heard the popular refrain ~Des lampioms! des larnpioms!~
In the twinkling of an eye the town was illuminated as
though for a fête.

In the Place Royale, in front of the Mairie, a few yards
from my house, a crowd had gathered that every moment
was becoming denser and noisier.  The officers and
National Guards in the guard-house there, in order to get
them away from the Maine, shouted: "On to the Bastille!"
and, marching arm-in-arm, placed themselves at
the head of a column, which fell in joyously behind them
and started off shouting: "On to the Bastille!"  The
procession marched hat in hand round the Column of July,
to the shout of "Hurrah for Reform!" saluted the troops
massed in the Place with the cry of "Hurrah for the
line!" and went off down the Faubourg Saint Antoine.
An hour later the procession returned with its ranks greatly
swelled, and bearing torches and flags, and made its way to
the grand boulevards with the intention of going home by
way of the quays, so that the whole town might witness the
celebration of its victory.



Midnight is striking.  The appearance of the streets has
changed.  The Marais quarter is lugubrious.  I have just
returned from a stroll there.  The street lamps are broken
and extinguished on the Boulevard Bourdon, so well named
the "dark boulevard." The only shops open to-night were
those in the Rue Saint Antoine.  The Beaumarchais Theatre
was closed.  The Place Royale is guarded like a place
of arms.  Troops are in ambush in the arcades.  In the Rue
Saint Louis, a battalion is leaning silently against the walls
in the shadow.

Just now, as the clock struck the hour, we went on to
the balcony listening and saying: "It is the tocsin!"



I could not have slept in a bed.  I passed the night in
my drawing-room, writing, thinking and listening.  Now
and then I went out on the balcony and strained my ears
to listen, then I entered the room again and paced to and
fro, or dropped into an arm-chair and dozed.  But my
slumber was agitated by feverish dreams.  I dreamed that
I could hear the murmur of angry crowds, and the report
of distant firing; the tocsin was clanging from the church
towers.  I awoke.  It was the tocsin.



The reality was more horrible than the dream.

This crowd that I had seen marching and singing so
gaily on the boulevards had at first continued its pacific
way without let or hindrance.  The infantry regiments, the
artillery and cuirassiers had everywhere opened their ranks
to let the procession pass through.  But on the Boulevard
des Capucines a mass of troops, infantry and cavalry, who
were guarding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its
unpopular Minister, M. Guizot, blocked the thoroughfare.
In front of this insurmountable obstacle the head of the
column tried to stop and turn; but the irresistible pressure
of the enormous crowd behind pushed the front ranks on.
At this juncture a shot was fired, on which side is not
known.  A panic ensued, followed by a volley.  Eighty
fell dead or wounded.  Then arose a general cry of horror
and fury: "Vengeance!" The bodies of the victims were
placed in a tumbril lighted by torches.  The crowd faced
about and, amid imprecations, resumed its march, which
had now assumed the character of a funeral procession.  In
a few hours Paris was bristling with barricades.




THE TWENTY-FOURTH.



At daybreak, from my balcony, I see advancing a noisy
column of people, among whom are a number of National
Guards.  The mob stops in front of the Mairie, which
is guarded by about thirty Municipal Guards, and with
loud cries demands the soldiers' arms.  Flat refusal by
the Municipal Guards, menacing clamours of the crowd.
Two National Guard officers intervene: "What is the use
of further bloodshed?  Resistance will be useless." The
Municipal Guards lay down their rifles and ammunition
and withdraw without being molested.

The Mayor of the Eighth Arrondissement, M. Ernest
Moreau, requests me to come to the Mairie.  He tells me
the appalling news of the massacre on the Boulevard des
Capucines.  And at brief intervals further news of
increasing seriousness arrives.  The National Guard this time has
definitely turned against the Government, and is
shouting: "Hurrah for Reform!"  The army, frightened
at what it did yesterday, appears resolved not to
take any further part in the fratricidal struggle.  In the
Rue Sainte Croix la Bretonnerie the troops have fallen
back before the National Guard.  At the neighbouring
Mairie of the Ninth Arrondissement, we are informed, the
soldiers are fraternising and patrolling with the National
Guard.  Two other messengers in blouses arrive almost
together: "The Reuilly Barracks has been taken."  "The
Minimes Barracks has surrendered."

"And from the Government I have neither instructions
nor news! "says M. Ernest Moreau.  "What Government,
if any, is there?  Is the Mole Ministry still in existence?
What is to be done?"

"Go to the Prefecture of the Seine," advises M. Perret,
a member of the General Council.  "It isn't far to the
Hotel de Ville."

"Well, then, come with me."

They go.  I reconnoitre round the Place Royale.
Everywhere reign agitation, anxiety and feverish
expectation.  Everywhere work is being actively pushed upon
barricades that are already formidable.  This time it is more
than a riot, it is an insurrection.  I return home.  A soldier
of the line, on sentry duty at the entrance to the Place
Royale, is chatting amicably with the vedette of a barricade
constructed twenty paces from him.



At a quarter past eight M. Ernest Moreau returns from
the Hotel de Ville.  He has seen M. de Rambuteau and
brings slightly better news.  The King has entrusted the
formation of a Cabinet to Thiers and Odilon Barrot.
Thiers is not very popular, but Odilon Barrot means
reform.  Unfortunately the concession is coupled with a
threat: Marshal Bugeaud has been invested with the
general command of the National Guard and of the army.
Odilon Barrot means reform, but Bugeaud means repression.
The King is holding out his right hand and clenching
his left fist.

The Prefect requested M. Moreau to spread and proclaim
the news in his quarter and in the Faubourg Saint Antoine.

"This is what I will do," says the Mayor.

" Very good," I observe, "but believe me, you will do
well to announce the Thiers-Barrot Ministry and say
nothing about Marshal Bugeaud."

"You are right."



The Mayor requisitions a squad of National Guards,
takes with him his two deputies and the Municipal
Councillors present, and descends into the Place Royale.  The
roll of drums attracts the crowd.  He announces the new Cabinet.
The people applaud and raise repeated shouts of "Hurrah
for Reform!"  The Mayor adds a few words recommending harmony
and the preservation of order, and is universally applauded.

"The situation is saved!" he says, grasping my hand.

"Yes," I answer, "if Bugeaud will give up the idea of
being the saviour."

M. Ernest Moreau, followed by his escort, goes off to
repeat his proclamation in the Place de la Bastille and the
faubourg, and I return home to reassure my family.

Half an hour later the Mayor and his cortege return
greatly agitated and in disorder to the Mairie.  This is what
had happened:

The Place de la Bastille was occupied at its two extremities
by troops, leaning on their rifles.  The people
moved freely and peaceably between the two lines.  The
Mayor, arrived at the foot of the July column, made his
proclamation, and once again the crowd applauded
vigorously.  M. Moreau started towards the Faubourg Saint
Antoine.  At this moment a number of workingmen accosted
the soldiers amicably and said: "Your arms, give
up your arms."  In obedience to the energetic orders of
their captain the soldiers refused.  Suddenly a shot was
fired; it was followed by other shots; the terrible panic
of the previous day was perhaps about to be renewed.  M.
Moreau and his escort were pushed about, thrown down.
The firing on both sides lasted over a minute, and five or
six persons were killed or wounded.

Fortunately, this time the affray occurred in broad
daylight.  At the sight of the blood they had shed there was
a revulsion of feeling on the part of the troops, and after a
moment of surprise and horror the soldiers, prompted by
an irresistible impulse, raised the butts of their rifles in
the air and shouted: "Long live the National Guard!"  The
general in command, being powerless to control his men,
went off to Vincennes by way of the quays and the people
remained masters of the Bastille and of the faubourg.

"It is a result that might have cost more dear, in my case
especially," remarks M. Moreau and he shows us his hat
which has been pierced by a bullet.  "A brand new hat,"
he adds with a laugh.

Half past ten o'clock.--Three students from the Ecole
Polytechnique have arrived at the Mairie.  They report
that the students have broken out of the school and
have come to place themselves at the disposition of the
people.  A certain number have therefore distributed
themselves among the mairies of Paris.

The insurrection is making progress every hour.  It now
demands that Marshal Bugeaud be replaced and the Chamber
dissolved.  The pupils of the Ecole Polytechnique go
further and talk about the abdication of the King.

What is happening at the Tuileries?  There is no news,
either, from the Ministry, no order from the General Staff.
I decide to go to the Chamber of Deputies, by way of the
Hotel de Ville, and M. Ernest Moreau is kind enough to
accompany me.

We find the Rue Saint Antoine bristling with barricades.
We make ourselves known and the insurgents help us to
clamber over the heaps of paving-stones.  As we draw
near to the Hotel de Ville, from which the roar of a great
crowd reaches our ears, and as we cross some ground on
which are buildings in course of erection, we see coming
towards us with hurried steps M. de Rambuteau, the
Prefect of the Seine.

"Hi!  Monsieur the Prefect, what brings you here?" I cry.

"Prefect!  Do I know whether I am still Prefect?" he
replies with a surly air.

A crowd, which looks anything but benevolent, has already
begun to gather.  M. Moreau notices a house that is
to let.  We enter it, and M. de Rambuteau recounts his
misadventure.

"I was in my office with two or three Municipal
Councillors," he says, "when we heard a great noise in the
corridor.  The door was thrown violently open, and there
entered unto me a big strapping captain of the National
Guard at the head of an excited body of troops.

"'Monsieur,' said the man, 'you must get out of here.'

"'Pardon me, Monsieur, here, at the Hotel de Ville I
am at home, and here I propose to stay.'

"'Yesterday you were perhaps at home in the Hotel de
Ville; to-day the people are at home in it.'

"'Ah! But--'

"'Go to the window and look out on the square.'

"The square had been invaded by a noisy, swarming
crowd in which workingmen, National Guards and soldiers
were mingled pell-mell.  And the rifles of the soldiers wore
in the hands of the men of the people.  I turned to the
intruders and said:

"'You are right, messieurs, you are the masters here.'

"'Well, then,' said the captain, 'instruct your employés
to recognise my authority.'

"That was too much.  I replied: 'What do you take me
for?' I gathered up a few papers, issued a few orders, and
here I am.  Since you are going to the Chamber, if there
is still a Chamber, tell the Minister of the Interior, if the
Ministry still exists, that at the Hotel de Ville there is no
longer either Prefect or Prefecture."



It is with great difficulty that we make our way through
the human ocean that with a noise as of a tempest covers
the Place de Hotel de Ville.  At the Quai de la Mégisserie
is a formidable barricade; thanks to the Mayor's sash
shown by my companion we are allowed to clamber over
it.  Beyond this the quays are almost deserted.  We reach
the Chamber of Deputies by the left bank of the river.

The Palais Bourbon is encumbered by a buzzing crowd
of deputies, peers and high functionaries.  From a rather
large group comes the sharp voice of M. Thiers: "Ah!
here is Victor Hugo!"  He comes to us and asks for news
about the Faubourg Saint Antoine.  We add that about
the Hotel de Ville.  He shakes his head gloomily.

"And how are things here?" I question in turn.  "But
first of all are you still a Minister?"

"I?  Oh!  I am nobody!  Odilon Barrot is President of
the Council and Minister of the Interior."

"And Marshal Bugeaud?"

"He has also been replaced by Marshal Gerard.  But
that is nothing.  The Chamber has been dissolved, the
King has abdicated and is on his way to Saint Cloud, and
the Duchess d'Orleans is Regent.  Ah! the tide is rising,
rising, rising!"

M. Thiers advises us, M. Ernest Moreau and me, to come
to an understanding with M. Odilon Barrot.  Action by us
in our quarter, which is such an important one, can be of
very great utility.  We therefore set out for the Ministry
of the Interior.

The people have invaded the Ministry and crowded it to
the very office of the Minister, where a not over respectful
crowd comes and goes.  At a large table in the middle of
the vast room secretaries are writing.  M. Odilon Barrot
his face red, his lips compressed and his hands behind his
back, is leaning against the mantelpiece.

"You know what is going on, do you not?" he says
when he sees us; "the King has abdicated and the Duchess
d'Orleans is Regent."

"If the people so wills," says a man in a blouse who is
passing.

The Minister leads us to the recess of a window, looking
uneasily about him as he does so.

"What are you going to do?  What are you doing?" I
query.

"I am sending telegrams to the departments."

"Is this very urgent?"

"France must be informed of events."

"Yes, but meanwhile Paris is making events.  Alas!
has it finished making them?  The Regency is all very
well, but it has got to be sanctioned."

"Yes, by the Chamber.  The Duchess d'Orleans ought
to take the Count de Paris to the Chamber."

"No, since the Chamber has been dissolved.  If the
Duchess ought to go anywhere, it is to the Hotel de Ville."

"How can you think of such a thing!  What about the
danger?"

"There is no danger.  A mother, a child!  I will answer
for the people.  They will respect the woman in the
princess.

"Well, then, go to the Tuileries, see the Duchess
d'Orleans, advise her, enlighten her."

"Why do you not go yourself?"

"I have just come from there.  Nobody knew where the
Duchess was; I could not get near her.  But if you see her
tell her that I am at her disposal, that I await her orders.
Ah! Monsieur Victor Hugo, I would give my life for that
woman and for that child!"

Odilon Barrot is the most honest and the most devoted
man in the world, but he is the opposite of a man of action;
one feels trouble and indecision in his words, in his look, in
his whole person.

"Listen," he goes on, "what must be done, what is urgent,
is that the people should be made acquainted with
these grave changes, the abdication and Regency.  Promise
me that you will proclaim them at your mairie, in the
faubourg, and wherever you possibly can."

"I promise."

I go off, with M. Moreau, towards the Tuileries.

In the Rue Bellechasse are galloping horses.  A squadron
of dragoons flashes by and seems to be fleeing from a
man with bare arms who is running behind them and
brandishing a sword.

The Tuileries are still guarded by troops.  The Mayor
shows his sash and they let us pass.  At the gate the
concierge, to whom I make myself known, apprises us that
the Duchess d'Orleans, accompanied by the Duke de Nemours,
has just left the château with the Count de Paris,
no doubt to go to the Chamber of Deputies.  We have,
therefore, no other course than to continue on our way.

At the entrance to the Carrousel Bridge bullets whistle
by our ears.  Insurgents in the Place du Carrousel are
firing upon the court carriages leaving the stables.  One
of the coachmen has been killed on his box.

"It would be too stupid of us to stay here looking on
and get ourselves killed," says M. Ernest Moreau.  "Let
us cross the bridge."

We skirt the Institute and the Quai de la Monnaie.  At
the Pont Neuf we pass a band of men armed with pikes,
axes and rifles, headed by a drummer, and led by a man
brandishing a sabre and wearing a long coat of the King's
livery.  It is the coat of the coachman who has just been
killed in the Rue Saint Thomas du Louvre.

When we arrive, M. Moreau and I, at the Place Royale
we find it filled with an anxious crowd.  We are
immediately surrounded and questioned, and it is not without
some difficulty that we reach the Mairie.  The mass of
people is too compact to admit of our addressing them in the
Place.  I ascend, with the Mayor, a few officers of the
National Guard and two students of the Ecole Polytechnique,
to the balcony of the Mairie.  I raise my hand, the crowd
becomes silent as though by magic, and I say:

"My friends, you are waiting for news.  This is what we
know: M. Thiers is no longer Minister and Marshal Bugeaud
is no longer in command (applause).  They have
been replaced by Marshal Gerard and M. Odilon Barrot
(applause, but less general).  The Chamber has been
dissolved.  The King has abdicated (general cheering).  The
Duchess d'Orleans is Regent." (A few isolated bravos,
mingled with low murmurs.)

I continue:

"The name of Odilon Barrot is a guarantee that the
widest and most open appeal will be made to the nation;
and that you will have in all sincerity a representative
government."

My declaration is responded to with applause from several
points, but it appears evident that the great bulk of the
crowd is uncertain as to what view of the situation they
ought to take, and are not satisfied.

We re-enter the hall of the Mairie.

"Now," I say to M. Ernest Moreau, "I must go and
proclaim the news in the Place de la Bastille."

But the Mayor is discouraged.

"You can very well see that it is useless," he says sadly.
"The Regency is not accepted.  And you have spoken here
in a quarter where you are known and loved.  At the Bastille
your audience will be the revolutionary people of the
faubourg, who will perhaps harm you."

I will go," I say, "I promised Odilon Barrot that I would."

"I have changed my hat," the Mayor goes on, "but
remember my hat of this morning."

"This morning the army and the people were face to
face, and there was danger of a conflict; now, however, the
people are alone, the people are the masters."

"Masters--and hostile; have a care!"

"No matter, I have promised, and I will keep my promise.

I tell the Mayor that his place is at the Mairie and that
he ought to stay there.  But several National Guard officers
present themselves spontaneously and offer to accompany me,
among them the excellent M. Launaye, my former captain.  I
accept their friendly offer, and we form a little procession 
and proceed by the Rue du Pas de la Mule and the Boulevard
Beaumarchais towards the Place de la Bastille.



Here are a restless, eager crowd in which workingmen
predominate, many of them armed with rifles taken from
the barracks or given up to them by the soldiers; shouts
and the song of the Girondins: "Die for the fatherland!"
numerous groups debating and disputing passionately.
They turn round, they look at us, they interrogate us:

"What's the news?  What is going on?" And they follow
us.  I hear my name mentioned coupled with various
sentiments: "Victor Hugo!  It's Victor Hugo!"  A few
salute me.  When we reach the Column of July we are
surrounded by a considerable gathering.  In order that I may
be heard I mount upon the base of the column.

I will only repeat the words which it was possible for me
to make my turbulent audience hear.  It was much less a
speech than a dialogue, but the dialogue of one voice with
ten, twenty, a hundred voices more or less hostile.

I began by announcing at once the abdication of Louis
Philippe, and, as in the Place Royale, applause that was
practically unanimous greeted the news.  There were also,
however, cries of "No! no abdication, deposition! deposition!"
Decidedly, I was going to have my hands full.

When I announced the Regency violent protests arose:

"No! no! No Regency!  Down with the Bourbons!  Neither King
nor Queen!  No masters!"

I repeated: "No masters!  I don't want them any more
than you do.  I have defended liberty all my life."

"Then why do you proclaim the Regency?"

"Because a Queen-Regent is not a master.  Besides, I
have no right whatever to proclaim the Regency; I merely
announce it."

"No! no!  No Regency!"

A man in a blouse shouted: "Let the peer of France
be silent.  Down with the peer of France!" And he levelled
his rifle at me.  I gazed at him steadily, and raised
my voice so loudly that the crowd became silent: "Yes,
I am a peer of France, and I speak as a peer of France.
I swore fidelity, not to a royal personage, but to the
Constitutional Monarchy.  As long as no other government is
established it is my duty to be faithful to this one.  And I
have always thought that the people approved of a man
who did his duty, whatever that duty might be."

There was a murmur of approbation and here and there
a few bravos.  But when I endeavoured to continue: "If
the Regency--" the protests redoubled.  I was permitted
to take up only one of these protests.  A workman
had shouted: "We will not be governed by a woman."
I retorted quickly:

"Well, neither will I be governed by a woman, nor even
by a man.  It was because Louis Philippe wanted to govern
that his abdication is to-day necessary and just.  But a
woman who reigns in the name of a child!  Is that not a
guarantee against all thought of personal government?
Look at Queen Victoria in England--"

"We are French, we are!" shouted several voices.  "No
Regency!"

"No Regency?  Then, what?  Nothing is ready, nothing! It
means a total upheaval, ruin, distress, civil war,
perhaps; in any case, it is the unknown."

One voice, a single voice, cried: "Long live the Republic!"

No other voice echoed it.  Poor, great people, irresponsible
and blind!  They know what they do not want, but they do not
know what they do want.

From this moment the noise, the shouts, the menaces
became such that I gave up the attempt to get myself
heard.  My brave Launaye said: "You have done what
you wanted to, what you promised to do; the only thing
that remains for us to do is to withdraw."

The crowd opened before us, curious and inoffensive.
But twenty paces from the column the man who had
threatened me with his rifle came up with us and again
levelled his weapon at me, shouting: "Down with the
peer of France!"  "No, respect the great man!" cried a
young workman, who, with a quick movement, pushed the
rifle downward.  I thanked this unknown friend with a
wave of the hand and passed on.

At the Mairie, M. Ernest Moreau, who it appears had
been very anxious about us, received us with joy and
cordially congratulated me.  But I knew that even when their
passions are aroused the people are just; and not the
slightest credit was due to me, for I had not been uneasy
in the least.



While these things were happening in the Place de la
Bastille, this is what was taking place at the Palais
Bourbon:

There is at this moment a man whose name is in everybody's
mouth and the thought of whom is in everybody's
mind; that man is Lamartine.  His eloquent and vivid
_History of the Girondins_ has for the first time taught the
Revolution to France.  Hitherto he had only been illustrious;
he has become popular and may be said to hold
Paris in his hand.

In the universal confusion his influence could be decisive.
This is what they said to themselves in the offices of
the National, where the possible chances of the Republic
had been weighed, and where a scheme for a provisional
government had been sketched, from which Lamartine had
been left out.  In 1842, at the time of the debate over the
Regency which resulted in the choice of the Duke de Nemours,
Lamartine had pleaded warmly for the Duchess
d'Orleans.  Was he imbued with the same ideas to-day?
What did he want?  What would he do?  It was necessary that
this should be ascertained.  M. Armand Marrast,
the editor-in-chief of the National, took with him three
notorious Republicans, M. Bastide, M. Hetzel, the publisher,
and M. Bocage, the eminent comedian who created
the role of Didier in "Marion de Lorme."  All four went to
the Chamber of Deputies.  They found Lamartine there
and held a conference with him in one of the offices.

They all spoke in turn, and expressed their convictions
and hopes.  They would be happy to think that Lamartine
was with them for the immediate realization of the Republic.
If, however, he judged that the transition of the
Regency was necessary they asked him to at least aid them
in obtaining serious guarantees against any retrogression.
They awaited with emotion his decision in this great matter.

Lamartine listened to their reasons in silence, then requested
them to allow him a few minutes for reflection.
He sat apart from them at a table, leaned his head upon
his hands, and thought.  His four visitors, standing and
silent, gazed at him respectfully.  It was a solemn moment.
"We listened to history passing," said Bocage to me.

Lamartine raised his head and said: "I will oppose the Regency."

A quarter of an hour later the Duchess d'Orleans arrived at
the Chamber holding by the hand her two sons,
the Count de Paris and the Duke de Chartres.  M. Odilon.
Barrot was not with her.  The Duke de Nemours accompanied her.

She was acclaimed by the deputies.  But, the Chamber
having been dissolved, were there any deputies?

M. Crémieux ascended the tribune and flatly proposed
a provisional government.  M. Odilon Barrot, who had
been fetched from the Ministry of the Interior, made his
appearance at last and pleaded for the Regency, but without
éclat and without energy.  Suddenly a mob of people
and National Guards with arms and flags invaded the
chamber.  The Duchess d'Orleans, persuaded by her
friends, withdrew with her children.

The Chamber of Deputies then vanished, submerged by
a sort of revolutionary assembly.  Ledru-Rollin harangued
this crowd.  Next came Lamartine, who was awaited and
acclaimed.  He opposed the Regency, as he had promised.

That settled it.  The names for a provisional government
were proposed to the people.  And by shouts of "yes" or
"no" the people elected successively: Lamartine, Dupont
de l'Eure, Arago, and Ledru-Rollin unanimously, Crémieux,
Gamier-Pages, and Marie by a majority.

The new ministers at once set out for the Hotel de Ville.

At the Chamber of Deputies not once was the word
"Republic" uttered in any of the speeches of the orators,
not even in that of Ledru-Rollin.  But now, outside, in
the street, the elect of the people heard this words this
shout, everywhere.  It flew from mouth to mouth and filled
the air of Paris.

The seven men who, in these supreme and extreme days,
held the destiny of France in their hands were themselves
at once tools and playthings in the hands of the mob, which
is not the people, and of chance, which is not providence.
Under the pressure of the multitude; in the bewilderment
and terror of their triumph, which overwhelmed them, they
decreed the Republic without having time to think that
they were doing such a great thing.

When, having been separated and dispersed by the violent
pushing of the crowd, they were able to find each
other again and reassemble, or rather hide, in one of the
rooms of the Hotel de Ville, they took half a sheet of paper,
at the head of which were printed the words: "Prefecture
of the Seine.  Office of the Prefect."  M. de Rambuteau
may that very morning have used the other half of the
sheet to write a love-letter to one of his "little
bourgeoises," as he called them.

Under the dictation of terrible shouts outside Lamartine
traced this phrase:

"The Provisional Government declares that the Provisional
Government of France is the Republican Government, and
that the nation shall be immediately called upon
to ratify the resolution of the Provisional Government and
of the people of Paris."

I had this paper, this sheet smeared and blotted with
ink, in my hands.  It was still stamped, still palpitating,
so to speak, with the fever of the moment.  The words
hurriedly scribbled were scarcely formed.  ~Appelée~ was written
~appellée~.

When these half dozen lines had been written Lamartine
handed the sheet to Ledru-Rollin.

Ledru-Rollin read aloud the phrase: "The Provisional
Government declares that the Provisional Government of
France is the Republican Government--"

"The word 'provisional' occurs twice," he commented.

"That is so," said the others.

"One of them at least must be effaced," added Ledru-Rollin.

Lamartine understood the significance of this grammatical
observation, which was simply a political revolution.

"But we must await the sanction of France," he said.
"I can do without the sanction of France' cried Ledru-Rollin,
"when I have the sanction of the people."

"Of the people of Paris.  But who knows at present
what is the will of the people of France?" observed Lamartine.

There was an interval of silence.  The noise of the multitude
without sounded like the murmuring of the ocean.
Ledru-Rollin went on:

"What the people want is the Republic at once, the
Republic without waiting."

"The Republic without any delay?" said Lamartine,
covering an objection in this interpretation of
Ledru-Rollin's words.

"We are provisional," returned Ledru-Rollin, "but the
Republic is not!"

M. Crémieux took the pen from Lamartine's hands,
scratched out the word "provisional" at the end of the
third line and wrote beside it: "actual."

"The actual government?  Very well!" said Ledru-Rollin,
with a slight shrug of the shoulder.

The seal of the City of Paris was on the table.  Since
1830 the vessel sailing beneath a sky starred with
fleurs-de-lys and with the device, ~Proelucent clarius astris~, had
disappeared from the seal of the City.  The seal was merely
a circle with the words "Ville de Paris" in the centre.
Crémieux took the seal and stamped the paper so hastily with
it that the words appeared upside down.

But they did not sign this rough draught.  Their whereabouts
had been discovered; an impetuous stream was surging against
the door of the office in which they had taken
refuge.  The people were calling, ordering, them to go to
the meeting-hall of the Municipal Council.

There they were greeted by this clamour: "The Republic!  Long
live the Republic!  Proclaim the Republic!"  Lamartine, who
was at first interrupted by the cries, succeeded at length
with his grand voice in calming this feverish impatience.

The members of the Provisional Government were thus
enabled to return and resume their session and lively
discussion.  The more ardent ones wanted the document to
read: "The Provisional Government proclaims the Republic."
The moderates proposed: "The Provisional Government desires
the Republic."  A compromise was
reached on the proposition of M. Crémieux, and the sentence
was made to read: "The Provisional Government
"is for" the Republic."  To this was added: "subject to the
ratification of the people, who will be immediately consulted."

The news was at once announced to the crowds in the
meeting-hall and in the square outside, who would listen
to nothing but the word "republic," and saluted it with
tremendous cheering.

The Republic was established.  ~Alea jacta~, as Lamartine
observed later.




THE TWENTY-FIFTH.



During the morning everything at and in the neighbourhood
of the Mairie of the Eighth Arrondissement was
relatively calm, and the steps to maintain order taken the
previous day with the approval of M. Ernest Moreau appeared
to have assured the security of the quarter.*  I thought
I might leave the Place Royale and repair towards
the centre of the city with my son Victor.  The restlessness
and agitation of a people (of the people of Paris!) on
the morrow of a revolution was a spectacle that had an
irresistible attraction for me.

*  On the evening of the 24th, there had been reason to apprehend 
disturbances in the Eighth Arrondissement, disturbances particularly serious
in that they would not have been of a political character.  The prowlers
and evil-doers with hang-dog mien who seem to issue from the earth in
times of trouble were very much in evidence in the streets.  At the
Prison of La Force, in the Rue Saint Antoine, the common law criminals
had begun a revolt by locking up their keepers.  To what public
force could appeal be made?  The Municipal Guard had been disbanded,
the army was confined to barracks; as to the police, no one would have
known where to find them.  Victor Hugo, in a speech which this time
was cheered, confided life and property to the protection and devotedness
of the people.  A civic guard in blouses was improvised.  Empty
shops that were to let were transformed into guard houses, patrols were
organized and sentries posted.  The rebellious prisoners at La Force,
terrified by the assertion that cannon (which did not exist) had been
brought to bear upon the prison and that unless they surrendered
promptly and unconditionally they would be blown sky-high, submitted
quietly and returned to work.

The weather was cloudy, but mild, and the rain held
off.  The streets were thrilling with a noisy, joyous crowd.
The people continued with incredible ardour to fortify the
barricades that had already been constructed, and even to
build new ones.  Bands of them with flags flying and drums
beating marched about shouting "Long live the Republic!" and 
singing the "Marseillaise and Die for the Fatherland!"  The cafés were
crowded to overflowing, but many of the shops were closed,
as on holidays; and, indeed, the city did present a
holiday appearance.

I made my way along the quays to the Pont Neuf.
There, at the bottom of a proclamation I read the name of
Lamartine, and having seen the people, I experienced the
desire to see my great friend.  I therefore turned back
with Victor towards the Hotel de Ville.

As on the previous day, the square in front of the building
was filled with a crowd, and the crowd was so compact
that it immobilized itself.  It was impossible to approach the
steps of the front entrance.  After several attempts to get
somewhere near to them, I was about to force my way back
out of the crowd when I was perceived by M. Froment-Meurice,
the artist-goldsmith, brother of my young friend,
Paul Meurice.  He was a major of the National Guard,
and on duty with his battalion at the Hotel de Ville.
"Make way!" he shouted authoritatively.  "Make way
for Victor Hugo!"  And the human wall opened, how I
do not know, before his epaulettes.

The entrance once passed, M. Froment-Meurice guided
us up all sorts of stairways, and through corridors and
rooms encumbered with people.  As we were passing a
man came from a group, and planting himself in front of
me, said: "Citizen Victor Hugo, shout 'Long live the
Republic!'"

"I will shout nothing by order," said I.  "Do you
understand what liberty is?  For my part, I practise it.  I
will shout to-day 'Long live the people!' because it pleases
me to do so.  The day when I shout 'Long live the Republic!'
it will be because I want to."

"Hear! hear! He is right," murmured several voices.

And we passed on.

After many detours M. Froment-Meurice ushered us
into a small room where he left us while he went to inform
Lamartine that I wished to see him.

The glass door of the room gave on to a gallery, passing
along which I saw my friend David d'Angers, the great
statuary.  I called to him.  David, who was an old-time
Republican, was beaming.  "Ah! my friend, what a glorious
day!" he exclaimed.  He told me that the Provisional
Government had appointed him Mayor of the Eleventh
Arrondissement.  "They have sent for you for something of
the same kind, I suppose?" he said.  "No," I answered,
"I have not been sent for.  I came of my own accord just
to shake Lamartine's hand."

M. Froment-Meurice returned and announced that Lamartine
awaited me.  I left Victor in the room, telling him
to wait there till I came back, and once more followed my
obliging guide through more corridors that led to a vestibule
that was crowded with people.  "They are all office
seekers!" explained M. Froment-Meurice.  The Provisional
Government was holding a session in the adjoining
room.  The door was guarded by two armed grenadiers of
the National Guard, who were impassible, and deaf alike
to entreaties and menaces.  I had to force my way through
this crowd.  One of the grenadiers, on the lookout for me,
opened the door a little way to let me in.  The crowd
immediately made a rush and tried to push past the sentries,
who, however, aided by M. Froment-Meurice, forced them
back and closed the door behind me.

I was in a spacious hall that formed the angle of one of
the pavilions of the Hotel de Ville, and was lighted on two
sides by long windows.  I would have preferred to find
Lamartine alone, but there were with him, dispersed about
the room and talking to friends or writing, three or four
of his colleagues in the Provisional Government, Arago,
Marie, and Armand Marrast.  Lamartine rose as I entered.
On his frock-coat, which was buttoned up as usual, he wore
an ample tri-colour sash, slung across his shoulder.  He
advanced to meet me, and stretching out his hand, exclaimed:
"Ah! you have come over to us!  Victor Hugo is a strong
recruit indeed for the Republic."

"Not so fast, my friend," said I with a laugh.  "I have
come simply to see my friend Lamartine.  Perhaps you
are not aware of the fact that yesterday while you were
opposing the Regency in the Chamber, I was defending
it in the Place de la Bastille."

"Yesterday, that was all right; but to-day?  There is
now neither Regency nor Royalty.  It is impossible that
Victor Hugo is not at heart Republican."

"In principle, yes, I am.  The Republic is, in my opinion,
the only rational form of government, the only one worthy
of the nations.  The universal Republic is inevitable in the
natural course of progress.  But has its hour struck in
France?  It is because I want the Republic that I want it
to be durable and definitive.  You are going to consult the
nation, are you not?--the whole nation?"

"The whole nation, assuredly.  We of the Provisional
Government are all for universal suffrage."

At this moment Arago came up to us with M. Armand
Marrast, who held a folded paper in his hand.

"My dear friend," said Lamartine, "know that this
morning we selected you for Mayor of your arrondissement."

"And here is the patent signed by us all," said Armand
Marrast.

"I thank you," said I, "but I cannot accept it."

"Why?" continued Arago.  "These are non-political
and purely gratuitous functions."

"We were informed just now about the attempted revolt
at La Force," added Lamartine.  "You did better than
suppress it, you forestalled it.  You are loved and respected
in your arrondissement."

"My authority is wholly moral," I rejoined; "it could
but lose weight in becoming official.  Besides, on no
account would I dispossess M. Ernest Moreau, who has borne
himself loyally and valiantly throughout this trouble."

Lamartine and Arago insisted: "Do not refuse our brevet."

"Very well," said I, "I will take it--for the sake of the
autographs; but it is understood that I keep it in my
pocket."

"Yes, keep it," said Armand Marrast laughingly, "so
that you can say that one day you were ~pair~ and the next
day ~maire~."

Lamartine took me aside into the recess of a window.

"It is not a mairie I would like you to have, but a ministry.
Victor Hugo, the Republic's Minister of Instruction!
Come now, since you say that you are Republican!"

"Republican--in principle.  But in fact, I was yesterday
peer of France, I was yesterday for the Regency, and,
believing the Republic to be premature, I should be also
for the Regency to-day."

"Nations are above dynasties," went on Lamartine.  "I,
too, have been a Royalist."

"Yes, but you were a deputy, elected by the nation; I
was a peer, appointed by the King."

"The King in choosing you, under the terms of the
Constitution, in one of the categories from which the
Upper House was recruited, but honoured the peerage and also
honoured himself."

"I thank you," said I, "but you look at things from
the outside; I consider them in my conscience."

We were interrupted by the noise of a prolonged fusillade
which broke out suddenly on the square.  A bullet
smashed a window-pane above our heads.

"What is the matter now?" exclaimed Lamartine in
sorrowful tones.

M. Armand Marrast and M. Marie went out to see what
was going on.

"Ah! my friend," continued Lamartine, "how heavy
is this revolutionary power to bear!  One has to assume
such weighty and such sudden responsibilities before one's
conscience and in presence of history! I do not know how
I have been living during the past ten days.  Yesterday I
had a few grey hairs; to-morrow they will be white."

"Yes, but you are doing your duty as a man of genius
grandly," I commented.

In a few minutes M. Armand Marrast returned.

"It was not against us," he said.  "How the lamentable
affray came about could not be explained to me.  There
was a collision, the rifles went off, why?  Was it a
misunderstanding, was it a quarrel between Socialists and
Republicans?  No one knows."

"Are there any wounded?"

"Yes, and dead, too."

A gloomy silence followed.  I rose.  "You have no
doubt some measures to take?" I said.

"What measures?" answered Lamartine.  "This morning
we resolved to decree what you have already been able
to do on a small scale in your quarter: the organization of
the citizen's National Guard--every Frenchman a soldier
as well as a voter.  But time is required, and meanwhile--"
he pointed to the waves and eddies of heads
surging on the square outside--"look, it is the sea!"

A boy wearing an apron entered and spoke to him in
low tones.

"Ah! very good!" said Lamartine, "it is my luncheon.
Will you share it with me, Hugo?"

"Thanks, I have already lunched."

"I haven't and I am dying of hunger.  At least come
and look on at the feast; I will let you go, afterwards."

He showed me into a room that gave on to an interior
court-yard.  A gentle faced young man who was writing
at a table rose and was about to withdraw.  He was the
young workman whom Louis Blanc had had attached to the
Provisional Government.

"Stay where you are, Albert," said Lamartine, "I have
nothing of a private nature to say to Victor Hugo."

We saluted each other, M. Albert and I.

The little waiter showed Lamartine a table upon which
were some mutton cutlets in an earthenware dish, some
bread, a bottle of wine and a glass.  The whole came from
a wine-shop in the neighbourhood.

"Well," exclaimed Lamartine, "what about a knife and fork?"

"I thought you had knives and forks here," returned
the boy.  "I had trouble enough to bring the luncheon,
and if I have got to go and fetch knives and forks--"

"Pshaw!" said Lamartine, "one must take things as
they come!"

He broke the bread, took a cutlet by the bone and tore
the meat with his teeth.  When he had finished he threw
the bone into the fireplace.  In this manner he disposed of
three cutlets, and drank two glasses of wine.

"You will agree with me that this is a primitive repast!"
he said.  "But it is an improvement on our supper last night.
We had only bread and cheese among us, and we all drank
water from the same chipped sugar-bowl.  Which didn't,
it appears, prevent a newspaper this morning from
denouncing the great orgy of the Provisional Government!"



I did not find Victor in the room where he was to have
waited for me.  I supposed that, having become tired of
waiting, he had returned home alone.

When I issued on to the Place de Grève the crowd was
still excited and in a state of consternation at the
inexplicable collision that had occurred an hour before.  The
body of a wounded man who had just expired was carried
past me.  They told me that it was the fifth.  It was taken,
as the other bodies had been taken, to the Salle Saint Jean,
where the dead of the previous day to the number of over
a hundred had been exposed.

Before returning to the Place Royale I made a tour for
the purpose of visiting our guard-houses.  Outside the
Minimes Barracks a boy of about fifteen years, armed with
the rifle of a soldier of the line, was proudly mounting
guard.  It seemed to me that I had seen him there in the
morning or the day before.

"What!" I said, "are you doing sentry duty again?"

"No, not again; I haven't yet been relieved."

"You don't say so.  Why, how long have you been here?"

"Oh, about seventeen hours!"

"What! haven't you slept? Haven't you eaten?"

"Yes, I have had something to eat."

"You went to get it, of course?"

"No, I didn't, a sentry does not quit his post!  This
morning I shouted to the people in the shop across the way
that I was hungry, and they brought me some bread."

I hastened to have the brave child relieved from duty.

On arriving in the Place Royale I inquired for Victor.
He had not returned.  I was seized with a shudder of fear.
I do not know why the vision of the dead who had been
transported to the Salle Saint Jean should have come into
my mind.  What if my Victor had been caught in that
bloody affray?  I gave some pretext for going out again.
Vacquerie was there; I told him of my anguish in a whisper,
and he offered to accompany me.

First of all we called upon M. Froment-Meurice, whose
establishment was in the Rue Lobau, next to the Hotel de
Ville, and I asked him to have me admitted to the Salle
Saint Jean.  At first he sought to dissuade me from seeing
the hideous sight; he had seen it the previous day and was
still under the impression of the horror it inspired.  I
fancied his reluctance was a bad sign, that he was trying to
keep something from me.  This made me insist the more,
and we went.

In the large Salle Saint Jean, transformed into a vast
morgue, lay the long line of corpses upon camp bedsteads.
For the most part they were unrecognisable.  And I held
the dreadful review, quaking in my shoes when one of the
dead was young and slim with chestnut hair.  Yes, the
spectacle of the poor blood-stained dead was horrible
indeed!  But I could not describe it; all that I saw of each
body was that it was not that of my child.  At length I
reached the last one, and breathed freely once more.

As I issued from the lugubrious place I saw Victor, very
much alive, running towards me.  When he heard the firing
he had left the room where he was waiting for me, and not
being able to find his way back, had been to see a friend.




II.   EXPULSIONS AND ESCAPES.

May 3, 1848.



On February 24 the Duke and Duchess Decazes were
literally driven from the Luxembourg.  And by whom?
By the very denizens of the palace, all employés of the
Chamber of Peers, all appointed by the grand referendary.
A rumour was circulated in the quarter that during the
night the peers would commit some anti-revolutionary act,
publish a proclamation, etc.  The entire Faubourg Saint
Jacques prepared to march against the Luxembourg.
Hence, great terror.  First the Duke and Duchess were
begged, then pressed, then constrained to leave the palace.

"We will leave to-morrow.  We do not know where to
go.  Let us pass the night here," they said.

They were driven out.

They slept in a lodging-house.  Next day they took up
their abode at 9, Rue Verneuil.

M. Decazes was very ill.  A week before he had undergone
an operation.  Mme. Decazes bore it all with cheerfulness
and courage.  This is a trait of character that women
often display in trying situations brought about through
the stupidity of men.



The ministers escaped, but not without difficulty.  M.
Duchâtel, in particular, had a great fright.

M. Guizot, three days previously, had quitted the Hotel
des Capucines and installed himself at the Ministry of the
Interior.  He lived there ~en famille~ with M. Duchâtel.

On February 24, MM. Duchâtel and Guizot were about
to sit down to luncheon when an usher rushed in with a
frightened air.  The head of the column of rioters was
debouching from the Rue de Bourgogne.  The two ministers
left the table and managed to escape just in time by way
of the garden.  Their families followed them: M. Duchâtel's
young wife, M. Guizot's aged mother, and the children.

A notable thing about this flight was that the luncheon
of M. Guizot became the supper of M. Ledru-Rollin.  It
was not the first time that the Republic had eaten what
had been served to the Monarchy.

Meanwhile the fugitives had taken the Rue Bellechasse.
M. Guizot walked first, giving his arm to Mme. Duchâtel.
His fur-lined overcoat was buttoned up and his hat as usual
was stuck on the back of his head.  He was easily
recognisable.  In the Rue Hillerin-Bertin, Mme. Duchâtel noticed
that some men in blouses were gazing at M. Guizot in a
singular manner, She led him into a doorway.  It chanced
that she knew the doorkeeper.  They hid M. Guizot in an
empty room on the fifth floor.

Here M. Guizot passed the day, but he could not stay
there.  One of his friends remembered a bookseller, a great
admirer of M. Guizot, who in better days had often declared
that he would devote himself to and give his life for
him whom he called "a great man," and that he only hoped
the opportunity for doing so might present itself.  This
friend called upon him, reminded him of what he had said,
and told him that the hour had come.  The brave bookseller
did not fail in what was expected of him.  He placed
his house at M. Guizot's disposal and hid him there for ten
whole days.  At the end of that time the eight places in a
compartment of a carriage on the Northern Railway were
hired.  M. Guizot made his way to the station at nightfall.
The seven persons who were aiding in his escape entered
the compartment with him.  They reached Lille, then
Ostend, whence M. Guizot crossed over to England.

M. Duchâtel's escape was more complicated.

He managed to secure a passport as an agent of the Republic
on a mission.  He disguised himself, dyed his eye-brows,
put on blue spectacles, and left Paris in a post-chaise.
Twice he was stopped by National Guards in the towns
through which he passed.  With great audacity he declared
that he would hold responsible before the Republic those
who delayed him on his mission.  The word "Republic"
produced its effect.  They allowed the Minister to pass.
The Republic saved M. Duchâtel.

In this way he reached a seaport (Boulogne, I think),
believing that he was being hotly pursued, and very nervous
in consequence.  A Channel steamer was going to England.
He went on board at night.  He was installing himself for
the voyage when he was informed that the steamer would
not leave that night.  He thought that he had been
discovered and that he was a lost man.  The steamer had
merely been detained by the English Consul, probably to
facilitate, if necessary, the flight of Louis Philippe.  
M. Duchâtel landed again and spent the night and next day
in the studio of a woman painter who was devoted to him.

Then he embarked on another steamer.  He went
below at once and concealed himself as best he could
pending the departure of the vessel.  He scarcely dared to
breathe, fearing that at any moment he might be recognised
and seized.  At last the steamer got under way.  Hardly
had the paddle wheels begun to revolve, however, when
shouts of "Stop her! Stop her!"  were raised on the quay
and on the boat, which stopped short.  This time the poor
devil of a Minister thought it was all up with him.  The
hubbub was caused by an officer of the National Guard,
who, in taking leave of friends, had lingered too long on
deck, and did not want to be taken to England against his
will.  When he found that the vessel had cast off he had
shouted "Stop her! " and his family on the quay had taken
up the shout.  The officer was put ashore and the steamer
finally started.

This was how M. Duchâtel left France and reached England.




III.  LOUIS PHILIPPE IN EXILE.

May 3, 1848.



The Orleans family in England are literally in poverty;
they are twenty-two at table and drink water.  There is
not the slightest exaggeration in this.  Absolutely all they
have to live upon is an income of about 40,000 francs made
up as follows: 24,000 francs a year from Naples, which
came from Queen Marie Amélie, and the interest on a sum
of 340,000 francs which Louis Philippe had forgotten under
the following circumstances: During his last triumphal
voyage made in October, 1844, with the Prince de Joinville,
he had a credit of 500,000 francs opened for him with
a London banker.  Of this sum he spent only 160,000
francs.  He was greatly amazed and very agreeably surprised
on arriving in London to find that the balance of
the 500,000 francs remained at his disposal.

M. Vatout is with the Royal Family.  For the whole of
them there are but three servants, of whom one, and one
only, accompanied them from the Tuileries.  In this state
of destitution they demanded of Paris the restitution of
what belongs to them in France; their property is under
seizure, and has remained so notwithstanding their
reclamations.  For different reasons.  One of the motives put
forward by the Provisional Government is the debt of the
civil list, which amounts to thirty millions.  Queer ideas
about Louis Philippe were entertained.  He may have been
covetous, but he certainly was not miserly; he was the most
prodigal, the most extravagant and least careful of men:
he had debts, accounts and arrears everywhere.  He owed
700,000 francs to a cabinet-maker; to his market gardener
he owed 70,000 francs *for butter*.

Consequently none of the seals placed on the property
could be broken and everything is held to secure the
creditors--everything, even to the personal property of the
Prince and Princess de Joinville, rentes, diamonds, etc.,
even to a sum of 198,000 francs which belongs in her own
right to the Duchess d'Orleans.

All that the Royal Family was able to obtain was their
clothing and personal effects, or rather what could be found
of these.  Three long tables were placed in the theatre of
the Tuileries, and on these were laid out all that the
revolutionists of February had turned over to the governor of
the Tuileries, M. Durand Saint-Amand.  It formed a queer
medley--court costumes stained and torn, grand cordons of
the Legion of Honour that had been trailed through the
mud, stars of foreign orders, swords, diamond crowns, pearl
necklaces, a collar of the Golden Fleece, etc.  Each legal
representative of the princes, an aide-de-camp or secretary,
took what he recognised.  It appears that on the whole
little was recovered.  The Duke de Nemours merely asked
for some linen and in particular his heavy-soled shoes.

The Prince de Joinville, meeting the Duke de Montpensier,
greeted him thus: "Ah! here you are, Monsieur;
you were not killed, you have not had good luck!"

Gudin, the marine painter, who went to England, saw
Louis Philippe.  The King is greatly depressed.  He said
to Gudin: "I don't understand it.  What happened in
Paris?  What did the Parisians get into their heads?  I
haven't any idea.  One of these days they will recognise
that I did not do one thing wrong."  He did not, indeed,
do one thing wrong; he did all things wrong!

He had in fact reached an incredible degree of optimism;
he believed himself to be more of a king than Louis XIV.
and more of an emperor than Napoleon.  On Tuesday the
22nd he was exuberantly gay, and was still occupied
solely with his own affairs, and these of the pettiest
character.  At 2 o'clock when the first shots were being
fired, he was conferring with his lawyers and business
agents, MM. de Gérante, Scribe and Denormandie, as to
what could best be done about Madame Adelaide's will.  On
Wednesday, at 1 o'clock, when the National Guard was
declaring against the government, which meant revolution,
the King sent for M. Hersent to order of him a picture of
some kind.

Charles X. was a lynx.

Louis Philippe in England, however, bears his misfortune
worthily.  The English aristocracy acted nobly; eight
or ten of the wealthiest peers wrote to Louis Philippe
to offer him their châteaux and their purses.  The King
replied: "I accept and keep only your letters."

The Duchess d'Orleans is also in straitened circumstances.
She is on bad terms with the d'Orleans family
and the Mecklenburg family is on bad terms with her.  On
the one hand she will accept nothing, and on the other she
can expect nothing.



At this time of writing (May, 1848) the Tuileries have
already been repaired, and M. Empis remarked to me this
morning: "They are going to clean up and nothing of the
damage done will be apparent." Neuilly and the Palais-Royal,
however, have been devastated.  The picture gallery of the
Palais-Royal, a pretty poor one by the by, has
practically been destroyed.  Only a single picture remains
perfectly intact, and that is the Portrait of Philippe Egalité.
Was it purposely respected by the riot or is its preservation
an irony of chance?  The National Guards amused, and
still amuse, themselves by cutting out of the canvases that
were not entirely destroyed by fire faces to which they take
a fancy.




IV.  KING JEROME.



There entered my drawing-room in the Place Royale one
morning in March, 1848, a man of medium height, about
sixty-five or sixty-six years of age, dressed in black, a red
and blue ribbon in his buttonhole, and wearing
patent-leather boots and white gloves.  He was Jerome Napoleon,
King of Westphalia.

He had a very gentle voice, a charming though somewhat
timid smile, straight hair turning grey, and something
of the profile of the Emperor.

He came to thank me for the permission that had been
accorded to him to return to France, which he attributed
to me, and begged me to get him appointed Governor of
the Invalides.  He told me that M. Crémieux, one of the
members of the Provisional Government, had said to him
the previous day:

"If Victor Hugo asks Lamartine to do it, it will be done.
Formerly everything depended upon an interview between
two emperors; now everything depends upon an interview
between two poets."

"Tell M. Crémieux that it is he who is the poet," I
replied to King Jerome with a smile.



In November, 1848, the King of Westphalia lived on
the first floor above the entresol at No. 3, Rue d'Alger.  It
was a small apartment with mahogany furniture and woollen
velvet upholstering.

The wall paper of the drawing-room was grey.  The
room was lighted by two lamps and ornamented by a heavy
clock in the Empire style and two not very authentic pictures,
although the frame of one bore the name: "Titiens,"
and the frame of the other the name: "Rembrandt." On
the mantelpiece was a bronze bust of Napoleon, one of
those familiar and inevitable busts that the Empire
bequeathed us.

The only vestiges of his royal existence that remained
to the prince were his silverware and dinner service, which
were ornamented with royal crowns richly engraved and gilded.

Jerome at that time was only sixty-four years old, and
did not look his age.  His eyes were bright, his smile
benevolent and charming, and his hands small and still
shapely.  He was habitually attired in black with a gold
chain in his buttonhole from which hung three crosses, the
Legion of Honour, the Iron Crown, and his Order of
Westphalia created by him in imitation of the Iron Crown.

Jerome talked well, with grace always and often with
wit.  He was full of reminiscences and spoke of the Emperor
with a mingled respect and affection that was touching.
A little vanity was perceptible; I would have preferred pride.

Moreover he received with bonhomie all the varied
qualifications which were brought upon him by his strange
position of a man who was no longer king, no longer
proscribed, and yet was not a citizen.  Everybody addressed
him as he pleased.  Louis Philippe called him "Highness,"
M. Boulay de la Meurthe "Sire" or "Your Majesty,"
Alexandre Dumas "Monseigneur," I addressed him as
"Prince," and my wife called him "Monsieur." On his
card he wrote "General Bonaparte." In his place I would
have understood his position.  King or nothing.

                    ----------



RELATED BY KING JEROME.

In the evening of the day following that on which
Jerome, recalled from exile, returned to Paris, he had
vainly waited for his secretary, and feeling bored and
lonely, went out.  It was at the end of summer (1847).
He was staying at the house of his daughter, Princess
Demidoff, which was off the Champs-Elysées.

He crossed the Place de la Concorde, looking about him
at the statues, obelisk and fountains, which were new to the
exile who had not seen Paris for thirty-two years.  He
continued along the Quai des Tuileries.  I know not what
reverie took possession of his soul.  Arrived at the Pavillon
de Flore, he entered the gate, turned to the left, and began
to walk up a flight of stairs under the arch.  He had gone
up two or three steps when he felt himself seized by the
arm.  It was the gatekeeper who had run after him.

"Hi! Monsieur, monsieur, where are you going?"

Jerome gazed at him in astonishment and replied:

"Why, to my apartments, of course!"

Hardly had he uttered the words, however, when he
awoke from his dream.  The past had bewitched him for a
moment.  In recounting the incident to me he said:

"I went away shamefacedly, and apologizing to the porter."




V.  THE DAYS OF JUNE.



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.


The insurrection of June presented peculiar features
from the outset.* It suddenly manifested itself to terrified
society in monstrous and unknown forms.

*  At the end of June, four months after the proclamation of the
Republic, regular work had come to a standstill and the useless
workshops known as the "national workshops" had been abolished by the
National Assembly.  Then the widespread distress prevailing caused the
outbreak of one of the most formidable insurrections recorded in history.
The power at that time was in the hands of an Executive Committee of
five members, Lamartine, Arago, Ledru Rollin, Garnier-Pages and
Marie. General Cavaignac was Minister of War.

The first barricade was erected in the morning of Friday,
the 23rd, at the Porte Saint Denis.  It was attacked the
same day.  The National Guard marched resolutely against
it.  The attacking force was made up of battalions of the
First and Second Legions, which arrived by way of the
boulevards.  When the assailants got within range a
formidable volley was fired from the barricade, and littered
the ground with National Guards.  The National Guard,
more irritated than intimidated, charged the barricade.

At this juncture a woman appeared upon its crest, a
woman young, handsome, dishevelled, terrible.  This
woman, who was a prostitute, pulled up her clothes to her
waist and screamed to the guards in that frightful language
of the lupanar that one is always compelled to translate:

"Cowards! fire, if you dare, at the belly of a woman!"
Here the affair became appalling.  The National Guard
did not hesitate.  A volley brought the wretched creature
down, and with a piercing shriek she toppled off the
barricade.  A silence of horror fell alike upon besiegers
and besieged.

Suddenly another woman appeared.  This one was even
younger and more beautiful; she was almost a child, being
barely seventeen years of age.  Oh! the pity of it!  She,
too, was a street-walker.  Like the other she lifted her skirt,
disclosed her abdomen, and screamed: "Fire, brigands!"
They fired, and riddled with bullets she fell upon the body
of her sister in vice.

It was thus that the war commenced.

Nothing could be more chilling and more sombre.  It is
a hideous thing this heroism of abjection in which bursts
forth all that weakness has of strength; this civilization
attacked by cynicism and defending itself by barbarity.  On
one side the despair of the people, on the other the despair
of society.

On Saturday the 24th, at 4 o'clock in the morning, I, as
a Representative of the people, was at the barricade in the
Place Baudoyer that was defended by the troops.

The barricade was a low one.  Another, narrow and high,
protected it in the street.  The sun shone upon and
brightened the chimney-tops.  The tortuous Rue Saint Antoine
wound before us in sinister solitude.

The soldiers were lying upon the barricade, which was
little more than three feet high.  Their rifles were stacked
between the projecting paving-stones as though in a rack.
Now and then bullets whistled overhead and struck the
walls of the houses around us, bringing down a shower
of stone and plaster.  Occasionally a blouse, sometimes a
cap-covered head, appeared at the corner of a street.  The
soldiers promptly fired at it.  When they hit their mark
they applauded "Good!  Well aimed!  Capital!"

They laughed and chatted gaily.  At intervals there
was a rattle and roar, and a hail of bullets rained upon the
barricade from roofs and windows.  A very tall captain
with a grey moustache stood erect at the centre of the
barrier, above which half his body towered.  The bullets
pattered about him as about a target.  He was impassible
and serene and spoke to his men in this wise:

"There, children, they are firing.  Lie down.  Look out,
Laripaud, you are showing your head.  Reload!"

All at once a woman turned the corner of a street.  She
came leisurely towards the barricade.  The soldiers swore
and shouted to her to get out of the way:

"Ah! the strumpet!  Will you get out of that you
w--!  Shake a leg, damn you!  She's coming to
reconnoitre.  She's a spy!  Bring her down.  Down with
the moucharde!"

The captain restrained them:

"Don't shoot, it's a woman!"

After advancing about twenty paces the woman, who
really did seem to be observing us, entered a low door which
closed behind her.

This one was saved.



At 11 o'clock I returned from the barrier in the Place
Baudoyer and took my usual place in the Assembly.  A
Representative whom I did not know, but who I have since
learned was M. Belley, engineer, residing in the Rue des
Tournelles, came and sat beside me and said:

"Monsieur Victor Hugo, the Place Royale has been
burned.  They set fire to your house.  The insurgents
entered by the little door in the Cul-de-sac Guéménée."

"And my family?"  I inquired.

"They are safe."

"How do you know?"

"I have just come from there.  Not being known I was
able to get over the barricades and make my way here.
Your family first took refuge in the Mairie.  I was there,
too.  Seeing that the danger was over I advised Mme. Victor
Hugo to seek some other asylum.  She found shelter with
her children in the home of a chimney-sweep named Martignon
who lives near your house, under the arcades."

I knew that worthy Martignon family.  This reassured me.

"And how about the riot?"  I asked.

"It is a revolution," replied M. Belley.  "The insurgents
are in control of Paris at this moment."



I left M. Belley and hurriedly traversed the few rooms
that separated the hall in which we held our sessions and
the office occupied by the Executive Committee.

It was a small salon belonging to the presidency, and was
reached through two rooms that were smaller still.  In these
ante-chambers was a buzzing crowd of distracted officers
and National Guards.  They made no attempt to prevent
any one from entering.

I opened the door of the Executive Committee's office.
Ledru-Rollin, very red, was half seated on the table.  M.
Gamier-Pages, very pale, and half reclining in an armchair,
formed an antithesis to him.  The contrast was complete:
Garnier-Pagès thin and bushy-haired, Ledru-Rollin
stout and close-cropped.  Two or three colonels, among
them Representative Charras, were conversing in a corner.
I only recall Arago vaguely.  I do not remember whether
M. Marie was there.  The sun was shining brightly.

Lamartine, standing in a window recess on the left, was
talking to a general in full uniform, whom I saw for the
first and last time, and who was Négrier.  Négrier was
killed that same evening in front of a barricade.

I hurried to Lamartine, who advanced to meet me.  He
was wan and agitated, his beard was long, his clothes were
dusty.

He held out his hand: "Ah! good morning, Hugo!"

Here is the dialogue that we engaged in, every word of
which is still fresh in my memory:

"What is the situation, Lamartine?"

"We are done for!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that in a quarter of an hour from now the Assembly
will be invaded."

(Even at that moment a column of insurgents was coming
down the Rue de Lille.  A timely charge of cavalry
dispersed it.)

"Nonsense!  What about the troops?"

"There are no troops!"

"But you said on Wednesday, and yesterday repeated,
that you had sixty thousand men at your disposal."

"So I thought."

"Well, but you musn't give up like this.  It is not only
you who are at stake, but the Assembly, and not only the
Assembly, but France, and not only France, but the whole
of civilization.  Why did you not issue orders yesterday to
have the garrisons of the towns for forty leagues round
brought to Paris?  That would have given you thirty
thousand men at once."

"We gave the orders--"

"Well?"

"The troops have not come!"

Lamartine took my hand and said;

"I am not Minister of War!"

At this moment a few representatives entered noisily.
The Assembly had just voted a state of siege.  They told
Ledru-Rollin and Garnier-Pages so in a few words.

Lamartine half turned towards them and said in an
undertone:

"A state of siege!  A state of siege!  Well, declare it
if you think it is necessary.  I have nothing to say!"

He dropped into a chair, repeating:

"I have nothing to say, neither yes nor no.  Do what
you like!"

General Négrier came up to me.

"Monsieur Victor Hugo," he said, "I have come to
reassure you; I have received news from the Place
Royale."

"Well, general?"

"Your family are safe."

"Thanks! Yes, I have just been so informed."

"But your house has been burnt down."

"What does that matter?" said I.

Négrier warmly pressed my arm:

"I understand you.  Let us think only of one thing.
Let us save the country!"

As I was withdrawing Lamartine quitted a group and
came to me.

"Adieu," he said.  "But do not forget this: do not
judge me too hastily; I am not the Minister of War."

The day before, as the riot was spreading, Cavaignac,
after a few measures had been taken, said to Lamartine:

"That's enough for to-day."

It was 5 o'clock.

"What!"  exclaimed Lamartine.  "Why, we have still
four hours of daylight before us!  And the riot will profit
by them while we are losing them!"

He could get nothing from Cavaignac except:

"That's enough for to-day!"



On the 24th, about 3 o'clock, at the most critical moment,
a Representative of the people, wearing his sail
across his shoulder, arrived at the Mairie of the Second
Arrondissement, in the Rue Chauchat, behind the Opera.
He was recognised.  He was Lagrange.

The National Guards surrounded him.  In a twinkling
the group became menacing:

"It is Lagrange! the man of the pistol shot!* What
are you doing here?  You are a coward!  Get behind the
barricades.  That is your place--your friends are
there--and not with us!  They will proclaim you their chief; go
on!  They at any rate are brave!  They are giving their
blood for your follies; and you, you are afraid!  You have
a dirty duty to do, but at least do it!  Get out of here!
Begone!"

*  It was popularly but erroneously believed that Lagrange fired the
shot that led to the massacre in the Boulevard des Capucines on
February 23.

Lagrange endeavoured to speak.  His voice was drowned
by hooting.

This is how these madmen received the honest man who
after fighting for the people wanted to risk his life for
society.



June 25.

The insurgents were firing throughout the whole length
of the Boulevard Beaumarchais from the tops of the new
houses.  Several had ambushed themselves in the big house
in course of construction opposite the Galiote.  At the
windows they had stuck dummies,--bundles of straw with
blouses and caps on them.

I distinctly saw a man who had entrenched himself behind
a barricade of bricks in a corner of the balcony on the
fourth floor of the house which faces the Rue du
Pont-aux-Choux.  The man took careful aim and killed a good many
persons.

It was 3 o'clock.  The troops and mobiles fringed the
roofs of the Boulevard du Temple and returned the fire
of the insurgents.  A cannon had just been drawn up in
front of the Gaité to demolish the house of the Galiote and
sweep the whole boulevard.

I thought I ought to make an effort to put a stop to the
bloodshed, if possible, and advanced to the corner of the
Rue d'Angoulême.  When I reached the little turret near
there I was greeted with a fusillade.  The bullets pattered
upon the turret behind me, and ploughed up the playbills
with which it was covered.  I detached a strip of paper as
a memento.  The bill to which it belonged announced for
that very Sunday a fête at the Château des Flours, "with
a thousand lanterns."

          *         *          *          *          *

For four months we have been living in a furnace.
What consoles me is that the statue of the future will issue
from it.  It required such a brazier to melt such a bronze.





VI. CHATEAUBRIAND.



July 5, 1848.

Chateaubriand is dead.  One of the splendours of this
century has passed away.

He was seventy-nine years old according to his own
reckoning; according to the calculation of his old friend
M. Bertin, senior, he was eighty years of age.  But he had
a weakness, said M. Bertin, and that was that he insisted
that he was born not in 1768, but in 1769, because that
was the year of Napoleon's birth.

He died yesterday, July 4, at 8 o'clock in the morning.  For
five or six months he had been suffering from
paralysis which had almost destroyed his brain, and for
five days from inflammation of the lungs, which abruptly
snuffed out his life.

M. Ampere announced the news to the Academy, which
thereupon decided to adjourn.

I quitted the National Assembly, where a questor to succeed
General Négrier, who was killed in June, was being
nominated, and went to M. de Chateaubriand's house, No.
110, Rue du Bac.

I was received by M. de Preuille, son-in-law of his
nephew.  I entered Chateaubriand's chamber.

He was lying upon his bed, a little iron bedstead with
white curtains round it and surmounted by an iron curtain
ring of somewhat doubtful taste.  The face was uncovered;
the brow, the nose, the closed eyes, bore that expression
of nobleness which had marked him in life, and which was
enhanced by the grave majesty of death.  The mouth and
chin were hidden by a cambric handkerchief.  On his head
was a white cotton nightcap which, however, allowed the
grey hair on his temples to be seen.  A white cravat rose
to his ears.  His tawny visage appeared more severe amid
all this whiteness.  Beneath the sheet his narrow, hollow
chest and his thin legs could be discerned.

The shutters of the windows giving on to the garden were
closed.  A little daylight entered through the half-opened
door of the salon.  The chamber and the face were illumined
by four tapers which burned at the corners of a table
placed near the bed.  On this table were a silver crucifix,
a vase filled with holy water, and an aspergillum.  Beside
it a priest was praying.

Behind the priest a large brown-coloured screen hid the
fireplace, above which the mantel-glass and a few engravings
of churches and cathedrals were visible.

At Chateaubriand's feet, in the angle formed by the bed
and the wall of the room, were two wooden boxes, placed
one upon the other.  The largest I was told contained the
complete manuscript of his Memoirs, in forty-eight
copybooks.  Towards the last there had been such disorder in
the house that one of the copybooks had been found that
very morning by M. de Preuille in a dark and dirty closet
where the lamps were cleaned.

A few tables, a wardrobe, and a few blue and green
armchairs in disorder encumbered more than they furnished
the room.

The adjoining salon, the furniture of which was hidden
under unbleached covers, contained nothing more remarkable
than a marble bust of Henry V. and a full-length
statuette of Chateaubriand, which were on the mantelpiece,
and on each side of a window plaster busts of Mme.
de Berri and her infant child.



Towards the close of his life Chateaubriand was almost
in his second childhood.  His mind was only lucid for about
two or three hours a day, at least so M. Pilorge, his former
secretary, told me.

When in February he was apprised of the proclamation
of the Republic he merely remarked: "Will you be any
the happier for it?"

When his wife died he attended the funeral service and
returned laughing heartily--which, said Pilorge, was a
proof that he was of weak mind.  "A proof that he was in
his right mind!"  affirmed Edouard Bertin.

Mme. de Chateaubriand's benevolence was official, which
did not prevent her from being a shrew at home.  She
founded a hospice--the Marie Thérèse Infirmary--visited
the poor, succoured the sick, superintended crêches,
gave alms and prayed; at the same time she was harsh
towards her husband, her relatives, her friends, and her
servants, and was sour-tempered, stern, prudish, and a
backbiter.  God on high will take these things into account.

She was ugly, pitted with small-pox, had an enormous
mouth, little eyes, was insignificant in appearance, and
acted the ~grande dame~, although she was rather the wife
of a great man than of a great lord.  By birth she was only
the daughter of a ship-owner of Saint Malo.  M. de
Chateaubriand feared, detested, and cajoled her.

She took advantage of this to make herself insupportable
to mere human beings.  I have never known anybody less
approachable or whose reception of callers was more
forbidding.  I was a youth when I went to M. de
Chateaubriand's.  She received me very badly, or rather she
did not receive me at all.  I entered and bowed, but Mme.
de Chateaubriand did not see me.  I was scared out of my
wits.  These terrors made my visits to M. de Chateaubriand
veritable nightmares which oppressed me for fifteen days
and fifteen nights in advance.  Mme. de Chateaubriand hated
whoever visited her husband except through the doors that she
opened.  She had not presented me to him, therefore she
hated me.  I was perfectly odious to her, and she showed it.

Only once in my life and in hers did Mme. de Chateaubriand
receive me graciously.  One day I entered, poor
little devil, as usual most unhappy, with affrighted
schoolboy air and twisting my hat about in my hands.  M. de
Chateaubriand at that time still lived at No. 27, Rue Saint
Dominique.

I was frightened at everything there, even at the servant
who opened the door.  Well, I entered.  Mme. de Chateaubriand
was in the salon leading to her husband's study.  It
was a summer morning.  There was a ray of sunshine on
the floor, and what dazzled and astonished me much more
than the ray of sunshine was a smile on Mme. de Chateaubriand's
face.  "Is that you, Monsieur Victor Hugo?" she said.  I
thought I was in the midst of a dream of the
_Arabian Nights_.  Mme. de Chateaubriand smiling!
Mme. de Chateaubriand knowing my name, addressing me by
name! It was the first time that she
had deigned to notice my existence.  I bowed so low
that my head nearly touched the floor.  She went on: "I
am delighted to see you." I could not believe my ears.
"I was expecting you," she continued.  "It is a long time
since you called." I thought then that there certainly
must be something the matter either with her or myself.
However, she pointed to a rather large object of some kind
on a little table, and added: "I reserved this for you.  I
felt sure you would like to have it.  You know what it is?"
It was a pile of packets of chocolate made by some religious
institution.  She had taken the stuff under her protection
and the proceeds of its sale were to be devoted to charitable
works.  I took it and paid for it.  At that time I had to live
for fifteen months on 800 francs.  The Catholic chocolate
and Mme. de Chateaubriand's smile cost me 15 francs; that
is to say, a fortnight's board.  Fifteen francs meant as much
to me then as 1,500 francs does now.

It was the most costly smile of a woman that ever was
sold to me.



M. de Chateaubriand, at the beginning of 1847, was a
paralytic; Mme. Récamier was blind.  Every day at 3
o'clock M. de Chateaubriand was carried to Mme. Recamier's
bedside.  It was touching and sad.  The woman
who could no longer see stretched forth her hands
gropingly towards the man who could no longer feel; their
hands met.  God be praised!  Life was dying, but love still
lived.




VII.  DEBATES IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ON THE DAYS OF JUNE.



SESSION OF NOVEMBER 25, 1848.


What had to be determined before the Assembly and
the country was upon whom devolved the heavy responsibility
for the painful days of June.  The Executive Committee was
then in power; ought it not to have foreseen
and provided against the insurrection?  General Cavaignac,
Minister of War, and, moreover, invested with dictatorial
powers by the National Assembly, had alone issued orders.

Had he issued them in time?  Could he not have crushed
the riot at the outset instead of permitting it to gain
strength, spread and develop into an insurrection?  And,
finally, had not the repression which followed victory been
unnecessarily bloody, if not inhuman?

As the time for rendering an account approached
Cavaignac became thoughtful and his ill-humour was
manifest even in the Chamber.

One day Crémieux took his seat on the ministerial bench,
whence he approved with an occasional "Hear!  Hear!"
the remarks of the orator who occupied the tribune.  The
speaker chanced to belong to the Opposition.

"Monsieur Crémieux," said Cavaignac, "you are making
a good deal of noise."

"What does that matter to you?"  replied Crémieux.

"It matters that you are on the ministerial bench."

"Do you want me to leave it?"

"Well--"

Cremieux rose and quitted his bench, saying as he did so:

"General, you compel me to leave the Cabinet, and it
was through me that you entered it."

Crémieux, in point of fact, had, as a member of the
Provisional Government, had Cavaignac appointed Minister of
War.

During the three days that preceded the debate, which
had been fixed for the 25th, the Chamber was very nervous
and uneasy.  Cavaignac's friends secretly trembled and
sought to make others tremble.  They said: "You will
see!"  They affected assurance.  Jules Favre having
alluded in the tribune to the "great and solemn debate"
which was to take place, they burst into a laugh.  M.
Coquerel, the Protestant pastor, happening to meet
Cavaignac in the lobby, said to him: "Keep yourself in hand,
General!"  "In a quarter of an hour," replied Cavaignac
with flashing eyes, "I shall have swept these wretches
away!"  These wretches were Lamartine, Gamier-Pages,
and Arago.  There was some doubt about Arago, however.
It was said that he was rallying to Cavaignac.  Meanwhile
Cavaignac had conferred the cross of the Legion of
Honour upon the Bishop of Quimper, the Abbé Legraverand,
who had accepted it.

"A cross for a vote," was the remark made in the Chamber.
And these reversed roles, a general giving a cross to
a bishop, caused much amusement.



In reality we are in the midst of a quarrel over the
presidency.  The candidates are shaking their fists at each
other.  The Assembly hoots, growls, murmurs, stamps its feet,
crushes one, applauds the other.

This poor Assembly is a veritable ~fille a soldats~, in love
with a trooper.  For the time being it is Cavaignac.

Who will it be to-morrow?



General Cavaignac proved himself to be clever, and
occasionally even eloquent.  His defence partook more of the
character of an attack.  Frequently he appeared to me to
be sincere because he had for so long excited my suspicion.
The Assembly listened to him for nearly three hours with
rapt attention.  Throughout it was evident that he possessed
its confidence.  Its sympathy was shown every moment, and
sometimes it manifested a sort of love for him.

Cavaignac, tall and supple, with his short frock-coat, his
military collar, his heavy moustache, his bent brow, his
brusque language, broken up by parentheses, and his
rough gestures, was at times at once as fierce as a soldier
and as passionate as a tribune.  Towards the middle of his
discourse he became an advocate, which, as far as I was
concerned, spoiled the man; the harangue became a speech
for the defence.  But at its conclusion he roused himself
again with a sort of real indignation.  He pounded on the
desk with his fist and overturned the glass of water, much
to the consternation of the ushers, and in terminating he
said:

"I have been speaking for I know not how long; I will
speak again all the evening, all night, all day to-morrow,
if necessary, and it will no longer be as an advocate, but as
a soldier, and you will listen to me!"

The whole Assembly applauded him enthusiastically.



M.  Barthélemy Saint Hilaire, who attacked Cavaignac,
was an orator cold, rigid, somewhat dry and by no means
equal to the task, his anger being without fierceness and
his hatred without passion.  He began by reading a
memoir, which always displeases assemblies.  The Assembly,
which was secretly ill-disposed and angry, was eager to
crush him.  It only wanted pretexts; he furnished it with
motives.  The grave defect in his memoir was that serious
accusations were built upon petty acts, a surcharge that
caused the whole system to bend.  This little pallid man
who continually raised one leg behind him and leaned
forward with his two hands on the edge of the tribune as
though he were gazing down into a well, made those who
did not hiss laugh.  Amid the uproar of the Assembly he
affected to write at considerable length in a copybook,
to dry the ink by sprinkling powder upon it, and with great
deliberation to pour the powder back into the powder-box,
thus finding means to increase the tumult with his
calmness.  When M. Barthélemy Saint Hilaire descended from
the tribune, Cavaignac had only been attacked.  He had
not then replied, yet was already absolved.



M. Garnier-Pagès, tried Republican and honest man,
but with a substratum of vanity and an emphatic manner,
succeeded M. Barthélemy Saint Hilaire.  The Assembly
tried to crush him, too, but he rose again amid murmurs.
He reminded his hearers of his past, invoked recollections
of the Salle Voisin, compared the henchmen of Cavaignac
to the henchmen of Guizot, bared his breast "which had
braved the poignards of the Red Republic," and ended by
resolutely attacking the general, with too few facts and too
many words, but fairly and squarely, taking him, so to
speak, as the Bible urges that the bull be taken, by the
horns.

Garnier-Pages propped up the accusation that had almost
been laid low.  He brought the personal pronoun much too
frequently into the discussion; he acted ill-advisedly, for
everybody's personality ought to have been effaced in view
of the seriousness of the debate and the anxiety of the
country.  He turned to all sides with a sort of disconsolate
fury; he summoned Arago to intervene, Ledru-Rollin to
speak, Lamartine to explain.  All three remained silent,
thus failing in their duty and destiny.

The Assembly, however, pursued Garnier-Pages with its
hooting, and when he said to Cavaignac: "You wanted to
throw us down," it burst into a laugh, at the sentiment
as well as at the expression.  Garnier-Pages gazed at the
laughing house with an air of despair.

From all sides came shouts of: "The closure!"

The Assembly had reached a state in which it would not
listen and could no longer hear.

M. Ledru-Rollin appeared in the tribune.

From every bench the cry arose: "At last!"

Silence ensued.

Ledru-Rollin's speech had a physical effect as it were;
it was coarse, but powerful.  Garnier-Pages had pointed
out the General's political shortcomings; Ledru-Rollin
pointed out his military shortcomings.  With the vehemence
of the tribune he mingled all the skill of the advocate.
He concluded with an appeal for mercy for the
offender.  He shook Cavaignac's position.

When he resumed his seat between Pierre Leroux and
de Lamennais, a man with long grey hair, and attired in a
white frock-coat, crossed the Chamber and shook
Ledru-Rollin's hand.  He was Lagrange.



Cavaignac for the fourth time ascended the tribune.  It
was half past 10 o'clock at night.  The noise of the crowd
and the evolutions of the cavalry on the Place de la
Concorde could be heard.  The aspect of the Assembly was
becoming sinister.

Cavaignac, who was tired, had decided to assume a
haughty attitude.  He addressed the Mountain and defied
it, declaring to the mountaineers, amid the cheers of the
majority and of the reactionaries, that he at all times
preferred "their abuse to their praise." This appeared to be
violent and was clever; Cavaignac lost the Rue Taitbout,
which represented the Socialists, and won the Rue de
Poitiers, which represented the Conservatives.

After this apostrophe he remained a few moments motionless,
then passed his hand over his brow.

The Assembly shouted to him:

"Enough!  Enough!"

He turned towards Ledru-Rollin and exclaimed:

"You said that you had done with me.  It is I who have
done with you.  You said: 'For some time.' I say to you:
'For ever!'"

It was all over.  The Assembly wanted to close the debate.



Lagrange ascended the tribune and gesticulated amid
hoots and hisses.  Lagrange was at once a popular and
chivalrous declaimer, who expressed true sentiments in a
forced voice.

"Representatives," said he, "all this amuses you; well,
it doesn't amuse me!"

The Assembly roared with laughter, and the roar of
laughter continued throughout the remainder of his
discourse.  He called M. Landrin M. Flandrin, and the gaiety
became delirious.

I was among those whom this gaiety made heavy at
heart, for I seemed to hear the sobs of the people above
these bursts of hilarity.



During this uproar a list which was being covered with
signatures and which bore an order of the day proposed by
M. Dupont de l'Eure, was passed round the benches.

Dupont de l'Eure, bent and tottering, read from the
tribune, with the authority of his eighty years, his own
order of the day, amid a deep silence that was broken at
intervals by cheers.

The order of the day, which was purely and simply a
reiteration of the declaration of June 28: "General
Cavaignac has merited well of the fatherland," was adopted
by 503 votes to 34.



Mine was among the thirty-four.  While the votes were
being counted, Napoleon Bonaparte, son of Jerome, came
up to me and said:

"I suppose you abstained?"

"From speaking, yes; from voting, no," I replied.

"Ah!"  he went on.  "We ourselves abstained from
voting.  The Rue de Poitiers also abstained."

I took his hand and said:

"You are free to do as you like.  For my part I am not
abstaining.  I am judging Cavaignac, and the country is
judging me.  I want the fullest light thrown upon my
actions, and my votes are my actions."






1849.

I.   THE JARDIN D'HIVER.
II.  GENERAL BREA'S MURDERERS.
III. THE SUICIDE OF ANTONIN MOYNE.
IV.  A VISIT TO THE OLD CHAMBER OF PEERS.





THE JARDIN D'HIVER.

FEBRUARY, 1849.



In February, 1849, in the midst of the prevailing sorrow
and terror, fetes were given.  People danced to help the
poor.  While the cannon with which the rioters were
threatened on January 29, were, so to speak, still trained
ready for firing, a charity ball attracted all Paris to the
Jardin d'Hiver.

This is what the Jardin d'Hiver was like:

A poet had pictured it in a word: "They have put summer
under a glass case!"  It was an immense iron cage
with two naves forming a cross, as large as four or five
cathedrals and covered with glass.  Entrance to it was
through a gallery of wood decorated with carpets and
tapestry.

On entering, the eyes were at first dazzled by a flood of
light.  In the light all sorts of magnificent flowers, and
strange trees with the foliage and altitudes of the tropics,
could be seen.  Banana trees, palm trees, cedars, great leaves,
enormous thorns, and queer branches twisted and mingled
as in a virgin forest.  The forest alone was virgin there,
however.  The prettiest women and the most beautiful
girls of Paris whirled in this illumination ~a giorno~ like a
swarm of bees in a ray of sunshine.

Above this gaily dressed throng was an immense resplendent
chandelier of brass, or rather a great tree of gold
and flame turned upside down which seemed to have its
roots in the glass roof, and whose sparkling leaves hung
over the crowd.  A vast ring of candelabra, torch-holders
and girandoles shone round the chandelier, like the
constellations round the sun.  A resounding orchestra perched
high in a gallery made the glass panes rattle harmoniously.

But what made the Jardin d'Hiver unique was that
beyond this vestibule of light and music and noise, through
which one gazed as through a vague and dazzling veil, a
sort of immense and tenebrous arch, a grotto of shadow
and mystery, could be discerned.  This grotto in which
were big trees, a copse threaded with paths and clearings,
and a fountain that showered its water-diamonds in sparkling
spray, was simply the end of the garden.  Red dots
that resembled oranges of fire shone here and there amid
the foliage.  It was all like a dream.  The lanterns in the
copse, when one approached them, became great luminous
tulips mingled with real camellias and roses.

One seated one's self on a garden seat with one's feet in
the grass and moss, and one felt the warmth arising from a
heat-grating beneath this grass and this moss; one happened
upon an immense fireplace in which half the trunk
of a tree was burning, in proximity to a clump of bushes
shivering in the rain of a fountain.  There were lamps
amid the flowers and carpets in the alleys.  Among the
trees were satyrs, nude nymphs, hydras, all kinds of groups
and statues which, like the place itself, had something
impossible and living about them.

What were people doing at this ball?  They danced a
little, made love a little, and above all talked politics.

There were about fifty Representatives present that evening.
The negro Representative Louisy Mathieu, in white
gloves, was accompanied by the negrophile Representative
Schoelcher in black gloves.  People said: "O fraternity!
they have exchanged hands!"

Politicians leaning against the mantels announced the
approaching appearance of a sheet entitled the "Aristo," a
reactionary paper.  The Brea affair,* which was being
tried at that very moment, was discussed.  What particularly
struck these grave men in this sinister affair was that
among the witnesses was an ironmonger named "Lenclume"
and a locksmith named "Laclef."

*  General Bréa was assassinated on June 25, 1848, while parleying
with the insurgents at the Barriêre de Fontainebleau.

Such are the trivial things men bring into the events of God.





II.  GENERAL BREA'S MURDERERS.

March, 1849.



The men condemned to death in the Bréa affair are
confined in the fort at Vanves.  There are five of them:
Nourry, a poor child of seventeen whose father and mother
died insane, type of the gamin of Paris that revolutions
make a hero and riots a murderer; Daix, blind of one eye,
lame, and with only one arm, a ~bon pauvre~ of the Bicetre
Hospital, who underwent the operation of trepanning three
years ago, and who has a little daughter eight years old
whom he adores; Lahr, nicknamed the Fireman, whose
wife was confined the day after his condemnation, giving
life at the moment she received death; Chopart, a
bookseller's assistant, who has been mixed up in some rather
discreditable pranks of youth; and finally Vappreaux
junior, who pleaded an alibi and who, if the four others
are to be believed, was not at the Barrière de Fontainebleau
at all during the three days of June.

These hapless wights are confined in a big casemate of
the fort.  Their condemnation has crushed them and turned
them towards God.  In the casemate are five camp beds
and five rush-bottomed chairs; to this lugubrious furniture
of the dungeon an altar has been added.  It was erected at
the end of the casemate opposite the door and below the
venthole through which daylight penetrates.  On the altar
is only a plaster statue of the Virgin enveloped in lace.
There are no tapers, it being feared that the prisoners
might set fire to the door with the straw of their mattresses.
They pray and work.  As Nourry has not been confirmed
and wishes to be before he dies, Chopart is teaching him
the catechism.

Beside the altar is a board laid upon two trestles.  This
board, which is full of bullet holes, was the target of the
fort.  It has been turned into a dining-table, a cruel,
thoughtless act, for it is a continual reminder to the
prisoners of their approaching death.

A few days ago an anonymous letter reached them.  This
letter advised them to stamp upon the flagstone in the centre
of the casemate, which, it was affirmed, covered the orifice
of a well communicating with old subterranean passages
of the Abbey of Vanves that extended to Châtillon.  All
they had to do was to raise the flagstone and they could
escape that very night.

They did as the letter directed.  The stone, it was found,
did emit a hollow sound as though it covered an opening.
But either because the police had been informed of the
letter, or for some other reason, a stricter watch than ever
has been kept upon them from that moment and they have
been unable to profit by the advice.

The gaolers and priests do not leave them for a minute
either by day or by night.  Guardians of the body cheek
by jowl with guardians of the soul.  Sorry human justice!



The execution of the condemned men in the Bréa affair
was a blunder.  It was the reappearance of the scaffold.
The people had kicked over the guillotine.  The bourgeoisie
raised it again.  A fatal mistake.

President Louis Bonaparte was inclined to be merciful.
The revision and cassation could easily have been delayed.
The Archbishop of Paris, M. Sibour, successor of a victim,
had begged for their lives.  But the stereotyped phrases
prevailed.  The country must be reassured.  Order must
be reconstructed, legality rebuilt, confidence re-erected!
And society at that time was still reduced to employing
lopped heads as building material.  The Council of State,
such as it then was, consulted under the terms of the
Constitution, rendered an opinion in favour of the execution.
M. Cresson, counsel for Daix and Lahr, waited upon the
President.  He was an emotional and eloquent young man.
He pleaded for these men, for the wives who were not yet
widows, for the children who were not yet orphans, and
while speaking he wept.

Louis Bonaparte listened to him in silence, then took his
hands, but merely remarked: "I am most unhappy!"

In the evening of the same day--it was on the Thursday--the
Council of Ministers met.  The discussion was
long and animated.  Only one minister opposed recourse
to the scaffold.  He was supported by Louis Napoleon.
The discussion lasted until 10 o'clock.  But the majority
prevailed, and before the Cabinet separated Odilon Barrot,
the Minister of Justice, signed the order for the execution
of three of the condemned men, Daix, Lahr and Chopart.
The sentences of Nourry and Vappreaux, junior, were
commuted to penal servitude for life.



The execution was fixed for the next morning, Friday.

The Chancellor's office immediately transmitted the order
to the Prefect of Police, who had to act in concert with
the military authorities, the sentence having been imposed
by a court-martial.

The prefect sent for the executioner.  But the executioner
could not be found.  He had vacated his house in
the Rue des Marais Saint Martin in February under the
impression that, like the guillotine, he had been deposed,
and no one knew what had become of him.

Considerable time was lost in tracing him to his new
residence, and when they got there he was out.  The
executioner was at the Opera.  He had gone to see "The
Devil's Violin."

It was near midnight, and in the absence of the executioner
the execution had to be postponed for one day.

During the interval Representative Larabit, whom
Chopart had befriended at the barricade of the barriers,
was notified and was able to see the President.  The
President signed Chopart's pardon.

The day after the execution the Prefect of Police summoned
the executioner and reproved him for his absence.

"Well," said Samson, "I was passing along the street
when I saw a big yellow poster announcing The Devil's
Violin.  'Hello!' said I to myself, 'that must be a queer
piece,' and I went to see it."

Thus a playbill saved a man's head.



There were some horrible details.

On Friday night, while those who formerly were called
~les maitres des basses oeuvres~* were erecting the scaffold at
the Barrière de Fontainebleau, the ~rapporteur~ of the
court-martial, accompanied by the clerk of the court, repaired
to the Fort of Vanves.

*  The executioner in France is officially styled ~l'executeur
des hautes-oeuvres~.
 
Daix and Lahr, who were to die, were sleeping.  They
were in casemate No. 13 with Nourry and Chopart.  There
was a delay.  It was found that there were no ropes with
which to bind the condemned men.  The latter were allowed to
sleep on.  At 5 o'clock in the morning the executioner's
assistants arrived with everything that was necessary.

Then the casemate was entered.  The four men awoke.
To Nourry and Chopart the officials said: "Get out of
here!"  They understood, and, joyful and terror-stricken,
fled into the adjoining casement.  Daix and Lahr, however,
did not understand.  They sat up and gazed about them with
wild, frightened eyes.  The executioner and his assistants
fell upon them and bound them.  No one spoke a word.
The condemned men began to realise what it all meant
and uttered terrible cries.  "If we had not bound them,"
said the executioner, "they would have devoured us!"

Then Lahr collapsed and began to pray while the decree
for their execution was read to them.

Daix continued to struggle, sobbing, and roaring with
horror.  These men who had killed so freely were afraid to
die.

Daix shouted: "Help!  Help!" appealed to the soldiers,
adjured them, cursed them, pleaded to them in the
name of General Bréa.

"Shut up! "growled a sergeant.  "You are a coward!"



The execution was performed with much ceremony.  Let
this fact be noted: the first time the guillotine dared to
show itself after February an army was furnished to guard
it.  Twenty-five thousand men, infantry and cavalry,
surrounded the scaffold.  Two generals were in command.
Seven guns commanded the streets which converged to the
circus of the Barrière de Fontainebleau.

Daix was executed first.  When his head had fallen and
his body was unstrapped, the trunk, from which a stream
of blood was pouring, fell upon the scaffold between the
swing-board and the basket.

The executioners were nervous and excited.  A man of
the people remarked: "Everybody is losing his head on
that guillotine, including the executioner!"



In the faubourgs, which the last elections to the National
Assembly had so excited, the names of popular candidates
could still be seen chalked upon the walls.  Louis
Bonaparte was one of the candidates.  His name appeared on
these open-air bulletins, as they may be termed, in company
with the names of Raspail and Barbès.  The day after the
execution Louis Napoleon's name wherever it was
to be seen had a red smear across it.  A silent protest, a
reproach and a menace.  The finger of the people pending
the finger of God.




III.  THE SUICIDE OF ANTONIN MOYNE.

April, 1849.

	

Antonin Moyne, prior to February, 1848, was a maker
of little figures and statuettes for the trade.

Little figures and statuettes!  That is what we had
come to.  Trade had supplanted the State.  How empty
is history, how poor is art; inasmuch as there are no more
big figures there are no more statues.

Antonin Moyne made rather a poor living out of his work.
He had, however, been able to give his son Paul a good
education and had got him into the Ecole Polytechnique.
Towards 1847 the art-work business being already bad, he
had added to his little figures portraits in pastel.  With a
statuette here, and a portrait there, he managed to get
along.

After February the art-work business came to a complete
standstill.  The manufacturer who wanted a model for a
candlestick or a clock, and the bourgeois who wanted a
portrait, failed him.  What was to be done? Antonin
Moyne struggled on as best he could, used his old clothes,
lived upon beans and potatoes, sold his knick-knacks to 
bric-à-brac dealers, pawned first his watch, then
his silverware.

He lived in a little apartment in the Rue de Boursault,
at No. 8, I think, at the corner of the Rue Labruyère.

The little apartment gradually became bare.

After June, Antonin Moyne solicited an order of the
Government.  The matter dragged along for six months.
Three or four Cabinets succeeded each other and Louis
Bonaparte had time to be nominated President.  At length
M. Leon Faucher gave Antonin Moyne an order for a bust,
upon which the statuary would be able to make 600
francs.  But he was informed that, the State funds being
low, the bust would not be paid for until it was finished.

Distress came and hope went.

Antonin Moyne said one day to his wife, who was still
young, having been married to him when she was only
fifteen years old: "I will kill myself."

The next day his wife found a loaded pistol under a piece
of furniture.  She took it and hid it.  It appears that
Antonin Moyne found it again.

His reason no doubt began to give way.  He always carried
a bludgeon and razor about with him.  One day he
said to his wife: "It is easy to kill one's self with blows of
a hammer."

On one occasion he rose and opened the window with
such violence that his wife rushed forward and threw her
arms round him.

"What are you going to do?" she demanded.

"Just get a breath of air!  And you, what do you want?"

"I am only embracing you," she answered.

On March 18, 1849, a Sunday, I think it was, his wife
said to him:

"I am going to church.  Will you come with me?"

He was religious, and his wife, with loving watchfulness,
remained with him as much as possible.

He replied: "Presently!" and went into the next room,
which was his son's bedroom.

A few minutes elapsed.  Suddenly Mme. Antonin
Moyne heard a noise similar to that made by the slamming
of a front door.  But she knew what it was.  She started
and cried: "It is that dreadful pistol!"

She rushed into the room her husband had entered, then
recoiled in horror.  She had seen a body stretched upon
the floor.

She ran wildly about the house screaming for help.  But
no one came, either because everybody was out or because
owing to the noise in the street she was not heard.

Then she returned, re-entered the room and knelt beside
her husband.  The shot had blown nearly all his head away.
The blood streamed upon the floor, and the walls and
furniture were spattered with brains.

Thus, marked by fatality, like Jean Goujon, his master,
died Antonin Moyne, a name which henceforward will
bring to mind two things--a horrible death and a charming
talent.




IV.  A VISIT TO THE OLD CHAMBER OF PEERS.

June, 1849.



The working men who sat in the Luxembourg during
the months of March and April under the presidency
of M. Louis Blanc, showed a sort of respect for the
Chamber of Peers they replaced.  The armchairs of the
peers were occupied, but not soiled.  There was no insult,
no affront, no abuse.  Not a piece of velvet was torn, not a
piece of leather was dirtied.  There is a good deal of the
child about the people, it is given to chalking its anger,
its joy and its irony on walls; these labouring men were
serious and inoffensive.  In the drawers of the desks they
found the pens and knives of the peers, yet made neither
a cut nor a spot of ink.

A keeper of the palace remarked to me: "They have
behaved themselves very well." They left their places as
they had found them.  One only left his mark, and he had
written in the drawer of Louis Blanc on the ministerial
bench:


                 Royalty is abolished.
                 Hurrah for Louis Blanc!


This inscription is still there.

The fauteuils of the peers were covered with green velvet
embellished with gold stripes.  Their desks were of
mahogany, covered with morocco leather, and with drawers of
oak containing writing material in plenty, but having no
key.  At the top of his desk each peer's name was stamped
in gilt letters on a piece of green leather let into the wood.
On the princes' bench, which was on the right, behind the
ministerial bench, there was no name, but a gilt plate
bearing the words: "The Princes' Bench." This plate and the
names of the peers had been torn off, not by the working
men, but by order of the Provisional Government.

A few changes were made in the rooms which served as
ante-chambers to the Assembly.  Puget's admirable "Milo
of Crotona," which ornamented the vestibule at the top of
the grand staircase, was taken to the old museum and a
marble of some kind was substituted for it.  The full length
statue of the Duke d'Orleans, which was in the second
vestibule, was taken I know not where and replaced by a
statue of Pompey with gilt face, arms and legs, the statue
at the foot of which, according to tradition, assassinated
Caesar fell.  The picture of founders of constitutions, in
the third vestibule, a picture in which Napoleon, Louis
XVIII. and Louis Philippe figured, was removed by order
of Ledru-Rollin and replaced by a magnificent Gobelin
tapestry borrowed from the Garde-Meuble.

Hard by this third vestibule is the old hall of the Chamber
of Peers, which was built in 1805 for the Senate.  This
hall, which is small, narrow and obscure; supported by
meagre Corinthian columns with mahogany-coloured bases
and white capitals; furnished with flat desks and chairs in
the Empire style with green velvet seats, the whole in
mahogany; and paved with white marble relieved by lozenges of
red Saint Anne marble,--this hall, so full of memories, had
been religiously preserved, and after the new hall was built
in 1840, had been used for the private conferences of the
Court of Peers.

It was in this old hall of the Senate that Marshal Ney
was tried.  A bar had been put up to the left of the
Chancellor who presided over the Chamber.  The Marshal was
behind this bar, with M. Berryer, senior, on his right, and
M. Dupin, the elder, on his left.  He stood upon one of the
lozenges in the floor, in which, by a sinister hazard, the
capricious tracing of the marble figured a death's head.
This lozenge has since been taken up and replaced by another.

After February, in view of the riots, soldiers had to be
lodged in the palace.  The old Senate-hall was turned into
a guard-house.  The desks of the senators of Napoleon and
of the peers of the Restoration were stored in the lumber
rooms, and the curule chairs served as beds for the troops.

Early in June, 1849, I visited the hall of the Chamber
of Peers and found it just as I had left it seventeen months
before, the last time that I sat there, on February 23, 1848.

Everything was in its place.  Profound calmness reigned;
the fauteuils were empty and in order.  One might have
thought that the Chamber had adjourned ten minutes previously.







SKETCHES



MADE IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
I.     ODILON BARROT.  
II.    MONSIEUR THIERS.
III.   DUFAURE.
IV.    CHANGARNIER.
V.     LAGRANGE.
VI.    PRUDHON.
VII.   BLANQUI.
VIII.  LAMARTINE.
IX.    BOULAY DE LA MEURTHE.
X.     DUPIN.







SKETCHES




MADE AT THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.




ODILON BARROT.



Odilon Barrot ascends the tribune step by step and
slowly; he is solemn before being eloquent.  Then he
places his right hand on the table of the tribune, throwing
his left hand behind his back, and thus shows himself
sideways to the Assembly in the attitude of an athlete.  He is
always in black, well brushed and well buttoned up.

His delivery, which is slow at first, gradually becomes
animated, as do his thoughts.  But in becoming animated
his speech becomes hoarse and his thoughts cloudy.  Hence
a certain hesitation among his hearers, some being unable
to catch what he says, the others not understanding.  All
at once from the cloud darts a flash of lightning and one
is dazzled.  The difference between men of this kind and
Mirabeau is that the former have flashes of lightning,
Mirabeau alone has thunder.




MONSIEUR THIERS.



M. Thiers wants to treat men, ideas and revolutionary
events with parliamentary routine.  He plays his old game
of constitutional tricks in face of abysms and the dreadful
upheavals of the chimerical and unexpected.  He does not
realise that everything has been transformed; he finds a
resemblance between our own times and the time when he
governed, and starts out from this.  This resemblance exists
in point of fact, but there is in it a something that is
colossal and monstrous.  M. Thiers has no suspicion of this, and
pursues the even tenour of his way.  All his life he has
been stroking cats, and coaxing them with all sorts of
cajolling processes and feline ways.  To-day he is trying to play
the same game, and does not see that the animals have
grown beyond all measure and that it is wild beasts that
he is keeping about him.  A strange sight it is to see this
little man trying to stroke the roaring muzzle of a
revolution with his little hand.



When M. Thiers is interrupted he gets excited, folds and
unfolds his arms, then raises his hands to his mouth, his
nose, his spectacles, shrugs his shoulders, and ends by
clasping the back of his head convulsively with both hands.



I have always entertained towards this celebrated statesman,
this eminent orator, this mediocre writer, this narrow-minded
man, an indefinable sentiment of admiration, aversion
and disdain.




DUFAURE.



M. Dufaure is a barrister of Saintes, and was the leading
lawyer in his town about 1833.  This led him to aspire to
legislative honours.  M. Dufaure arrived in the Chamber
with a provincial and cold-in-the-nose accent that was very
queer.  But he possessed a mind so clear that occasionally
it was almost luminous, and so accurate that occasionally it
was decisive.

With that his speech was deliberate and cold, but sure,
solid, and calmly pushed difficulties before it.

M. Dufaure succeeded.  He was a deputy, then a minister.  He
is not a sage.  He is a grave and honest man who
has held power without greatness but with probity, and who
speaks from the tribune without brilliancy but with authority.

His person resembles his talent.  In appearance he is
dignified, simple and sober.  He comes to the Chamber
buttoned up in his dark grey frock-coat, and wearing a
black cravat, and a shirt collar that reaches to his ears.
He has a big nose, thick lips, heavy eyebrows, an intelligent
and severe eye, and grey, ill-combed hair.




CHANGARNIER.



Changarnier looks like an old academician, just as Soult
looks like an old archbishop.

Changarnier is sixty-four or sixty-five years old, and tall
and thin.  He has a gentle voice, a graceful and formal air,
a chestnut wig like M. Pasquier's, and a lady-killing smile
like M. Brifaut's.

With that he is a curt, bold, expeditious man, resolute,
but cunning and reserved.

At the Chamber he occupies the extreme end of the
fourth bench of the last section on the left, exactly above
M. Ledru-Rollin.

He usually sits with folded arms.  The bench on which
Ledru-Rollin and Lamennais sit is perhaps the most habitually
irritated of the Left.  While the Assembly shouts,
murmurs, yells, roars, and rages, Changarnier yawns.




LAGRANGE.



Lagrange, it is said, fired the pistol in the Boulevard des
Capucines, fatal spark that heated the passions of the people
and caused the conflagration of February.  He is styled:
Political prisoner and Representative of the people.

Lagrange has a grey moustache, a grey beard and long
grey hair.  He is overflowing with soured generosity, charitable
violence and a sort of chivalrous demagogy; there is
a love in his heart with which he stirs up hatred; he is
tall, thin, young looking at a distance, old when seen
nearer, wrinkled, bewildered, hoarse, flurried, wan, has a
wild look in his eyes and gesticulates; he is the Don
Quixote of the Mountain.  He, also, tilts at windmills; that
is to say, at credit, order, peace, commerce, industry,--all
the machinery that turns out bread.  With this, a lack of
ideas; continual jumps from justice to insanity and from
cordiality to threats.  He proclaims, acclaims, reclaims and
declaims.  He is one of those men who are never taken
seriously, but who sometimes have to be taken tragically.




PRUDHON.



Prudhon was born in 1803.  He has thin fair hair that
is ruffled and ill-combed, with a curl on his fine high brow.
He wears spectacles.  His gaze is at once troubled,
penetrating and steady.  There is something of the house-dog
in his almost flat nose and of the monkey in his chin-beard.
His mouth, the nether lip of which is thick, has an habitual
expression of ill-humour.  He has a Franc-Comtois accent, he
utters the syllables in the middle of words rapidly
and drawls the final syllables; he puts a circumflex accent
on every "a," and like Charles Nodier, pronounces: "~honorable,
remarquable~."  He speaks badly and writes well.  In
the tribune his gesture consists of little feverish pats
upon his manuscript with the palm of his hand.  Sometimes
he becomes irritated, and froths; but it is cold slaver.  The
principal characteristic of his countenance and physiognomy
is mingled embarrassment and assurance.

I write this while he is in the tribune.



Anthony Thouret met Prudhon.

"Things are going badly," said Prudhon.

"To what cause do you attribute our embarrassments?"
queried Anthony Thouret.

"The Socialists are at the bottom of the trouble, of
course.

"What! the Socialists?  But are you not a Socialist
yourself?"

"I a Socialist!  Well, I never!" ejaculated Prudhon.

"Well, what in the name of goodness, are you, then?"

"I am a financier."




BLANQUI.



Blanqui got so that ho no longer wore a shirt.  For
twelve years he had worn the same clothes--his prison
clothes--rags, which he displayed with sombre pride at his
club.  He renewed only his boots and his gloves, which
were always black.

At Vincennes during his eight months of captivity for
the affair of the 15th of May, he lived only upon bread and
raw potatoes, refusing all other food.  His mother alone
occasionally succeeded in inducing him to take a little
beef-tea.

With this, frequent ablutions, cleanliness mingled with
cynicism, small hands and feet, never a shirt, gloves always.

There was in this man an aristocrat crushed and
trampled upon by a demagogue.

Great ability, no hypocrisy; the same in private as in
public.  Harsh, stern, serious, never laughing, receiving
respect with irony, admiration with sarcasm, love with
disdain, and inspiring extraordinary devotion.

There was in Blanqui nothing of the people, everything
of the populace.

With this, a man of letters, almost erudite.  At certain
moments he was no longer a man, but a sort of lugubrious
apparition in which all degrees of hatred born of all
degrees of misery seemed to be incarnated.




LAMARTINE.

February 23, 1850.



During the session Lamartine came and sat beside me
in the place usually occupied by M. Arbey.  While talking,
he interjected in an undertone sarcastic remarks about the
orators in the tribune.

Thiers spoke.  "Little scamp," murmured Lamartine.

Then Cavaignac made his appearance.  "What do you
think about him?" said Lamartine.  "For my part, these
are my sentiments: He is fortunate, he is brave, he is loyal,
he is voluble--and he is stupid."

Cavaignac was followed by Emmanuel Arago.  The Assembly was
stormy.  "This man," commented Lamartine,
"has arms too small for the affairs he undertakes.  He is
given to joining in mêlées and does not know how to get
out of them again.  The tempest tempts him, and kills him."

A moment later Jules Favre ascended the tribune.  "I
do not know how they can see a serpent in this man," said
Lamartine.  "He is a provincial academician."

Laughing the while, he took a sheet of paper from my
drawer, asked me for a pen, asked Savatier-Laroche for a
pinch of snuff, and wrote a few lines.  This done he
mounted the tribune and addressed grave and haughty
words to M. Thiers, who had been attacking the revolution
of February.  Then he returned to our bench, shook hands
with me while the Left applauded and the Right waxed
indignant, and calmly emptied the snuff in 
Savatier-Laroche's snuffbox into his own.




BOULAY DE LA MEURTHE.



M. Boulay de la Meurthe was a stout, kindly man, bald,
pot-bellied, short, enormous, with a short nose and a not very
long wit.  He was a friend of Hard, whom he called ~mon
cher~, and of Jerome Bonaparte, whom he addressed as
"your Majesty."

The Assembly, on January 20, made him Vice-President
of the Republic.

It was somewhat sudden, and unexpected by everybody
except himself.  This latter fact was evident from the long
speech learned by heart that he delivered after being sworn
in.  At its conclusion the Assembly applauded, then a roar
of laughter succeeded the applause.  Everybody laughed,
including himself; the Assembly out of irony, he in good
faith.

Odilon Barrot, who since the previous evening had been
keenly regretting that he did not allow himself to be made
Vice-President, contemplated the scene with a shrug of the
shoulders and a bitter smile.

The Assembly followed Boulay de la Meurthe, congratulated
and gratified, with its eyes, and in every look could
be read this: "Well, I never!  He takes himself seriously!"

When he was taking the oath, in a voice of thunder
which made everybody smile, Boulay de la Meurthe
looked as if he were dazzled by the Republic, and the
Assembly did not look as if it were dazzled by Boulay de
la Meurthe.




DUPIN.



Dupin has a style of wit that is peculiar to himself.  It
is Gaulish, tinged with the wit of a limb of the law and
with jovial grossness.  When the vote upon the bill against
universal suffrage was about to be taken some member of
the majority, whose name I have forgotten, went to him
and said:

"You are our president, and moreover a great legist.
You know more about it than I do.  Enlighten me, I am
undecided.  Is it true that the bill violates the
Constitution?"

Dupin appeared to think for a moment and then replied:

"No, it doesn't violate it, but it lifts its clothes up as
high as possible!"

This reminds me of what he said to me the day I spoke
upon the Education Bill.  Baudin had permitted me to
take his turn to speak, and I went up to the presidential
chair to notify Dupin.

"Ah! you are going to speak! So much the better!"
said he; and pointing to M. Barthélemy Saint Hilaire, who
was then occupying the tribune and delivering a long and
minute technical speech against the measure, added:

"He is rendering you a service.  He is doing the preparatory
work.  He is turning the bill's trousers down.  This
done you will be able to at once--"

He completed the phrase with the expressive gesture
which consists of tapping the back of the fingers of the left
hand with the fingers of the right hand.







LOUIS BONAPARTE.

I.    HIS DEBUTS.
II.   HIS ELEVATION TO THE PRESIDENCY.
III.  THE FIRST OFFICIAL DINNER.
IV.   THE FIRST MONTH.
V.    FEELING HIS WAY.




I.   HIS DEBUTS.



Upon his arrival in Paris Louis Bonaparte took up his
residence in the Place Vendome.  Mlle. Georges went to
see him.  They conversed at some length.  In the course
of the conversation Louis Bonaparte led Mlle. Georges to
a window from which ,the column with the statue of Napoleon
I. upon it was visible and said:

"I gaze at that all day long."

"It's pretty high!" observed Mlle. George.



September 24, 1848.

Louis Napoleon appeared at the National Assembly today.  He
seated himself on the seventh bench of the third
section on the left, between M. Vieillard and M. Havin.

He looks young, has a black moustache and goatee, and
a parting in his hair, a black cravat, a black coat buttoned
up, a turned-down collar, and white gloves.  Perrin and
Leon Faucher, seated immediately below him, did not once
turn their heads.  In a few minutes the galleries began to
turn their opera-glasses upon the prince, and the prince
gazed at the galleries through his own glass.

                    ----------


September 26.

Louis Bonaparte ascended the tribune (3.15 P.M.).  Black
frock-coat, grey trousers.  He read from a crumpled paper
in his hand.  He was listened to with deep attention.  He
pronounced the word "compatriots" with a foreign accent.
When he had finished a few cries of "Long live the Republic!"
were raised.

He returned leisurely to his place.  His cousin Napoleon,
son of Jerome, who so greatly resembles the Emperor,
leaned over M. Vieillard to congratulate him.

Louis Bonaparte seated himself without saying a word
to his two neighbours.  He is silent, but he seems to be
embarrassed rather than taciturn.

                    ----------


October 9.

While the question of the presidency was being raised
Louis Bonaparte absented himself from the Assembly.
When the Antony Thouret amendment, excluding members
of the royal and imperial families was being debated,
however, he reappeared.  He seated himself at the
extremity of his bench, beside his former tutor, M. Vieillard,
and listened in silence, leaning his chin upon his hand, or
twisting his moustache.

All at once he rose and, amid extraordinary agitation,
walked slowly towards the tribune.  One half of the
Assembly shouted: "The vote!"  The other half shouted:
"Speak!"

M. Sarrans was in the tribune.  The president said:

"M. Sarrans will allow M. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
to speak."

He made a few insignificant remarks and descended from
the tribune amid a general laugh of stupefaction.

                    ----------


November 1848.

On November 19 I dined at Odilon Barrot's at Bougival.

There were present MM. de Rémusat, de Tocqueville,
Girardin, Leon Faucher, a member of the English Parliament
and his wife, who is ugly but witty and has beautiful
teeth, Mme. Odilon Barrot and her mother.

Towards the middle of the dinner Louis Bonaparte arrived
with his cousin, the son of Jerome, and M. Abbatucci, Representative.

Louis Bonaparte is distinguished, cold, gentle, intelligent,
with a certain measure of deference and dignity, a
German air and black moustache; he bears no resemblance
whatever to the Emperor.

He ate little, spoke little, and laughed little, although
the party was a merry one.

Mme. Odilon Barrot seated him on her left.  The Englishman
was on her right.

M. de Rémusat, who was seated between the prince and
myself, remarked to me loud enough for Louis Bonaparte
to hear:

"I give my best wishes to Louis Bonaparte and my vote
to Cavaignac."

Louis Bonaparte at the time was feeding Mme. Odilon
Barrot's greyhound with fried gudgeons.




II.  HIS ELEVATION TO THE PRESIDENCY.



December 1848.

The proclamation of Louis Bonaparte as President of
the Republic was made on December 20.

The weather, which up to then had been admirable, and
reminded one more of the approach of spring than of the
beginning of winter, suddenly changed.  December 20 was
the first cold day of the year.  Popular superstition had it
that the sun of Austerlitz was becoming clouded.

This proclamation was made in a somewhat unexpected
manner.  It had been announced for Friday.  It was made
suddenly on Wednesday.

Towards 3 o'clock the approaches to the Assembly were
occupied by troops.  A regiment of infantry was massed
in rear of the Palais d'Orsay; a regiment of dragoons was
echeloned along the quay.  The troopers shivered and looked
moody.  The population assembled in great uneasiness, not
knowing what it all meant.  For some days a Bonapartist
movement had been vaguely spoken of.  The faubourgs,
it was said, were to turn out and march to the Assembly
shouting: "Long live the Emperor!"  The day before the
Funds had dropped 3 francs.  Napoleon Bonaparte, greatly
alarmed, came to see me.

The Assembly resembled a public square.  It was a number
of groups rather than a parliament.  In the tribune a
very useful bill for regulating the publicity of the sessions
and substituting the State Printing Office, the former
Royal Printing Office, for the printing office of the
"Moniteur," was being discussed, but no one listened.  M. Bureau
de Puzy, the questor, was speaking.

Suddenly there was a stir in the Assembly, which was
being invaded by a crowd of Deputies who entered by the
door on the left.  It was the committee appointed to count
the votes and was returning to announce the result of the
election to the Presidency.  It was 4 o'clock, the chandeliers
were lighted, there was an immense crowd in the public
galleries, all the ministers were present.  Cavaignac,
calm, attired in a black frock-coat, and not wearing any
decoration, was in his place.  He kept his right hand thrust
in the breast of his buttoned frock-coat, and made no reply
to M. Bastide, who now and then whispered in his ear.
M. Fayet, Bishop of Orleans, occupied a chair in front of
the General.  Which prompted the Bishop of Langres, the
Abbé Parisis, to remark: "That is the place of a dog, not
a bishop."

Lamartine was absent.

The ~rapporteur~ of the committee, M. Waldeck-Rousseau,
read a cold discourse that was coldly listened to.
When he reached the enumeration of the votes cast, and
came to Lamartine's total, 17,910 votes, the Right burst
into a laugh.  A mean vengeance, sarcasm of the unpopular
men of yesterday for the unpopular man of to-day.

Cavaignac took leave in a few brief and dignified words,
which were applauded by the whole Assembly.  He announced
that the Ministry had resigned in a body, and that
he, Cavaignac, laid down the power.  He thanked the
Assembly with emotion.  A few Representatives wept.

Then President Marrast proclaimed "the citizen Louis
Bonaparte" President of the Republic.

A few Representatives about the bench where Louis
Bonaparte sat applauded.  The remainder of the Assembly
preserved a glacial silence.  They were leaving the lover
for the husband.

Armand Marrast called upon the elect of the nation to
take the oath of office.  There was a stir.

Louis Bonaparte, buttoned up in a black frock-coat, the
decoration of Representative of the people and the star of
the Legion of Honour on his breast, entered by the door
on the right, ascended the tribune, repeated in a calm voice
the words of the oath that President Marrast dictated to
him, called upon God and men to bear witness, then read,
with a foreign accent which was displeasing, a speech that
was interrupted at rare intervals by murmurs of approval.
He eulogized Cavaignac, and the eulogy was noted and
applauded.

After a few minutes he descended from the tribune, not
like Cavaignac, amid the acclamations of the Chamber, but
amid an immense shout of "Long live the Republic!"
Somebody shouted "Hurrah for the Constitution!"

Before leaving Louis Bonaparte went over to his former
tutor, M. Vieillard, who was seated in the eighth section
on the left, and shook hands with him.  Then the President
of the Assembly invited the committee to accompany
the President of the Republic to his palace and have
rendered to him the honours due to his rank.  The word
caused the Mountain to murmur.  I shouted from my
bench: "To his functions!"

The President of the Assembly announced that the
President of the Republic had charged M. Odilon Barrot
with the formation of a Cabinet, and that the names of the
new Ministers would be announced to the Assembly in a
Message; that, in fact, a supplement to the Moniteur would
be distributed to the Representatives that very evening.

It was remarked, for everything was remarked on that
day which began a decisive phase in the history of the
country, that President Marrast called Louis Bonaparte
"citizen" and Odilon Barrot "monsieur."

Meanwhile the ushers, their chief Deponceau at their
head, the officers of the Chamber, the questors, and among
them General Lebreton in full uniform, had grouped
themselves below the tribune; several Representatives had joined
them; there was a stir indicating that Louis Bonaparte
was about to leave the enclosure.  A few Deputies rose.
There were shouts of "Sit down!  Sit down!"

Louis Bonaparte went out.  The malcontents, to manifest
their indifference, wanted to continue the debate on
the Printing Office Bill.  But the Assembly was too
agitated even to remain seated.  It rose in a tumult and
the Chamber was soon empty.  It was half past 4.  The
proceedings had lasted half an hour.

As I left the Assembly, alone, and avoided as a man
who had disdained the opportunity to be a Minister,
I passed in the outer hall, at the foot of the stairs, a group
in which I noticed Montalembert, and also Changarnier in
the uniform of a lieutenant-general of the National Guard.
Changarnier had just been escorting Louis Bonaparte to the
Elysee.  I heard him say: "All passed off well."

When I found myself in the Place de la Revolution,
there were no longer either troops or crowd; all had
disappeared.  A few passers-by came from the
Champs-Elysees.  The night was dark and cold.  A bitter wind
blew from the river, and at the same time a heavy storm-cloud
breaking in the west covered the horizon with silent
flashes of lightning.  A December wind with August
lightning--such were the omens of that day.





III.  THE FIRST OFFICIAL DINNER.



December 24, 1848.

Louis Bonaparte gave his first dinner last evening, Saturday
the 23rd, two days after his elevation to the Presidency
of the Republic.

The Chamber had adjourned for the Christmas holidays.
I was at home in my new lodging in the Rue de la Tour
d'Auvergne, occupied with I know not what bagatelles,
~totus in illis~, when a letter addressed to me and brought
by a dragoon was handed to me.  I opened the envelope,
and this is what I read:

The orderly officer on duty has the honour to inform Monsieur the
General Changarnier that he is invited to dinner at the Elysee-National
on Saturday, at 7 o'clock.

I wrote below it: "Delivered by mistake to M. Victor
Hugo," and sent the letter back by the dragoon who had
brought it.  An hour later came another letter from M.
de Persigny, Prince Louis's former companion in plots,
to-day his private secretary.  This letter contained profuse
apologies for the error committed and advised me that I
was among those invited.  My letter had been addressed by
mistake to M. Conti, the Representative from Corsica.

At the head of M. de Persigny's letter, written with a
pen, were the words: "Household of the President."

I remarked that the form of these invitations was exactly
similar to the form employed by King Louis Philippe.  As
I did not wish to do anything that might resemble
intentional coldness, I dressed; it was half past 6, and
I set out immediately for the Elysee.

Half past 7 struck as I arrived there.

As I passed I glanced at the sinister portal of the Praslin
mansion adjoining the Elysee.  The large green carriage
entrance, enframed between two Doric pillars of the time
of the Empire, was closed, gloomy, and vaguely outlined
by the light of a street lamp.  One of the double doors of
the entrance to the Elysee was closed; two soldiers of the
line were on guard.  The court-yard was scarcely lighted,
and a mason in his working clothes with a ladder on his
shoulder was crossing it; nearly all the windows of the
outhouses on the right had been broken, and were mended
with paper.  I entered by the door on the perron.  Three
servants in black coats received me; one opened the door,
another took my mantle, the third said: "Monsieur, on
the first floor!"  I ascended the grand staircase.  There
were a carpet and flowers on it, but that chilly and
unsettled air about it peculiar to places into which one is
moving.

On the first floor an usher asked:

"Monsieur has come to dinner?"

"Yes," I said.  "Are they at table?"

"Yes, Monsieur."

"In that case, I am off."

"But, Monsieur," exclaimed the usher, "nearly everybody
arrived after the dinner had begun; go in.  Monsieur
is expected."

I remarked this military and imperial punctuality, which
used to be customary with Napoleon.  With the Emperor
7 o'clock meant 7 o'clock.

I crossed the ante-chamber, then a salon, and entered
the dining-room.  It was a square room wainscotted in the
Empire style with white wood.  On the walls were engravings
and pictures of very poor selection, among them
"Mary Stuart listening to Rizzio," by the painter Ducis.
Around the room was a sideboard.  In the middle was a
long table with rounded ends at which about fifteen guests
were seated.  One end of the table, that furthest from the
entrance, was raised, and here the President of the Republic
was seated between two women, the Marquise de Hallays-Coëtquen,
née Princess de Chimay (Tallien) being
on his right, and Mme. Conti, mother of the Representative,
on his left.

The President rose when I entered.  I went up to him.
We grasped each other's hand.

"I have improvised this dinner," he said.  "I invited
only a few dear friends, and I hoped that I could comprise
you among them.  I thank you for coming.  You
have come to me, as I went to you, simply.  I thank you."

He again grasped my hand.  Prince de la Moskowa, who
was next to General Changarnier, made room for me beside
him, and I seated myself at the table.  I ate quickly, for
the President had interrupted the dinner to enable me to
catch up with the company.  The second course had been
reached.

Opposite to me was General Rulhières, an ex-peer, the
Representative Conti and Lucien Murat.  The other guests
were unknown to me.  Among them was a young major
of cavalry, decorated with the Legion of Honour.  This
major alone was in uniform; the others wore evening
dress.  The Prince had a rosette of the Legion of Honour
in his buttonhole.

Everybody conversed with his neighbour.  Louis Bonaparte
appeared to prefer his neighbour on the right to his
neighbour on the left.  The Marquise de Hallays is
thirty-six years old, and looks her age.  Fine eyes, not much hair,
an ugly mouth, white skin, a shapely neck, charming arms,
the prettiest little hands in the world, admirable shoulders.
At present she is separated from M. de Hallays.  She has
had eight children, the first seven by her husband.  She
was married fifteen years ago.  During the early period of
their marriage she used to fetch her husband from the
drawing-room, even in the daytime, and take him off to bed.
Sometimes a servant would enter and say: "Madame the
Marquise is asking for Monsieur the Marquis."  The Marquis
would obey the summons.  This made the company
who happened to be present laugh.  To-day the Marquis
and Marquise have fallen out.

"She was the mistress of Napoleon, son of Jerome, you
know," said Prince de la Moskowa to me, sotto voce, "now
she is Louis's mistress."

"Well," I answered, "changing a Napoleon for a Louis
is an everyday occurrence."

These bad puns did not prevent me from eating and observing.

The two women seated beside the President had square-topped
chairs.  The President's chair was surmounted with
a little round top.  As I was about to draw some inference
from this I looked at the other chairs and saw that four
or five guests, myself among them, had chairs similar to
that of the President.  The chairs were covered with red
velvet with gilt headed nails.  A more serious thing I
noticed was that everybody addressed the President of the
Republic as "Monseigneur" and "your Highness."  I
who had called him "Prince," had the air of a demagogue.

When we rose from table the Prince asked after my
wife, and then apologized profusely for the rusticity of the
service.

"I am not yet installed," he said.  "The day before
yesterday, when I arrived here, there was hardly a mattress
for me to sleep upon."



The dinner was a very ordinary one, and the Prince did
well to excuse himself.  The service was of common white
china and the silverware bourgeois, worn, and gross.  In
the middle of the table was a rather fine vase of craquelé,
ornamented with ormolu in the bad taste of the time of
Louis XVI.

However, we heard music in an adjoining hall.

"It is a surprise," said the President to us, "they are the
musicians from the Opera."

A minute afterwards programmes written with a pen
were handed round.  They indicated that the following five
selections were being played:

    1.  Priere de la "Muette."
    2.  Fantaisie sur des airs favoris de la "Reine Hortense."
    3.  Final de "Robert Bruce".
    4.  "Marche Republicaine."
    5.  "La Victoire," pas redoublé.

In the rather uneasy state of mind I, like the whole of
France, was in at that moment, I could not help remarking
this "Victory" piece coming after the "Republican March."

I rose from table still hungry.

We went into the grand salon, which was separated
from the dining-room by the smaller salon that I had passed
through on entering.

This grand salon was extremely ugly.  It was white, with
figures on panels, after the fashion of those of Pompeii, the
whole of the furniture being in the Empire style with the
exception of the armchairs, which were in tapestry and
gold and in fairly good taste.  There were three arched
windows to which three large mirrors of the same shape
at the other end of the salon formed pendants and one of
which, the middle one, was a door.  The window curtains
were of fine white satin richly flowered.

While the Prince de la Moskowa and I were talking
Socialism, the Mountain, Communism, etc., Louis Bonaparte
came up and took me aside.

He asked me what I thought of the situation.  I was reserved.
I told him that a good beginning had been made;
that the task was a difficult but a grand one; that what he
had to do was to reassure the bourgeoisie and satisfy the
people, to give tranquillity to the former, work to the latter,
and life to all; that after the little governments, those of
the elder Bourbons, Louis Philippe, and the Republic of
February, a great one was required; that the Emperor had
made a great government through war, and that he himself
ought to make a great one through peace; that the French
people having been illustrious for three centuries did not
propose to become ignoble; that it was his failure to
appreciate this high-mindedness of the people and the national
pride that was the chief cause of Louis Philippe's downfall;
that, in a word, he must decorate peace.

"How?"  asked Louis Napoleon.

"By all the greatness of art, literature and science, by
the victories of industry and progress.  Popular labour can
accomplish miracles.  And then, France is a conquering
nation; when she does not make conquests with the sword,
she wants to make them with the mind.  Know this and
act accordingly.  Ignore it and you will be lost."

He looked thoughtful and went away.  Then he returned,
thanked me warmly, and we continued to converse.

We spoke about the press.  I advised him to respect it
profoundly and at the same time to establish a State press.
"The State without a newspaper, in the midst of newspapers,"
I observed, "restricting itself to governing while
publicity and polemics are the rule, reminds one of the
knights of the fifteenth century who obstinately persisted
in fighting against cannon with swords; they were always
beaten.  I grant that it was noble; you will grant that it
was foolish."

He spoke of the Emperor.  "It is here," he said, "that
I saw him for the last time.  I could not re-enter this
palace without emotion.  The Emperor had me brought to
him and laid his hand on my head.  I was seven years old.
It was in the grand salon downstairs."

Then Louis Bonaparte talked about La Malmaison.  He said:

"They have respected it.  I visited the place in detail
about six weeks ago.  This is how I came to do so.  I had
gone to see M. Odilon Barrot at Bougival.

"'Dine with me,' he said.

"' I will with pleasure.' It was 3 o'clock.  'What shall
we do until dinner time?'

"'Let us go and see La Malmaison,' suggested M. Barrot.

"We went.  Nobody else was with us.  Arrived at La
Malmaison we rang the bell.  A porter opened the gate,
M. Barrot spoke:

"'We want to see La Malmaison.'

"'Impossible!' replied the porter.

"'What do you mean, impossible?'

"'I have orders.'

"'From whom?'

"'From her Majesty Queen Christine, to whom the
château belongs at present.'

"'But monsieur here is a stranger who has come expressly
to visit the place.'

"'Impossible!'

"'Well,' exclaimed M. Odilon Barrot, 'it's funny that
this door should be closed to the Emperor's nephew!'

"The porter started and threw his cap on the ground.
He was an old soldier, to whom the post had been granted
as a pension.

"'The Emperor's nephew!' he cried.  'Oh!  Sire,
enter!'

"He wanted to kiss my clothes.

"We visited the château.  Everything is still about in
its place.  I recognised nearly everything, the First
Consul's study, the chamber of his mother, my own.  The
furniture in several rooms has not been changed.  I found
a little armchair I had when I was a child."

I said to the Prince: "You see, thrones disappear,
arm-chairs remain.

While we were talking a few persons came, among others
M. Duclerc, the ex-Minister of Finance of the Executive
Committee, an old woman in black velvet whom I did not
know, and Lord Normanby, the English Ambassador,
whom the President quickly took into an adjoining salon.
I saw Lord Normanby taken aside in the same way by Louis
Philippe.

The President in his salon had an air of timidity and did
not appear at home.  He came and went from group to
group more like an embarrassed stranger than the master
of the house.  However, his remarks are ~a propos~ and
sometimes witty.

He endeavoured to get my opinion anent his Ministry,
but in vain.  I would say nothing either good or bad about
it.

Besides, the Ministry is only a mask, or, more properly
speaking, a screen that hides a baboon.  Thiers is behind it.
This is beginning to bother Louis Bonaparte.  He has to
contend against eight Ministers, all of whom seek to
belittle him.  Each is pulling his own way.  Among these
Ministers some are his avowed enemies.  Nominations,
promotions, and lists arrive all made out from the Place Saint
Georges.  They have to be accepted, signed and endorsed.

Yesterday Louis Bonaparte complained about it to the
Prince de la Moskowa, remarking wittily: "They want to
make of me a Prince Albert of the Republic."

Odilon Barrot appeared mournful and discouraged.  To-day
he left the council with a crushed air.  M. de la Moskowa
encountered him.

"Hello!" said he, "how goes it?"

"Pray for us!" replied Odilon Barrot.

"Whew!" said Moskowa, "this is tragical!"

"What are we to do?" went on Odilon Barrot.  "How
are we to rebuild this old society in which everything is
collapsing?  Efforts to prop it up only help to bring it
down.  If you touch it, it topples over.  Ah! pray for
us!" 

And he raised his eyes skywards.

I quitted the Elysee about 10 o'clock.  As I was going
the President said to me: "Wait a minute." Then he
went into an adjoining room and came out again a moment
later with some papers which he placed in my hand, saying:
"For Madame Victor Hugo."

They were tickets of admission to the gallery of the
Garde-Meuble for the review that is to be held to-day.

And as I went home I thought a good deal.  I thought
about this abrupt moving in, this trial of etiquette, this
bourgeois-republican-imperial mixture, this surface of a
deep, unfathomed quantity that to-day is called the
President of the Republic, his entourage, the whole
circumstances of his position.  This man who can be, and is,
addressed at one and the same time and from all sides at once
as: prince, highness, monsieur, monseigneur and citizen,
is not one of the least curious and characteristic factors of
the situation.

Everything that is happening at this moment stamps its
mark upon this personage who sticks at nothing to attain
his ends.




IV.  THE FIRST MONTH.



January.  1849.

The first month of Louis Bonaparte's presidency is drawing
to a close.  This is how we stand at present:

Old-time Bonapartists are cropping up.  MM. Jules
Favre, Billault and Carteret are paying court--politically
Speaking--to the Princess Mathilde Demidoff.  The
Duchess d'Orleans is residing with her two children in a
little house at Ems, where she lives modestly yet royally.
All the ideas of February are brought up one after the
other; 1849, disappointed, is turning its back on 1848.
The generals want amnesty, the wise want disarmament.
The Constituent Assembly's term is expiring and the Assembly
is in savage mood in consequence.  M. Guizot is
publishing his book _On Democracy in France_.  Louis
Philippe is in London, Pius IX. is at Gaete, M. Barrot is
in power; the bourgeoisie has lost Paris, Catholicism has
lost Rome.  The sky is rainy and gloomy, with a ray of
sunshine now and then.  Mlle. Ozy shows herself quite
naked in the role of Eve at the Porte Saint Martin;
Fréderick Lemaitre is playing "L'Auberge des Adrets" there.
Five per cents are at 74, potatoes cost 8 cents the bushel,
at the market a pike can be bought for 20 sous.  M.
Ledru-Rollin is trying to force the country into war, M. Prudhon
is trying to force it into bankruptcy.  General Cavaignac
takes part in the sessions of the Assembly in a grey
waist-coat, and passes his time gazing at the women in the
galleries through big ivory opera-glasses.  M. de Lamartine
gets 25,000 francs for his "Toussaint L'Ouverture."  Louis
Bonaparte gives grand dinners to M. Thiers, who had him
captured, and to M. Mole, who had him condemned.
Vienna, Milan, and Berlin are becoming calmer.  Revolutionary
fires are paling and seem to be dying out everywhere on
the surface, but the peoples are still deeply stirred.
The King of Prussia is getting ready to seize his sceptre
again and the Emperor of Russia to draw his sword.  There
has been an earthquake at Havre, the cholera is at Fécamp;
Arnal is leaving the Gymnase, and the Academy is nominating
the Duke de Noailles as Chateaubriand's successor.




V.  FEELING HIS WAY.



January, 1849.

At Odilon Barrot's ball on January 28 M. Thiers went
up to M. Leon Faucher and said: "Make So-and-So a prefect."
M. Leon Faucher made a grimace, which is an easy
thing for him to do, and said: "Monsieur Thiers, there
are objections."  "That's funny!" retorted Thiers, "it is
precisely the answer the President of the Republic gave
to me the day I said: 'Make M. Faucher a Minister!'"

At this ball it was remarked that Louis Bonaparte sought
Berryer's company, attached himself to him and led him
into quiet corners.  The Prince looked as though he were
following Berryer, and Berryer as though he were trying
to avoid the Prince.

At 11 o'clock the President said to Berryer: "Come
with me to the Opera."

Berryer excused himself.  "Prince," said he, "it would
give rise to gossip.  People would believe I am engaged in
a love affair!"

"Pish!" replied Louis Bonaparte laughingly,
"Representatives are inviolable!"

The Prince went away alone, and the following quatrain
was circulated:

              ~En vain l'empire met du fard,
              On baisse ses yeux et sa robe.
              Et Berryer-Joseph so derobe
              A Napoléon-Putiphar~.

                    ----------



February, 1849.

Although he is animated with the best intentions in the
world and has a very visible quantity of intelligence and
aptitude, I fear that Louis Bonaparte will find his task too
much for him.  To him, France, the century, the new
spirit, the instincts peculiar to the soil and the period are
so many closed books.  He looks without understanding
them at minds that are working, Paris, events, men,
things and ideas.  He belongs to that class of ignorant persons
who are called princes and to that category of foreigners
who are called ~êmigrês~.  To those who examine him
closely he has the air of a patient rather than of a
governing man.

There is nothing of the Bonapartes about him, either in
his face or manner.  He probably is not a Bonaparte.  The
free and easy ways of Queen Hortense are remembered.
"He is a memento of Holland!" said Alexis de Saint
Priest to me yesterday.  Louis Bonaparte certainly possesses
the cold manner of the Dutch.



Louis Bonaparte knows so little about Paris that the first
time I saw him he said to me:

"I have been hunting for you.  I went to your former
residence.  What is this Place des Vosges?"

"It is the Place Royale," I said.

"Ah!" he continued, "is it an old place?"



He wanted to see Beranger.  He went to Passy twice
without being able to find him at home.  His cousin
Napoleon timed his visit more happily and found Béranger by
his fireside.  He asked him:

"What do you advise my cousin to do?"

"To observe the Constitution."

"And what ought he to avoid?"

"Violating the Constitution."

Béranger could not be induced to say anything else.

                    ----------



Yesterday, December 5, 1850, I was at the Français.
Rachel played "Adrienne Lecouvreur."  Jerome Bonaparte
occupied a box next to mine.  During an entr'acte I paid
him a visit.  We chatted.  He said to me:

"Louis is mad.  He is suspicious of his friends and delivers
himself into the hands of his enemies.  He is suspicious of
his family and allows himself to be bound hand
and foot by the old Royalist parties.  On my return to
France I was better received by Louis Philippe at the
Tuileries than I am at the Elysee by my nephew.  I said
to him the other day before one of his ministers (Fould):
'Just remember a little!  When you were a candidate for
the presidency, Monsieur here (I pointed to Fould) called
upon me in the Rue d'Alger, where I lived, and begged
me in the name of MM. Thiers, Mole, Duvergier de Hauranne,
Berryer, and Bugeaud to enter the lists for the presidency.
He told me that never would you get the
"Constitutionnel;" that in Mole's opinion you were an idiot,
and that Thiers looked upon you as a blockhead; that I
alone could rally everybody to me and win against
Cavaignac.  I refused.  I told them that you represented
youth and the future, that you had a quarter of a century
before you, whereas I could hardly count upon eight or ten
years; that I was an invalid and wanted to be let alone.
That is what these people were doing and that is what I
did.  And you forget all this!  And you make these gentlemen
the masters!  And you show the door to your cousin,
my son, who defended you in the Assembly and devoted
himself to furthering your candidacy!  And you are
strangling universal suffrage, which made you what you
are!  I' faith I shall say like Mole that you are an idiot,
and like Thiers that you are a blockhead!'"

The King of Westphalia paused for a moment, then continued:

"And do you know, Monsieur Victor Hugo, what he replied to
me?  'You will see!' No one knows what is at
the bottom of that man!"






THE SIEGE OF PARIS.

EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS




THE SIEGE OF PARIS.



BRUSSELS, September 1.--Charles* leaves this morning
with MM. Claretie, Proust, and Frédérix for Virton.
Fighting is going on near there, at Carignan.  They will
see what they can of the battle.  They will return tomorrow.

* Victor Hugo's son.



September 2.--Charles and his friends did not return to-day.



September 3.--Yesterday, after the decisive battle had
been lost, Louis Napoleon, who was taken prisoner at
Sedan, surrendered his sword to the King of Prussia.  Just
a month ago, on August 2, at Sarrebrück, he was playing
at war.

To save France now would be to save Europe.

Shouting newsboys pass, with enormous posters on which
are the words: "Napoleon III. a Prisoner."

5 o'clock.--Charles and our friends have returned.

9 o'clock.--Meeting of exiles at which Charles and I are
present.

Query:  Tricolour flag or red flag?



September 4.--The deposition of the Emperor is proclaimed
in Paris.


At 1 o'clock a meeting of exiles is held at my house.

At 3 o'clock I receive a telegram from Paris couched
in the following terms: "Bring the children with you."
Which means "Come."

MM. Claretie and Proust dined with us.

During the dinner a telegram signed "François Hugo"
arrived, announcing that a provisional government had
been formed: Jules Favre, Gambetta, Thiers.



September 5.--At 6 o'clock in the morning a telegram
signed "Barbieux," and asking the hour of my arrival in
Paris, is brought to me.  I instruct Charles to answer that
I shall arrive at 9 o'clock at night.  We shall take the
children with us.  We shall leave by the 2.35 o'clock train.

The Provisional Government (according to the newspapers)
is made up of all the Deputies of Paris, with the
exception of Thiers.

At noon, as I was about to leave Brussels for Paris, a
young man, a Frenchman, accosted me in the Place de la
Monnaie and said:

Monsieur, they tell me that you are Victor Hugo."

"Yes."

"Be so kind as to enlighten me.  I would like to know
whether it is prudent to go to Paris at present."

"Monsieur, it is very imprudent, but you should go,"
was my reply.

We entered France at 4 o'clock.

At Tergnier, at 6.30, we dined upon a piece of bread, a
little cheese, a pear and a glass of wine.  Claretie insisted
upon paying, and said: "I want particularly to give you
a dinner on the day of your return to France."

En route I saw in the woods a camp of French soldiers,
men and horses mingled.  I shouted to them: "Long live
the army!" and I wept.

At frequent intervals we came across train-loads of soldiers
on their way to Paris.  Twenty-five of these passed
during the day.  As one of them went by we gave to the
soldiers all the provisions we had, some bread, fruit and
wine.  The sun shone brightly and was succeeded by a
bright moon.

We arrived in Paris at 9.35 o'clock.  An immense crowd
awaited me.  It was an indescribable welcome.  I spoke
four times, once from the balcony of a café and thrice from
my carriage.

When I took leave of this ever-growing crowd, which
escorted me to Paul Meurice's, in the Avenue Frochot, I
said to the people: "In one hour you repay me for twenty
years of exile."

They sang the "Marseillaise" and the "Chant du Depart."

They shouted: "Long live Victor Hugo!"

The journey from the Northern Railway station to the
Rue Laval took two hours.

We arrived at Meurice's, where I am to stay, at mid-night.
I dined with my travelling companions and Victor.
I went to bed at 2 o'clock.

At daybreak I was awakened by a terrible storm.  Thunder
and lightning.

I shall take breakfast with Paul Meurice, and we shall
dine together at the Hotel Navarin, in the Rue Navarin,
where my family is staying.



PARIS, September 6.--Innumerable visits, innumerable
letters.

Rey came to ask me whether I would consent to join a
triumvirate composed as follows: Victor Hugo, Ledru-Rollin,
and Schoelcher.  I refused.  I said: "It is almost
impossible to amalgamate me."

I recalled several things to his mind.  He said: "Do
you remember that it was I who received you when you
arrived at the Baudin barricade?"*  I replied: "I remember
the fact so well that--.  And I recited the lines at the
beginning of the piece (unpublished) upon the Baudin
barricade:

              ~La barricade était livide dans l'aurore,
              Et comme j'arrivais elle fumait encore.
              Rey me serra la main et dit: Baudin est mort...~

*  Representative Baudin was killed on the barricade in the
Faubourg Saint Antoine on December 2, 1852, during Louis Bonaparte's
coup d'Etat.

He burst into tears.



September 7.--Louis Blanc, d'Alton-Shée, Banville and
others came to see me.

The women of the Markets brought me a bouquet.



September 8.--I am warned that it is proposed to assassinate
me.  I shrug my shoulders.

This morning I wrote my "Letter to the Germans."  It will
be sent tomorrow.

Visit from General Cluseret.

At 10 o'clock I went to the office of the Rappel to correct
the proofs of my "Letter to the Germans."



September 9.--Received a visit from General Montfort.
The generals are asking me for commands, I am being
asked to grant audiences, office-seekers are asking me for
places.  I reply: "I am nobody."

I saw Captain Feval, husband of Fanny, the sister of
Alice.* He was a prisoner of war, and was released on
parole.

* Wife of Charles Hugo.

All the newspapers publish my "Appeal to the Germans."



September 10.--D'Alton-Shée and Louis Ulbach lunched
with us.  Afterwards we went to the Place de la Concorde.
At the foot of the flower-crowned statue of Strasburg is a
register.  Everybody comes to sign the resolution of public
thanks.  I inscribed my name.  The crowd at once surrounded
me.  The ovation of the other night was about to
recommence.  I hurried to my carriage.

Among the persons who called upon me was Cernuschi.



September 11.--Received a visit from Mr. Wickham
Hoffman, Secretary of the United States Legation.  Mr.
Washburne, the American Minister, had requested him to
ask me whether I did not think that some good might
result were he to intervene *officiously* and see the King of
Prussia.  I sent him to Jules Favre.



September 12.--Among other callers was Frédérick Lemaître.



September 13.--To-day there is a review of the army of
Paris.  I am alone in my chamber.  The battalions march
through the streets singing the "Marseillaise" and the "Chant
du Depart."  I hear this immense shout:

              For France a Frenchman should live,
              For France a Frenchman should die.*

*  The "Chant du Depart."

I listen and I weep.  On, valiant ones!  I will go where
you go.

Receive a visit from the United States Consul-General
and Mr. Wickham Hoffman.

Julie* writes me from Guernsey that the acorn I planted
on July 14 has sprouted.  The oak of the United States
of Europe issued from the ground on September 5, the day
of my return to Paris.

*  Victor Hugo's sister-in-law.



September 14.--I received a visit from the committee
of the Société des Gens de Lettres, which wants me to be
its president; from M. Jules Simon, Minister of Public
Instruction; from Colonel Piré, who commands a corps of
volunteers, etc.



September 16.--One year ago to-day I opened the Peace
Congress at Lausanne.  This morning I wrote the "Appeal to
Frenchmen" for a war to the bitter end against the invasion.

On going out I perceived hovering over Montmartre the
captive balloon from which a watch is to be kept upon the
besiegers.



September 17.--All the forests around Paris are burning.
Charles made a trip to the fortifications and is perfectly
satisfied with them.  I deposited at the office of the
Rappel 2,088 francs 30 centimes, subscribed in Guernsey
for the wounded and sent by M. H. Tupper, the French
Consul.

At the same time I deposited at the "Rappel" office a
bracelet and earrings of gold, sent anonymously for the wounded
by a woman.  Accompanying the trinkets was a little
golden neck medal for Jeanne.*

*  Victor Hugo's little granddaughter.



September 20.--Charles and his little family left the
Hotel Navarin yesterday and installed themselves at 174,
Rue de Rivoli.  Charles and his wife, as well as Victor,
will continue to dine with me every day.

The attack upon Paris began yesterday.

Louis Blanc, Gambetta and Jules Ferry came to see me
this morning.

I went to the Institute to sign the Declaration that it
proposes to issue encouraging the capital to resist to the last.

I will not accept any limited candidacy.  I would accept
with devotedness the candidacy of the city of Paris.  I want
the voting to be not by districts, with local candidates, but
by the whole city with one list to select from.

I went to the Ministry of Public Instruction to see Mme.
Jules Simon, who is in mourning for her old friend Victor
Bois.  Georges and Jeanne were in the garden.  I played
with them.

Nadar came to see me this evening to ask me for some
letters to put in a balloon which he will send up the day
after tomorrow.  It will carry with it my three addresses:
"To the Germans," "To Frenchmen," "To Parisians."



October 6.--Nadar's balloon, which has been named the
"Barbes," and which is taking my letters, etc., started this
morning, but had to come down again, as there was not
enough wind.  It will leave to-morrow.  It is said that
Jules Favre and Gambetta will go in it.

Last night General John Meredith Read, United States
Consul-General, called upon me.  He had seen the American
General Burnside, who is in the Prussian camp.  The
Prussians, it appears, have respected Versailles.  They are
afraid to attack Paris.  This we are aware of, for we can
see it for ourselves.



October 7.--This morning, while strolling on the Boulevard
de Clichy, I perceived a balloon at the end of a street
leading to Montmartre.  I went up to it.  A small crowd
bordered a large square space that was walled in by the
perpendicular bluffs of Montmartre.  In this space three
balloons were being inflated, a large one, a medium-sized
one, and a small one.  The large one was yellow, the medium
one white, and the small one striped yellow and red.

In the crowd it was whispered that Gambetta was going.
Sure enough I saw him in a group near the yellow balloon,
wearing a heavy overcoat and a sealskin cap.  He seated
himself upon a paving-stone and put on a pair of high
fur-lined boots.  A leather bag was slung over his shoulder.
He took it off, entered the balloon, and a young man, the
aeronaut, tied the bag to the cordage above Gambetta's
head.

It was half past 10.  The weather was fine and sunshiny,
with a light southerly breeze.  All at once the yellow
balloon rose, with three men in it, one of whom was Gambetta.
Then the white balloon went up with three men,
one of whom waved a tricolour flag.  Beneath Gambetta's
balloon hung a long tricolour streamer.  "Long live the
Republic!" shouted the crowd.

The two balloons went up for some distance, the white
one going higher than the yellow one, then they began to
descend.  Ballast was thrown out, but they continued their
downward flight.  They disappeared behind Montmartre
hill.  They must have landed on the Saint Denis plain.
They were too heavily weighted, or else the wind was not
strong enough.

          *          *          *          *          *

The departure took place after all, for the balloons went
up again.



We paid a visit to Notre Dame, which has been admirably
restored.

We also went to see the Tour Saint Jacques.  While our
carriage was standing there one of the delegates of the
other day (from the Eleventh Arrondissement) came up
and told me that the Eleventh Arrondissement had come
round to my views, concluded that I was right in insisting
upon a vote of the whole city upon a single list of
candidates, begged me to accept the nomination upon the
conditions I had imposed, and wanted to know what ought to be
done should the Government refuse to permit an election.
Ought force be resorted to?  I replied that a civil war
would help the foreign war that was being waged against
us and deliver Paris to the Prussians.

On the way home I bought some toys for my little ones--a
zouave in a sentry-box for Georges, and for Jeanne a
doll that opens and shuts its eyes.



October 8.--I have received a letter from M. L. Colet,
of Vienna (Austria), by way of Normandy.  It is the first
letter that has reached me from the outside since Paris has
been invested.

There has been no sugar in Paris for six days.  The
rationing of meat began to-day.  We shall get three quarters
of a pound per person and per day.

Incidents of the postponed Commune.  Feverish unrest
in Paris.  Nothing to cause uneasiness, however.  The
deep-toned Prussian cannon thunder continuously.  They
recommend unity among us.

The Minister of Finance, M. Ernest Picard, through his
secretary, asks me to "grant him an audience;" these are
the terms he uses.  I answer that I will see him on Monday
morning, October 10.



October 9.--Five delegates from the Ninth Arrondissement
came in the name of the arrondissement to *forbid me
to get myself killed*.



October 10.--M. Ernest Picard came to see me.  I asked
him to issue immediately a decree liberating all articles
pawned at the Mont de Piété for less than 15 francs (the
present decree making absurd exceptions, linen, for
instance).  I told him that the poor could not wait.  He
promised to issue the decree to-morrow.

There is no news of Gambetta.  We are beginning to
get uneasy.  The wind carried him to the north-east, which
is occupied by the Prussians.



October 11.--Good news of Gambetta.  He descended at
Epineuse, near Amiens.

Last night, after the demonstrations in Paris, while passing
a group that had assembled under a street lamp, I heard
these words: "It appears that Victor Hugo and the
others--." I continued on my way, and did not listen to
the rest, as I did not wish to be recognised.

After dinner I read to my friends the verses with which
the French edition of _Les Châtiments_ begins ("When
about to return to France," Brussels, August 31, 1870).



October 12.--It is beginning to get cold.  Barbieux, who
commands a battalion, brought us the helmet of a Prussian
soldier who was killed by his men.  This helmet greatly
astonished little Jeanne.  These angels do not yet know
anything about earth.

The decree I demanded for the indigent was published
this morning in the "Journal Officiel."

M. Pallain, the Minister's secretary, whom I met as I
came out of the Carrousel, told me that the decree would
cost 800,000 francs.

I replied: "Eight hundred thousand francs, all right.
Take from the rich.  Give to the poor."



October 13.--I met to-day Théophile Gautier, whom I
I had not seen for many years.  I embraced him.  He was
rather nervous.  I told him to come and dine with me.



October 14.--The Château of Saint Cloud was burned
yesterday!

I went to Claye's to correct last proofs of the French edition
of _Les Chatiments_ which will appear on Tuesday.  Dr.
Emile Allix brought me a Prussian cannon-ball which he
had picked up behind a barricade, near Montrouge, where
it had just killed two horses.  The cannon-ball weighs 25
pounds.  Georges, in playing with it, pinched his fingers
under it, which made him cry a good deal.

To-day is the anniversary of Jena!



October 16.--There is no more butter.  There is no more
cheese.  Very little milk is left, and eggs are nearly all
gone.

The report that my name has been given to the Boulevard
Haussmann is confirmed.  I have not been to see it
for myself.



October 17.--To-morrow a postal balloon named the
"Victor Hugo" is to be sent up in the Place de la Concorde.
I am sending a letter to London by this balloon.



October 18.--I have paid a visit to Les Feuillantines.
The house and garden of my boyhood have disappeared.

A street now passes over the site.



October 19.--Louis Blanc came to dine with me.  He
brought a declaration by ex-Representatives for me to sign.
I said that I would not sign it unless it were drawn up in
a different manner.



October 20.--Visit from the Gens de Lettres committee.
To-day the first postage stamps of the Republic of 1870
were put in circulation.

_Les Châtiments_ (French edition) appeared in Paris this
morning.

The papers announce that the balloon "Victor Hugo"
descended in Belgium.  It is the first postal balloon to cross
the frontier.



October 21.-They say that Alexandre Dumas died on
October 13 at the home of his son at Havre.  He was a
large-hearted man of great talent.  His death grieves me
greatly.

Louis Blanc and Brives came to speak to me again about
the Declaration of Representatives.  My opinion is that it
would be better to postpone it.

Nothing is more charming than the sounding of the reveille
in Paris.  It is dawn.  One hears first, nearby, a roll of
drums, followed by the blast of a bugle, exquisite melody,
winged and warlike.  Then all is still.  In twenty seconds
the drums roll again, then the bugle rings out, but further
off.  Then silence once more.  An instant later, further
off still, the same song of bugle and drum falls more faintly
but still distinctly upon the ear.  Then after a pause the
roll and blast are repeated, very far away.  Then they are
heard again, at the extremity of the horizon, but indistinctly
and like an echo.  Day breaks and the shout "To arms!"
is heard.  The sun rises and Paris awakes.

October 22.--The edition of 5,000 copies of _Les Châtiments_ 
has been sold in two days.  I have authorised the
printing of another 3,000.

Little Jeanne has imagined a way of puffing out her
cheeks and raising her arms in the air that is adorable.

The first 5,000 copies of the Parisian edition of _Les Chatiments_
has brought me in 500 francs, which I am sending
to the "Siècle" as a subscription to the national fund for the
cannon that Paris needs.

Mathe and Gambon, the ex-Representatives, called to
ask me to take part in a meeting of which former
representatives are to form the nucleus.  The meeting would be
impossible without me, they said.  But I see more
disadvantages than advantages in such a meeting.  I thought I
ought to refuse.

We are eating horsemeat in every style.  I saw the following
in the window of a cook-shop: "Saucisson chevaleresque."



October 23.--The 17th Battalion asked me to be the
first subscriber of "one sou" to a fund for purchasing a
cannon.  They will collect 300,000 sous.  This will make
15,000 francs, which will purchase a 24-centimetre gun.
carrying 8,500 metres--equal to the Krupp guns.

Lieutenant Maréchal brought to collect my sou an
Egyptian cup of onyx dating from the Pharaohs, engraved
with the moon and the sun, the Great Bear and the Southern
Cross (?) and having for handles two cynocephalus
demons.  The engraving of this cup required the life-work
of a man.  I gave my sou.  D'Alton-Shée, who was present,
gave his, as did also M. and Mme. Meurice, and the two
servants, Mariette and Clémence.  The 17th Battalion
wanted to call the gun the "Victor Hugo."  I told them to
call it the "Strasburg."  In this way the Prussians will still
receive shots from Strasburg.

We chatted and laughed with the officers of the 17th
Battalion.  It was the duty of the two cynocephalus genie
of the cup to bear souls to hell.  I remarked: "Very well,
I confide William and Bismarck to them."

Visit from M. Edouard Thierry.  He came to request
me to allow "Stella" to be read in aid of the wounded at the
Théâtre Français.  I gave him his choice of all the "Châtiments."
That startled him.  And I demanded that the reading be for
a cannon.

Visit from M. Charles Floquet.  He has a post at the
Hotel de Ville.  I commissioned him to tell the Government
to call the Mont Valérien "Mont Strasbourg."



October 24.--Visit from General Le Flo.  Various
deputations received.



October 25.--There is to be a public reading of _Les
Châtiments_ for a cannon to be called "Le Châtiment."  We
are preparing for it.

Brave Rostan,* whom I treated harshly one day, and who
likes me because I did right, has been arrested for
indiscipline in the National Guard.  He has a little motherless
boy six years old who has nobody else to take care of him.
What was to be done, the father being in prison?  I told
him to send the youngster to me at the Pavilion de Rohan.
He sent him to-day.

*  A workingman, friend of Victor Hugo.



October 26.-At 6.30 o'clock Rostan, released from
prison, came to fetch his little Henri.  Great joy of father
and son.



October 28.--Edgar Quinet came to see me.

Schoelcher and Commander Farcy, who gave his name
to his gunboat, dined with me.  After dinner, at half past
8 I went with Schoelcher to his home at 16, Rue de la
Chaise.  We found there Quinet, Ledru-Rollin, Mathé,
Gambon, Lamarque, and Brives.  This was my first meeting
with Ledru-Rollin.  We engaged in a very courteous
argument over the question of founding a club, he being
for and I against it.  We shook hands.  I returned home at
midnight.



October 29.--Visits from the Gens de Lettres committee,
Frédérick Lemaitre, MM. Berton and Lafontaine and
Mlle. Favart for a third cannon to be called the "Victor
Hugo."  I oppose the name.

I have authorised the fourth edition of 3,000 copies of
_Les Châtiments_, which will make to date 11,000 copies for
Paris alone.



October 30.--I received the letter of the Société des
Gens de Lettres asking me to authorise a public reading
of Les Chatiments, the proceeds of which will give to Paris
another cannon to be called the "Victor Hugo."  I gave the
authorisation.  In my reply written this morning I demanded
that instead of "Victor Hugo" the gun be called the
"Châteaudun."  The reading will take place at the Porte
Saint Martin.

M. Berton came.  I read to him _L'Expiation_, which he
is to read.  M. and Mme. Meurice and d'Alton-Shée were
present at the reading.

News has arrived that Metz has capitulated and that
Bazaine's army has surrendered.

Bills announcing the reading of _Les Châtiments_ have
been posted.  M. Raphael Felix came to tell me the
time at which the rehearsal is to take place tomorrow.  I
hired a seven-seat box for this reading, which I placed at
the disposal of the ladies.

On returning home this evening I met in front of the
Mairie, M. Chaudey, who was at the Lausanne Peace
Conference and who is Mayor of the Sixth Arrondissement.
He was with M. Philibert Audebrand.  We talked sorrowfully
about the taking of Metz.



October 31.--Skirmish at the Hotel de Ville.  Blanqui,
Flourens and Delescluze want to overthrow the provisional
power, Trochu and Jules Favre.  I refuse to associate
myself with them.

An immense crowd.  My name is on the lists of members
for the proposed Government.  I persist in my refusal.

Flourens and Blanqui held some of the members of the
Government prisoners at the Hotel de Ville all day.

At midnight some National Guards came from the Hotel
de Ville to fetch me "to preside," they said, "over the
new Government." I replied that I was most emphatically
opposed to this attempt to seize the power and refused to
go to the Hotel de Ville.

At 3 o'clock in the morning Flourens and Blanqui quitted
the Hotel de Ville and Trochu entered it.

The Commune of Paris is to be elected.



November 1.--We have postponed for a few days the
reading of _Les Châtiments_, which was to have been given
at the Porte Saint Martin to-day, Tuesday.

Louis Blanc came this morning to consult me as to what
ought to be the conduct of the Commune.

The newspapers unanimously praise the attitude I took
yesterday in rejecting the advances made to me.



November 2.--The Government demands a "yes" or a "no."

Louis Blanc and my sons came to talk to me about it.

The report that Alexandre Dumas is dead is denied.



November 4.--I have been requested to be Mayor of the
Third, also of the Eleventh, Arrondissement.  I refused.

I went to the rehearsal of _Les Châtiments_ at the Porte
Saint Martin.  Frédérick Lemaitre and Mmes.  Laurent,
Lia Felix and Duguéret were present.



November 5.--To-day the public reading of _Les Châtiments_,
the proceeds of which are to purchase a cannon for
the defence of Paris, was given.

The Third, Eleventh and Fifteenth Arrondissements
want me to stand for Mayor.  I refuse.

Mérimée has died at Cannes.  Dumas is not dead, but
he is paralyzed.



November 7.--The 24th Battalion waited upon me and
wanted me to give them a cannon.



November 8.--Last night, on returning from a visit to
General Le Flo, I for the first time crossed the Pont des
Tuileries, which has been built since my departure from
France.



November 9.--The net receipts from the reading of _Les
Châtiments_ at the Porte Saint Martin for the gun which
I have named the "Châteaudun" amounted to 7,000 francs,
the balance going to pay the attendants, firemen, and
lighting, the only expenses charged.

At the Cail works mitrailleuses of a new model, called
the Gatling model, are being made.

Little Jeanne is beginning to chatter.

A second reading of _Les Châtiments_ for another cannon
will be given at the "Théâtre Français".



November 11.--Mlle. Periga called today to rehearse
_Pauline Roland_, which she will read at the second reading
of _Les Châtiments_, announced for to-morrow at the Porte
Saint Martin.  I took a carriage, dropped Mlle. Périga at
her home, and then went to the rehearsal of to-morrow's
reading at the theatre.  Frederick Lemaitre, Berton,
Maubart, Taillade, Lacressonnière, Charly, Mmes.  Laurent, Lia
Felix, Rousseil, M. Raphael Felix and the committee of
the Société des Gens de Lettres were there.

After the rehearsal the wounded of the Porte Saint Martin
ambulance asked me, through Mme. Laurent, to go and
see them.  I said: "With all my heart," and I went.

They are lying in several rooms, chief of which is the
old green-room of the theatre with its big round mirrors,
where in 1831 I read to the actors "Marion de Lorme".  M.
Crosnier was then director.  (Mme. Dorval and Bocage
were present at that reading.)  On entering I said to the
wounded men: "Behold one who envies you.  I desire
nothing more on earth but one of your wounds.  I salute
you, children of France, favourite sons of the Republic,
elect who suffer for the Fatherland."

They seemed to be greatly moved.  I shook hands with
each of them.  One held out his mutilated wrist.  Another
had lost his nose.  One had that very morning undergone
two painful operations.  A very young man had been decorated
with the military medal a few hours before.  A convalescent
said to me: "I am a Franc-Comtois."  "Like
myself," said I.  And I embraced him.  The nurses, in
white aprons, who are the actresses of the theatre, burst
into tears.



November 13.--I had M. and Mme. Paul Meurice, Vacquerie
and Louis Blanc to dinner this evening.  We dined
at 6 o'clock, as the second reading of _Les Chatiments_ was
fixed to begin at the Porte Saint Martin at 7.30.  I offered
a box to Mme. Paul Meurice for the reading.



November 14.--The receipts for _Les Chatiments_ last
night (without counting the collection taken up in the
theatre) amounted to 8,000 francs.

Good news!  General d'Aurelle de Paladine has retaken
Orleans and beaten the Prussians.  Schoelcher came to
inform me of it.



November 15.--Visit from M. Arsène Houssaye and
Henri Houssaye, his son.  He is going to have Stella read
at his house in aid of the wounded.

M. Valois came to tell me that the two readings of _Les
Châtiments_ brought in 14,000 francs.  For this sum not
two, but three guns can be purchased.  The Société des
Gens de Lettres desires that, the first having been named
by me the "Châteaudun" and the second "Les Châtiments", the
third shall be called the "Victor Hugo."  I have consented.

Pierre Veron has sent me Daumier's fine drawing
representing the Empire annihilated by _Les Chatiments_.



November 16.--Baroche, they say, has died at Caen.

M. Edouard Thierry refuses to allow the fifth act of
"Hernani" to be played at the Porte Saint Martin for the
victims of Châteaudun and for the cannon of the 24th
Battalion.  A queer obstacle this M. Thierry!



November 17.--Visit from the Gens de Lettres committee.
The committee came to ask me to authorise a reading
of _Les Châtiments_ at the Opera to raise funds for another
cannon.

I mention here once for all that I authorise whoever
desires to do so, to read or perform whatever he likes that I
have written, if it be for cannon, the wounded, ambulances,
workshops, orphanages, victims of the war, or the poor, and
that I abandon all my royalties on these readings or
performances.

I decide that the third reading of _Les Chatiments_ shall
be given at the Opera gratis for the people.



November 19.--Mme. Marie Laurent came to recite to
me _Les Pauvres Gens_, which she will recite at the Porte
Saint Martin to-morrow to raise funds for a cannon.



November 20.--Last evening there was an aurora borealis.

"La Grosse Josephine" is no longer my neighbour.  She
has just been transported to Bastion No. 41.  It took
twenty-six horses to draw her.  I am sorry they have taken
her away.  At night I could hear her deep voice, and it
seemed to me that she was speaking to me.  I divided my
love between "Grosse Joséphine" and Little Jeanne.

Little Jeanne can now say "papa" and "mamma" very well.

To-day there was a review of the National Guard.



November 21.--Mme. Jules Simon and Mme. Sarah
Bernhardt came to see me.

After dinner many visitors called, and the drawing-room
was crowded.  It appears that Veuillot insulted me.

Little Jeanne begins to crawl on her hands and knees
very well indeed.



November 23.--Jules Simon writes me that the Opera
will be given to me for the people (free reading of _Les
Châtiments_) any day I fix upon.  I wanted Sunday, but
out of consideration for the concert that the actors and
employés of the Opera give Sunday night for their own
benefit I have selected Monday.

Frédérick Lemaitre called.  He kissed my hands and wept.

It has been raining for two or three days.  The rain has
soaked the plains, the cannon-wheels would sink into the
ground, and the sortie has therefore had to be deferred.
For two days Paris has been living on salt meat.  A rat
costs 8 sous.



November 24.--I authorise the Théâtre Français to play
to-morrow, Friday, the 25th, on behalf of the victims of
the war, the fifth act of "Hernani" by the actors of the
Théâtre Français and the last act of "Lucrece Borgia" by the
actors of the Porte Saint Martin, and in addition the
recitation as an intermede of extracts from _Les Châtiments_,
_Les Contemplations_ and _La Légende des Siècles_.

Mlle. Favart came this morning to rehearse with me
_Booz Endormie_.  Then we went together to the Français
for the rehearsal for the performance of to-morrow.  She
acted Doña Sol very well indeed.  Mme. Laurent (Lucrèce
Borgia) also played well.  During the rehearsal M. de
Flavigny dropped in.  I said to him: "Good morning, my
dear ex-colleague." He looked at me, then with some
emotion exclaimed: "Hello! is that you?"  And he
added: "How well preserved you are!" I replied:
"Banishment preserves one."

I returned the ticket for a box that the Théâtre Français
sent to me for to-morrow's performance, and hired a box,
which I placed at the disposal of Mme. Paul Meurice.

After dinner the new Prefect of Police, M. Cresson, paid
me a visit.  M. Cresson was the barrister who twenty years
ago defended the murderers of General Bréa.  He spoke
to me about the free reading of _Les Châtiments_ to
be given on Monday the 28th at the Opera.  It is feared
that an immense crowd--all the faubourgs--will be attracted.
More than 25,000 men and women.  Three thousand will be able
to get in.  What is to be done with the rest?  
"The Government is uneasy.  Many are called but
few will be chosen, and it fears that a crush, fighting and
disorders will result.  The Government will refuse me
nothing.  It wants to know whether I will accept the
responsibility.  It will do whatever I wish done.  The
Prefect of Police has been instructed to come to an
understanding with me about it.

I said to M. Cresson: "Let us consult Vacquerie and
Meurice and my two sons."  He replied: "Willingly."
The six of us held a council.  We decided that three
thousand tickets should be distributed on Sunday, the day
before the lecture, at the mairies of the twenty arrondissements
to the first persons who presented themselves after
noon.  Each arrondissement will receive a number of
tickets in proportion to the number of its population.  The
next day the 3,000 holders of tickets (to all places) will wait
their turn at the doors of the Opera without causing any
obstruction or trouble.  The "Journal Officiel" and special
posters will apprise the public of the measures taken in the
interest of public order.



November 25.--Mlle. Lia Felix came to rehearse _Sacer
Esto_, which she will recite to the people on Monday.

M. Tony Révillon, who is to make a speech, came to see
me with the Gens de Lettres committee.

A deputation of Americans from the United States came
to express their indignation with the Government of the
American Republic and with President Grant for abandoning
France--"To which the American Republic owes so
much!" said I.  "Owes everything," declared one of the
Americans present.

A good deal of cannonading has been heard for several
days.  To-day it redoubled.

Mme. Meurice wants some fowls and rabbits in order to
provide against the coming famine.  She is having a hutch
made for them in my little garden.  The carpenter who is
constructing it entered my chamber a little while ago and
said: "I would like to touch your hand." I pressed both
his hands in mine.



November 27.--The Academy has given a sign of life.
I have received official notice that in future it will hold an
extraordinary session every Tuesday.

Pâtés of rat are being made.  They are said to be very
good.

An onion costs a sou.  A potato costs a sou.

They have given up asking my authorisation to recite
my works which are being recited everywhere without my
permission.  They are right.  What I write is not my own.
I am a public thing.



November 28.--Noel Parfait came to ask my help for
Châteaudun.  Certainly; with all my heart!

_Les Châtiments_ was recited gratis at the Opera.  An
immense crowd.  A gilt wreath was thrown on the stage.
I gave it to Georges and Jeanne.  The collection made in
Prussian helmets by the actresses produced 1,521 francs 35
centimes in coppers.

Emile Allix brought us a leg of antelope from the Jardin
des Plantes.  It is excellent.

To-night the sortie is to be made.



November 29.--All night long I heard the cannon.

The fowls were installed in my garden to-day.

The sortie is being delayed.  The bridge thrown across
the Marne by Ducros has been carried away, the Prussians
having blown open the locks.



November 30.--All night long the cannon thundered.
The battle continues.

At midnight last night as I was returning home through
the Rue de Richelieu from the Pavilion de Rohan, I saw
just beyond the National Library, the street being deserted
and dark at the time, a window open on the sixth floor of
a very high house and a very bright light, which appeared
to be that of a petroleum lamp, appear and disappear
several times; then the window closed and the street became
dark again.  Was it a signal?

The cannon can be heard at three points round Paris,
to the east, west and south.  This is because a triple attack
is being made on the ring the Prussians have drawn round
us.  The attack is being made at Saint Denis by Laroncière,
at Courbevoie by Vinoy, and on the Marne by Ducros.
Laroncière is said to have swept the peninsula of Gennevilliers
and compelled a Saxon regiment to lay down its
arms, and Vinoy is said to have destroyed the Prussian
works beyond Bougival.  As to Ducros, he has crossed the
Marne, taken and retaken Montédy, and almost holds
Villiers-sur-Marne.  What one experiences on hearing the
cannon is a great desire to be there.

This evening Pelletan sent his son, Camille Pelletan, to
inform me on behalf of the Government that to-morrow's
operations will be decisive.



December 1.--It appears that Louise Michel has been
arrested.  I will do all that is necessary to have her released
immediately.  Mme. Meurice is occupying herself about it.
She went out this morning for that purpose.

D'Alton-Shée came to see me.

We ate bear for dinner.

I have written to the Prefect of Police to have Louise
Michel released.

There was no fighting to-day.  The positions taken were
fortified.



December 2.--Louise Michel has been released.  She
came to thank me.

Last evening M. Coquelin called to recite several pieces
from _Les Châtiments_.

It is freezing.  The basin of the Pigalle fountain is
frozen over.

The cannonade recommenced at daybreak.

11.30	A.M.--The cannonade increases.

Flourens wrote to me yesterday and Rochefort to-day.
They are coming round to me again.

Dorian, Minister of Public Works, and Pelletan came to
dine with me.

Excellent news to-night!  The Army of the Loire is at
Montargis.  The Army of Paris has driven back the
Prussians from the Avron plateau.  The despatches announcing
these successes are read aloud at the doors of the mairies.

Victory!  The Second of December has been wiped out!



December 3.--General Renault, who was wounded in the
foot by a splinter from a shell, is dead.

I told Schoelcher that I want to go out with my sons if
the batteries of the National Guard to which they belong
are sent to the front.  The batteries drew lots.  Four are
to go.  One of them is the 10th Battery, of which Victor
is a member.  I will go out with that battery.  Charles does
not belong to it, which is a good job; he will stay behind,
he has two children.  I will order him to stay.  Vacquerie
and Meurice are members of the 10th Battery.  We shall
be together in the combat.  I will have a cape with a hood
made for me.  What I fear is the cold at night.

I made some shadows on the wall for Georges and
Jeanne.  Jeanne laughed delightedly at the shadow and
the grimaces of the profile; but when she saw that the
shadow was me she cried and screamed.  She seemed to
say: "I don't want you to be a phantom!" Poor, sweet
angel!  Perhaps she has a presentiment of the coming
battle.

Yesterday we ate some stag; the day before we partook
of bear; and the two days previous we fared on antelope.
These were presents from the Jardin des Plantes.

To-night at 11 o'clock, cannonading.  Violent and brief.



December 4.--A notice has been posted on my door indicating
the precautions to be taken "in case of bombardment."  That
is the title of the notice.

There is a pause in the combat.  Our army has recrossed
the Marne.

Little Jeanne crawls very well on her bands and knees
and says "papa" very prettily.



December 5.--I have just seen a magnificent hearse,
draped with black velvet, embroidered with an "H" surrounded
by silver stars, go by to fetch its burden.  A Roman
would not disdain to be borne in it.

Gautier came to dine with me.  After dinner Banville
and Coppée called.

Bad news.  Orleans has been captured from us again.
No matter.  Let us persist.



December 7.--I had Gautier, Banville and François
Coppée to dinner.  After dinner Asselineau came.  I read
_Floréal and L'Egout de Rome_ to them.



December 8.--The "Patrie en Danger" has ceased to appear.
In the absence of readers, says Blanqui.

M. Maurice Lachâtre, publisher, came to make me an
offer for my next book.  He has sent me his _Dictionary
and The History of the Revolution_ by Louis Blanc.  I shall
present to him Napoleon the Little and _Les Châtiments_.



December 9.--I woke up in the night and wrote some
verses.  At the same time I heard the cannon.

M. Bondes came to see me.  The correspondent of the
"Times," who is at Versailles, has written him that the guns
for the bombardment of Paris have arrived.  They are
Krupp guns.  They are awaiting their carriages.  They
have been arranged in the Prussian arsenal at Versailles
side by side "like bottles in a cellar," according to this
Englishman.

I copy the following from a newspaper:


M. Victor Hugo had manifested the intention to leave Paris unarmed,
with the artillery battery of the National Guard to which his two sons
belong.

The 144th Battalion of the National Guard went in a body to the
poet's residence in the Avenue Frochot.  Two delegates waited upon
him.

These honourable citizens went to forbid Victor Hugo to carry out his
plan, which he had announced some time ago in his "Address to the
Germans."

"Everybody can fight," the deputation told him.  "But everybody
cannot write _Les Chatiments_.  Stay at home, therefore, and take care
of a life that is so precious to France.


I do not remember the number of the battalion.  It was
not the 144th.  Here are the terms of the address which
was read to me by the major of the battalion:

The National Guard of Paris forbids Victor Hugo to go to the front,
inasmuch as everybody can go to the front, whereas Victor Hugo alone
can do what Victor Hugo does.

"Forbids" is touching and charming.




December 11.--Rostan came to see me.  He has his arm
in a sling.  He was wounded at Créteil.  It was at night.
A German soldier rushed at him and pierced his arm with
a bayonet.  Rostan retaliated with a bayonet thrust in the
German's shoulder.  Both fell and rolled into a ditch.  Then
they became good friends.  Rostan speaks a little broken
German.

"Who are you?"

"I am a Wurtembergian.  I am twenty-two years old.
My father is a clockmaker of Leipsic."

They remained in the ditch for three hours, bleeding,
numb with cold, helping each other.  Rostan, wounded,
brought the man who wounded him back as a prisoner.  He
goes to see him at the hospital.  These two men adore each
other.  They wanted to kill each other, and now they would
die for each other.

Eliminate kings from the dispute!

Visit from M. Rey.  The Ledru-Rollin group is completely
disorganized.  No more parties; the Republic.  It
is well.

I presented some Dutch cheese to Mme. Paul Meurice.
Sleet is falling.



December 12.--I arrived in Brussels nineteen years ago to-day.



December 13.--Since yesterday Paris has been lighted
with petroleum.

Heavy cannonade to-night.



December 14.--Thaw.  Cannonade.

To-night we glanced over _Goya's Disasters of War_
(brought by Burty, the art critic).  It is fine and hideous.



December 15.--Emmanuel Arago, Minister of Justice,
came to see me and informed me that there would be fresh
meat until February 15, but that in future only brown
bread would be made in Paris.  There will be enough of
this to last for five months.

Allix brought me a medal struck to commemorate my
return to France.  It bears on one side a winged genius
and the words: "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity," and
on the other side, round the rim: "Appeal to Universal
Democracy," and in the centre: "To Victor Hugo, From
His Grateful Fatherland.' September, 1870."

This medal is sold in the streets and costs 5 centimes.
There is a little ring in it by which it can be suspended
to a chain.



December 16.--Pelleport* came to-night.  I requested
him to visit Flourens, in Mazas Prison, on my behalf,
and to take him a copy of _Napoleon the Little_.

*  One of the editors of the "Rappel."



December 17.--The "Electeur Libre" calls upon Louis
Blanc and me to enter the Government, and affirms that
it is our duty to do so.  My duty is dictated to me by my
conscience.

I saw the gunboat "Estoc" pass under the Pont des Arts,
going up Seine.  She is a fine vessel and her big gun has a
terribly grand appearance.



December 18.--I worked a magic lantern for little
Georges and little Jeanne.

My royalty for Mme. Favart's recitation of _Stella_ at a
performance given by the 14th Battalion amounted to 130
francs.  My agent took my royalty in spite of my
instructions.  I have ordered him to turn the money over
to the sick fund of the battalion.

M. Hetzel writes: "The closing of the printing office is
imminent, as I can get no more coal to keep the presses
going."

I authorise another issue of 3,000 copies of _Les Châtiments_,
which will bring the total for Paris up to 22,000.



December 20.--Captain Breton, of the Garde Mobile,
who has been cashiered on the charge of being a coward,
brought against him by his lieutenant-colonel, demands a
court-martial, but first of all to be sent to the firing line.
His company leaves to-morrow morning.  He begs me to
obtain for him from the Minister of War permission to go
and get himself killed.  I have written to General Le Flô
about him.  It is likely that he will take part in to-morrow's
battle.



December 21.--At 3 o'clock this morning I heard the
bugles of the troops marching to battle.  When will my
turn come?



December 22.--Yesterday was a good day.  The action
continues.  The thunder of cannon can be heard to the east
and west.

Little Jeanne begins to talk at length and very expressively.
But it is impossible to understand a word she says.
She laughs.

Leopold has sent me thirteen fresh eggs, which I will
reserve for little Georges and little Jeanne.

Louis Blanc came to dine with me.  He came on behalf
of Edmond Adam, Louis Jourdan, Cernuschi and others
to tell me that he and I must go to Trochu and summon
him to save Paris or resign.  I refused.  I should be posing
as an arbiter of the situation and at the same time hamper
a battle begun and which may be a successful one.  Louis
Blanc was of my way of thinking, as were also Meurice,
Vacquerie and my sons, who dined with us.



December 23.--Henri Rochefort came to dine with
me.  I had not seen him since August of last year, when
we were in Brussels.  Georges did not recognise his
godfather.  I was very cordial.  I like him very much.  He
has great talent and great courage.  The dinner was a very
merry one, although we are all threatened with incarceration
in a Prussian fortress if Paris is captured.  After
Guernsey, Spandau.  So be it.

I bought for 19 francs at the Magasins du Louvre a soldier's
cape with hood, to wear on the ramparts.

My house continues to be crowded with visitors.  To-day
a painter named Le Genissel called.  He reminded me that
I saved him from the galleys in 1848.  He was one of the
insurgents of June.

Heavy cannonade during the night.  A battle is in preparation.



December 24.--It is freezing.  Ice floes are floating down
the Seine.

Paris only eats brown bread now.



December 25.--Heavy cannonade all night.

An item of news of present-day Paris: A basket of
oysters has just reached the city.  It sold for 750 francs.

At a bazar in aid of the poor at which Alice and Mme.
Meurice acted as vendors, a young turkey fetched 250
francs.

The Seine is freezing over.



December 26.--Louis Blanc called, then M. Floquet.
They urge me to summon the Government to do something
or resign.  Again I refuse.

M. Louis Koch paid 25 francs for a copy of the _Rappel_
at the bazar in aid of the poor.  The copy of _Les Châtiments_
was purchased by M. Cernuschi for 300 francs.



December 27.--Violent cannonade this morning.
The firing of this morning was an attack by the Prussians.
A good sign.  Waiting annoys them.  Us, too.  They
threw nineteen shells, which killed nobody, into the Fort
of Montrouge.

Mme. Ugalde dined with us and sang "Patria."  I escorted
Mme. Ugalde to her home in the Rue de Chabanais, then
returned to bed.

The concierge said to me:

"Monsieur, they say that bombs will fall in this neighbourhood
to-night."

"That is all right," I replied.  "I am expecting one."



December 29.--Heavy firing all night.  The Prussians
continue their attack.

Théophile Gautier has a horse.  This horse was requisitioned.
It was wanted for food.  Gautier wrote me begging me save
the animal.  I asked the Minister to grant his request.

I saved the horse.

It is unfortunately true that Dumas is dead.  This has
been ascertained through the German newspapers.  He
died on December 5 at the home of his son at Puys, near
Dieppe.

I am being urged more strongly than ever, to enter the
Government.  The Minister of Justice, M. Emmanuel
Arago, called and stopped to dinner.  We talked.  Louis
Blanc dropped in after dinner.  I persist in my refusal.

Besides Emmanuel Arago and the friends who usually
dine with me on Thursdays, Rochefort and Blum came.  I
invited them to come every Thursday if we have many
more Thursdays to live.  At desert I drank Rochefort's
health.

The cannonade is increasing.  The plateau of Avron had
to be evacuated.



December 31.--D'Alton-Shée paid a visit to me this
morning.  It appears that General Ducros wants to see me.

Within three days the Prussians have sent us 12,000
shells.

Yesterday I ate some rat, and then hiccoughed the
following quatrain:


              ~O mesdames les hétaires
              Dans vos greniers, je me nourris:
              Moi qui mourais de vos sourires,
              Je vais vivre de vos souris~.


After next week there will be no more washing done in
Paris, because there is no more coal.

Lieutenant Farcy, commander of the gunboat, dined
with me.

It is bitterly cold.  For three days I have worn my cloak
and hood whenever I have had to go out.

A doll for little Jeanne.  A basketful of toys for Georges.

Shells have begun to demolish the Fort of Rosny.  The
first shell has fallen in the city itself.  The Prussians
to-day fired 6,000 shells at us.

In the Fort of Rosny a sailor working at the gabions was
carrying a sack of earth.  A shell knocked it off his
shoulder.  "Much obliged," commented the sailor, "but I
wasn't tired."

Alexandre Dumas died on December 5.  On looking
over my notebook I see that it was on December 5 that a
large hearse with an "H" on it passed before me in the Rue
Frochot.

We have no longer even horse to eat.  *Perhaps* it is dog?
*Maybe* it is rat?  I am beginning to suffer from pains in
the stomach.  We are eating the unknown!

M. Valois, representing the Société des Gens de Lettres,
came to ask me what was to be done with the 3,000
francs remaining from the proceeds of the three readings
of Les Châtiments, the guns having been delivered and
paid for.  I told him that I wanted the whole amount
turned over to Mme. Jules Simon for the fund for the
victims of the war.



January 1, 1871.--Louis Blanc has addressed to me
through the newspapers a letter upon the situation.

Stupor and amazement of little Georges and little
Jeanne at their basketful of New Year presents.  The toys,
when unpacked from the basket, covered a large table.
The children touched all of them and did not know which
to take.  Georges was nearly furious with joy.  Charles
remarked: "It is the despair of joy!"

I am hungry.  I am cold.  So much the better.  I suffer
what the people are suffering.

Decidedly horse is not good for me.  Yet I ate some.  It
gives me the gripes.  I avenged myself at dessert with the
following distich:

              ~Mon diner m'inquiete et même me harcêle,
              J'ai mange du cheval et je songe a la selle~.

The Prussians are bombarding Saint Denis.



January 2.--Daumier and Louis Blanc lunched with us.

Louis Koch gave to his aunt as a New Year gift a couple
of cabbages and a brace of living partridges!

This morning we lunched on wine soup.  The elephant
at the Jardin des Plantes has been slaughtered.  He wept.
He will be eaten..

The Prussians continue to send us 6,000 bombs a day.




January 3.--The heating of two rooms at the Pavillon
de Rohan now costs 10 francs a day.

The Mountaineers' club again demands that Louis Blanc
and I be added to the Government in order to direct it.
I continue to refuse.

There are at present twelve members of the French
Academy in Paris, among them Ségur, Mignet, Dufaure,
d'Haussonville, Legouvé, Cuvillier-Fleury, Barbier and
Vitet.

Moon.  Intense cold.  The Prussians bombarded Saint
Denis all night.

From Tuesday to Sunday the Prussians hurled 25,000
projectiles at us.  It required 220 railway trucks to
transport them.  Each shot costs 60 francs; total, 1,500,000
francs.  The damage to the forts is estimated at 1,400
francs.  About ten men have been killed.  Each of our
dead cost the Prussians 150,000 francs.



January 5.--The bombardment is becoming heavier.
Issy and Vanves are being shelled.

There is no coal.  Clothes cannot be washed because
they cannot be dried.  My washerwoman sent this message
to me through Mariette:

"If M. Victor Hugo, who is so powerful, would ask the
Government to give me a little coal-dust, I could wash his
shirts."

Besides my usual Thursday guests I had Louis Blanc,
Rochefort and Paul de Saint Victor to dinner.  Mme. Jules
Simon sent me a Gruyère cheese.  An extraordinary luxury,
this.  We were thirteen at table.



January 6.--At dessert yesterday I offered some bonbons
to the ladies, saying as I did so:


              ~Grace a Boissier, chêre colombes,
              Heureux, a vos pieds nous tombons.
              Car on prend les forts par les bombes
              Et les faibles par les bonbons~.


The Parisians out of curiosity visit the bombarded districts.
They go to see the shells fall as they would go to
a fireworks display.  National Guards have to keep the
people back.  The Prussians are firing on the hospitals.
They are bombarding Val-de-Grâce.  Their shells set fire
to the wooden booths in the Luxembourg, which were full
of sick and wounded men, who had to be transported,
undressed and wrapped up as well as they could be, to the
Charité Hospital.  Barbieux saw them arrive there about
1 o'clock in the morning.

Sixteen streets have already been hit by shells.



January 7.--The Rue des Feuillantines, which runs
through the place where the garden of my boyhood used to
be, is heavily bombarded.  I was nearly struck by a shell
there.

My washerwoman having nothing to make a fire with,
and being obliged to refuse work in consequence, addressed
a demand to M. Clémenceau, Mayor of the Ninth
Arrondissement, for some coal, which she said she was prepared
to pay for.  I endorsed it thus:

"I am resigned to everything for the defence of Paris,
to die of hunger and cold, and even to forego a change of
shirt.  However, I commend my laundress to the Mayor
of the Ninth Arrondissement."

And I signed my name.  The Mayor gave her the coal.



January 8.--Camille Pelletan brought us good news
from the Government.  Rouen and Dijon retaken, Garibaldi
victorious at Nuits, and Fraidherbe at Bapaume.  All
goes well.

We had brown bread, now we have black bread.  Everybody
fares alike.  It is well.

The news of yesterday was brought by two pigeons.

A shell killed five children in a school in the Rue de
Vaugirard.

The performances and readings of _Les Châtiments_ have
had to be stopped, the theatres being without gas or coal,
therefore without light or heat.

Prim is dead.  He was shot and killed at Madrid the day
the king after his own heart, Amedeus, Duke of Genoa,
entered Spain.

The bombardment was a furious one to-day.  A shell
crashed through the chapel of the Virgin at Saint Sulpice,
where my mother's funeral took place and where I was
married.



January 10.--Bombs on the Odéon Theatre.

Chifflard sent me a piece of a shell.  This shell, which
fell at Auteuil, is marked with an "H."  I will have an
inkstand made out of it.



January 12.--The Pavilion de Rohan demands of me from to-day
on 8 francs a head for dinner, which with
wine, coffee, fire, etc., brings the cost of dinner up to 13
francs for each person.

We had elephant steak for luncheon to-day.

Schoelcher, Rochefort, Blum and all the usual Thursday
guests dined with us.  After dinner Louis Blanc and Pelletan
dropped in.



January 13.--An egg costs 2 francs 75 centimes.  Elephant
meat costs 40 francs a pound.  A sack of onions costs
800 francs.

The Société des Gens de Lettres asked me to attend the
presentation of the cannon to the city at the Hotel de Ville.
I begged to be excused.  I will not go.

We spent the day looking for another hotel.  Could not
find one suitable.  All are closed.  Expenses for the week
at the Pavilion de Rohan (including the cost of a broken
window-pane), 701 francs 50 centimes.

Remark by a poor woman anent some newly felled wood:

"This hapless green wood is under fire; it didn't expect
that it would have to face it, and weeps all the time!"



January 15.--A furious bombardment is in progress.

I have written a piece of poetry entitled "Dans le Cirque."
After dinner I read it to my Sunday guests.  They want
me to publish it.  I will give it to the newspapers.



January 17.--The bombardment has been going on for
three nights and three days without cessation.

Little Jeanne was cross with me because I would not let
her play with the works of my watch.

All the newspapers publish my verses "Dans le Cirque."
They may be useful.

Louis Blanc called this morning.  He urged me to join
with Quinet and himself in bringing pressure to bear upon
the Government.  I replied: "I see more danger in overturning
the Government than in supporting it."



January 18.--M. Krupp is making cannon for use
specially against balloons.

There is a cock in my little garden.  Yesterday Louis
Blanc lunched with us.  The cock crowed.  Louis Blanc
paused and said:

"Listen!"

"What is it?"

"A cock is crowing."

"Well, what of it?"

"Don't you hear what it says?"

"It is calling: 'Victor Hugo!'"

We listened and laughed.  Louis Blanc was right It
did sound as if the cock were crowing my name.

I gave some of my bread-crumbs to the fowls.  They
would not eat them.

This morning a sortie against Montretout was made.
Montretout was taken.  This evening the Prussians
captured it from us again.




January 20.--The attack on Montretout has interrupted
the bombardment.

A child of fourteen years was suffocated in a crowd
outside a baker's shop.



January 21.--Louis Blanc came to see me.  We held a
council.  The situation is becoming extreme and supreme.
The Mairie of Paris asks my advice.

Louis Blanc dined with us.  After dinner we held a sort
of council at which Colonel Laussedat was present.



January 22.--The Prussians are bombarding Saint Denis.

Tumultuous demonstrations at the Hotel de Ville.
Trochu is withdrawing.  Rostan comes to tell me that the
Breton mobiles are firing on the people.  I doubt it.  I will
go myself, if necessary.

I have just returned.  There was a simultaneous attack
by both sides.  To the combatants who consulted me I said:
"I recognise in the hands of Frenchmen only those rifles
which are turned towards the Prussians."

Rostan said to me:

"I have come to place my battalion at your service.
We are five hundred men.  Where do you want us to go?"

"Where are you now?"  I asked.

"We have been massed towards Saint Denis, which is
being bombarded," he replied.  "We are at La Villette."

"Then stay there," said I.  "It is there where I should
have sent you.  Do not march against the Hotel de Ville,
march against Prussia."

January 23.--Last night there was a conference at my
quarters.  In addition to my Sunday guests Rochefort and
his secretary, Mourot, had dined with us.  Rey and Gambon
came in the evening.  They brought me, the former
with a request that I would subscribe to it, Ledru-Rollin's
poster-programme (group of 200 members), and the latter,
the programme of the Republican Union (50 members).  I
declared that I approved of neither the one nor the other.

Chanzy has been beaten.  Bourbaki has succeeded.  But
he is not marching on Paris.  Enigma, of which I fancy I
can half guess the secret.

There appears to be an interruption to the bombardment.



January 24.--Flourens called this morning.  He asked
for my advice.  I responded: "No violent pressure on the
situation."



January 25.--Flourens is reported to have been arrested
as he was leaving the house after his visit to me.

I had a couple of fresh eggs cooked for Georges and
Jeanne.

M. Dorian came to the Pavilion de Rohan this morning
to see my sons.  He announced that capitulation is
imminent.  Frightful news from outside.  Chanzy defeated,
Faidherbe defeated, Bourbaki driven back.



January 27.--Schoelcher came to tell me that he has
resigned as colonel of the artillery legion.

Again they came to ask me to head a demonstration
against the Hotel de Ville.  All sorts of rumours are in
circulation.  To everybody I counsel calmness and unity.



January 28.--Bismarck in the course of the pourparlers
at Versailles said to Jules Favre: "What do you think
of that goose of an Empress proposing peace to me!"

It has become cold again.

Ledru-Rollin (through Brives) says he wants to come to
an understanding with me.

Little Jeanne is unwell.  Sweet little thing!

Leopold told me this evening that I was the subject of
a dialogue between Pope Pius IX. and Jules Hugo, my
nephew, brother of Leopold, who died a camerico of the
Pope.  The Pope, on seeing Jules, said to him:

"You name is Hugo, is it not?"

"Yes, Holy Father."

"Are you a relative of Victor Hugo?"

"His nephew, Holy Father."

"How old is he?"  (It was in 1857.)

"Fifty-five years."

"Alas! he is too old to return to the Church!"

Charles tells me that Jules Simon and his two sons passed
the night drawing up lists of possible candidates for the
National Assembly.

Cernuschi is having himself naturalized a French citizen!



January 29.--The armistice was signed yesterday.  It
was published this morning.  The National Assembly will
be elected between February 5 and 18.  Will meet on the
12th at Bordeaux.

Little Jeanne is a trifle better.  She almost smiled at me.

No more balloons.  The post.  But unsealed letters.  It
snows.  It freezes.



January 30.--Little Jeanne is still poorly and does not
play.

Mlle. Périga brought me a fresh egg for Jeanne.



January 31.--Little Jeanne is still ill.  She is suffering
from a slight attack of catarrh of the stomach.  Doctor
Allix says it will last for another four or five days.

My nephew Leopold came to dine with us.  He brought
us some pickled oysters.



February 1.--Little Jeanne is better.  She smiled at me.



February 2.--The Paris elections have been postponed
to February 8.

Horsemeat continues to disagree with me.  Pains in the
stomach.  Yesterday I said to Mme. Ernest Lefèvre, who
was dining beside me:


             ~De ces bons animaux la viande me fait mal.
             J'aime tant les chevaux que je hais le cheval~.



February 4.--The weather is becoming milder.

A crowd of visitors this evening.  Proclamation by Gambetta.



February 5.--The list of candidates of the Republican
journals appeared this morning.  I am at the head of the
list.

Bancal is dead.

Little Jeanne this evening has recovered from her cold.

I entertained my usual Sunday guests.  We had fish,
butter and white bread for dinner.



February 6.--Bourbaki, defeated, has killed himself.  A
grand death.

Ledru-Rollin is drawing back from the Assembly.  Louis
Blanc came and read this news to me to-night.



February 7.--We had three or four cans of preserves
which we ate to-day.


February 8.--To-day, elections for the National Assembly.
Paul Meurice and I went to vote together in the Rue
Clauzel.

After the capitulation had been signed, Bismarck, on
leaving Jules Favre, entered the room where his two
secretaries were awaiting him and said: "The beast is dead."

I have put my papers in order in anticipation of
my departure.

Little Jeanne is very merry.



February 11.--The counting of the votes progresses very
slowly.

Our departure for Bordeaux has been put off to Monday
the 13th.



February 12.--Yesterday, for the first time, I saw my
boulevard.  It is a rather large section of the old Boulevard
Haussmann.  "Boulevard Victor Hugo" is placarded on the
Boulevard Haussmann at four or five street corners giving
on to this boulevard.

The National Assembly opens to-day at Bordeaux.  The
result of the elections in Paris has not yet been determined
and proclaimed.

While I have not yet been appointed, time presses, and
I expect to leave for Bordeaux to-morrow.  There will be
nine of us, five masters and four servants, plus the two
children.  Louis Blanc wants to leave with us.  We shall
make the journey together.

In my hand-bag I shall take various important manuscripts
and works that I have begun, among others, _Paris
Besieged_ and the poem "Grand Père."



February 13.--Yesterday, before dinner, I read to my
guests, M. and Mme. Paul Meurice, Vacquerie, Lockroy,
M. and Mme. Ernest Lefevre, Louis Koch and Vilain
(Rochefort and Victor did not arrive until the dinner hour),
two pieces of poetry which will form part of Paris Besieged
("To Little Jeanne," and "No, You will not Take
Alsace and Lorraine").

Pelleport brought me our nine passes.  Not having yet
been proclaimed a Representative, I wrote on mine: "Victor
Hugo, proprietor," as the Prussians require that the
quality or profession of the holder of the pass be stated.

It was with a heavy heart that I quitted this morning the
Avenue Frochot and the sweet hospitality that Paul
Meurice had extended to me since my arrival in Paris on
September 5.






THE ASSEMBLY AT BORDEAUX.


EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS.






THE ASSEMBLY AT BORDEAUX.




February 14.--Left yesterday at 12.10 P.M.  Arrived at
Etampes at 3.15.  Wait of two hours, and luncheon.

After lunch we returned to our drawing-room car.  A
crowd surrounded it, kept back by a squad of Prussian
soldiers.  The crowd recognised me and shouted "Long live
Victor Hugo!"  I waved my hand out of window, and
doffing my cap, shouted: "Long live France!"  Whereupon
a man with a white moustache, who somebody said
was the Prussian commandant of Etampes, advanced towards
me with a threatening air and said something to me
in German that he no doubt intended to be terrible.  Gazing
steadily in turn at this Prussian and the crowd, I repeated
in a louder voice: "Long live France'!"  Thereat
all the people shouted enthusiastically: "Long live
France!"  The fellow looked angry but said nothing.  The
Prussian soldiers did not move.

The journey was a rough, long and weary one.  The
drawing-room car was badly lighted and not heated.  One
feels the dilapidation of France in this wretched railway
accommodation.  At Vierzon we bought a pheasant, a
chicken, and two bottles of wine for supper.  Then we
wrapped ourselves up in our rugs and cloaks and slept on
the seats.

We arrived at Bordeaux at 1.30 this afternoon.  We
went in search of lodgings.  We took a cab and drove from
hotel to hotel.  No room anywhere.  I went to the Hotel
de Ville and asked for information.  I was told that there
was an apartment to let at M. A. Porte's, 13, Rue Saint
Maur, near the public garden.  We went there.  Charles
hired the apartment for 600 francs a month and paid half
a month's rent in advance.  Then we started out in search
of a lodging for us, but could not get one.  At 7 o'clock
we returned to the station to fetch our trunks, and not
knowing where we should pass the night.  We went back
to the Rue Saint Maur, where Charles is, negotiated with
the landlord and his brother, who had a couple of rooms at
37, Rue de la Course, hard by, and came to an arrangement
at last.

Alice made this remark:

"The number 13 clings to us.  We were thirteen at
table every Thursday in January.  We left Paris on
February 13.  There were thirteen of us in the railway
carriage, counting Louis Blanc, M. Béchet and the two
children.  We are lodging at 13, Rue Saint Maur!"



February 15.--At 2 o'clock I went to the Assembly.
When I came out again I found an immense crowd awaiting
me in the great square.  The people, and the National
Guards who lined the approaches to the building, shouted:
"Long live Victor Hugo!"  I replied: "Long live the
Republic!  Long live France!"  They repeated this
double cry.  Then the enthusiasm became delirium.  It was
a repetition of the ovation I met with on my arrival in
Paris.  I was moved to tears.  I took refuge in a café at
the corner of the square.  I explained in a speech why I
did not address the people, then I escaped--that is the
word--in a carriage.

While the enthusiastic people shouted "Long live the
Republic!" the members of the Assembly issued and filed
past impassible, almost furious, and with their hats on, in
the midst of the bare heads and the waving caps about me.

Visit from Representatives Le Flo, Rochefort, Locroy,
Alfred Naquet, Emmanuel Arago, Rességuier, Floquot,
Eugene Pelletan, and Noel Parfait.

I slept in my new lodging at 37, Rue de la Course.



February 16.--At the Assembly today the result of the
Paris elections was proclaimed.  Louis Blanc was first with
216,000 votes; then came myself with 214,000 votes, then
Garibaldi with 200,000.

The ovation extended to me by the people yesterday is
regarded by the Majority as an insult to it.  Hence a great
display of troops on the square outside (army, National
Guard and cavalry).  There was an incident in this
connection before my arrival.  The men of the Right demanded
that the Assembly be protected.  (Against whom?
Against me?) The Left replied with the shout of: "Long
live the Republic!"

When I was leaving I was notified that the crowd was
waiting for me in the square.  To escape the ovation I went
out by a side door, but the people caught sight of me, and
I was immediately surrounded by an immense crowd shouting:
"Long live Victor Hugo!"  I replied: "Long live
the Republic!"  Everybody, including the National Guards
and soldiers of the line, took up the shout.  I drove away
in a carriage, which the people followed.

The Assembly to-day elected its committees.  Dufaure
proposes Thiers as chief of the executive power.

We dined at home for the first time.  I had invited Louis
Blanc, Schoelcher, Rochefort and Lockroy.  Rochefort was
unable to come.  After dinner we went to Gent's, Quay des
Chartrons, to attend a meeting of the Left.  My sons
accompanied me.  The question of the chief executive was
discussed.  I had the following added to the definition:
appointed by the Assembly and revokable by that body."

General Cremer came this morning to enlighten us concerning
the disposition of the army.



February 17.--At the Assembly Gambetta came up to
me and said: "Master, when can I see you?  I have a good
many things to explain to you."

Thiers has been named chief of the executive power.
He is to leave to-night for Versailles, the headquarters of
the Prussians.



February 18.--To-night there was a meeting of the
Left, in the Rue Lafaurie-Monbadon.  The meeting chose
me as president.  The speakers were Louis Blanc, Schoelcher,
Colonel Langlois, Brisson, Lockroy, Millière,
Clémenceau, Martin Bernard, and Joigneaux.  I spoke
last and summed up the debate.  Weighty questions were
brought up--the Bismarck-Thiers treaty, peace, war, the
intolerance of the Assembly, and the case in which it would
be advisable to resign in a body.



February 19.--The president of the National Club of
Bordeaux came to place his salons at my disposal.

My hostess, Mme. Porte, a very pretty woman, has sent
me a bouquet.

Thiers has appointed his Ministers.  He has assumed the
equivocal and suspicious title of "head president of the
executive power."  The Assembly is to adjourn.  We are
to be notified at our residences when it is to be convened
again.



February 20.--To-day the people again acclaimed me
when I came out of the Assembly.  The crowd in an instant
became enormous.  I was compelled to take refuge
in the lodging of Martin Bernard, who lives in a street
adjacent to the Assembly.

I spoke in the Eleventh Committee.  The question of
the magistracy (which has petitioned us not to act against
it) came up unexpectedly.  I spoke well.  I rather terrified
the committee.

Little Jeanne is more than ever adorable.  She does not
want to leave me at all now.



February 21.--Mme. Porte, my hostess of the Rue de
la Course, sends me a bouquet every morning by her little
daughter.

I take little Georges and little Jeanne out whenever I
have a minute to spare.  I might very well be dubbed:
"Victor Hugo, Representative of the People and dry
nurse."

To-night I presided at the meeting of the Radical Left.



February 25.--To-night there was a meeting of the two
fractions of the Left, the Radical Left and Political Left,
in the hall of the Academy, in the Rue Jacques Bell.  The
speakers were Louis Blanc, Emmanuel Arago, Vacherot,
Jean Brunet, Bethmont, Peyrat, Brisson, Gambetta, and
myself.  I doubt whether my plan for fusion or even for
an ~entente cordiale~ will succeed.  Schoelcher and Edmond
Adam walked home with me.



February 26.--I am 69 years old to-day.

I presided at a meeting of the Left.


February 27.--I have resigned the presidency of the
Radical Left in order to afford full independence to the
meeting.



February 28.--Thiers read the treaty (of peace) from
the tribune to-day.  It is hideous.  I shall speak to-morrow.
My name is the seventh on the list, but Grévy, the president
of the Assembly, said to me: "Rise and ask to be
heard when you want to.  The Assembly will hear you."

To-night there was a meeting of the Assembly committees.  I
belong to the eleventh.  I spoke.



March 1.--There was a tragical session to-day.  The
Empire was executed, also France, alas!  The Shylock-Bismarck
treaty was adopted.  I spoke.

Louis Blanc spoke after me, and spoke grandly.

I had Louis Blanc and Charles Blanc to dinner.

This evening I went to the meeting in the Rue Lafaurie-Monbadon
over which I have ceased to preside.  Schoelcher
presided.  I spoke.  I am satisfied with myself.



March 2.--Charles has returned.  No session to-day.
The adoption of peace has opened the Prussian net.  I
have received a packet of letters and newspapers from
Paris.  Two copies of the _Rappel_.

We dined ~en famille~, all five of us.  Then I went to the
meeting.

Seeing that France has been mutilated, the Assembly
ought to withdraw.  It has caused the wound and is powerless
to cure it.  Let another Assembly replace it.  I would
like to resign.  Louis Blanc does not want to.  Gambetta
and Rochefort are of my way of thinking.  Debate.



March 3.--This morning the Mayor of Strasburg, who
died of grief, was buried.

Louis Blanc called in company with three Representatives,
Brisson, Floquet and Cournet.  They came to consult me
as to what ought to be done about the resignation
question.  Rochefort and Pyat, with three others, are
resigning.  I am in favour of resigning.  Louis Blanc resists.
The remainder of the Left do not appear to favour resignation
~en masse~.

Session.

As I ascended the stairs I heard a fellow belonging to
the Right, whose back only I could see, say to another:
"Louis Blanc is execrable, but Victor Hugo is worse."

We all dined with Charles, who had invited Louis Blanc
and MM. Lavertujon and Alexis Bouvier.

Afterwards we went to the meeting in the Rue 
Lafaurie-Monbadon.  The President of the Assembly having, on
behalf of the Assembly, delivered a farewell address to the
retiring members for Alsace and Lorraine, my motion to
maintain their seats indefinitely, which was approved by
the meeting, is without object, inasmuch as the question is
settled.  The meeting, however, appears to hold to it.  We
will consider the matter.



March 4.--Meeting of the Left.  M. Millière proposed,
as did also M. Delescluze, a motion of impeachment against
the Government of the National Defence.  He concluded
by saying that whoever failed to join him in pressing the
motion was a "dupe or an accomplice."

Schoelcher rose and said:

"Neither dupe nor accomplice.  You lie!"



March 5.--Session of the Assembly.

Meeting in the evening.  Louis Blanc, instead of a
formal impeachment of the ex-Government of Paris, demands
an inquiry.  I subscribe to this.  We sign.

Meeting of the Left.  They say there is great agitation
in Paris.  The Government which usually never receives
less than fifteen dispatches a day from Paris has not
received a single one up to 10 o'clock to-night.  Six
telegrams sent to Jules Favre have not been answered.  We
decide that either Louis Blanc or I will interpellate the
Government as to the situation in Paris, if the present
anxiety continues and no light is thrown upon the situation.

A deputation of natives of Alsace and Lorraine came to
thank us.


March 6.--At noon we lunched ~en famille~ at Charles's.
I took the two ladies to the Assembly.  There is talk of
transferring the Assembly to Versailles or Fontainebleau.
They are afraid of Paris.  I spoke at the meeting of the
Eleventh Committee.  I was nearly elected commissioner.
I got 18 votes, but a M. Lucien Brun got 19.

Meeting in the Rue Lafaurie.  I proposed that we all refuse
to discuss the situation in Paris, and that a manifesto
be drawn up, to be signed by all of us, declaring our
intention to resign if the Assembly goes anywhere else than
to Paris.  The meeting did not adopt my plan, and urged
me to speak to-morrow.  I refused.  Louis Blanc will
speak.


	
March 8.--I have handed in my resignation as a Representative.

There was a discussion about Garibaldi.  He had been
elected in Algeria.  It was proposed that the election be
annulled.  I demanded to be heard.  I spoke.  Uproar on
the Right.  They shouted: "Order!  Order!"  It all
reads very curiously in the "Moniteur."  In face of this
explosion of wrath I made a gesture with my hand and said:

"Three weeks ago you refused to hear Garibaldi.  Now
you refuse to hear me.  That is enough.  I will resign."

I went to the meeting of the Left for the last time.



March 9.--This morning three members of the Moderate
Left, which meets in the hall of the Academy, came as
delegates from that body, the 220 members of which
unanimously requested me to withdraw my resignation.  M.
Paul Bethmon acted as spokesman.  I thanked them, but
declined.

Then delegates from another meeting came with the
same object.  The meeting of the Central Left, to which
MM. d'Haussonville and de Rémusat belong, unanimously
requested me to withdraw my resignation.  M. Target acted
as spokesman.  I thanked them, but declined.

Louis Blanc ascended the tribune (in the Assembly) and
bade me farewell with grandeur and nobleness.



March 10.--Louis Blanc spoke yesterday and 
to-day--yesterday about my resignation, to-day about the
question of Paris.  Grandly and nobly on each occasion.



March 11.--We are preparing for our departure.



March 12.--Many visits.  My apartment was crowded.
M. Michel Levy came to ask me for a book.  M. Duquesnel,
associate director of the Odéon Theatre, came to ask me
for _Ruy Blas_.

We shall probably leave to-morrow.

Charles, Alice and Victor went to Arcachon.  They
returned to dinner.

Little Georges, who has been unwell, is better.

Louis Blanc dined with me.  He is going to Paris.



March 13.--Last night I could not sleep.  Like Pythagoras,
I was thinking of numbers.  I thought of all these
13's so queerly associated with our movements and actions
since the first of January, and upon the fact that I was
to leave this house on a 13th.  Just then there was the
same nocturnal knocking (three taps, as though made by a
hammer on a board) that I had heard twice before in this
room.

We lunched at Charles's, with Louis Blanc.

I then went to see Rochefort.  He lives at 80, Rue Judaique.
He is convalescent from an attack of erysipelas
that at one time assumed a dangerous character.  With him
I found MM. Alexis Bouvier and Mourot, whom I invited to
dinner to-day, at the same time asking them to
transmit my invitation to MM. Claretie, Guillemot and
Germain Casse, with whom I want to shake hands before
I go.

On leaving Rochefort's I wandered a little about Bordeaux.
Fine church, partly Roman.  Pretty Gothic flowered
tower.  Superb Roman ruin (Rue du Colysée) which
they call the Palais Gallien.

Victor came to embrace me.  He left for Paris at 6
o'clock with Louis Blanc.

At half past 6 I went to Lanta's restaurant.  MM. Bouvier,
Mourot and Casse arrived.  Then Alice.  We waited
for Charles.

Charles died at 7 o'clock.

The waiter who waits upon me at Lanta's restaurant entered
and told me that somebody wanted to see me.  In
the ante-chamber I found M. Porte, who lets the apartment
at 13, Rue Saint Maur, that Charles occupied.  M.
Porte whispered to me to get Alice, who had followed me,
out of the way.  Alice returned to the salon.  M. Porte
said to me:

"Monsieur be brave.  Monsieur Charles--"

"Well?"

"He is dead!"

Dead!  I could not believe it.  Charles!  I leaned
against the wall for support.

M. Porte told me that Charles had taken a cab to go to
Lanta's, but had told the cabman to drive first to the Café
de Bordeaux.  Arrived at the Café de Bordeaux, the driver
on opening the door of the cab, found Charles dead.  He
had been stricken with apoplexy.  A number of blood vessels
had burst.  He was covered with blood, which issued
from his nose and mouth.  The doctor summoned pronounced
him dead.

I would not believe it.  I said: "It is a lethargy."  I
still hoped.  I returned to the salon, told Alice that I was
going out, but would soon be back, and ran to the Rue
Saint Maur.  I had hardly reached there when they brought
Charles.

Alas!  my beloved Charles!  He was dead.

I went to fetch Alice.  What despair!

The two children were asleep.



March 14.--I have read again what I wrote on the morning
of the 13th about the knocking I heard during the
night.

Charles has been laid out in the salon on the ground
floor of the house in the Rue Saint Maur.  He lies on
a bed covered with a sheet which the women of the house
have strewn with flowers.  Two neighbours, workingmen
who love me, asked permission to watch by the body
all night.  The coroner's physician, on uncovering the dear
dead, wept.

I sent to Meurice a telegram couched in the following
terms:


Meurice, 18 Rue Valois-

Appalling misfortune.  Charles died this evening, 13th.  Sudden
stroke of apoplexy.  Tell Victor to come back at once.


The Prefect sent this telegram over the official wire.

We shall take Charles with us.  Meanwhile he will be
placed in the depository.

MM. Alexis Bouvier and Germain Casse are helping me
in these heart-rending preparations.

At 4 o'clock Charles was placed in the coffin.  I prevented
them from fetching Alice.  I kissed the brow of
my beloved, then the sheet of lead was soldered.  Next
they put the oaken lid of the coffin on and screwed it down;
thus I shall never see him more.  But the soul remains.
If I did not believe in the soul I would not live another
hour.

I dined with my grandchildren, little Georges and little
Jeanne.

I consoled Alice.  I wept with her.  I said "thou" to her
for the first time.



March 15.--For two nights I have not slept.  I could
not sleep last night.

Edgar Quinet came to see me last evening.  On viewing
Charles's coffin in the parlor, he said:

"I bid thee adieu, great mind, great talent, great soul,
beautiful of face, more beautiful of thought, son of Victor
Hugo!"

We talked together of this great mind that is no more.
We were calm.  The night watcher wept as he listened to
us.

The Prefect of the Gironde called.  I could not receive
him.

This morning at 10 o'clock I went to No. 13, Rue Saint
Maur.  The hearse was there.  MM. Bouvier and Mourot
awaited me.  I entered the salon.  I kissed the coffin.  Then
he was taken away.  There was one carriage.  These gentlemen
and I entered it.  Arrived at the cemetery the coffin
was taken from the hearse.  Six men carried it.  MM.
Alexis Bouvier, Mourot and I followed, bareheaded.  It
was raining in torrents.  We walked behind the coffin.

At the end of a long alley of plane trees we found the
depository, a vault lighted only by the door.  You descend
five or six steps to it.  Several coffins were waiting there,
as Charles's will wait.  The bearers entered with the coffin.
As I was about to follow, the keeper of the depository said
to me: "No one is allowed to go in."  I understood, and
I respected this solitude of the dead.  MM. Alexis Bouvier
and Mourot took me back to No. 13, Rue Saint Maur.

Alice was in a swoon.  I gave her some vinegar to smell
and beat her hands.  She came to, and said: "Charles,
where art thou?"

I am overcome with grief.



March 16.--At noon Victor arrived with Barbieux and
Louis Mie.  We embraced in silence and wept.  He handed
me a letter from Meurice and Vacquerie.

We decide that Charles shall be buried in the tomb of
my father in Père Lachaise, in the place that I had
reserved for myself.  I write a letter to Meurice and
Vacquerie in which I announce that I shall leave with the
coffin tomorrow and that we shall arrive in Paris the
following day.  Barbieux will leave to-night and take the
letter to them.



March 17.--We expect to leave Bordeaux with my
Charles at 6 o'clock this evening.

Victor and I, with Louis Mie, fetched Charles from the
Depository, and took him to the railway station.



March 18.--We left Bordeaux at 6.30 in the evening
and arrived in Paris at 10.30 this morning.

At the railway station we were received in a salon where
the newspapers, which had announced our arrival for noon,
were handed to me.  We waited.  Crowd; friends.

At noon we set out for Père Lachaise.  I followed the
hearse bareheaded.  Victor was beside me.  All our friends
followed, the people too.  As the procession passed there
were cries of: "Hats off!"

In the Place de la Bastille a spontaneous guard of honour
was formed about the hearse by National Guards, who
passed with arms reversed.  All along the line of route to
the cemetery battalions of the National Guard were drawn
up.  They presented arms and gave the salute to the flag.
Drums rolled and bugles sounded.  The people waited till
I had passed, then shouted: "Long live the Republic!"

There were barricades everywhere, which compelled us
to make a long detour.  Crowd at the cemetery.  In the
crowd I recognised Rostan and Millière, who was pale and
greatly moved, and who saluted me.  Between a couple
of tombs a big hand was stretched towards me and a voice
exclaimed: "I am Courbet."  At the same time I saw an
energetical and cordial face which was smiling at me with
tear-dimmed eyes.  I shook the hand warmly.  It was the
first time that I had seen Courbet.

The coffin was taken from the hearse.  Before it was
lowered into the vault I knelt and kissed it.  The vault
was yawning.  A stone had been raised.  I gazed at the
tomb of my father which I had not seen since I was exiled.
The cippus has become blackened.  The opening was too
narrow, and the stone had to be filed.  This work occupied
half an hour.  During that time I gazed at the tomb of
my father and the coffin of my son.  At last they were
able to lower the coffin.  Charles will be there with my
father, my mother, and my brother.

Mme. Meurice brought a bunch of white lilac which she
placed on Charles's coffin.  Vacquerie delivered an oration
that was beautiful and grand.  Louis Mie also bade Charles
an eloquent and touching farewell.  Flowers were thrown
on the tomb.  The crowd surrounded me.  They grasped
my hands.  How the people love me, and how I love them!
An ardent address of sympathy from the Belleville Club,
signed "Millière, president," and "Avril, secretary," was
handed to me.

We went home in a carriage with Meurice and Vacquerie.  I
am broken with grief and weariness.  Blessings on
thee, my Charles!