Memoirs of the Duchesse de Dino (Afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan), 1836-1840
people of whom I am sufficiently fond to hate them profoundly.
_Rochecotte, November 4, 1836._--What is the meaning of all this
Strasburg disturbance?[51] I am inclined to think there is something
serious in this mad Bonaparte enterprise, from the fact that a similar
movement took place the same day at Vendôme. Six sergeants began the
affair, which was immediately crushed, though one man was killed. I do
not know whether the newspapers have anything to say of it, but it is
quite certain, as the two prefects of Tours and Blois related it to
M. de Talleyrand, who told me the news when he arrived. The Grand
Duchess Stephanie will be uneasy concerning the expedition of her
cousin, Louis Bonaparte.[52] I am sorry for the Duchesse de Saint-Leu,
although I think she had some knowledge of the affair and is more
inclined to intrigue than to act a part; but she is a mother, and has
already lost her eldest son, and she must feel terrible anxiety; it is
a just though bitter punishment for her miserable intrigues.
[51] On October 26, 1836, Prince Louis Bonaparte, accompanied by
his friend M. de Persigny, and supported by Colonel Vaudrey,
attempted to begin a military revolt and to overthrow the king,
Louis-Philippe.
[52] Afterwards Napoleon III.
_Rochecotte, November 7, 1836._--Yesterday I had a letter from Madame
de Lieven, who tells me that the Emperor Nicholas is indisposed. When
a Russian admits that the Emperor is indisposed he must indeed be ill.
His death would be an event of very different importance from the
outbreak at Strasburg. I do not think the French would have any great
reason to regret him.
_Rochecotte, November 10, 1836._--Madame Adélaïde informs M. de
Talleyrand that the King has resolved not to bring the young Bonaparte
to trial; he will simply insist upon his immediate departure for
America and exact a formal promise that he will never return to
France. Madame de Saint-Leu has written to the King to beg for her
son's life. She is known to be hidden at Paris, where the authorities
are unwilling to leave her; nor will they allow her to live in
Switzerland. Apparently she will go to the United States with her son.
What foolishness it is which can lead to such a result!
_Rochecotte, November 11, 1836._--Madame de Lieven was saying recently
before Pozzo that she would perhaps spend the next winter at Rome.
"What on earth would you find to do in Italy?" cried Pozzo. "You could
ask no one to tell you the news except the Apollo Belvedere, and if he
refused you would say, 'Wretch, away with you!'" This sally of Pozzo's
made every one laugh, including the Princess; she is, in fact, quite
frivolous.
_Rochecotte, November 20, 1836._--Yesterday's letters told of a
reversal in the affairs of Portugal. The counter-revolution seems to
have failed at the moment when success was thought certain, and the
mishap was due to a want of understanding between the little Van de
Weyer and Lord Howard de Walden. The disaster is complete.
Madame Adélaïde tells M. de Talleyrand that the Court will certainly
not go into mourning for the death of Charles X., as no notification
of the event has been received.[53] She quotes several examples in
which mourning was not worn for this reason, though near relatives
were concerned, including the case of the late Queen of Naples; she
was aunt and mother-in-law to the Emperor of Austria, and died in the
Imperial castle near Vienna, but the Austrian Court did not go into
mourning because the King of Naples, who was then in Sicily, did not
send a notification of his wife's death. Such precedents are
invincible.
[53] Charles X. had just died at Goritz, in Austria, on November
6, 1836.
_Rochecotte, November 21, 1836._--The death of Charles X. has divided
society in Paris upon every point. Every one wears mourning according
to his own fancy, from colours to deep black by infinite gradations,
and with fresh bitterness about every yard of crape that seems to be
wanting. Some refer to him as the Comte de Marnes and Henry V., others
as Louis XIX. In short, the place is a perfect Babel, and they are not
even agreed upon the disease of which Charles X. died. Yesterday's
letters speak of nothing else, except the affairs of Portugal. We are
informed that the clumsy attempt might easily shake the position of
Lord Palmerston.[54]
[54] The Queen of Portugal had been forced, after several
outbreaks, to accept the Radical Constitution of 1820. In
November she began a counter-revolution, helped by Palmella,
Terceira, and Saldanha, believing, at the instigation of England,
that the population of Lisbon would support her, and proposing to
dismiss her Ministers. She had been wrongly informed concerning
the popular feeling, and was forced to abandon the struggle.
_Rochecotte, November 22, 1836._--The Prince de Laval writes that M.
de Ranville is staying with him at Montigny, while M. de Polignac[55]
is on the road for Munich and Goritz. I do not know at all how this
business has been arranged, nor do I know the meaning of this meeting
of Paris clergy summoned to the house of M. Guizot, the Minister of
Public Worship. They say that the Archbishop is preparing a manifesto
in consequence, but I have not yet received the answer to the riddle.
[55] M. de Polignac, who was a prisoner at Ham, had demanded from
M. Molé his transference to a sanatorium.
Only the Abbé de Vertot could tell the full story of the revolutions
in Portugal. Lord Palmerston would not be the hero of it, nor Lord
Howard de Walden either. What can one think of the base methods
employed by such diplomacy?
_Rochecotte, November 28, 1836._--Differences of opinion concerning
the question of mourning for Charles X. have found their way into the
royal family; the Queen, who had voluntarily assumed mourning the
first day, was vexed because the Ministry forced her to abandon it.
The Cabinet is afraid of newspaper controversy, but has gained
nothing, as all the newspapers are in rivalry according to their
political colouring. I am much puzzled to know what shade of white,
grey, or black I shall adopt when I reach Paris; generally speaking,
the ladies of the neutral party who are also of society wear black in
company and white at Court. The position of our diplomatists abroad
will be very embarrassing.
M. de Balzac, who is a native of Touraine, has come into the country
to buy a small estate, and induced one of my neighbours to bring him
here. Unfortunately it was dreadful weather and I was forced to invite
him to dinner.
I was polite, but very reserved. I am greatly afraid of these
publicists, men of letters, and writers of articles. I never spoke a
word without deep consideration, and was delighted when he went.
Moreover, he did not attract me; his face and bearing are vulgar, and
I imagine his ideas are equally so. Undoubtedly he is a clever man,
but his conversation is neither easy nor light, but, on the contrary,
very dull. He watched and examined all of us most minutely, especially
M. de Talleyrand.
I could very well have done without this visit, and should have
avoided it if I had been able. He aims at the extraordinary, and
relates a thousand incidents about himself, of which I believe none.
The Prince de Laval informed me that M. de Polignac has not yet been
able to profit by the freedom which was granted him, as he was too ill
to move at the moment arranged for his departure.[56] He asks to be
transported to the nearest frontier, Mons or Calais, to avoid any
route of which he could not endure the fatigue.
[56] His punishment had been commuted to perpetual banishment.
_Rochecotte, December 2, 1836._--The Archbishop's letter concerning
the convocation of the clergy is a bad one, because of its
fault-finding, which is an unsuitable characteristic in an
ecclesiastic whose finest quality is evangelical simplicity; but we
must also admit that he must have been shocked by the attempt to
influence the clergy directly, and that the prohibition of prayers
instituted by the Church is somewhat too revolutionary, and I wish we
could reform revolutionary ways more definitely. We cling to them out
of fear, and this timidity, which is too obvious, brings us into
isolation abroad and encourages enemies at home.
The Duc d'Angoulême will certainly style himself Louis XIX. and his
wife the Queen; she wished it to be so. However, immediately after the
death of Charles X. they sent all the insignia of royalty into the
room of the Duc de Bordeaux, declaring that even if events were
favourable they never wished to reign in France. In any case the
notifications were issued under the incognito title of Comte de
Marnes. The young Prince is called Monseigneur at Goritz. He and his
sister are staying with his uncle and aunt.
M. de Polignac wrote to M. Molé after the death of Charles X., saying
positively that he would be grateful to the King of the French for
permission to leave Ham, and thus obtained his permit. M. Peyronnet
wrote in charcoal on his prison wall, "I ask mercy only from God,"
which I think he had hardly the right to say, since he left his prison
in very lively spirits. He would not see M. de Polignac again, even at
the last moment.
_Rochecotte, December 15, 1836._--I shall certainly leave here
to-morrow evening, and shall be at Paris in the afternoon of the day
following.
* * * * *
[The two correspondents whose letters furnish material for these
memoirs spent a few months together at Paris, so that the memoirs
were interrupted, and recommenced in 1837.]
CHAPTER II
1837
_Paris, April 17, 1837._--The new Ministry, which entered upon office
the day before yesterday, and is destined to immortalise the date of
April 15, as different Governments are designated by such dates, will
have a stern conflict to wage, and I hope, for the sake of its leader,
M. Molé, that it will emerge with honour from the struggle. The
_Journal de Paris_ offers a frank Doctrinaire opposition; the _Journal
des Débats_ pronounces a funeral oration over the last Ministry and
offers peace and support to the new one. All this promises neither
reality, sincerity, fidelity, nor stability, and I hardly know to whom
or to what it is reasonable to trust in the sphere of political
relations. M. Royer-Collard came to see me this morning before going
to the Chamber of Deputies; he did not seem to think that the new
Ministry would survive one session.[57]
[57] The Ministry was composed as follows: M. Molé, President of
the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs; M. Barthe, Minister
of Justice; M. de Montalivet, Minister of the Interior; M.
Lacave-Laplagne, Financial Minister; M. de Salvandy, Minister of
Public Instruction. General Bernard, Admiral de Rosamel, and M.
Martin du Nord retained their portfolios; M. de Rémusat,
Under-Secretary of State, followed his Minister into retirement.
M. Thiers came to dine with us, among other guests, and talked
largely, as usual. He came from the Chamber, where they had in vain
awaited the official proclamation of the new Ministry which had been
announced. The King was to take the Electress,[58] who is at Paris at
this moment incognito as the Comtesse d'Arco, to visit Versailles,
but as the council lasted from ten in the morning till five in the
afternoon the King was unable to go out or the Ministers to appear
before the Chamber. The incident produced a bad effect upon the
Electress, who is said to be irritable and scornful.
[58] Marianne Leopoldine, Archduchess of Austria-Este, born in
1771, married the Elector Charles Theodore of Bavaria. After her
husband's death she married the Grand Master of his Court, the
Comte Louis Arco. This princess died in 1848.