Chapter I: Front Matter

MY MEMOIRS

BY

ALEXANDRE DUMAS

TRANSLATED BY

E. M. WALLER

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

ANDREW LANG

VOL. VI

1832 TO 1833

WITH A FRONTISPIECE

NEW YORK

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1909

CONTENTS

BOOK I

CHAPTER I

Preparations for my Fancy Dress Ball--I find that my
lodgings are too much after the style of Socrates--My
artist-decorators--The question of the supper--I go for
provisions to la Ferté-Vidame--View of this capital town of
the Canton, by night, in a snowstorm--My nephew's room--My
friend Gondon--Roebuck hunting--Return to Paris--I invent
a Bank of Exchange before M. Proudhon--The artists at
work--The dead

CHAPTER II

Alfred Johannot

CHAPTER III

Clément Boulanger

CHAPTER IV

Grandville

CHAPTER V

Tony Johannot

BOOK II

CHAPTER I

Sequel to the preparations for my ball--Oil and
distemper--Inconveniences of working at night--How
Delacroix did his task--The ball--Serious men--La Fayette
and Beauchene--Variety of costumes--The invalid and the
undertaker's man--The last galop--A _political_ play--A
_moral_ play

CHAPTER II

_Dix ans de la vie d'une femme_

CHAPTER III

Doligny manager of the theatre in Italy--Saint-Germain
bitten by the tarantula--How they could have livened up
Versailles if Louis-Philippe had wished it--The censorship
of the Grand-Duke of Tuscany--The bindings of printer
Batelli--_Richard Darlington, Angèle, Antony_ and _La Tour
de Nesle_ performed under the name of Eugène Scribe

CHAPTER IV

A few words on _La Tour de Nesle_ and M. Frédérick
Gaillardet--The _Revue des Deux Mondes_--M. Buloz--The
_Journal des Voyages_--My first attempt at Roman
history--_Isabeau de Bavière_--A witty man of five foot nine
inches

CHAPTER V

Success of my _Scènes historiques_--Clovis and Hlodewig
(Chlodgwig)--I wish to apply myself seriously to the study
of the history of France--The Abbé Gauthier and M. de
Moyencourt--Cordelier-Delanoue reveals to me Augustine
Thierry and Chateaubriand--New aspects of history--_Gaule
et France_--A drama in collaboration with Horace Vernet and
Auguste Lafontaine

CHAPTER VI

_Édith aux longs cheveux--Catherine Howard_

BOOK III

CHAPTER I

An invasion of cholera--Aspect of Paris--Medicine and the
scourge--Proclamation of the Prefect of Police--The supposed
poisoners--Harel's newspaper paragraph--Mademoiselle
Dupont--Eugène Durieu and Anicet Bourgeois--Catherine (not
Howard) and the cholera--First performance of _Mari de la
veuve_--A horoscope which did not come true

CHAPTER II

My régime against the cholera--I am attacked by the epidemic
--I invent etherisation--Harel comes to suggest to me
_La Tour de Nesle_--Verteuil's manuscript--Janin and the
tirade of the _grandes dames_--First idea of the _prison
scene_--My terms with Harel--Advantages offered by me to M.
Gaillardet--The spectator in the Odéon--Known and unknown
authors--My first letter to M. Gaillardet

CHAPTER III

M. Gaillardet's answer and protest--Frédérick and Buridan's
part--Transaction with M. Gaillardet--First performance
of _La Tour de Nesle_--The play and its interpreters--The
day following a success--M. * * *--A profitable trial
in prospect--Georges' caprice--The manager, author and
collaborator

CHAPTER IV

The use of friends--_Le Musée des Familles_--An article by
M. Gaillardet--My reply to it--Challenge from M. Gaillardet
--I accept it with effusion--My adversary demands a first
respite of a week--I summon him before the Commission of
Dramatic Authors--He declines that arbitration--I send him
my seconds--He asks a delay of two months--Janin's letter
to the newspapers

CHAPTER V

Sword and pistol--Whence arose my aversion to the latter
weapon--Philippe's puppet--The statue of Corneille--An
autograph _in extremis_--Le bois de Vincennes--A duelling
toilet--Scientific question put by Bixio--The conditions
of the duel--Official report of the seconds--How Bixio's
problem found its solution

BOOK IV

CHAPTER I

The masquerade of the budget at Grenoble--M. Maurice
Duval--The serenaders--Escapade of the 35th of the
line--The insurrection it excites--Arrest of General
Saint-Clair--Taking of the préfecture and of the
citadel by Bastide--Bastide at Lyons--Order reigns at
Grenoble--Casimir Périer, Gamier-Pages and M. Dupin--Report
of the municipality of Grenoble--Acquittal of the
rioters--Restoration of the 35th--Protest of a smoker

CHAPTER II

General Dermoncourt's papers--Protest of Charles X.
against the usurpation of the Duc d'Orléans--The stoutest
of political men--Attempt at restoration planned by
Madame la duchesse de Berry--The _Carlo-Alberto_--How
I write authentic notes--Landing of Madame near La
Ciotat--Legitimist affray at Marseilles--Madame set out for
La Vendée--M. de Bonnechose--M. de Villeneuve--M. de Lorge

CHAPTER III

Madame's itinerary--Panic--M. de Puylaroque--_Domine salvum
fac Philippum_--The château de Dampierre--Madame de la
Myre--The pretended cousin and the curé--M. Guibourg--M.
de Bourmont--Letter of Madame to M. de Coislin--The _noms
de guerre_--Proclamation of Madame--New kind of _henna_--M.
Charette--Madame is nearly drowned in the Maine--The sexton
in charge of the provisions--A night in the stable--The
Legitimists of Paris--They dispatch M. Berryer into la
Vendée

CHAPTER IV

Interview between MM. Berryer and de Bourmont--The
messenger's guides--The movable column--M. Charles--Madame's
hiding-place--Madame refuses to leave la Vendée--She rallies
her followers to arms--Death of General Lamarque--The
deputies of the Opposition meet together at Laffitte's
house--They decide to publish a statement to the nation--MM.
Odilon Barrot and de Cormenin are commissioned to draw up
this report--One hundred and thirty-three deputies sign it

CHAPTER V

Last moments of General Lamarque--What his life had been--
One of my interviews with him--I am appointed one of the
stewards of the funeral cortège--The procession--Symptoms
of popular agitation--The marching past across the place
Vendôme--The Duke Fitz-James--Conflicts provoked by the
town police--The students of the École Polytechnique join
the cortège--Arrival of the funeral procession at the pont
d'Austerlitz--Speeches--First shots--The man with the red
flag--Allocution of Étienne Arago 260

CHAPTER VI

The artillerymen--Carrel and _le National_--Barricades of
the boulevard Bourdon and in the rue de Ménilmontant--
The carriage of General La Fayette--A bad shot
from my friends--Despair of Harel--The pistols in
_Richard_--The women are against us--I distribute
arms to the insurgents--Change of uniform--The meeting
at Laffitte's--Progress of the insurrection--M.
Thiers--Barricade Saint-Merry--Jeanne--Rossignol--Barricade
of the passage du Saumon--Morning of 6 June

CHAPTER VII

Inside the barricade Saint-Merry, according to a Parisian
child's account--General Tiburce Sébastiani--Louis-Philippe
during the insurrection--M. Guizot--MM. François Arago,
Laffitte and Odilon Barrot at the Tuileries--The last
argument of Kings--Étienne Arago and Howelt--Denunciation
against me--M. Binet's report 301

BOOK V

CHAPTER I

_Le Fils de l'Émigré_--I learn the news of my premature
death--I am advised to take a voyage for prudence and
health's sake--I choose Switzerland--Gosselin's literary
opinion on that country--First effect of change of
air--From Châlon to Lyons by a low train--The ascent of
Cerdon--Arrival at Geneva

CHAPTER II

Great explanations about the bear-steak--Jacotot--An
ill-sounding epithet--A seditious felt hat--The carabineers
who were too clever--I quarrel with King Charles-Albert over
the Dent du Chat--Princes and men of intellect 323

CHAPTER III

22 July 1832

CHAPTER IV

Edict unbaptizing the King of Rome--Anecdotes of the
childhood of the Duc de Reichstadt--Letter of Sir Hudson
Lowe announcing the death of Napoleon

CHAPTER V

Prince Metternich is appointed to teach the history of
Napoleon to the Duc de Reichstadt--The Duke's plan of
political conduct--The poet Barthélemy at Vienna--His
interviews with Count Dietrichstein--Opinion of the Duc de
Reichstadt on the poem _Napoleon en Egypt_ 353

CHAPTER VI

Journey of the Duc de Reichstadt--M. le Chevalier de
Prokesch--Questions concerning the recollections left
by _Napoléon en Égypte_--The ambition of the Duc de
Reichstadt--The Countesse Camerata--The prince is appointed
lieutenant-colonel--He becomes hoarse when holding a
review--He falls ill--Report upon his health by Dr. Malfatti

CHAPTER VII

The Duc de Reichstadt at Schönbrünn--Progress of his
disease--The Archduchess Sophia--The prince's last
moments--His death--Effect produced by the news at
Paris--Article of the _Constitutionnel_ upon this event

BOOK VI

CHAPTER I

Lucerne--The lion of August 10--M. de Chateaubriand's
fowls--Reichenau--A picture by Conder--Letter to M. le duc
d'Orléans--A walk in the park of Arenenberg 383

CHAPTER II

News of France--First performance of _Le Fils de l'Émigré_--
What _Le Constitutionnel_ thought of it--Effect produced
by that play on the Parisian population in general and on
M. Véron in particular--Death of Walter Scott--_Perrinet
Leclerc--Sic vos non vobis_

CHAPTER III

La Duchesse de Berry returns to Nantes disguised as
a peasant woman--The basket of apples--The house
Duguigny--Madame in her hiding-place--Simon Deutz--His
antecedents--His mission--He enters into treaty with MM.
Thiers and Montalivet--He starts for la Vendée 412

CHAPTER IV

M. Maurice Duval is made Préfet of the Loire-Inférieure--
The Nantais give him a charivari--Deutz's persistent
attempts to see Madame--He obtains a first and then a
second audience--Besieging of the maison Duguigny--The
hiding-place--The police searches--Discovery of the Duchess

CHAPTER V

First moments after the arrest--Madame's 13,000 francs--What
a gendarme can win by sleeping on a camp-bed and making
philosophic reflections thereon--The duchess at the Château
de Nantes--She is transferred to Blaye--Judas

BOOK VII

CHAPTER I

_Le Roi s'amuse_--Criticism and censorship

CHAPTER II

_Le Corsaire_ trial--The Duc d'Orléans as caricaturist--The
_Tribune_ trial--The right of association established by
jury--Statistics of the political sentences under the
Restoration_--Le Pré-aux-Clercs_

CHAPTER III

Victor Jacquemont

CHAPTER IV

George Sand

CHAPTER V

Eugène Sue--His family, birth, godfather and godmother--
His education--Dr. Sue's wine-cellar--Choir of botanists
--Committee of chemistry--Dinner on the grass--Eugène
Sue sets out for Spain--His return--Ferdinand Langlé's
room--Captain Gauthier

CHAPTER VI

Eugène Sue is ambitious enough to have a groom, horse and
trap--He does business with the maison Ermingot, Godefroi
et Cie which permits him to gratify that fancy--Triumph
at the Champs-Élysées--A vexing encounter--Desforges and
Eugène Sue separate--Desforges starts _Le Kaléidoscope_
at Bordeaux--Ferdinand Langlé starts _La Nouveauté_ at
Paris--César and the negro Zoyo--Dossion and his dog

CHAPTER VII

Eugène Sue's début in journalism--_L'Homme-Mouche_--The
merino sheep--Eugène Sue in the Navy--He takes part in the
battle of Navarino--He furnishes a house--The last folly of
youth--Another _Fils de l'Homme_--Bossange and Desforges

BOOK VIII

CHAPTER I

The political duels

CHAPTER II

_Lucrèce Borgia_--Discouragement--First conception of the
Historical Romances

CHAPTER III

Condition of the Théâtre-Français in 1832 and
1833--Causes which had led to our emigration from the
Théatre-Français--Reflections concerning the education of
dramatic artists

CHAPTER IV

Talma--Mademoiselle Mars--The Conservatoire--Macready--Young
--Kean--Miss Smithson--Mrs. Siddons--Miss Faucit--Shakespeare
--The limits to dramatic art in France

APPENDIX

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

THE MEMOIRS OF

ALEXANDRE DUMAS