LIFE OF LAMARTINE 
 
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LIFE OF LAMARTINE 
 
 LADY MARGARET DOMVILE 
 
 LONDON 
 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., i, PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 
 1888 
 
5* 
 
 (The rights of translation and of reproduction are reset wd.) 
 
LAMARTINE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1780-1811. 
 
 The father of Alphonse de Lamartiqe was a cadet of an 
 old Burgundian family ; his mother the daughter of M. des 
 Roys, an officer in the household of the Duke of Orleans. 
 There had been in the circumstances of their marriage 
 more of romance than is usual in France. Mademoiselle 
 des Roys, while still a child, received a nomination entitling 
 her to become a canoness in the richly endowed Chapter of 
 Salle, and, having reached the age of fifteen, was shortly to 
 take vows which, though not cutting her off from the world, 
 would have bound her to a single life, when she met, at 
 the house of his sister (herself a canoness of Salles), the 
 Chevalier de Lamartine. A few weeks later the Chevalier 
 obtained Mademoiselle des Roys' consent to ask her hand 
 in marriage. The want of fortune and family prejudices 
 were formidable obstacles, but the lovers remained constant, 
 and, after three years of hope deferred, they were united 
 just at the eve of the Revolution. 
 
 Their early married life was clouded with heavy trials. 
 
 M136119 
 
2 ' LAMAR TINE. [1780- 
 
 M. de Lamartine was among the few devoted defenders of 
 the Tuileries on the roth of August. Wounded, and a 
 prisoner, he owed his life to the kindness of a municipal 
 guard, who helped him to escape the terrible September 
 massacres. For a time, he and his wife lived unmolested 
 in a remote Burgundian village, but in 1794 the whole 
 Lamartine family, including the aged grandfather and 
 grandmother, were throwri into prison. Only the younger 
 Madame de Lamartine, who had just given birth to a 
 daughter, was allowed to remain, guarded by soldiers, in 
 the family house at Macon. A little later, the Hotel 
 Lamartine being wanted as a barrack, she got leave to 
 move into a pavilion at the end of the garden, formerly 
 occupied by servants, which, by a happy chance, faced the 
 Convent of the Ursulines where her husband was a prisoner. 
 Lamartine's earliest recollections are of the dreary months 
 spent in this abode, when the silence of the streets was 
 only broken by the rough jolting of the tumbrils, carrying 
 their load of victims to the scaffold, or by wild snatches of 
 revolutionary songs, which he, poor little unconscious child, 
 used to catch up and repeat, wondering at his mother's 
 tear-dimmed eyes. Sometimes Madame de Lamartine 
 had a momentary glance at her husband when, guarded 
 by gaolers, he passed along the prison corridors ; for this 
 she used to stand for hours watching at the window, 
 holding up her boy in her arms. 
 
 After eighteen months thus passed, came the welcome 
 news of Robespierre's fall, and then the worst was felt to 
 be over. The prisoners were allowed to creep away one 
 by one, till at length the Hotel de Lamartine received 
 back all its inmates. There they lived on in fear and 
 
1811.] CHILDISH RECOLLECTIONS. 3 
 
 trembling, in poverty and seclusion, for the reign of 
 Terror did not cease at once. It was not till nightfall that 
 a few old friends, faithful to the habits of a lifetime, 
 would venture through the streets with little paper lan- 
 terns in their hands, and, taking their seats at the card- 
 tables, resume the game that only a Revolution could have 
 interrupted. 
 
 These childish reminiscences seem melancholy enough, 
 but there came at last a happy, ever to be remembered 
 day, when a long file of bullock waggons came to the 
 door and carried the whole family — parents, children, 
 servants, and household goods — off to Milly, a little 
 country house standing not far from the high road to 
 Cluny. Here, in a quiet Burgundian valley, the Lamartines 
 brought up their family of five daughters and one son. In 
 two books, " Le Manuscrit de ma Mere " and the " Memoires 
 Inedits," which Lady Herbert's translations have made 
 familiar to the English public, Lamartine has described, 
 with much detail, the years passed in the lowly home, 
 which did not differ, in outward appearance, from the houses 
 of the neighbouring peasants save for the large courtyard 
 and double flight of granite steps leading to the massive 
 hall door of worm-eaten and blackened oak. Everywhere 
 the Revolution had left its traces : the principal sitting- 
 room had been used by the peasants as a salle de danse on 
 Sundays, and their heavy wooden shoes had broken the 
 encaustic tiles into minute fragments ; while the iron plate 
 of the hearth, too useful to be sacrificed even on the altar 
 of patriotism, had been turned inwards, so as to hide the 
 obnoxious " fleur-de-lys " which showed that some former 
 owner had been a Chevalier de St. Louis. But the village 
 
4 LAMART1NE. [1780- 
 
 mason quickly replaced the encaustic tiles with equally 
 serviceable bricks ; fires of vine-dressings burned as brightly 
 as ever in the spacious chimneys, and the joyous laughter 
 of the young mother and her happy little brood chased 
 away the ghosts and filled the room with sunshine, while 
 the vines blossomed and the fruit-trees bore as they used 
 to do in the years before '89. The furniture consisted only 
 of a few beds, chairs, and tables, so that before long every 
 one had found his or her place in the house, and the family 
 settled down to a life in which refinement and culture were 
 combined with incessant and laborious industry ; an 
 annuity of a hundred a year and the little property of 
 Milly being all they had to depend on. But with much 
 greater people than the Lamartines, money was scarce in 
 those days, and the want of it did not interfere with their 
 happiness. The whole household rose early, and after 
 prayers said at their mother's knee, the children breakfasted 
 on the vine-dresser's soup, and then trotted off to weed the 
 vines, or to watch their father's sheep grazing in the forest, 
 till the Angelus bell brought them back to the midday 
 meal of meat and boiiilli, eaten with two-pronged forks out 
 of little red earthenware bowls ; and after dinner, their 
 mother, when her household tasks allowed, heard them say 
 their lessons. 
 
 In the long summer days friends used to come in relays, 
 sometimes from long distances — much in the pleasant, un- 
 ceremonious fashion described in Eugenie de Guerin's 
 journal. In winter, when the wind whistled at its will 
 through the corridors, the family gathered round the fire in 
 their mother's bedroom, the father reading by the flickering 
 light of a tallow candle, the mother playing such old- 
 
1811.] V1NTA GE- GA THERIXG. 5 
 
 fashioned airs as Rousseau's " Devin du Village " on the 
 clavecin, or talking to her elder children as she rocked the 
 youngest to sleep in the heavy wooden cradle. Some of 
 the most charming of Lamartine's writings, alike in prose 
 and in verse, are those in which, with a poet's delicate 
 perception of every detail, he recalls those early days. 
 
 The most delightful and exciting period of the year 
 was the gathering-in of the vintage. For weeks before, he 
 and his sisters used to watch, with the eager eyes of child- 
 hood, the cleansing and preparing of the wine-vats which 
 heralded its approach. Then came the keener delight of 
 being allowed to join the grape-cutters, who, selected among 
 the cleverest and handiest of the village girls, used with 
 deft fingers quickly to clear a whole plant, throwing the 
 white or purple clusters into bins, which the men then piled 
 on a huge waggon. When it was fully loaded, the bullocks, 
 at a word from their driver, lifting their massive heads 
 under the yoke, moved slowly away ; the children, regard- 
 less of stained pinafores, following the cart dripping with 
 crimson rain, gathered up the bunches that fell, to give as a 
 reward to the patient oxen, sometimes rushing away to 
 greet a fresh band of workers with cries of delight. 
 
 " The joy ran like the wine from hill to hill." 
 
 Then, intent on being useful, they set to counting the carts 
 as they came in, running in turn to bring their father 
 the reckoning — a matter of no small consequence, for the 
 produce of the farm was the only source of income on 
 which the family, in those days, could securely count. 
 But even on the sunny slopes of Burgundy the vintage is 
 not always gathered in with rejoicing ; more than one 
 
6 LAMARTINE. [1780- 
 
 entry in Madame de Lamartine's journal tells of anxiety 
 and loss. In the spring of 1801 she notes the delicious 
 smell of the vines in flower, adding, " If all these blossoms 
 turn into grapes, we shall be rich this year." A few weeks 
 later she writes, " A terrible hailstorm has come down in 
 full force on the vines. It is all the worse because they 
 were laden with grapes. My heart is indeed full when I 
 think of the possible failure of the crop and of the suffering 
 this would entail on our poor people as well as on ourselves." 
 The final entry is, " God's will be done ! We have had 
 another fearful storm, and the rain has entirely ruined the 
 crops. I am sick at heart with fear and anxiety." 
 
 Another red-letter date in the sylvan calendar was the 
 shelling of the walnuts, when friends and neighbours 
 gathered round the great table in the kitchen, which was 
 lit up for the occasion with rude, flickering lamps, called, 
 not inappropriately, creuse-yeux. The men brought up 
 from the cellars heavy sacks of walnuts, the contents of 
 which soon covered the floor. Before each worker was 
 then set a light hammer and a pile of nuts. When the 
 latter were broken, the good ones were put aside for sale, 
 and the rest sent to the oil-press. 
 
 On other winter evenings long hanks of silk or yarn 
 were got ready for the travelling merchants who came at 
 stated times to buy them. Though the presence of the 
 house-mistress was doubtless a gentle restraint, there was 
 plenty of mirth and chatter at these gatherings. When 
 village gossip was exhausted, other more exciting topics 
 took its place. The pedlars, who at the beginning of the 
 Revolution had been busily employed disseminating political 
 pamphlets in the remotest villages, now carried in their 
 
1811.] PLAYFELLOWS. f 
 
 packs newspapers, giving thrilling accounts of French 
 victories with vividly coloured illustrations of " Massena 
 in Switzerland," or " Hoche in the Palatinate," driving 
 the enemy before them, or the storming of the bridge of 
 Areola by a hero even more famous than Horatius. Not 
 that the price to be paid for these glories was ever for- 
 gotten by the simple country folk ; the conscription, which 
 then carried with it the additional bitterness of being a 
 new and hitherto undreamt of blood-tax, pressing far more 
 heavily than the corvees it replaced, was loudly and deeply 
 cursed. The first real sorrow Lamartine had to bear was 
 when a comrade, a few years older than himself, was 
 carried off, despite his unwillingness, by the pitiless re- 
 cruiting sergeants, and never heard of again. Claude 
 Chanet was, it is true, only a peasant ; his father being 
 M. de Lamartine's head vinedresser. But the boys were 
 from early childhood companions in long rambles over- 
 hills and dales, and a friendship had sprung up between 
 them, the remembrance of which laid the foundation of 
 the strong sympathy for the peasant class which always 
 distinguished Lamartine, and enabled him to give the 
 world those vivid, faithful pictures of rural life which, 
 though taken perhaps too frequently from its mournful 
 side, yet indicate its lights as well as its shades, its joys 
 and compensations as well as its sorrows and its burdens, 
 and which form his best title to enduring fame. " Hier 
 sind die tiefen Wurzeln seiner Kraft." 
 
 Another playfellow was the little Chevalier de Pierreclos, 
 the heir of a somewhat eccentric family, who were the 
 Lamartine's nearest neighbours. The old Comte de Pierre- 
 clos had never been popular, and in 1790, on the famous 
 
8 LAMARTINE. [1780- 
 
 and hitherto unexplained day called "la journee du 
 brigandage," when the peasantry throughout the whole of 
 France rose simultaneously, destroyed an immense amount 
 of property, and then returned quietly to their old ways, 
 his Chateau of Bussieres had been completely sacked, the 
 family owing their lives to the fidelity of a handful of 
 retainers. The Chevalier de Lamartine, hearing what had 
 happened, came out from Macon with a party of young 
 men, well mounted and armed to the teeth, and drove off 
 the incendiaries, of whom a considerable number were slain 
 in a skirmish near Cluny ; a service which the old count 
 never forgot. Unfortunately, his memory was equally 
 tenacious of injuries received. " Look," he used to say to 
 the boys, " look at the traces of those brigands. Here is 
 the mark of the hatchet of orte ; here of the pickaxe of 
 another ; a third has left his mark there. Never, in my 
 time, shall the memorials of these outrages be effaced ! " 
 The countess had died in prison, and the household was 
 ruled by the count's only sister, who was a clever woman 
 in her way, but who, like her brother, clung with eccentric 
 persistency to the habits of her youth. She used to come 
 into the drawing-room at eight in the morning, and settle 
 herself in a curtained seat, whence she dealt cards to all 
 comers — brothers, nieces, visitors, who had each to take a 
 hand in succession. Resting for a little towards midday, 
 she began again in the afternoon, and so passed the day 
 until supper-time. Another inmate of the house was the 
 Chevalier de Pierreclos, an old cavalry officer, who, having 
 run through his fortune at an early age, seemed to have 
 no function in life save to agree to everything proposed by 
 his elder brother, to bring in flowers for his nieces, and 
 
1811.] LAMARTINE'S MOTHER. g 
 
 inexhaustible supplies of faggots for the great fireplaces ; 
 " kindly and obliging, he lived the life of an animated 
 piece of furniture." Meanwhile, the sons and daughters of 
 the house grew up with as little care or training as the 
 saplings in the forest ; the girls, handsome and piquantes, 
 were chiefly employed in worshiping their younger brother, 
 who already gave every promise of becoming, what he 
 eventually turned out, a brilliant and amiable scapegrace. 
 
 Very different were the discipline and training which 
 reigned in the well-ordered home at Milly, where incessant, 
 often laborious industry was combined with perfect refine- 
 ment, and with a more than average amount of culture. 
 People are tempted to think there is something conven- 
 tional in the way so many Frenchmen have of beginning 
 their autobiographies with enthusiastic laudation of their 
 mothers. In Lamartine's case this filial worship was cer- 
 tainly as sincere as it was ardent. Perhaps the most 
 prominent trait in Madame de Lamartine's character was 
 a tender and exalted piety ; an intensity of faith, the 
 recollection of which always remained to her children as 
 evidence, stronger than any argument, of the reality of the 
 unseen, spiritual world. But there was nothing narrow or 
 austere in her religion ; if it made her severe with herself, 
 she was so lenient in her judgment of others that, living at 
 a time when party feeling, both political and religious, ran 
 very high, she had often to bear bitter reproaches on account 
 of the moderation of her sentiments and her toleration of 
 opposite opinions. There are two points mentioned by 
 Lamartine in his mother's teaching, which unquestionably 
 influenced his character — she never allowed him to laugh 
 at his own faults or even at his mistakes, but bade him 
 
IO LAMARTINE. [1780- 
 
 remember he was a being endued with reason, whose actions 
 all had a certain importance ; and also — while most anxious 
 to encourage and stimulate him to study — she carefully 
 checked all tendency to rivalry by never letting him 
 compare himself with another. Of the first rule the wisdom 
 is doubtful ; it might have been better for Lamartine if, 
 instead of always taking himself seriously as was his wont, 
 he had sometimes been able to indulge in a laugh at his 
 own expense. But to the second he may have owed the 
 remarkable absence of envy or jealousy in his character, 
 which explains the afTection with which he was, all through 
 life, regarded by his brother-authors. 
 
 In her girlhood, Madame de Lamartine had, both at 
 the Palais Royal and at St. Cloud, glimpses of a very 
 brilliant and intellectual society. After that period her life 
 was passed in extreme seclusion, and within a narrow 
 circle. But she was one of those people who, by reflect- 
 ing on all they see, hear, and feel, draw more profit from 
 a little experience than others do from a much wider 
 range. It was from her Lamartine inherited the love of 
 nature and of simple things, the delicate perception of 
 detail, the warm, far-reaching sympathies which were not 
 the least of his gifts. In what her son calls " her slightly 
 Roman education," Madame de Lamartine had acquired 
 the habit of allotting, at the end of each day, a certain 
 interval to reflection and self-examination, th^ results of 
 which she noted in a journal. And when the first troubled 
 years of her married life were past, and she had settled 
 quietly down at Milly, she resumed this habit, "in the 
 hope," as she writes, " that by noting my daily thoughts and 
 anxieties I may learn to know myself better, and so correct 
 
1811.] CHATEAU DE ST. POINT. II 
 
 ray faults. It will also, I hope, be of use in the children's 
 education, to keep a record of the gradual development of 
 their characters." Accordingly, every night, when the rest 
 of the household were asleep, and the silence of her room 
 unbroken save by the regular breathing of the sleeping 
 children, the more wakeful among them used to see their 
 mother seat herself before an antique bureau incrusted with 
 ivory, and take out of a secret drawer a little grey book, 
 such as were then used for keeping accounts. Often her 
 pen would travel over the paper for a couple of hours 
 without interruption, as she recorded the domestic annals 
 of each day, sometimes of each hour. 
 
 One of the first entries is dated June, 1801, when the 
 Lamartines had lately recovered possession of the seques- 
 trated estate of St. Point. The chateau, situated amid 
 beautiful scenery, just where the first spur of the Jura 
 mountains rises up from the Burgundian coteaux, was a 
 much larger and more imposing structure than Milly, but, 
 as it was a good deal out of repair, the family only occupied 
 it in the summer. Later, it was restored by Lamartine at 
 considerable expense, and became the home with which his 
 brightest and likewise his saddest memories are associated. 
 In its churchyard he laid the ashes of those he most loved, 
 and there he now rests himself. 
 
 "St. Point, June, 1 801. —We came here for the first 
 time yesterday. It had been somewhat difficult to provide 
 for all our little people, and I was very tired. Towards 
 evening I went to pray for a short time in the church 
 which adjoins our garden. As I passed, I noticed that a 
 grave was being dug ; the funeral took place this morning. 
 A young girl, daughter to the deceased, on hearing the first 
 
12 LAMARTINE. [1780- 
 
 spadeful of earth fall on her father's coffin, fainted away. 
 I fetched some smelling-salts, and then brought her into 
 the house, where I gave her a little wine and some biscuit, 
 which revived her. But what really gave her consolation 
 was, that I wept with her : then the children, seeing 
 my tears, began to cry also, and so this poor man was 
 mourned by people who did not even know his name. 
 The daughter said some things which moved me deeply. 
 There is nothing which touches these poor country folk so 
 much as to see their sorrows really understood by those 
 whom they think of as beings almost of a different nature 
 to their own. In the evening, we brought the poor girl 
 back to her home, where we found her two little brothers 
 watching for her. They ran out to ask if their father was 
 not coming too. I was glad my little girls should gain, 
 as it were by accident, some knowledge of the terrible 
 separation death brings, and which they will themselves 
 have one day to suffer. Life should not be masked to 
 children ; they should be allowed to see it as it really 
 is, such as God has made it, with its sorrows and its 
 joys. 
 
 " I have been to see an old maid of eighty > who was 
 left a little pension and a room at the top of the chateau. 
 The beadle's wife gives her all the attendance she needs ; 
 she has for her only companion a hen, which is as tame as 
 any pet bird can be. Her name is Mademoiselle Felicite, 
 her hair as white as the wool of her distaff, and beneath 
 her wrinkles can be traced the remains of great beauty. 
 My husband has consented to her remaining here as long 
 as she lives, even though it should put us to some incon- 
 venience ; old plants should not be uprooted. At her age 
 
1811.] MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 1 3 
 
 a room is her whole world. Places we have lived in long 
 become as it were a part of ourselves. 
 
 " Yesterday we took a long walk with the children to 
 
 the highest peak of the range of mountains which divide us 
 
 from the valley of the Saone. These hills, which rise and 
 
 fall like clay moulded by the hand of Him ' who made the 
 
 earth of matter without form/ are covered with pine and 
 
 birch, mingled with broad patches of golden broom or with 
 
 long slopes of purple heather and of grey sward, cropped 
 
 close by countless flocks of sheep, which, seen from below, 
 
 look no bigger than fowl. Little torrents, whose course 
 
 can easily be traced by the deeper green of the willows 
 
 which grow on their banks, or by the flakes of white foam 
 
 they throw up, glittering like snow in the sun, rush down 
 
 the mountain side. My husband walked with the keeper, 
 
 while the children and I rode donkeys led by little boys — 
 
 the old beadle, who owns the donkeys, acting as our guide. 
 
 It took us three hours to reach the highest point, although, 
 
 looking at it from my bedroom window, I had thought to 
 
 climb it easily in half an hour. But distances on mountain 
 
 ranges are as deceptive as the flight of time, only in the 
 
 reverse sense. Mountains seem close at hand when they 
 
 are really far away, whereas time which we think long is 
 
 very short : sometimes it seems endless ; then, as we are 
 
 reckoning it, 'tis already gone ! We spent the whole day 
 
 walking about with the children, or seated on the grass, 
 
 gazing at the glorious panorama spread out beneath us. 
 
 On one side, the Maconnais, with its little white villages, 
 
 from whose belfries we could hear the Angelus ringing out 
 
 at noon ; on the other, ' La Bresse,' with its endless 
 
 meadows, reminding me of pictures of the Dutch Polders 
 
14 LAMARTINE. [1780- 
 
 which my eldest brother, who was Secretary of Embassy at 
 the Hague, used to send us as children. And far away on 
 the southern horizon soared Mont Blanc, at first dazzling 
 in its whiteness, then changing to soft rose-colour, and at 
 last to a deep, dark violet in the rays of the setting sun, 
 like a piece of iron which becomes white or red as it 
 passes through the fire of the blacksmith's forge. We dined 
 on the grass, and then, mounting our donkeys, returned 
 home by another path through the chestnut wood. The 
 clattering of our donkeys' hoofs on the rocks, the voices of 
 the children, the whistling of the blackbirds as they flew 
 away, the crack of my husband's gun fired at the coveys of 
 red-legged partridges, the chatter of the donkey boys and 
 the beadle, made our little party so noisy that a stranger 
 might have thought a troop of banditti had taken pos- 
 session of the mountain. And so seemed to think some 
 poor little shepherds guarding their goats and sheep at the 
 edge of the wood, for they fled in terror and hid themselves 
 in the heather. Presently we came on a fire lighted 
 between two big stones in the middle of the path, and by 
 the side of this rustic hearth was a pair of wooden shoes. 
 Evidently the owner had been too frightened to stop and 
 put them on. I proposed, to the delight of the children, 
 that we should give the fugitives a pleasant surprise, putting 
 into each sabot a half-franc piece and some sugar-plums the 
 children had saved from dessert. As we went on, we talked 
 of the fright of the poor little shepherds, and, when they 
 had gathered courage to come back, how delighted they 
 would be. They would be sure to tell their mothers, at 
 night, that the 'good people' who are said to haunt the 
 mountain had given them these treasures. And so it 
 
1811.] FIRST SCHOOL. 1 5 
 
 proved. The children, finding their sabots full of money 
 and sugar-plums, gave all the credit to the fairies. But 
 their parents were not so easily taken in, and, with the tact 
 and refinement so often found among our peasantry, deter- 
 mined to show how much they appreciated our kindness 
 by giving us a surprise in return. The following morning, 
 when our servant opened the door, he found on the step 
 four little red baskets filled with walnuts, cream-cheeses, 
 and little pats of butter made into the shape of sabots, the 
 bearers of these little presents having run away, so as to 
 give us back mystery for mystery. We were all delighted 
 with the gratitude and delicacy of feeling shown by this 
 anonymous offering. Such acts of mutual kindness between 
 the poor and those whom they call ' the rich ' are what I 
 most wish my children to see and to practise themselves." 
 
 When Lamartine was eleven years old the question of 
 his education began to be discussed. It was not easily 
 solved, for the Revolution had made a clean sweep of the 
 old public schools, and the few which had as yet taken their 
 place, being mostly private speculations, did not inspire 
 much confidence. At last the family council decided on 
 trying an establishment lately started at Lyons by a 
 Monsieur Papineau, and thither his mother, with a heart 
 as heavy as his own, brought him. " I came here yester- 
 day," she writes, " to bring Alphonse to school. My heart 
 is bleeding. This morning I went to Mass in the house, 
 and could get but a glimpse of his beautiful blonde curls 
 among all those little heads. As I went out I felt as 
 Abraham must have done when he sent Hagar and Ishmael 
 out into the desert ; neither the beautiful mountain of the 
 Saone, nor Fourvieres, nor the He Bach, floating in golden 
 
1 6 LAMARTINE. [1780- 
 
 light, gave me the least pleasure. I shall stay on for a 
 week, and go as often as I can to see my poor Alphonse, 
 who cannot accustom himself to his prison, and to get 
 myself used, little by little, to this cruel separation." 
 
 The change from home to school, under any circum- 
 stances, would have been trying to a boy of so sensitive 
 a nature, and, according to Lamartine's account, the 
 Maison Caille was little better than a French edition of 
 Dotheboys Hall. However, the longing to leave his 
 dreary prison as soon as possible had the fortunate effect 
 of pushing him on in his studies, and, though he started in 
 the lowest class, his healthy country upbringing had 
 strengthened both mind and body, and he soon rose to the 
 highest. But the violence and brutality of the master, 
 who was continually beating and threatening his pupils, 
 became more and more intolerable ; and at last, in the third 
 year of his school life, after a frightful scene, ending in 
 a violent struggle, in which a boy was well-nigh murdered 
 by the infuriated master, he resolved " to stay no longer in 
 these shambles," and with him two other boys, also from 
 Macon, laid a plan for escaping to their friends, 
 
 They managed, one half-holiday, to slip unperceived 
 from the playground, and, having walked for two hours, 
 considered themselves so secure that they turned into a 
 cafe to dine. Hardly were they seated when the door 
 opened and the master walked in. With a playfulness 
 more awful than his wrath, he merely said, " Another 
 convert, garcon ; I am going to dine with these gentle- 
 men ! " But when the meal was ended, a gendarme was 
 summoned, and the culprits, thus publicly disgraced, were 
 marched back to the Maison Caille. Here fresh humijia- 
 
1811.] A JESUIT COLLEGE. I? 
 
 tions and punishments awaited them. Lamartine, who 
 persistently refused to ask pardon, was kept a whole month 
 under lock and key, in a little room under the leads. 
 
 At last the holidays came, and his mother, when she 
 heard all that had passed, took his part, and, instead of 
 having to return to Lyons, he was sent to a Jesuit college 
 recently opened at Bellay. He describes the change as if 
 from V Inferno to II Paradiso. Indeed, the Fathers, in their 
 long black coats, reciting the office as they paced the 
 secluded alleys, reminded him of the shades in the Elysian 
 Fields. The college, with its imposing masses of building 
 looking down on the leafy valleys, its tennis courts and 
 playgrounds and salle d'armes ; the courteous and kindly 
 Fathers ; the comrades who did not ridicule him, even 
 when with streaming eyes he sat watching his mother's 
 carriage toiling up the steep road which led to Macon, — all 
 offered the greatest possible contrast to the Maison Caille. 
 The discipline was doubtless strict enough, but it was 
 maintained by kindness rather than by punishment, and 
 in this genial atmosphere Lamartine's character and talents 
 quickly expanded ; he formed the rapturous friendships of 
 boyhood, gained the confidence of his masters, and returned 
 home each half-year laden with prizes, perhaps too easily 
 won. Many of the Fathers were learned and accom- 
 plished men, but in the years of dispersion they had lost 
 the habit of teaching, and, before there was time to build 
 up anew, a fresh storm burst. Napoleon, though he tole- 
 rated the Jesuits for a while, never intended the order to 
 revive. A quarrel broke out on their account between him 
 and their patron, Cardinal Fesch. The college was dis- 
 persed, and Lamartine returned home, his education only 
 
 H^ c 
 
1 8 LAMARTINE. [1780- 
 
 half completed. However, he had been spared the years 
 of mingled revolt and dreariness which make up the 
 school life of so many Frenchmen ; and his teachers, if they 
 did not send him forth a very finished scholar, at any rate 
 inspired him with an eager love of knowledge, and espe- 
 cially of literature, the one possession which he never lost. 
 
 On leaving college, and for many years afterwards, 
 Lamartine felt acutely the want of a profession. His 
 position was a peculiar one, and in order to explain it one 
 must go back a good many years. His grandfather, who 
 owned very large estates in Burgundy and Champagne, 
 and received beside, as his wife's dower, a considerable 
 property in Franche-Comte, had been, like most of his 
 contemporaries, prodigal and extravagant, passionately 
 fond of society, and entirely neglectful of his affairs. But 
 his eldest son, who began life as an officer in Louis XV.'s 
 Chevau-legers, was of a different temperament. He and 
 his brother, the Abbe de Lamartine, belonged to the group 
 of cultivated and philosophical young aristocrats who 
 ardently espoused the ideas of constitutional government, 
 the abolition of monopolies, and national representation ■; 
 and, in their own opinion, contributed far more to the 
 triumph of the principles of '89 than either the middle class 
 or the people. " Ideas come from above, not from below," 
 was their formula. At any rate, a group which included 
 such names as that of Mirabeau, the Lameths, Mounier, 
 Virieu, La Rochefaucauld, and Lafayette, represented 
 tolerably advanced opinions. M. de Lamartine, however, 
 was practical, even more than philosophical. Finding that 
 his father's management was leading to financial ruin, he 
 resigned his commission and the attractions of Paris to 
 
1811.] FAMILY AFFAIRS. 1 9 
 
 devote himself for some years to reorganizing the family 
 affairs, in which he thoroughly succeeded. The younger 
 children had been provided for according to the custom of 
 the time : the three daughters as canonesses of rich 
 chapters ; the second son was a beneficed abbe, the third 
 a soldier, with the little estate of St. Point as his patrimony. 
 Then came the famous nuit des sacrifices, in which all 
 privileges, including the right of primogeniture, were voted 
 away. But that any Parliamentary vote should leave their 
 eldest and favourite son only a share of their estates, that 
 his brothers and sisters would consent to rob him of his 
 birthright, was an idea the old Count and Countess de 
 Lamartine never could be brought to entertain. The 
 Chevalier was equally faithful to old traditions, and when 
 called on at his father's death to claim his share, absolutely 
 refused, the habit of respecting his parents' wishes was to 
 him a higher code than any written law. The other 
 brothers and sisters did not, apparently, share his views, for 
 long and painful discussions followed, ending, however, in 
 an arrangement by which the Abbe de Lamartine received 
 an estate near Dijon, the three sisters good incomes, while 
 the bulk of the property remained in the possession of the 
 eldest brother, who, thanks to the Chevalier's generous 
 self-abnegation, was still the head of the family. 
 
 Although the months spent in Republican dungeons had 
 modified his political views, the Comte de Lamartine showed 
 his independence of character by refusing to offer the 
 Imperial regime any homage but that of silent submission. 
 When, in 1809, the emperor spent some days at Macon, 
 he sent for M. de Lamartine, and after questioning him 
 closely about various matters concerning the province, 
 
20 LAMARTINE. [1780- 
 
 ended with his usual autocratic formula, " What do you 
 wish to be ? " " Nothing, sire," was the somewhat abrupt 
 reply. Napoleon, who disliked no class of men so much 
 as those who wanted nothing, turned angrily on his heel. 
 The answer did honour to the Comte de Lamartine : but 
 it was hard on his nephew, when he left college, conscious 
 of talent, eager, ambitious, to find every road to employ- 
 ment or advancement barred by an iron will ; for his uncle 
 expected all the members of the family to regulate their 
 conduct by his. At first the trial was not so keenly felt ; 
 the enjoyment of an amount of liberty, which, if not very 
 great, had the charm of novelty, the amusements of pro- 
 vincial life, the high spirits of youth, sufficed, as his corre- 
 spondence shows, to make his life pass pleasantly. 
 
 Hitherto, what has been told of Lamartine is taken 
 from journals and memoirs edited by him shortly before his 
 death, but with his return from college begins the two series 
 of letters published by Madame Valentine de Lamartine in 
 1 871-1876, which cover a period of nearly forty years. 
 They do not pretend to any positive literary value, but the 
 earliest ones are written in a crisp, natural style, which 
 most people will prefer to the author's later manner, along 
 with a good deal of fun and humour. The friends to 
 whom the earlier letters are addressed are M. Aymon de 
 Virieu and Guichard de Bienassis. The latter appears to 
 have been an amiable, commonplace young man who, from 
 his father having enriched himself by a plebeian marriage, 
 belonged rather to the bourgeois than to the aristocratic 
 section of Burgundian society and was tiresome from his 
 false modesty, requiring continually to be assured of the 
 undiminished affection and consideration of his friends, 
 
1811.] RETURN HOME. 2 ~ 
 
 Aymon de Virieu was a very different character. His 
 father, the Marquis de Virieu, had been a Revolutionist in 
 1789, but died two years later righting on the Royalist 
 side at Lyons. Apparently, his son inherited from him a 
 love of conflicting opinions, for he is described by Lamar- 
 tine as * a mixture of Rabelais and Socrates," constantly 
 turning even his own most cherished convictions into 
 ridicule. This was intensely irritating to Lamartine, 
 whose tendency it was to take everything rather too 
 seriously. However, Virieu, when he saw he was really 
 giving pain, gradually corrected himself, and developed 
 into an amiable and friendly Socrates, without disciples, 
 but also without the prison or the hemlock ; for after a not 
 very stormy youth and a short but creditable diplomatic 
 career, he married, settled, and developed into a much 
 respected country gentleman. The tie between him and 
 Lamartine was no passing schoolboy fancy ; during their 
 whole lives they were dear and intimate friends. 
 
 The first few months following Lamartine's return home 
 were, as we have said, of unalloyed enjoyment. He was de- 
 lighted with the room his mother had fitted up for him, with 
 ample bookshelves, and overlooking her favourite avenue 
 of old walnut-trees. "My father," he goes on to say with 
 amusing pomposity, " has bestowed on me the three gifts 
 which in our modern days represent the toga which the 
 Romans conferred on young men who had reached man- 
 hood — a watch, a gun, and a horse ; as if to tell me that 
 time, space, and liberty were henceforth mine." Through 
 the pleasant summer months his days were divided between 
 long excursions through the far-stretching woodlands, 
 grooming and exercising his horse, a limited amount of 
 
20 LAMARTINE. [1780- 
 
 reading under his father's direction, and an unlimited 
 amount on his own account in the hitherto unexplored 
 realms of poetry and romance. Among his favourite 
 authors he enumerates Madame de Stael, Chateaubriand, 
 Madame Cottin, Richardson, Prevost, and translations from 
 Shakespeare, Tasso, Milton, Dante, and, above all, Ossian, 
 whom, with the enthusiasm of so many foreigners of that 
 generation, he thus apostrophizes : " Ossian, bard of the 
 vague and of the infinite, foam of lonely sea-shores, spirit 
 of the mist, voice of the wild north wind, cloudrack swath- 
 ing the mountain peaks of Scotia ; as great, as majestic as 
 the Dante of Florence, but more tender, more pathetic, 
 more human ! " 
 
 So passed the first eighteen months of Lamartine's 
 home life between Milly and St. Point, diversified by 
 occasional excursions and visits to friends and relatives. 
 But in 1810 his father purchased a hotel in Macon, and 
 thither the family moved thenceforth every winter. In a 
 volume of youthful reminiscences, published under the 
 name of " Confidences," Lamartine describes Macon in the 
 early days of the century in very flattering terms, calling it 
 " the Weimar of France, the Gallic Florence, a centre of 
 good taste and good breeding, in which art, literature, and 
 science throve and flourished ; an alluvial deposit of the 
 old regime which had collected, as if fortuitously, on the 
 banks of the Saone." Before the Revolution, it had been 
 a rich episcopal see ; the last bishop, a grand seigneur of 
 the most accomplished type, outshining by his magnificent 
 hospitality the richest nobles of the province. Next to the 
 bishop, the most important personage was the Comte de 
 Montrevel, who never went to Paris, and spent his revenue 
 
1811.] SOCIETY IN MACON. 2$ 
 
 of 400,000 livres in Macon. He had a hundred horses in 
 his stable, a theatre and a company of musicians, the latter 
 rivalling that of the Prince de Conde at Chantilly. Then 
 came eight or nine great families of ancient lineage, with 
 considerable possessions, and, at a respectful distance, a 
 numerous body of so-called "bourgeois aristocracy," who 
 lived on their estates, some with, and some without, titles 
 of nobility. When the revolutionary storm subsided, the 
 Montrevels had disappeared, the last of the name having 
 expiated his superiority of birth and wealth on the scaffold ; 
 the bishop, who lived in the house of one of his old servants, 
 was a dependant on the alms of his flock, but as serene and 
 resigned in poverty as he had in prosperity been magnificent 
 and generous. Of the great families, a few who had either 
 not emigrated or had contrived to return in time, preserved 
 a portion of their estates. But the smaller gentry escaped 
 on much easier terms : even those whose sons had joined 
 the army of Conde had managed, by remaining quiescent 
 at home, to avert confiscation, for the most part sustaining 
 no greater damage than a few months in prison ; and as 
 the compulsory division of property had as yet hardly 
 begun to work, feasting and entertaining went on very 
 much as in old times — sumptuous dinners, in which the 
 reputation of Burgundy for good cheer was fully sustained, 
 were frequent throughout the winter, till interrupted by 
 the more riotous gaiety of the carnival. And what the 
 society of Macon had lost in brilliancy it gained in solidity. 
 Dicing and gambling no longer flourished ; cards were 
 looked on as a sacred relic of the past in some houses, 
 while others kept up the old tradition of."le bel esprit." 
 Among these, the salon of the Comte de Lamartine, 
 
24 LAMARTINE. [178C- 
 
 though only frequented by the graver sex, held the fore- 
 most place. Although time and experience had very 
 sensibly modified his own politics, the host continued 
 faithful to the friendships of his youth, so that among his 
 guests were found men of independent views and of what 
 were called in those days "compromising antecedents." 
 Such was M. de Larnaux, who had belonged to the party 
 of the Gironde, and been the intimate friend of Roland 
 and Vergniaud. He used to put forward Alfieri's excuse ; 
 " I knew my own class ; I did not know the people. My 
 own fault, if it be a fault, is that I had too good an opinion 
 of my fellow-men." Others, more steadfast to their con- 
 victions, declined to offer any apology, but carefully 
 abstained from political discussions. In private they were 
 not so reticent, and from them Lamartine, without ceasing 
 to be an enthusiastic Royalist, imbibed a decided leaning 
 towards constitutional and personal liberty. 
 
 But, favourable as were his impressions of Macon society 
 when viewed through the prism of forty years' memories, 
 his letters show that at eighteen he looked on it in a very 
 different light, and his longing to free himself from the 
 trammels of provincial life and enter some active career was 
 gaining ground daily. At first he takes it as a matter of 
 course that, by vigorous self-assertion, he will be able to 
 sweep away all obstacles. Indeed, at one moment his father, 
 who, if left to himself, would never have objected to any 
 profession which promised an honourable, useful existence 
 to his son, seems, in the autumn of 1810, to have consented 
 to his studying for the bar at Dijon. But this sensible 
 proposition was violently opposed, both by the Comte de 
 Lamartine, whose liberal opinions did not diminish his 
 
1811.] LITERARY WORK. 2$ 
 
 horror of the least approach to social equality, and by the 
 other uncle and aunts, who, never having married, all 
 looked on their nephew as their heir and future repre- 
 sentative, to whom consequently nothing which would 
 involve a public adhesion to the reigning dynasty or in 
 any way derogate from the aristocratic traditions of the 
 family could be permitted. So that not only was the 
 place of auditor to the Council of State which had been 
 offered to Lamartine declined, but the army, the diplomatic 
 service, were successively tabooed ; and at last it was 
 decided that Alphonse should continue to make his father's 
 house his home, with a yearly allowance of two thousand 
 francs, and the permission, grudgingly accorded, to spend 
 a part of the winter at Lyons. 
 
 All other occupations being closed to him, he now 
 turned his thoughts and energies to literature, studying eight 
 hours daily, and reading every book he could lay hands 
 on. From his remarkable talent for improvisation and 
 the abundance and prodigality of his gifts, Lamartine has 
 been sometimes spoken of as a heaven-born genius, owing 
 nothing to cultivation. But, as M. Scherer points out in 
 one of his admirable essays, this was not at all the case. 
 His efforts may not have been sufficiently sustained, but 
 there were lengthened periods in Lamartine's life when, as 
 we shall see in the sequel, he took immense pains with 
 himself. 
 
 " Work, work," he now writes to Aymon de Virieu ; " for 
 the next four or five years there is nothing else for us to do. 
 Work, that you may one day give back with usury the 
 talent you have received ; work, that you may test your 
 powers ; and work, so that at your last hour you may be 
 
26 LAMARTINE. [1780- 
 
 able to say, ' My span of life has been short, but it has been 
 sufficient I have lived long enough to observe and to 
 study the small portion of the globe which has been placed 
 within my reach. In the pursuit of knowledge I have 
 perhaps sacrificed some precarious favours of fortune, some 
 pleasures of sense, something of the good opinion of certain 
 circles. If I have gained reputation, so much the better ; 
 if I have remained obscure, I am easily consoled, for at 
 least I have been of use to myself. I have increased my 
 stock of ideas, I have tasted of that which is the supreme 
 good, and if I die on the roadside and am not followed to 
 the grave by four beadles or by a host of greedy heirs, I 
 shall have been loved, and shall be mourned by two or 
 three friends who have shared my sorrows and my labours, 
 and I shall render back my soul and my intellect to Him 
 who created them, perfected as far as my powers sufficed.' " 
 But all these projects of study were not without a special 
 purpose, for he confides to Virieu his determination, if all 
 other prospects fail, to seek employment abroad, and with 
 this in view devoted a good deal of time to acquiring 
 foreign languages, especially English and Italian. For the 
 former, there were plenty of facilities, Napoleon having 
 detained all English subjects who chanced to be resident 
 or travelling in France at the moment of the rupture of 
 the Peace of Amiens, and who, being treated as prisoners 
 of war, were interned on parole in the principal towns of 
 France. Lamartine speedily found an English master, 
 and made the acquaintance of some young Englishmen, 
 with whom he used often to spend his evenings. One 
 of these was a poet, and excited Lamartine's envy and 
 admiration by reading to him a poem he had just addressed 
 
1811.] STUDY OF ENGLISH. 2J 
 
 to a Florentine lady. He tried to translate the lines, 
 but could not render to his satisfaction their incompar- 
 able harmony. As the refrain, " Pensez, pensez a moi," is 
 repeated in every stanza, it is pretty evident that our 
 ingenious countryman had quietly appropriated one of the 
 most popular of Moore's melodies. Another of the group, 
 Mr. Douglas, won Lamartine's heart by his enthusiastic 
 praise of his friend Virieu. u He speaks of you with a 
 mixture of respect, esteem, and affection which gives me 
 immeasurable pleasure." Evidently the impression made 
 by the English colony was favourable, for a little later, a 
 propos of Zimmermann's book on solitude, Lamartine 
 writes, " Let us honour the Germans for their good sense, 
 the English for their genius, their strength of soul, their 
 indifference to the accidents of fortune ; let us love them 
 and imitate them. Except the Swiss, they are the only 
 nation for whom, at present, I have the slightest respect." 
 And his progress in the language was satisfactory. After 
 he had been at Lyons two months, he could, he says, 
 translate the poets not too badly. He had, besides, worked 
 hard at Greek, read every book he could lay hands on, and 
 expected to complete at least one tragedy in the course of 
 the winter. 
 
 In spite of all the advice he gets from his friends at 
 home, he is resolute in keeping aloof from frivolous society. 
 His own chamber, his books, with an occasional evening 
 at the theatre, suffice him. He goes on to call Virieu's 
 attention to the admirable system of compensation which 
 governs life : " You are in Paris, but you are not free ; I 
 am as free as the air I breathe, but I am not in Paris. You 
 envy my lot and I yours. Let us, my friend, accept the 
 
28 LA MAR TINE. [1780- 
 
 lesson. Thank Providence, and hope for better things. 
 Experience is an inexorable but an excellent master. If 
 I had been told two years ago what was before me, I 
 should not have believed it, or I should have hung myself. 
 Yet I am not only alive but I rather enjoy existence. 
 What I like above all is the society of artists — people who 
 are not sure of to-morrow's dinner, but who would not 
 exchange their philosophical dreams, their pen, or their 
 brush for heaps of gold. I talk to them of you ; I tell 
 them you are able to appreciate them, to emulate them ; 
 that you are, like me, an artist by sympathy, an artist in 
 spirit. They know you just as they know and consult me. 
 I am like a little Maecenas among them, handed on from 
 one to the other. Admire, and you will be admired. I 
 might, if I chose, emphasize my assertion by translating a 
 long passage from Pope to the same effect, but I spare 
 you." 
 
 In his letters to M. Guichard de Bienassis there is less 
 philosophy, but more poetry, with a considerable amount 
 of prosaic detail thrown in. The money troubles which 
 dogged Lamartine all through his life had already begun, 
 partly from the impossibility of making his expenditure 
 tally with his modest income of two thousand francs, partly 
 from the kindness and generosity which kept his purse 
 always at the disposal of his friends, — three or four, to 
 whom he had lent money, his English master among the 
 number, gave him little hope of seeing it again. A hundred- 
 and-fifty-franc note bestowed on him by his uncle, the 
 abbe, was not twenty- four hours in his possession before 
 he passed it on to an old schoolfellow, in penurious circum- 
 stances, whom he stumbled against unexpectedly. " I do 
 
1811.] FIRST LOVE. 29 
 
 not know how it is," he writes, " but I am like the Wander- 
 ing Jew who always has sixpence in his purse, but never 
 a penny more. After all, if no worse befalls me, I may be 
 thankful." 
 
 In hopes of replenishing his exchequer, by gaining 
 some of the prizes given by various provincial academies 
 or literary societies for poetic effusions, he now set to 
 assiduously courting the muses, but without much success. 
 However, he was unexpectedly made an honorary member 
 of the Academie de Saone-et-Loire, and, on his friend 
 Virieu receiving a similar mark of honour, remarks, 
 " It is a good omen. In one respect we resemble the 
 officer who, when congratulated on receiving the Cross of 
 St. Louis, replied, ' It is the more flattering, because I have 
 never been under fire.' " However, not only Lamartine's 
 fortunes, but likewise his spirits, were falling to a very low 
 ebb. Towards the end of 18 10 he begins to weary of 
 studies there is so little prospect of ever turning to account, 
 and looks forward with despair to the coming winter at 
 Macon, among people with whom he has nothing in 
 common, and who accuse him of fatuity and arrogance 
 because he is too stupid to be able to please them. 
 
 But hardly had the gay season set in, when an entire 
 change came over the current of his thoughts, and he was 
 found assiduously frequenting all the fashionable reunions, 
 and no longer complaining of their weary dulness. The 
 reason is not far to seek. Lamartine, for the first time in 
 his life, had fallen in love — with a beautiful girl of seven- 
 teen, Mademoiselle P , whom, after an interval of forty 
 
 years, he thus describes : " Her figure was the most ex- 
 quisite and delicate any sculptor ever idealized in a sylph ; 
 
30 LAMARTINE. [1780- 
 
 she danced as the dragon-fly skims the water, scarcely- 
 touching the ground ; " and so on through several para- 
 graphs. The P : family, who belonged to the bourgeois 
 
 section of the Macon fashionable world, were pleased at 
 Lamartine's admiration of their daughter, and welcomed 
 him to their house. However, the flirtation was conducted 
 within the strict limits which French ideas of decorum 
 imposes on the admired of young ladies ; a gracious bow 
 and smile at the afternoon promenade, with hope of a few 
 minutes' conversation or the felicity of a dance accorded in 
 the evening, was the limit of their intercourse. And even 
 this was of short duration. The Lamartines, who would 
 by no means have approved of the alliance, became alarmed, 
 and Madame de Lamartine undertook to reason with her 
 son. He replied to her remonstrances by declaring that 
 never could he hope to find a girl more charming or 
 
 more accomplished than Mademoiselle P , and that the 
 
 happiness of his life was at stake. With her usual loving 
 tact and gentleness, she agreed with him as to the perfections 
 
 of Mademoiselle P , but pointed out that the obstacles 
 
 to such an alliance would be insurmountable, and that he 
 was far too young to think of settling in life. Though he 
 listened respectfully, his passion was not extinguished, and 
 he announced his intention of saving up his allowance till 
 he had sufficient means to go to Paris and solicit a Govern- 
 ment appointment. Meanwhile, anguish of mind brought 
 on a low fever. He was sent to travel for a month, and 
 returned home none the better in mind or body. Evidently 
 a serious remedy was required, and it was decided in full 
 family council to take advantage of an opportunity which 
 happily occurred to give the impracticable and unreason- 
 
1811.] DEPARTURE FOR ITALY. 3 1 
 
 able young man entire change of air and scene. He was to 
 go to Italy with a newly married cousin, M. de Roquemont- 
 vassy, spending the autumn at Leghorn and the winter at 
 Rome under the care and supervision of the young 
 couple. The remedy worked wonders ; the fascinations 
 
 of Mademoiselle P faded at once into insignificance 
 
 compared with the immortal charms of "la Bella Italia." 
 With an amusing mixture of resignation and despair, he 
 writes, " A delightful and unexpected opportunity has 
 offered for me to go to Italy. Miserable as I am at the 
 thought of parting from her I love, I mean to profit by it. 
 To-night I go to announce my departure. What tears will 
 flow ! But not Armida herself could keep me back." 
 
 Once started, there are no more regrets ; and when, a 
 month later, Lamartine received the news of Mademoiselle 
 
 P 's approaching marriage, he was able to offer his 
 
 congratulations with a light heart. 
 
32 LAMART1NE. [1811- 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1811-1815. 
 
 The journey to Italy was an immense enjoyment to 
 Lamartine. His letters to his friends at this period, though 
 not very long or numerous, are extremely characteristic. 
 He describes himself, when first descending the Alpine 
 range, as in a state of excitement which hardly left him 
 the power of seeing or of judging. The rapid journey by 
 night across the Lombard plains ; the moon, " large as 
 Roland's buckler, flooding the whole world with radiance ; " 
 the grey, mysterious shadows of the ilex trees, gave him 
 the impression of a glimpse into fairyland. At Milan he 
 spent his time chiefly in the cathedral, but had leisure to 
 note the marvellous beauty of the women, and the har- 
 monious voices of the men, who seemed to him to speak 
 the language of the gods. The party halted for three 
 weeks at Florence, where attractions of society were added 
 to those of nature and art ; the chief salon being that of 
 the Countess of Albany, no longer beautiful as when she 
 inspired Alfieri's heroic verse, but gracious, agreeable, and 
 kindly. 
 
 As the De Vassys had to combine business with 
 pleasure, they all went on to Leghorn, where Lamartine 
 
1815.] STUDY OF TASSO. 33 
 
 threw himself vigorously into the study of the Italian 
 language, working, he says, " as he had never worked 
 before," making himself thoroughly acquainted with the 
 writings of Ariosto, Tasso, Alfieri, and others of the 
 Romantic school, as in those days Dante and the tre- 
 centisti were not much the fashion. And for Tasso especially 
 he kept up all through life a special affection, delighting to 
 tread the paths and visit the scenes hallowed by memories 
 of Leonora's hapless lover. At Rome he almost choked 
 with indignation at the custodian of Sant' Onofrio, who, 
 in order to point out the beauties of some wretched 
 painting, trod underfoot the poet's sacred ashes. And 
 almost the last page Lamartine ever wrote is a description 
 of the house of Tasso's sister at Sorrento, "to which, on 
 leaving Ferrara, he fled, disguised as an Abruzzi peasant. 
 Throwing off his dress, he made himself known, reappearing 
 once more as a poet and as a gentleman, and there he 
 regained, after some months' rest, the health and the 
 intelligence which his friends had feared were gone for 
 ever. I know," Lamartine goes on to say — " I know one 
 man who is even more unfortunate than Tasso, and more 
 calumniated by his fellow-men, who have repaid his devo- 
 tion to the cause of humanity by cruel insult. Those who 
 thus outrage him to-day will be sorry when it is too late." 
 
 But to return to Leghorn and 1811. The summer 
 passed away pleasantly enough, and with October came 
 the time at which the party had intended to proceed to 
 Rome and Naples, when M. and Madame de Vassy un- 
 expectedly received letters obliging them to return at once 
 to France. They were anxious Lamartine should do the 
 same ; but he demurred, and wrote instead a dutiful letter 
 
 D 
 
34 LAMARTINE. [1811- 
 
 home, explaining what had happened, and asking leave to 
 continue his journey, applying himself at the same time 
 with joyful haste to all needful preparations, so as to have 
 started before the answer, which he feared would be a 
 prohibition, could arrive. As his means did not allow of 
 his travelling by vetturino, he took a place in the mail-car, 
 which, resting at night in the mountain hostelries, reached 
 Rome in four or five days. 
 
 His travelling companions were three in number, a 
 young Roman duke and two singers. The journey was 
 pleasant. On arriving at Rome his fellow-travellers urged 
 him to stay with them at an hotel in the Via Condotti, 
 frequented by French, German, and Swiss travellers. The 
 duke, who was going on to Naples, presented Lamartine 
 to his sister-in-law, " a princess of royal German blood, full 
 of grace and goodness," and the impresario introduced him 
 to some pleasant artists' society. But Rome was very 
 desolate just then. The Pope was a prisoner at Savona, 
 deprived even of pen and paper ; the Cardinals in exile or 
 in poverty ; and the Eternal City, " like a western Thebes, 
 sat mourning her departed oracles," so that sight-seeing 
 was the only resource left to travellers. Although both 
 Lamartine's journals and his letters to his mother are filled 
 with glowing descriptions, yet it is plain that Rome failed 
 to awaken in him the emotion it usually excites in poetic 
 and cultivated minds. This is owing in part, probably, to 
 his natural disposition, and partly to the deficiencies of his 
 somewhat desultory education. He lacked the historic sense 
 which made Byron realize so fully the dignity and pathos 
 of antiquity, nor had he the exquisite perception which 
 enabled Keats to reproduce the mystery and magic still 
 
1815.] BRIGANDS. 35 
 
 clinging to its outworn creeds. He is but faintly scandalized 
 when a fair Roman singer dances with twinkling feet on 
 the tomb of Cecilia Metella ; and the procession of 
 Capuchin friars, singing vespers in the Capitol, which roused 
 the soul of Gibbon to immortal anger, in Lamartine's 
 mind only added to the scene the additional charm of 
 picturesqueness. Moreover, it is evident that the prevailing 
 gloom and melancholy depressed his spirits ; and when, at 
 the end of a few weeks, a young Lyons merchant, whose 
 acquaintance he had made at the table d'hote of the Hotel 
 Condotti, offered him a seat in his carriage to Naples, he 
 joyfully accepted. 
 
 As night travelling was, on account of the brigands, 
 by no means safe, they slept at Terracina. During the 
 next day's journey, as they were passing through an olive 
 wood, they suddenly heard several shots fired. Soon after 
 they came on a half-burnt carriage lying across the road, 
 which proved to be the mail car between Rome and Naples. 
 Two corpses lay on the roadside, and a wounded horse 
 was being guarded by some soldiers, while others were 
 following the assassins, firing on them as they fled from 
 rock to rock of the surrounding mountains. Such a sight, 
 though by no means uncommon in those days, not un- 
 naturally alarmed the travellers ; and it was with consider- 
 able relief that at nightfall of the second day they found 
 themselves at Naples ; which, from the noise and bustle of 
 the crowded thoroughfares, lit up by the countless lights in 
 the shop windows, or in the niches of the Madonna (it 
 must be remembered that in those days street lamps were 
 quite unknown), seemed to Lamartine the gayest city in 
 the world. They went to an hotel where his companion 
 
$6 LAMARTINE. [1811- 
 
 was well known, and next morning were wakened by songs 
 sung in their honour by monks who had brought fruits and 
 other gifts from their convent at Castellamare. Lamartine 
 rose early, and strolled through the town, with which he 
 was even more delighted than on the previous evening. 
 "Nature and man," he enthusiastically exclaims, "have 
 combined to produce this most perfect spot ; the Grotto 
 of Pausilippe, where you pass through utter darkness to 
 find on the other side the green plains of Pozzuoli and the 
 azure Bay of Baiae ; Virgil's tomb, where the old poet 
 seems to sleep beneath his laurels to the lullaby of the sea- 
 waves ; the ten thousand villas which crowd the Chiaja ; 
 the never-ceasing noise and bustle of the Via di Toledo, the 
 theatre, the market-place, the different cries and costumes 
 of the men, women, and children selling fruit on the shore ; 
 the monasteries and church-steeples ; the religious habits 
 mingling with the peasants' dresses ; the beautiful summer 
 palace of Capo di China rising like a white phantom from 
 its surrounding groups of cypress and of stone pine ; that 
 of Queen Joanna jutting its brown walls into the sea ; 
 Vesuvius soaring over all with its light cloud of smoke, like 
 a priestess playing with the coals of her censer ; add to 
 this a cloudless sun and sky of the deepest ultramarine. 
 No city has ever produced such an effect on me. Rome 
 was a monastery, Naples is the Garden of Eden." 
 
 In the house of M. de Chavannes, a relative of his 
 mother, Lamartine found a warm welcome. A charming 
 little room, opening on a terrace whence there was a 
 glorious .view, including Capri, Sorrento, and Vesuvius, was 
 placed at his disposal. Soon after, to his immense delight, 
 his friend Aymon de Virieu arrived, so, with excursions in 
 
1815.] ASCENT OF VESUVIUS. 37 
 
 the neighourhood and social pleasures in the then gayest 
 city of Italy, the winter passed swiftly away. At the table 
 dlwte of his hotel in Rome, Lamartine had made the 
 acquaintance of M. von Humboldt, the younger brother 
 of the renowned traveller, himself almost as devoted to 
 science as his brother, and a far more agreeable companion. 
 M. von Humboldt, who had already won some reputation as 
 a successful diplomatist, showed Lamartine much kindness, 
 and, on finding him again at Naples, received him cordially, 
 and proposed at once to carry him off on an expedition he 
 was going to make to Calabria, halting first at Vesuvius to 
 explore the volcano, which was thought to be threatening 
 an eruption. The offer was gladly accepted, and the next 
 morning saw M. von Humboldt and his young friend 
 driving at a quick pace on the road to Torre dell' Annunziata, 
 a pretty village built at the foot of the mountain. They 
 put up at a hostelry, and sent for guides and mules to take 
 them to the hermit cell, built on the highest habitable cone. 
 After two or three hours of fatiguing march, either over 
 cool and slippery lava or on hot ashes, they reached the 
 hermitage, only to find it deserted, for the owner, fearing 
 to be surprised in the night by a sudden outburst of the 
 volcano, did not venture to sleep there. However, he soon 
 arrived on his donkey, which carried besides a goodly pro- 
 vision of flasks of Lacrymae Christi — the hermit having 
 catered for his guests as well as for himself, making them, 
 however, pay largely for the luxury. He seems to have 
 been a pleasant host, not belonging to any religious order, 
 but one of those wandering friars who used to attach them- 
 selves to certain localities, whence they derived the means 
 of subsistence. This good monk was of the order of 
 
38 LAMARTINE. [1811- 
 
 Vesuvius, changing his cell, which was a quiet and 
 picturesque house of refreshment, as often as the eruption 
 changed its course. M. von Humboldt's object was to 
 gather all the information he could as to the mountain and 
 the usual preludes of the eruptions. Lamartine was 
 neither a savant nor a naturalist, but, his curiosity becoming 
 excited, he resolved to study the phenomenon by going 
 down into the crater, and sent two of the guides back to 
 Torre dell' Annunziata to fetch cords for the purpose. 
 M. von Humboldt laughed, and tried to dissuade him from 
 so rash an enterprise, but this only had the effect of rather 
 stimulating Lamartine, and all arrangements were made 
 for the perilous descent on the following morning. 
 
 Vesuvius was silent during the night, and when the sun 
 rose nothing was to be seen but puffs of yellow smoke 
 belching out at intervals from the cone. The ascent was 
 by no means easy. It was no longer walking, but 
 scrambling ; while stones and ashes fell around, almost 
 blinding them. At last they reached the summit, where 
 the frightful crater yawned. It had the shape of an 
 inverted cone, its sides lined to windward by streams of 
 lava, which, further on, took the form of huge, jagged rocks, 
 still smoking, and here and there glittering stalactites that 
 seemed to have petrified as they fell. Towards the middle 
 of the crater dense clouds of sulphurous smoke wreathed 
 upwards ; behind them streamed forth rivers of flame, 
 lighting up the depths of the abyss. The guides sat down 
 philosophically at the edge of the crater, asking the not 
 unnatural question, " You can see it all from here. What 
 will you gain by going down ? " "I shall have touched it," 
 was the reply ; and, passing his hands through the cords, 
 
1815.] ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS. 39 
 
 Lamartine began the descent, while the guides, hanging 
 over the mouth of the basin, helped him as well as they 
 could without risk to themselves. As he neared the burning 
 furnace, the heat became intense. He strove to find a 
 footing on such portions of the sulphur as had cooled 
 a little, springing over the rushing torrents of liquid fire 
 in hopes of reaching a more solid crust, but without much 
 success ; while it became evident that, if the least change 
 of the wind drove the flames in his direction, he would be 
 suffocated at once. So, gathering hastily such specimens 
 of the burning metal as were within his reach, he gave the 
 signal to be drawn up. On reaching terra firrna he found 
 that, unlike Empedocles, he had saved his life, but lost his 
 shoes, which had been completely burnt off his feet. His 
 clothes likewise had suffered severely. Though M. von 
 Humboldt forebore to rally him, goodnaturedly proceeding 
 at once to examine the specimens he had brought up, 
 neither his kindness nor the bountiful supply of Lacrymae 
 Christi provided by the hermit prevented Lamartine from 
 seeing his attempt had been rather foolish, and he returned 
 decidedly crestfallen, to repair his damaged wardrobe at 
 Torre dell' Annunziata. 
 
 Meanwhile, the noise in the mountain increased, and the 
 inhabitants of the neighbouring villages spent the day 
 watching in mute despair from which side of Vesuvius the 
 expected explosion would break out. Suddenly at night- 
 fall a loud cry was heard, and streams of liquid fire were 
 seen, from the windows of the little inn, pouring out from 
 the southern cone, down the side of the mountain. M. von 
 Humboldt and his companion watched its progress through 
 the night, and, as soon as day broke, they joined the crowd 
 
40 LAMARTINE. [1811- 
 
 at the mountain foot. The rolling torrent had made terrible 
 progress, having already reached the houses and gardens 
 in the upper part of the village of Annunziata. Some 
 cottages, perched on a little crest of hilly ground to the 
 left, were almost surrounded by the fiery stream ; the poor 
 inhabitants, carrying with them all they could save from 
 the flames, were flying for their lives— the men dragging 
 great sacks of Indian corn ; the women carrying their 
 children on their backs. The animals, shaking with terror, 
 followed, driven by boys and girls. The very cocks and 
 hens, with wings half burnt, were striving to hide them- 
 selves under the vines. It was heartrending to see the 
 lava slowly but surely gaining on its prey. The vine 
 leaves, as they shrivelled up, seemed to crackle and groan 
 almost with human voices ; and then the branches, bare of 
 foliage, became dry as tinder, and, taking up the fire in 
 their turn, spread the raging element along the ground till 
 not a living thing was spared. There was no need to court 
 danger now. Had the wind veered, the same burning 
 breath would have swallowed up every living soul. As 
 it was, they ran at one time considerable risk, Lamartine's 
 walking-stick shrivelling up in his hand like a straw. At 
 last the stream of lava turned into a narrow valley which 
 crossed the high road to Naples, and along which horse 
 and foot passengers were hurrying at full speed. But, 
 anxious to study the phenomenon thoroughly, M. von 
 Humboldt, and Lamartine with him, remained in the 
 neighbourhood as long as the eruption lasted. They then 
 drove through a dense forest of oleanders to Sorrento, to 
 visit Paestum and La Cava. After a delightful fortnight, 
 Lamartine rejoined his friend Virieu at Naples. 
 
1815.] FISHER LIFE AT ISCHIA. 4 1 
 
 The gay season had now come to an end, and both the 
 young men began to spend most of their time rambling in 
 the country or watching the fishermen at work on the 
 seashore. At the approach of spring the somewhat timid 
 Neapolitan sailors, instead of merely cruising along the 
 shore, began to venture out into the offing. Their slightly 
 adventurous and not over-laborious life attracted Lamartine 
 and his friend so much that they resolved, half in jest and 
 half in earnest, to follow it for a time. Having arranged 
 with a fisherman named Beppo that he should provide 
 them with food and lodging for a few carlini and what 
 profit he could make of their labour, they cast off their 
 habits de bourgeois, and arrayed themselves in the costume 
 — fortunately a becoming one — of the Ischian mariners. 
 The experiment was thoroughly successful. Nothing 
 could be more delightful than those nights spent under the 
 canopy of heaven, a warm, soft breeze just sufficing to 
 carry their little bark over the waveless sea, with no greater 
 labour to themselves than that of occasionally stooping 
 down to watch the nets filling with a plentiful harvest. 
 The two friends, accustomed from their boyhood to out- 
 door life, and to cordial intercourse with the peasants of 
 their own country, found plenty of occupation and interest 
 in the life and movement going on around them in Naples. 
 Lamartine, whose love for the romantic and picturesque 
 aspects of life was thoroughly gratified, many years later 
 described some of the incidents of these vacances dun poet e 
 in the pathetic tale of " Graziella," which had at the time 
 of its publication immense popularity in France. 
 
 But however pleasant it may have been, this idyllic life 
 did not last long, for early in the same spring Lamartine 
 
42 LAMARTINE. [1811- 
 
 was at Florence on his homeward journey. He there 
 found letters from his family desiring him not to cross the 
 frontier just yet, apparently in order to avoid the severe 
 conscription which was then being levied in preparation for 
 the Russian campaign. After lingering at Milan, where he 
 lost a good deal at the gambling-tables, he proceeded to 
 Lausanne, where, hiring a little carnage, he drove across 
 the mountains to Macon. He was received by his mother 
 with tears of joy ; by his father with a degree of kindness 
 and affection he felt he hardly deserved. For he had not 
 only considerably exceeded the sum of money intended 
 originally to suffice for his expenses, but had left some 
 debts behind him. 
 
 " I have had much sorrow on Alphonse's account," 
 writes poor Madame de Lamartine in her diary. " Bills to 
 a large amount have been sent in to us from Italy. His 
 uncles and aunts, who think I indulged him too much, say 
 I am to blame for it all, and reproach me severely. I have 
 shed many bitter tears, for, alas, it is too true ! My son's 
 faults are my faults. Why was I not more severe with 
 him in his childhood ? He would now be afraid of dis- 
 pleasing me. But then, perhaps, he would not love me as 
 he does, nor would the remorse he now feels for the pain 
 he is causing me be to him as a second conscience. They 
 are going to pay all, but, meanwhile, they are making me 
 pay, by the reproaches I have to bear and the tears I shed 
 — a heavy price for the thoughtlessness of my child." 
 
 While this little domestic storm lasted, the poor prodigal 
 passed a somewhat dreary time, chiefly alone at Milly. In 
 his letters to Virieu he bewails his position, his health, the 
 impossibility of finding congenial occupation. His uncles 
 
1815.] HIGH PL A Y IN PARIS. 43 
 
 want him to marry and settle down in the country, with a 
 little farm and the bringing up of a family as his sole 
 interests in life. Against this he manfully rebels. Ulti- 
 mately he got permission to spend the winter in Paris, 
 where he hoped thoroughly to enjoy himself; but it was the 
 winter of 18 12-13, an d the gloom of the Russian disasters 
 overclouded everything, though the Parisians were the last 
 to know of them. The way in which Napoleon succeeded 
 in keeping in check the love of news in the modern Athens 
 is curiously exemplified in a letter written from Paris by 
 Lamartine to Virieu, asking his friend to tell him all he 
 can learn of public affairs, as if the little which could be 
 ascertained was smuggled across the frontier. 
 
 Early in May, Lamartine's stay in Paris came abruptly 
 to an end. Pie had been recommended to the care and 
 good offices of M. de Pansy, a councillor of State, whose 
 widowed niece, a cousin of his father, kept house for him. 
 They had received the young man with cordiality, and at 
 first much of his time was spent with them. However, 
 M. de Pansy, though a clever, agreeable man of the world, 
 was elderly, and his circle probably a trifle dull, so that 
 Lamartine came gradually to pass most of his evenings at 
 the house of a M. de Livry, where the play was high and late 
 hours were kept. M. de Larmand, the Comte de Lamartine's 
 Girondist friend, who lived in the same hotel as Lamartine, 
 thought the young man's health, as well as his purse, was 
 likely to suffer, especially as, after sitting through the night, 
 he studied incessantly all day ; and wrote a somewhat 
 exaggerated account of his proceedings to his family, 
 urging them to send for Alphonse without delay. When 
 the letter arrived, the Chevalier was absent from home, and 
 
44 LAMARTINE. [1811- 
 
 Madame de Lamartine, not sorry to ward off what might 
 be a painful scene between father and son, started at once 
 for Paris with her daughter Eugenie. The journey was 
 long and wearisome, and in order to prepare herself as well 
 as she could for the meeting with her son, the anxious 
 mother went first to an hotel in the Rue de Richelieu, and 
 thence wrote a confidential letter to Madame de Larmand, 
 asking her to call. In painful suspense the poor lady lay 
 down on a sofa to rest, her heart beating with fear lest 
 she should find her son as sadly altered in appearance as 
 M. de Larmand's letter led her to fear, and, above all, lest 
 he should not be willing, as heretofore, to submit to her 
 authority. Suddenly Eugenie, who was sitting at the 
 window, watching the gay throng below with the curiosity 
 of a country mouse, cried out, " Mamma, come quick ! I 
 am sure I see Alphonse ! " 
 
 He was driving a very smart cabriolet, with a friend by 
 his side, looking particularly well and animated. The 
 cabriolet was probably the one alluded to in a poetic 
 epistle addressed by Lamartine to his friend Jussieu, in 
 terms not calculated to inspire much confidence in the 
 driver — 
 
 " Un char leger, par ton ami conduit, 
 Dans le sejour du tumulte et du bruit 
 A retenti sur le pave glissant. . . . 
 Deja ma main maladroite et timide 
 Contient a peine un coursier fremissant." 
 
 However, at the sight of her son's bright, happy face, all 
 Madame de Lamartine's fears vanished. She felt sure that 
 he was still unchanged, and went to rest with a light heart. 
 Early next morning the prodigal arrived, but there did 
 not seem to be much need for penitence. He was overjoyed 
 
1815.] FAMILY REUNION. 45 
 
 to see his mother, deeply touched by the step she had 
 taken, and at once agreed to return home with her at the 
 end of a week. The interval was pleasantly passed in sight- 
 seeing and in visiting old friends of the family, all delighted 
 to see and make much of Madame de Lamartine and her 
 pretty daughter. One day they all drove in the famous 
 cabriolet to St. Cloud, the mother almost feeling as if her 
 girlhood had returned, as she walked with her children 
 through its stately avenues, showing them her old favourite 
 haunts and spots redolent with tender memories of her 
 happy youth. 
 
 This little episode, as it is described in Madame de 
 Lamartine's journal, gives a pleasant impression of the 
 affection and confidence which united mother and son, and 
 was a bright spot in both their lives ; but the return home 
 did not pass off so smoothly. 
 
 " The family," writes Madame de Lamartine, " received 
 me very affectionately, but Alphonse very coldly. We 
 returned to Milly, where he reads, writes, studies almost all 
 day in his own room. At night we sit round the fire, and 
 our neighbours come in to talk over the terrible misfortunes 
 Bonaparte's folly is bringing on France. All Europe is 
 rising up against him. What will become of France if she 
 is invaded by those countless armies ? How dearly nations 
 have to pay for the hollow glory of conquest ! All the 
 unmarried men have been called out ; taxes are enormously 
 increased, and are to be raised still higher. We have had 
 to sell our horse." 
 
 On the 31st of December there is a still more anxious 
 entry. " We have taken refuge in Macon. Every day we 
 are told the enemies are upon us ; they are said to have 
 
46 LAMARTINE. [1811- 
 
 certainly passed Geneva. I went yesterday to Milly, to 
 buy a little corn, as a last resource, should things come to 
 the worst." 
 
 The change which had come over the political situation 
 of France was too great and too disastrous to be any 
 longer a secret. After the Russian campaign all the 
 prestige of Napoleon's triumphs barely sufficed to uphold 
 his authority, and now, when he returned defeated from 
 Leipzig, it was evident the empire was tottering to its fall. 
 His consummate military skill and the devotion of his 
 veterans enabled him to keep his enemies at bay for a few 
 weeks in the northern provinces, but to the south the 
 Austrians under Bellegarde poured in across the sparsely 
 guarded frontier. Augereau, who had under his command 
 at Lyons a handful of soldiers lately returned from Spain, 
 made an effort to repel them ; and the inhabitants of the 
 province, with the natural instinct of a brave nation, not- 
 withstanding their weariness of the Imperial yoke, seconded 
 him to the utmost. For the moment, political differences 
 were forgotten, and Lamartine was deputed by the prefet 
 of the department to keep order in the villages round Milly. 
 Without donning the Imperial uniform, he contrived to take 
 part in some skirmishes on the neighbouring hills, once 
 advancing so far into the lines of the Hungarian grenadiers 
 that his horse was shot under him. But it was very soon 
 shown that resistance was useless ; Macon was taken, and 
 the country laid under contribution. Then came the news 
 of the emperor's abdication and the proclamation of 
 Louis XVIII. Lamartine describes the empire as crumbling 
 into dust amid confused cries of wounded patriotism and 
 self-love, mingled with anticipations of liberty and peace ; 
 
1815.] RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS. 47 
 
 still, until Paris had declared herself, the future of France 
 trembled in the balance. 
 
 At Lyons, whither he had hurried to take part in the 
 struggle of opinions, though the Bonapartists had dis- 
 appeared as completely as if they had never existed, the 
 Republic had many adherents ; but the Royalists, with 
 delirious and contagious enthusiasm, speedily carried all 
 before them. The white flag floated everywhere in 
 triumph, and the streets resounded with cries of " Vive le 
 Roi ! " 
 
 Eager to forward the cause, Lamartine, with his friend 
 the Chevalier de Pierreclos, started early one morning with 
 white scarfs fastened to their shoulders, to reconnoitre the 
 land. They reached towards afternoon the little town of 
 Cluny, and rode into the market-place shouting " Vive le 
 Roi ! " The crowd of peasants and traders, who had 
 gathered to discuss the exciting events of the times, hesi- 
 tated a moment, then responded with a somewhat faint 
 cheer. However, at the end of a couple of hours the zeal 
 and eloquence of the two young missionaries bore down 
 all opposition, and Cluny rallied definitely to the King. 
 
 Much elated by their success, they rode on to the house 
 of the Chevalier de Commartin, where they found a large 
 gathering of gentlemen of the province. Here there was 
 no conflict of opinions. After a joyous evening meal the 
 hall rang with toasts to the King and to liberty. It may 
 excite surprise that toasts so apparently opposite should have 
 been thus coupled, but it must be remembered that, both 
 with gentle and simple, the prevailing feeling was that of 
 deliverance from a heavy yoke ; and that, moreover, lovers 
 of liberty in France had found by experience Republican 
 
48 LAMARTJNE. [1811- 
 
 and Imperial rule far more oppressive than that of the 
 last Bourbon King. It is not unlikely that had the 
 Royalist party kept steadily to the watchword, " For the 
 King and for liberty," France would never have seen 
 another Revolution. 
 
 Early in the May following, the Chevalier de Lamartine 
 went to Paris with a deputation sent by the conseil ge'ne'ral 
 of the department to do homage to the new sovereign. 
 Alphonse, who accompanied him, describes with pride his 
 father's still handsome face and dignified bearing, and the 
 warmth with which he was greeted by his old friends and 
 companions-at-arms. In common with all the officers who 
 at the fall of the monarchy had resigned their commissions 
 rather than take an oath contrary to their first allegiance, 
 the Chevalier de Lamartine was entitled to increased rank 
 with a corresponding pension ; but he would not apply for 
 it, giving as a reason that, having some means of his own, 
 he ought not to add to the already heavy burdens of the 
 State : and the only recompense he asked for his services 
 was that his son might be enrolled in the Gardes du Corps, 
 which was at once granted. 
 
 A few weeks later, father and son attended the levee of 
 the commandant of the corps, the Prince de Poix, who, we 
 are given to understand, expressed the most flattering 
 approval of the external qualifications of the young recruit ; 
 for Lamartine, as his portraits and the unanimous verdict 
 of his contemporaries prove, had inherited from his father 
 a conspicuous share of good looks, and doubtless in his 
 twentieth year did credit to the brilliant uniform of the 
 Royal Guard. 
 
 Whether from the chance of service, or, perhaps, because 
 
1815.] LOUIS XVIII. AT THE LOUVRE. 49 
 
 the Prince de Poix had mentioned his name, Lamartine 
 received orders two days later to attend the King on his 
 first visit to the Louvre. It was an occasion of some 
 political significance. The magnificent treasures of art 
 which then adorned the galleries were, for the most part, 
 trophies of Napoleon's victories, and in recognizing them 
 as national glories Louis XVIII. wished at once to soothe 
 the bitterly chafed feelings of the Imperialists, and to 
 conciliate the distinguished artists to whom Napoleon had 
 given the direction of the National Museum ; the visit was 
 therefore conducted with a degree of pomp and circum- 
 stance which deeply impressed the fervid imagination of 
 the young Garde du Corps. His duty was to walk with 
 drawn sword on the left side of the easy-chair, pushed by 
 two footmen, in which the King's infirmities obliged him 
 to make his progress. 
 
 At first, Lamartine tells us, he was so impressed by the 
 regal pomp of the cortege, that he could see nothing but 
 the majestic figure of the King, dominating by his incom- 
 parable dignity the crowd of ministers, marshals of France, 
 and artists who surrounded him ; hear nothing save the 
 measured tread of the courtiers of two dynasties walking 
 in long procession side by side ; and when at last a voice, 
 at once clear and harmonious, broke the silence, he felt as 
 if he were "listening to some far-off voice of the past, 
 deepened and mellowed by adversity, yet speaking as if 
 from a throne." 
 
 Some people may be inclined to consider this a 
 theatrical and foolish outburst, only to be excused by the 
 youth and provincial upbringing of the writer : but fifty 
 years ago even very advanced thinkers had by no means 
 
 E 
 
50 LAMARTINE. [1811- 
 
 shaken off all belief in the divinity of kings ; and a good 
 deal later in the century so cool-headed an intellectual 
 giant as Goethe wrote, after an interview with that very 
 unimposing potentate, Louis I. of Bavaria, " It was no 
 slight matter to work out the powerful impression of the 
 king's presence, to assimilate it internally. It is difficult 
 under such circumstances to keep one's balance, and not to 
 lose one's head." So that it may fairly be counted credit- 
 able in Lamartine that he assimilated his emotions rapidly 
 enough to become, during the remainder of the royal 
 progress, an attentive and intelligent observer. 
 
 At first M. de Blacas walked next the king's chair, 
 occasionally pointing out some picture, but apparently with 
 more of the tact of a courtier than of the discernment of 
 a connoisseur, for, after a little, Louis XVIII. said, " Let us, 
 messieurs, pause for an instant. I have not come here as 
 to a rapid military review, but to see and to admire what 
 you have had the privilege of seeing often before. Then 
 turning to MM. Denon and de Forbin, the two presidents 
 of the Imperial Fine Arts Committee, who, probably from 
 the consciousness that it was to the late emperor they owed 
 their position, had discreetly effaced themselves, the king 
 asked them to point out the best pictures, adding graciously: 
 " Be sure you do not omit any, for I cherish all glory which 
 reflects on France. Talent is a dynasty which has no 
 usurpers." 
 
 M. Denon was the first to come forward, but he spoke 
 indistinctly, and whether from nervousness or stupidity, 
 was unable to answer the king's first question as to the 
 authorship of a picture. 
 
 Louis XVIII. then turned to M. de Forbin, who, besides 
 
1815.] SERVICE AT THE LOUVRE. 5 1 
 
 having been one of the most accomplished courtiers of the 
 empire, was an artist of considerable merit, and able to 
 satisfy the royal curiosity on all points. The King kept 
 him by his side, listening to his observations with evident 
 pleasure, yet was still careful not to neglect any of his 
 entourage. Even the young Garde du Corps, who, being 
 on duty, had to maintain the attitude of an automaton, yet 
 felt that his royal master knew all about him, and looked 
 at him from time to time with kindly and approving 
 interest. " More than once nature and loyalty combined 
 were stronger than etiquette, and an almost imperceptible 
 movement of the eyes or lips betrayed admiration I could 
 not altogether conceal, and which probably pleased the 
 King the more because it was involuntary. Years after- 
 wards, when my name came before him as that of a not 
 unsuccessful author, he sent me a complete edition of the 
 Greek and Roman poets, with a gracious allusion to my 
 day of service in the Louvre, which he perfectly remem- 
 bered." 
 
 As long as he was quartered in Paris, Lamartine's 
 duties threw him in the way of learning a good deal of the 
 habits of the court, and of the characters of the several 
 members of the royal family. The Comte d'Artois, whom 
 he praises for his personal qualities, was too much im- 
 pressed with respect for the divine right of kings ; the Due 
 d'Angouleme was unpopular from his excessive reserve ; 
 while the Due de Berri, gay, kindly, and confiding, erred 
 in the opposite extreme. The conversation at the royal 
 table was lively and agreeable. Lamartine takes some 
 pains to defend the King against the accusation of gluttony 
 so frequently brought against him, whereas he was only 
 
52 LAMARTINE. [1811- 
 
 a delicate and discriminating eater ; and, certainly, if 
 Louis XVIII. had ever been habitually self-indulgent, he 
 would hardly have possessed the fortitude to discharge as 
 he did his regal duties, and to conform unflinchingly to 
 the rigorous prescriptions of etiquette through a painful 
 and mortal illness, playfully replying to those who implored 
 of him to give himself some indulgence, "The Kings of 
 France die, but they are never ill," 
 
 After his turn of waiting had ended, Lamartine went 
 into garrison at Beauvais. According to the custom of 
 French officers, he did not live in the barracks, but took 
 a lodging in the house of an elderly widow in the Faubourg 
 d'Amiens. He was determined not to imitate the frivolous 
 lives most of his brother-officers lived, and had provided 
 himself with a good supply of solid reading. To avoid the 
 distractions of the table d'hote, he arranged with his land- 
 lady that she should furnish his simple meals, and thus the 
 modest allowance of fifty pounds made him by his father 
 and his pay sufficed for all his wants. He rose at five, and 
 went to the riding-school, which his love of horses made 
 the pleasantest exercise of the day. When that and a 
 certain amount of drill and musketry instruction were 
 accomplished, his time was his own. Much of it was spent 
 in somewhat desultory reading, chiefly in a little seques- 
 tered vineyard he had discovered at a short distance from 
 the town and quietly taken possession of; for in that 
 country the vines, carefully pruned and tended once a year 
 are not touched at other times, so that he never came in 
 collision with the rightful owner. Here he could at least 
 enjoy sunshine, silence, and the tender recollections of child- 
 hood, the faint sweet perfume of the vines which had first 
 
1815.] NAPOLEON'S ESCAPE FROM ELBA. 53 
 
 attracted him to the spot reminding him of Milly ; and 
 before very long he found among his comrades some whom 
 his studious habits had interested, and gradually a little 
 society was formed, meeting usually in Lamartine's rooms, 
 where literature, poetry, and philosophy were discussed. 
 
 After three months of garrison life at Beauvais, 
 Lamartine returned home on leave,, proud of his military 
 apprenticeship, and still more of his brilliant uniform. He 
 confesses to some pleasure at finding himself the object of 
 general attention at Macon, where he "touched a few 
 hearts." On the other hand, he was hurt and astonished 
 to hear mutterings of opposition against the reigning 
 dynasty, and to find that the officers of the Imperial army 
 were more popular in the cafes and with the crowd than 
 even the Gardes du Corps. However, there seemed no 
 reason to fear any serious troubles, and these slight morti- 
 fications did not hinder him from thoroughly enjoying the 
 gay season which was drawing pleasantly to its close when, 
 in the midst of festivities, and without any previous warn- 
 ing, came the news that Napoleon had left Elba. 
 
 There was great surprise, but not at first much anxiety ; 
 the universal verdict was that the ex-emperor had made 
 a mistake, that he was already so completely forgotten 
 that even the army had ceased to care for him. It was 
 expected that, disconcerted by his reception, he would prob- 
 ably join Murat, and that if a battle was fought it would 
 be in the Milanese plain. But when the news came that 
 Marshal Macdonald's army had refused to obey his orders, 
 that, at a single word from their old master, they had thrown 
 away the white cockade, and that Napoleon, at the head 
 of a rapidly growing army, was marching on Lyons, 
 
54 LAMARTINE. [1811- 
 
 Lamartine and his comrade, the Chevalier de Pierreclos, 
 without waiting for orders, started for Paris on horseback. 
 A few miles from Macon they met an old friend, Colonel 
 Dulnat, aide-de-camp to Suchet. He stopped them, and 
 asked anxiously, " Well, where is he ? " 
 
 " At Lyons, and marching on Paris/' was the desponding 
 answer. 
 
 " On Paris ? Well done ! " the colonel exclaimed with 
 irrepressible delight ; and, digging the spurs into his horse, 
 he galloped off to Macon, shouting, u Vive l'Empereur ! " 
 
 The only further incident was a sword-thrust inflicted 
 by Lamartine on a Pole whom they found corrupting the 
 troops, and whom he not unjustifiably reproached with 
 meddling with matters which, as a foreigner, did not con- 
 cern him. At Nemours they were joined by several other 
 officers of the household troops, and being all enthusiastic 
 and of one mind, reached Paris in high spirits. On their 
 arrival they found the rest of the regiment equally zealous 
 and hopeful, and were told that enthusiasm for the royal 
 cause was universal. The King had just been in state to 
 the Chambers, and the streets through which he had passed 
 were still echoing with loyal acclamations. The working- 
 men were among the most eager to fight in the cause of 
 peace and justice. Even the students of the Lycees were 
 being armed under the direction of M. Odillon-Barrot. A 
 great battle was to be fought in the plain of Villejuif with 
 the King's household troops. The musketeers and the 
 whole population of Paris resolved either to drive away 
 the usurper or to perish in the ruins of their city. Mean- 
 while, with all this enthusiasm, the royal cause had neither 
 soldiers nor leaders, and Napoleon was advancing with 
 
1815.] FLIGHT OF THE, BOURBONS. 55 
 
 rapidly increasing forces. The soldiers were deserting in 
 masses, and the people, paralyzed with terror, began to 
 yield to force, and to join the general defection. 
 
 On the day named for the battle of Villejuif the Court 
 was secretly preparing for retreat. The Gardes du Corps 
 passed the night armed in their quarters, expecting every 
 hour orders which never came. At twelve next day they 
 were sent to the Champ de Mars, at six brought back to 
 the Place de la Concorde, where they remained till ten at 
 night, when they were ordered to move quietly into the 
 Boulevard. During the night the King's carriage passed 
 through their ranks in the direction of Lille, and at early 
 dawn the troops were marched out on the same road. 
 " When the people," writes Lamartine, " saw through the 
 glimmering darkness the last defenders of the throne 
 leaving the city, nothing can picture their despair. The 
 women brought out wine and bread, while curses on the 
 emperor echoed from house to house. The soldiers, silent 
 with consternation, knew not whither they were going." 
 
 The first ray of daylight showed them that Marmont 
 and a staff of some twenty general officers, were riding at 
 the head of the column, and with the princes. Wearily 
 and sadly they marched on through the heavy mud of the 
 Flanders road, and under the drizzling March rain. The 
 marshal rode on doggedly, hardly concealing his disdainful 
 indifference. The Comte d'Artois and the Due d'Angou- 
 leme wrapped themselves silently in their cloaks, but the 
 Due de Berri went up and down the ranks with kindly and 
 grateful words for all. At every village they passed the 
 peasants stood weeping at their doors. 
 
 On approaching Lille, Mortier, who commanded the 
 
56 LAMARTINE. [1811- 
 
 garrison of twelve thousand men, still hesitating between 
 loyalty and defection, sent word he could not answer for 
 the consequences if the body-guard followed the King into 
 the citadel. On hearing this, Louis XVIII. resolved to 
 retire to Belgium. The royal troops, surrounded on all 
 sides by Excelman's cavalry, whose orders were to keep 
 them in sight without fighting, were marched into the little 
 fortress of Bethune, the only spot in France where the 
 white flag now floated. Here they received the parting 
 thanks and acknowledgments of the Princes, and a pro- 
 clamation was issued, announcing that in virtue of a con- 
 vention entered into by the generals on both sides, they 
 were to remain for three days in possession of Bethune, 
 and then were to be disbanded and to return unharmed to 
 their homes. 
 
 The prospect of a long journey with an almost ex- 
 hausted purse, and in a uniform which had the stigma of 
 defeat, would have been gloomy indeed but for the un- 
 expected kindness of an officer of Excelman's army, who 
 was a distant relative of Madame de Lamartine. He came 
 into Bethune under cover of the darkness, and insisted on 
 his young kinsman accepting a horse, a civilian dress, and 
 the loan of a sum of money for the journey to Paris, where 
 he advised him to remain quietly for a time. However, 
 finding the prevailing temper of the fickle populace little to 
 his taste, Lamartine at the end of a week decided to push 
 on to his uncle, the Abbe" de Lamartine. To reach the 
 secluded chateau of Montculot, near Dijon, he took the 
 least frequented roads ; but the people were far less Royalist 
 than in the western provinces, and he often met with 
 menacing looks and provocations to insult. Once, near 
 
1815.] CONCEALMENT. 57 
 
 Chatillon sur Saone, he lost his temper, and drew his sword 
 on some peasants who hooted him, whereupon they all 
 took to flight, and hid in the vineyards. 
 
 After this exploit Lamartine rode on to the town, and 
 had just sat down to dinner when the captain of the 
 National Guard, to whom the incident had been reported, 
 came to call him to account. However, on hearing his 
 name, he treated him kindly, and saw him safely out of 
 Chatillon. From this point onward the country was 
 familiar to him, and, striking off the road at Pont de Parny, 
 he followed a narrow path through a woodland gorge 
 which brought him at nightfall to his uncle's house. Here 
 he found a warm welcome, and his father, who had come 
 from Macon to meet him. A merry supper made him 
 forget the troubles he had gone through and the mis- 
 fortunes of his country, which his elders, inured to revolu- 
 tions, treated somewhat philosophically. 
 
 After a few days, father and son returned together to 
 Macon ; but here the news met them that the Arriere-Ban 
 of the conscription was being levied with unsparing severity, 
 and that the terms of the capitulation of Bethune were not 
 likely to be observed. To avoid serving the emperor it 
 was safest for Lamartine to remain in concealment for 
 some time longer. Accordingly, he threw himself on the 
 hospitality of an old family friend, M. de Maizod, an emigre 
 of Conde's army, who lived in the Jura mountains, wend- 
 ing his way on foot with no other baggage than he could 
 carry on his back. To his host, who, on seeing him- 
 approach, rushed out joyfully to welcome him, Lamartine 
 made a pathetic little speech — " I come to you, like a bird 
 poising himself on the last branch of the last tree in the 
 
58 LAMARTINE. [1811- 
 
 forest, uncertain whether to stay or to take his flight across 
 the fields of liberty at the appearance of the fowler." 
 
 M. de Maizod, who, though still a staunch Royalist, 
 was more disposed to enjoy life tranquilly than to trouble 
 himself about dynastic changes, was probably amused by 
 this exordium ; he was one of those charming persons who 
 suit themselves to people of all ages, and made his young 
 friend thoroughly happy. 
 
 It so happened that the Lamartine family had before 
 the Revolution a good deal of property in Franche-Comte, 
 and were still affectionately remembered by the older 
 inhabitants ; some of them used in Lamartine's childhood 
 to send little offerings of butter, fruit, and honey, to his 
 mother. One of these old retainers, Leonard Chaveriat, 
 came at once to the Chateau de Maizod to welcome 
 Lamartine, and, being a keen sportsman, accompanied him 
 in many long excursions. After about a month had passed, 
 Leonard brought one evening the unwelcome news that 
 war having been declared, and the Emperor being in great 
 need of men, the prefets and sous-prefets had special orders 
 to find out all the young men who had served in the King's 
 household regiments, and compel them to join the Imperial 
 army ; and as Lamartine was resolved rather to die than to 
 change his allegiance, not a moment was to be lost. He 
 took a hasty leave of his kind host, and started off with 
 Leonard, who offered to guide him to the Swiss frontier. 
 Each carrying a gun, as a pretext for departure, they 
 started at nightfall, taking the least frequented paths 
 through the gloomy forest. The dawn of day brought them 
 to the frontier. Leonard pointed out to his companion 
 a hollow path, which led up the hill to a shelving bank, 
 
1815.] WATERLOO. 59 
 
 which was the boundary line, while he himself remained 
 below, in order to divert the attention of the custom-house 
 officers. Lamartine was fortunate enough to cross unper- 
 ceived, and walked on with a lightened heart to St. Cergues, 
 where lived a M. Reboul, who had served as guide to 
 Mathieu de Montmorenci, Benjamin Constant, and other 
 distinguished fugitives, and to whom his late host had 
 given him a letter which procured him the kindest of 
 receptions ; and he was able to pass the next three months 
 on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, without much 
 anxiety as to his personal security, but sorely troubled for 
 his country and those he had left there, till the news, at 
 once welcome and humiliating, of Napoleon's defeat at 
 Waterloo reopened the gates of France to all Royalist 
 exiles. 
 
60 LAMART1NE [1815- 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1815-18.21. 
 
 On the return of the Bourbons, Lamartine rejoined his 
 regiment for a short time. But it was evident that any 
 prospect of either active service or of promotion was more 
 remote than ever ; and as neither his pay nor his private 
 means allowed of his remaining, like some of his comrades, 
 simply to enjoy the social advantages of being a " Garde 
 du Corps," without thought for the future, he received the 
 permission of his family to resign his commission and seek 
 some more active career. But this last was no easy task. 
 " Alphonse is trying," writes his mother, " to get into the 
 diplomatic service, but we have not interest enough to 
 force open the doors. I had hoped so much from the 
 return of the Bourbons, and to see him again without a 
 profession cuts me to the heart." 
 
 Lamartine now began to. take interest in politics, which, 
 since the Charter had established representative govern- 
 ment, had become the chief subject of conversation in 
 Paris, where he was whiling away his time. He wrote 
 articles for the daily papers in the sense of conciliation 
 and moderate Liberalism. In a long and rather amusing 
 letter he confides to his uncle, the Comte de Lamartine, 
 
1821.] LOUIS DE VIGNET. 6l 
 
 that some papers on questions of the day which he had 
 written for his own amusement were much approved of by 
 distinguished persons, who advised him to print them, and 
 that one publisher had offered very advantageous terms ; 
 but, finding it would be practically impossible to keep the 
 authorship a secret, and that his reflections might cause 
 some scandal to many, who, though they agreed with him, 
 thought that at the present moment " toute verite n'est 
 pas bonne a dire," he had deemed it best to suppress them 
 though the sum offered would have been extremely useful ; 
 a hint which we must hope was not lost on the uncle. 
 
 Later in the year he spent some months in Savoy with 
 an old schoolfellow, Louis de Vignet, where he found 
 himself in totally new surroundings. Vignet, whom Lamar- 
 tine describes as possessing one of the finest and most 
 powerful intellects he had ever known, belonged to an 
 exceptionally talented family. At the College of Bellay, 
 where he had posed as somewhat of a freethinker and a 
 democrat, he was feared rather than loved, both by his 
 masters and his companions, and between him and Lamar- 
 tine, who was frequently his closest competitor for prizes, 
 there had been more rivalry than friendship. On leaving 
 college, Vignet, who, though of very high birth, had but 
 a slender fortune, gave up all he possessed to his mother 
 and sister, and went to study for the bar at Grenoble, 
 leading a life of heroic privation and severe labour. At 
 the end of two years he was summoned to the death-bed 
 of the mother he so passionately loved. Her death entirely 
 changed his character ; he became fervently devout, gave 
 up all his ambitions, and, in order to make a home for his 
 orphan sister, settled down at the little demesne of Servolet 
 
62 LAMARTINE. [1815- 
 
 near Chambery, which was his sole remaining possession, to 
 lead the life of an agriculturist. 
 
 An accidental meeting with his old schoolfellow laid 
 the foundation of a devoted friendship. Some of the 
 happiest periods of Lamartine's youth had been spent 
 at Servolet, and this year, probably wearying of Paris 
 and of his fruitless search for employment, he returned 
 thither with renewed zest. Vignet's mother had been 
 a De Maistre, her brothers lived at Chambery, or in the 
 environs, and in their houses Lamartine was received 
 almost as a son. The head of the family, Count Joseph 
 de Maistre, had lately returned from St. Petersburg, 
 where for many years he had acted as the representative 
 of Louis XVI 1 1., and exercised considerable social and 
 literary influence. His brothers, the Colonel and the Abbe 
 de Maistre, if less celebrated than their elder, were equally 
 agreeable, and far more tolerant of opposite opinions. All 
 joined to Italian liveliness and finesse a large measure of 
 cisalpine solidity and vigour. Lamartine has gratefully 
 acknowledged that he owed much to their society, in which 
 he became emancipated from the prejudices of the petty 
 provincial coteries in which most of his life had been spent. 
 With an audacity of metaphor which would have surprised 
 his hosts, he compares the family gatherings under the 
 pines which clothe the steep sides of the Montagne du Chat 
 to the conversations of Boccaccio and his friends in their 
 Florentine villa. In the winter evenings, the Comte de 
 Maistre read out portions of his " Soirees de St. P£ters- 
 bourg," then preparing for publication — a book which, de- 
 spite its many blemishes and paradoxes, is certainly the 
 most powerful production of the religious and royalist 
 
1821.] LIFE AT M1LLY. 6$ 
 
 reactionary school, in which its author was among the 
 leaders ; and if its arguments were not irrefragable, they 
 seemed irresistible when repeated by the beautiful lips of 
 the youngest daughter of the house, " a Corinne chretienne 
 as enthusiastic and far more fascinating than her prototype 
 at Coppet." However, Lamartine seems to have kept a 
 certain liberty of spirit on political matters, for early in 
 January, 1816, we find him in Paris deeply lamenting the 
 changes in the ministry by which the moderate element 
 was almost destroyed. 
 
 Owing to some losses sustained by his father, sufficient 
 funds were not forthcoming to allow of Lamartine remain- 
 ing in Paris. He had, much against his will, to get through 
 the spring at Macon, and the summer at Milly, with no 
 other company than an old servant, his horse, and his dog, 
 the rest of the family being on a lengthened visit to their 
 uncle the abbe. Writing of these months of solitude, 
 Lamartine endeavours to throw over them a sort of poetic 
 glamour, describing himself as delighting in the utter 
 silence around him, unbroken save by the tinkling of the 
 distant flocks grazing on the mountain slopes, the happy 
 voices of the village children, or the monotonous cadence 
 of the flails on the threshing-floor. As summer advanced, 
 and the green tints of the landscape turned to ashy grey 
 under the scorching rays of the sun, which withered up all 
 vegetation, the sense of solitude deepened, and the deserted 
 house seemed like a sepulchre, in which his melancholy 
 thoughts wrapped him as it were in a shroud. It is pretty 
 evident that Lamartine was not suited for a life of such 
 unbroken solitude* nor is it surprising that he was per- 
 emptorily ordered by the family doctor to the not very 
 
64 LAMARTJNE. 1815- 
 
 distant watering-place of Aix. Here he found himself in 
 comparatively lively society, and made some pleasant 
 acquaintances ; among others, that of M. and Madame 
 
 C . The former had attained some celebrity as a 
 
 scientific man, and received at his house in Paris most of 
 
 the remarkable people of the day. Madame C , who 
 
 is described as most beautiful and interesting, hopelessly 
 ill of consumption, has been immortalized by Lamartine ; 
 to her, under the name of " Elvire," some of his most 
 striking and best known poems are addressed. 
 
 When the season at Aix came to an end, he was most 
 
 anxious to rejoin the C s in Paris, but the state of his 
 
 finances made this impossible. In his despair he hit on 
 an ingenious expedient. u Write quickly," he implores 
 a friend in Paris, "telling me you have hopes of a good 
 sous-prefecture ; it might induce my father to give me some 
 money for the journey." Apparently the plot was success- 
 ful, for soon after we find Lamartine in Paris, sharing an 
 apartment with M. de Virieu, dividing his days, he says, 
 between study and poetry, spending his evenings with the 
 
 C s. Madame C , though her health was failing 
 
 rapidly, was still strong enough to enjoy society, and her 
 friends continued to gather round her sofa almost to the 
 last. It was at her house that Lamartine made the ac- 
 quaintance of M. de Bonald, to whom he afterwards 
 addressed one of his finest odes. The veteran author 
 showed him much kindness, presenting him with a copy 
 of his own works, and introducing him in some of the best 
 salons. 
 
 The year 1818 marks the opening of what is, from 
 a social and intellectual point, a very brilliant epoch in 
 
1821.] LIFE UNDER THE BOURBONS. 65 
 
 the chronicles of Paris. For the two centuries preceding 
 the revolution, that beautiful city had been the unques- 
 tioned leader in literature, philosophy-, and fashion, through- 
 out the whole civilized world. Under the empire her posi- 
 tion was reversed. She was, it is true, the military capital 
 of Europe, but it would be difficult to find a society as 
 devoid of light and leading, or even of gaiety and pleasure, 
 as that described by Madame de Remusat and other 
 contemporary writers, alternately yawning and trembling 
 under Imperial rule. At the return of the Bourbons there 
 streamed in a throng of foreigners, mostly wealthy, high- 
 born, and much inclined to amuse themselves, who by their 
 lavish expenditure revived the material prosperity of the 
 city ; but from them the higher classes of Parisians held 
 aloof, and it was not until all traces of foreign occupation 
 had gone that the great hotels gradually threw open their 
 portals, and what may be called the St. Martin's summer 
 of the old regime began. Unquestionably, there were great 
 changes since the days when brilliant courtiers and fasci- 
 nating marquises thought the world was made for them 
 alone, an oyster to be leisurely enjoyed at their petits 
 sonpers ; still, if many pleasant things had been swept 
 away, some remained, and others which had disappeared 
 temporarily now returned again. Notwithstanding the 
 enormous losses of privileges and of possessions which the 
 aristocracy had suffered, they still retained great social 
 power, which, it must be allowed, on the whole they used 
 well. 
 
 The Faubourg St. Germain now conveys to most 
 people the notion of a narrow, prudish, and bigoted coterie, 
 chiefly remarkable for exclusiveness and dulness ; in those 
 
 F 
 
66 LAMARTINE. [1815- 
 
 days it was precisely the reverse. The Bonapartist 
 ladies affected to be scandalized by its neglect of rules of 
 etiquette which they carefully observed, by its frank, un- 
 conventional gaiety, and by the perfect equality only 
 possible in a society of which the members were bound 
 together by hereditary kinship, and in which no one tried 
 to appear more or other than he or she really was. With 
 wise discrimination, it admitted within its ranks those 
 Paladins of the empire who, to borrow a famous phrase, 
 " might count as ancestors," but the crowd of cringing and 
 rapacious parasites enriched by plunder were rigidly 
 excluded. Never, perhaps, has there been a society in 
 which wealth and luxury were so little valued. People like 
 Madame de Recamier and Madame de Luxembourg, whose 
 means were of the slenderest, were the recognized leaders 
 of fashion, and even in the great hotels, of which the 
 owners were rich enough to be able to resume the old 
 habit of magnificence, it was so mellowed by antiquity as 
 to have lost all trace of pomp or of parade. The repasts 
 were excellent — for it was the golden age of French cuisine, 
 to which gastronomers even now look back with regret — 
 but served with simplicity. The master of the house used 
 himself to carve, " avec coquetterie et bonhomie," and 
 took a personal concern in the comfort of his guests. 
 And the unwritten sumptuary laws extended even to ladies' 
 dress. Madame d'Abrantes has described, with amusing 
 self-complacency, the impossibility of finding in her exten- 
 sive wardrobe a single dress sufficiently plain to be worn 
 on the occasion of her presentation to the Duchesse 
 d'Angouleme ; the gorgeous court dresses of the empire, 
 on many of which the gold embroidery alone weighed 
 
1821.] THE SALONS OF PARIS. 67 
 
 thirty or forty pounds, were not to be thought of, and 
 she was obliged to confine herself to the unaccustomed 
 simplicity of plain satin. 
 
 But if the claims of wealth did not count for much in 
 those days, wit, intelligence, and talent of all kinds were 
 very fully appreciated, partly, perhaps, in homage to the 
 traditions of the grand siecle, and in rebuke of the Imperial 
 dislike to " men with ideas," but in many cases from genuine 
 sympathy and love of culture. Especially in the salons of 
 the Duchesse de Duras, and of her daughter, Madame de 
 Rauzun, in the Hotels de Cayla and de la Rochefoucauld, 
 intellectual superiority of all kinds was cordially appre- 
 ciated, and the most distinguished men of the day were 
 among the habitual guests. 
 
 Through the kindness of an old friend of his mother's, 
 Madame de Raigemont, Lamartine had the entree of all 
 these houses, and soon began to make his mark. " Deja 
 en 1820," writes Madame d'Agoult, in her "Memoires," 
 " on commencait a beaucoup parler du jeune Lamartine." 
 At Madame de Cayla's he came to know Sosthene de la 
 Rochefoucauld, whose kindness he frequently alludes to in 
 his letters. Even in the group of the " Droite passioned," 
 which gathered in the Hotel de la Tremouille, and affected 
 to be more Royalist than the king, Lamartine made firm 
 friends in MM. de Bonald and Marcellus, and the Prince de 
 Polignac ; while the Due de Broglie, writing after the lapse 
 of thirty years, recalls the deep impression Lamartine made 
 when reading out of his poems to a brilliant circle in the 
 Hotel St. Aulaire. 
 
 It was probably the encouragement he now received 
 which caused Lamartine to apply himself to poetical com- 
 
68 LAMARTINE. [1815- 
 
 position more seriously than he had hitherto done, and to 
 outline sketches for compositions on a very large scale ; 
 tragedies and epic poems are alluded to as mere trifles, 
 while the sous-prefecture, the endeavour to obtain which 
 had been the ostensible object of his stay in Paris, was 
 relegated to a distant background. 
 
 The summer of 1818 he spent between Milly, Chambery, 
 and the Chateau de Grand-Lemps, where M. de Virieu, his 
 mother, and sister made much of their guest. In the 
 
 autumn he returned to Aix, but the C s were not there ; 
 
 all hope of Madame C 's recovery had vanished, and 
 
 her sufferings were so great that those who loved her could 
 not wish her life to be prolonged. Many letters passed at 
 this time between Lamartine and Mademoiselle Eleanore de 
 
 Canorge, an intimate friend of the C s, who kept him 
 
 informed of the poor lady's state, and was the sympathizing 
 confidante of his anxiety and sorrow. 
 
 It was during this sad autumn at Aix that Lamartine 
 
 addressed to Madame C a poem entitled " Le Lac," 
 
 written in a strain of the deepest melancholy. Faultless 
 in expression and in style, it is usually considered the most 
 perfect of his minor pieces. Before the year ended she 
 died, and the last mention of " Elvire " is the dedication to 
 her memory of the tragedy of " Saiil," into the composition 
 of which Lamartine, resolutely determined to conquer his 
 grief, threw himself with unwonted energy. Early in May, 
 the piece being completed, the next step was to have it: 
 acted, and Virieu was to do his best to get it read by Talma. 
 But the prospect of success was at first very slight ; Virieu 
 had to admit that several of those to whom he read it soon 
 showed signs of weariness, and though full of enthusiasm 
 
1821.] SAUL: A TRAGEDY. 69 
 
 in his friend's cause, he himself was evidently not very 
 sanguine. But Lamartine, determined not to be baffled, 
 writes to spur him on to further effort : " I know very 
 well that to get a play of this kind accepted is no easy 
 task ; in addition to the ordinary difficulties, the ireligious 
 and antiquated source from which the story is taken, and 
 the simple, natural style in which it is treated, will be put 
 forward as objections. All the same, I am convinced it 
 ought to succeed ; and I think that you yourself, whe>n you 
 have read it a couple of times, will agree that, acte<d by 
 Talma, interpreted as he and he alone can, it will hav^ 
 immense success. But if recited and acted indiffereiwhat 
 a total failure is inevitable. My uncle, who is not poennd 
 by nature or easily moved, wept through it from beginning's 
 to end, and takes the same view." Evidently this is not 
 the terrible uncle, the head of the family, who prescribes 
 mathematics and farming, but the kindly and amiable 
 abbe, described by Lamartine as the St. Evremond of the 
 family. 
 
 Apparently, M. de Virieu required still more urging, 
 for a little later, after thanking him for his zeal, Lamartine 
 returned to the charge : " Do not take any refusal till you 
 have yourself read it to Talma. I had him in mind all 
 through. I worked so entirely for him, that unless he takes 
 the part of Saul I will not allow the piece to be acted. It 
 is specially in such matters there is only one step from the 
 sublime to the ridiculous. If he once sees what it really 
 is, I am safe. After securing him, an actress must be 
 found who can recite the lyrical parts in the third act with 
 poetic inspiration ; then a high priest with some ardour ; the 
 rest may take its chance. Everything depends on Talma. 
 
70 LAMARTINE. [1815- 
 
 Let Jussieu and every one you know who knows him do 
 
 their best, and, I implore of you, go yourself; go again and 
 
 again till you have made him listen and understand. . . . 
 
 Remember, there is really nothing humiliating in this, and, 
 
 if there were, the humiliation would be honourable to you 
 
 since you undergo it, not for yourself, but for your friend." 
 
 But the prospect remained doubtful ; Virieu could 
 
 not succeed in penetrating even to Talma's anti-chamber. 
 
 . Lamajttine, feeling some more decisive step must be taken, 
 
 esolv/ed on going himself to Paris. He accordingly rode 
 
 a lf ^.oulins, took the diligence there, and having alighted 
 
 h er ne H6tel de Richelieu, spent a few days in reforming 
 
 r j wardrobe. This being done, he addressed to Talma 
 
 d billet which he describes as " The best letter I have ever 
 
 written. It touched him, and he asked me to call." 
 
 The interview passed off well, and Sunday was named 
 for the day on which the fate of " Saul " was to be decided. 
 Unfortunately the sentence was adverse. " The battle is 
 lost. Talma was at first enthusiastic in his admiration of 
 the verses, the style, the way in which the subject is treated. 
 As I read on he threw himself about in his chair, repeat- 
 ing, ' But this is real tragedy.' He told me — indeed he did 
 more, he let me see — that the part of Saul tempted him 
 extremely ; that I was a poet — that some of the lines were 
 among the finest he had ever read. But he went on to say 
 that there were innovations which the Committee (of the 
 Theatre franc,ais) would never allow. The lyrical inter- 
 ludes he himself, naturally enough, objected to, and spent 
 three or four hours in trying to get me to recast "Saul " in 
 a way which, he himself admitted, would destroy all j n it 
 that is grandiose or original. I was inflexibly What 
 
1821.] CARDINAL DE ROHAN. J I 
 
 grieves me most is that I see I shall never get the Com- 
 mittee to accept anything really good. To pass through 
 those doors one must make one's-self very small." 
 
 However, notwithstanding this disappointment, the 
 expedition to Paris seems to have had a salutary effect, 
 both on Lamartine's health and on his spirits. He found 
 himself warmly welcomed, and made much of by numerous 
 friends. At a dinner at the St. Aulaires' he was presented 
 to M. Decazes, already a person of much importance, who 
 invited him to his house, and treated him in the kinde 
 way possible. 
 
 It was at this time that a romantic, though somewhat 
 short-lived friendship sprang up between Lamartine and 
 a young man of about his own age, whose career resembles 
 that of an illustrious Englishman of our day, inasmuch as 
 he began life as an officer in the Royal Guard, and rose to 
 be a Cardinal Archbishop. Auguste, Due de Rohan, has 
 been described, even by antagonistic writers, as a singularly 
 interesting and accomplished type of the aristocratic and 
 aesthetic Churchman. After leaving the army he had 
 married a charming and beautiful woman, to whom he was 
 passionately attached, and had every prospect of a more 
 than common share of happiness, when an awful tragedy 
 dashed the cup from his lips. The Duchesse de Rohan, at 
 the moment of starting for a ball at the Austrian Embassy, 
 set fire to her dress, and, despite her husband's frantic 
 efforts to save her, perished before his eyes. In his 
 agonizing sorrow the Duke found consolation in fervent, 
 almost mystical devotion, his greatest pleasure being to 
 gather round him men of kindred minds, intellectual, 
 cultivated, to whom religion was the one absorbing interest. 
 
72 LAMARTINE. [1815- 
 
 Into this circle, which included men so dissimilar in 
 their future careers as Victor Hugo, Lamennais, and 
 Montalembert, Lamartine, with his enthusiastic and sym- 
 pathetic temperament, was naturally drawn. The Duke took 
 the utmost delight in his society, and seemed at one time 
 hardly able to live without him. Towards the end of 
 Lent he asked him to accompany him to his country place 
 of Laroche-Guyon, where, in the Duke's private chapel, 
 which, as if in imitation of the early Christians, was a 
 subterranean crypt, the ceremonies of Holy Week were 
 celebrated with the utmost solemnity and fervour. This 
 atmosphere of prayer and mourning, of artistic splendour 
 and rapt devotion inspired Lamartine's muse ; some of his 
 most beautiful elegies are dated from Laroche-Guyon. 
 But the sympathy between him and his host was not as 
 complete as both believed it to be at the time. 
 
 In the Due de Rohan was revived not only the charm- 
 ing and exquisite urbanity of the last century, but also its 
 opinions and prejudices. "My intercourse with the Due de 
 Rohan," wrote Montalembert about the same time, " some- 
 how embarrasses me. He has been most kind, and even 
 shown me real affection and interest, yet there is something 
 which keeps me aloof. Never could my heart yield itself 
 to a Frenchman, to a priest in whose eyes constitutional 
 liberty and equality are chimerical." However, Lamartine's 
 political views were not at all so clearly defined as Monta- 
 lembert's at that time ; it was very gradually, in his case, 
 that the rift in the lute widened to absolute separation. 
 And it is only fair to the Due de Rohan to add that, if 
 an ardent politician, he was before everything a Christian 
 Bishop. At the time of the Revolution of 1830 he was 
 
1821.] AGRICULTURAL PURSUITS. 73 
 
 besieged in his episcopal palace of Besancon by a furious 
 mob, and driven out of the diocese with the utmost con- 
 tumely. When the storm had subsided, he quietly resumed 
 his pastoral labours, spent the remainder of his life and 
 fortune in ministering to the wants of his diocese, then 
 stricken by famine and pestilence, and died universally 
 lamented by the flock among whom, three years before, his 
 life had not been safe. 
 
 But the friends with whom Lamartine had the most 
 unrestrained and pleasantest intercourse were the family of 
 a lady already mentioned, whom he speaks of in his letters 
 as " les incomparable Raigecourt." Madame de Raigecourt, 
 who by rank and position was a very great lady, and to the 
 end of her life remained the truest and most steadfast of 
 Lamartine's friends, seems to have been a most interesting 
 person. In her youth she had been the chosen friend of 
 Louis XVI.'s angelic sister, Madame Elizabeth, and she 
 continued ever after on terms of great intimacy with the 
 Royal family. Her interest in Lamartine and her kind- 
 ness to him were unceasing, and his letters show that his 
 affection for her was almost that of a son, She was now 
 full of sympathy for his disappointment at the rejection 
 of " Saiil," and insisted on his giving her the manuscript, 
 that she might read it to the king. There was likewise 
 much talk of obtaining for him a diplomatic appointment. 
 An unpaid attacheship was offered, but, a salary being to 
 him a matter of absolute necessity, he was obliged to 
 decline it. 
 
 As spring advanced he returned to Milly. He now 
 threw himself with hitherto unknown interest into agricul- 
 tural pursuits, and became apparently disposed to think 
 
74 LAMARTINE. [1815- 
 
 there is an indissoluble connection between wooden shoes 
 and happiness. In his letters he still complains at times 
 of his health, but is able to be out all day, frequently join- 
 ing his neighbours at the "rendezvous de chasse," which, 
 in Burgundy at least, are no trifling matters. Englishmen 
 are apt to speak contemptuously of French sportsmen, but 
 the hunting of wolves and bears, carried on as it was 
 in those days, and is even now in the forest of Cluny, 
 implies no small amount both of courage and of physical 
 endurance. Lamartine mentions that he had to leave 
 home at five in the morning, and ride hard in order to 
 reach the rendezvous at seven, the hunt lasting nine or ten 
 hours, and the quarry being pursued for the most part on 
 foot. 
 
 But farming and hunting were by no means Lamartine's 
 only occupations. Although he describes himself to 
 Madame de Raigecourt as hardly able to string a few 
 worthless stanzas together, he was writing a good deal of 
 poetry, and in a strain superior to his former efforts. In 
 the year previous, his thoughts had run exclusively on 
 dramatic and epic subjects. He then wrote a " Medee," 
 which has been published since his death ; two acts of 
 " Zorafde," and fragments of other plays. He also began 
 an epic poem, " Clovis," in which the miraculous and super- 
 natural were to abound, and to which he proposed to 
 dedicate ten years of his life. But the failure of " Saul " 
 disgusted him ; of the twenty projected cantos of " Clovis," 
 only a fragment was ever written, and even a " Caesar " 
 was sacrificed. "Caesar, my favourite hero, my king of 
 men, half demi-god, half Henry IV., who was to have 
 shown men that when they are hopelessly sunk in the 
 
1821.] ELEGIES. 75 
 
 corruption of egotism, a tyrant is their greatest benefactor, 
 lies buried in the ashes of my grate." The loss is probably 
 not to be regretted, especially as now, after many dis- 
 couragements and disappointments, Lamartine developed 
 a poetic style which, though it may have been suggested 
 by verses of Bertin and of Parny, he made thoroughly his 
 own, and carried to a very high point of perfection. 
 " Sappho," " Le Golfe de Baiae," " A Elvire," and other 
 poems published in the "Meditations," belong to this 
 period. He wrote them with the idea of immediate 
 publication. "You will shortly see," he writes to Virieu, 
 " a book of elegies in a certain style of my own ; they are 
 just ready for the press." However, he changed his mind, 
 because, he says, he thought, on reflection, that they did 
 not do his powers full justice. 
 
 But this high and, as the sequel proved, perfectly just 
 estimate of his poetic capabilities did not deter Lamartine 
 from other speculations. We find him rather unexpectedly 
 turning his thoughts to commerce and colonization. First, 
 he made plans for going to America ; a little later, he pro- 
 poses to M. de Virieu that they should obtain the conces- 
 sion of a little island near Leghorn, invest about sixty 
 thousand francs in agricultural implements, and sow it with 
 wheat. " The smallest profit would be a hundred per cent, 
 the first year ; I have made the calculation with great care. 
 By degrees, we could build modest habitations for our- 
 selves and our friends. Let me know what you think of it, 
 and how much you would be disposed to invest. I have 
 already written to Florence about the concession." This 
 reads like a joke, but, unfortunately, all through his life 
 such speculations seemed to Lamartine at once serious and 
 
•J 6 LAMART1NE. [1815- 
 
 simple matters, and in perfect good faith and honest con- 
 viction he was constantly trying to improve his fortunes in 
 every way save that of limiting his desires. 
 
 However, the Mediterranean island remained un- 
 colonized, and, with no further variety than a few weeks 
 spent in Paris, the year 1819 passed monotonously away; 
 nor did that of 1820, though destined to bring considerable 
 amelioration in Lamartine's position, begin more cheerfully. 
 " Alphonse is at Milly," writes his mother in January ; 
 " calm, but very melancholy, living more than ever in his 
 books, studying and writing verses, which he shows to his 
 intimate friends, who speak to me enthusiastically of them. 
 But what use is this buried talent, even if it be real, to 
 a young man longing for an active career ? I hoped that 
 his uncles would not now oppose his entering some profes- 
 sion, or that at any rate the princes we served and regretted 
 so long would have employed our son. But three years 
 have passed, and not a gleam of hope has been vouchsafed 
 us. Still, I can understand that they must be overwhelmed 
 with solicitations, and have no time to think of us poor 
 provincials." 
 
 Another painful disappointment now befell the poor 
 lady, her six daughters were successively growing up to 
 womanhood, and, according to French custom, marriages 
 ought to be arranged for them. They were pretty, amiable, 
 and well-educated, but besides these attractions it was 
 absolutely necessary each should have a dowry, and for this 
 the goodwill and co-operation of the aunts and uncles were 
 indispensable. The eldest, Cecile, had married the Comte 
 de Cessia, a few years her senior, but handsome and agree- 
 able. The husband of Eugenie, the second, was a young 
 
1821.] MATRIMONIAL ARRANGEMENTS. 77 
 
 officer of good family, M. de Coppens ; and now the third, 
 Cesarine, had made her debut. Her mother describes her 
 as extremely beautiful. " People tell me she resembles, 
 feature for feature, a celebrated picture of Raphael, called 
 'The Fornarina.' She is warm-hearted, frank, and very 
 spirituelle. Every one praises her." 
 
 From her first appearance the young lady was passion- 
 ately admired by a young man of much promise and of 
 very old family, M. de Parseval. Though he was not rich, 
 his suit was warmly approved by Madame de Lamartine, 
 who, seeing in him every quality likely to make her daughter 
 happy, encouraged their mutual liking. But the terrible 
 family council pronounced that M. de Parseval was not 
 a sufficiently brilliant match for the beautiful Cesarine, and 
 the courtship was sternly ordered to be cut short — a cruel 
 blow to Madame de Lamartine, who had evidently looked 
 forward to seeing the romantic happiness of her own early 
 married life repeated in her daughter. "The proposed 
 marriage of my Cesarine is entirely at an end. I had 
 myself to break it to the poor young man, and in doing so 
 could not restrain my own tears. He still persists in 
 hoping against hope ; but the family are inexorable. 
 Cesarine is very sad, but touching in her submission, 
 fearing perhaps to bring some trouble on me. For miser- 
 able money considerations this marriage, which would 
 insure the happiness of two young lives, is disapproved ! 
 Happily for me, my father and mother thought and agreed 
 differently. To their indulgence I owe a life of happiness." 
 
 Very shortly, a new suitor presented himself; he, how- 
 ever, had secured beforehand the family approbation. M. 
 de Vignet was the elder brother of Lamartine's friend, 
 
yS LAMARTINE. [1815- 
 
 Louis de Vignet ; he had a good government appointment, 
 and his reputation was deservedly high. But his home was 
 in Savoy, and his intended mother-in-law did not think his 
 appearance prepossessing, so it was with reluctance that 
 she broached the subject to her daughter. To her surprise, 
 she found the young lady not disinclined to the alliance. 
 When urged by her brother not to do violence to her feel- 
 ings, as he would shield her from any pressure on the part 
 of the aunts and uncles, she replied that, though grateful to 
 M. de Parseval for the attachment he had shown her, her 
 feelings had not been engaged, and that she was quite ready 
 to meet the wishes of her relatives and to marry, without 
 the slightest repugnance, the estimable person they had 
 selected. After this, the more romantic and impressionable 
 mother could only say, " It seems she is as sensible as she 
 is charming. Happy the man who will possess such a 
 treasure ! " And all the remaining allusions to the subject 
 are records of thankfulness for the happiness of her child, 
 only the remembrance of the poor forsaken lover some- 
 times gave her pain ; however, she consoled him with such 
 tenderness and tact that ever after he had for her almost 
 filial affection, so that all ended well. Besides, the marriage 
 of C^sarine had indirectly a very happy influence on her 
 brother's future. 
 
 Needless to say that, since he reached the age of 
 twenty-five, Lamartine's marriage had been the subject of 
 frequent and anxious discussion in his domestic circle. 
 The young man himself felt, apparently, he must ultimately 
 accept the inevitable lot, but endeavoured to postpone it 
 as long as possible. The only reference to the subject in 
 his letters is once when he tells M. de Virieu that he is 
 
1821.] MISS BIRCH. 79 
 
 shortly to propose for Mademoiselle D , and that when 
 
 she shall have refused him another young lady is in reserve. 
 Nothing more is said of either, and Lamartine went, in the 
 summer of 1819, to spend a few weeks with his newly 
 married sister Cesarine in Savoy. 
 
 It chanced that just at the time an English widow lady 
 and her daughter were staying with the Marquise de la Pierre, 
 who seems to have been the great lady of Chambery. The 
 De la Pierres had, during the emigration, received from 
 Colonel and Mrs. Birch much hospitality and kindness, 
 which they were now anxious to repay by showing every 
 attention to their guests. Their house was a very gay one, 
 and, as the Vignets were near neighbours and intimate 
 friends, Lamartine had many opportunities, of which he 
 eagerly availed himself, of meeting Miss Birch ; so that, 
 before many weeks had elapsed, his mother heard from 
 him, to her great surprise, not only that his happiness 
 depended on his marrying a young English girl, but that 
 they were already engaged ; " at least," she goes on in a 
 qualifying tone, " as far as it is possible for two young 
 people to be engaged without their parents' consent having 
 as yet been given. Cesarine, who knows the young lady 
 very intimately, writes me word that, without being a regular 
 beauty, she is pleasing, graceful, has a perfect figure, mag- 
 nificent hair, and is extremely well educated, with many 
 accomplishments and a superior understanding. Though 
 not rich, her mother is sufficiently well off, and she is the 
 only child. How thankful I should be," adds the poor 
 lady, " if, instead of the brilliant career I once dreamt of 
 for him, but of which now there is so little prospect, I could 
 at least procure for him domestic happiness ! " 
 
80 LAMART1NE, [1815- 
 
 But the difficulties were many, and seemed insuperable ; 
 the family did not approve of a foreigner, and still less 
 of a Protestant connection. " However," adds the mother, 
 " Cesarine assures me that the young lady has confided to 
 the Demoiselles de la Pierre that she has long felt an in- 
 clination to our religion, and would willingly embrace it, 
 but for the pain it would give her mother. If this be really 
 true, this difference might be got over. But what can be 
 more contrary to the fixed, arbitrary notions of his uncles 
 and aunts than this sort of romantic marriage with a 
 foreigner ? And unless they help, nothing can be done. 
 Love may suffice the young people themselves, but it is not 
 they who draw up the contract." 
 
 Things turned out much as she had feared ; the family 
 were inexorable, and when Lamartine, after spending a 
 short time at home in fruitless endeavours to soften the 
 hard hearts of his relatives, rejoined the De la Pierres and 
 Birches at Aix, he could give but slender hopes of obtain- 
 ing the necessary consents. Mrs. Birch, who at first en- 
 couraged his suit, naturally became alarmed for her 
 daughter's happiness, and carried her off to Turin, How- 
 ever, the lovers would not give up all hope, and slightly 
 scandalized Madame de Lamartine by keeping up a corre- 
 spondence, or, as she carefully explains, " an occasional 
 interchange of letters." 
 
 Lamartine was now more anxious than ever to obtain 
 an appointment. For a time he had hopes of being named 
 Secretary of Embassy to a German court, but, at the 
 moment when all seemed settled, he received an intimation 
 from the Foreign Office that it had lately been decided 
 that such places were in future to be reserved for those 
 
1821.] ENGAGEMENT— MARRIAGE. 8 1 
 
 who had already gone through some period of service, but 
 that he could be attached to the legation without a salary, 
 and with the understanding that his period of probation 
 should be exceptionally short. This, however, would not 
 suffice, and the disappointment was the greater because, as 
 he writes to Madame de Raigecourt, the fact of refusing 
 the post offered to him barred all further solicitation. 
 " My marriage is impossible for years, and though the 
 young lady is admirable in her constancy, it only serves 
 to make her persecuted and unhappy. As to myself, I 
 am so accustomed to disappointment and sorrow that I 
 am almost resigned ; what cannot be cured must be endured. 
 My only project for the future is to wrap myself in solitude. 
 I am giving up all my correspondence save with three or 
 four old friends such as yourself. Do not pity or trouble 
 yourself about my unlucky fate ; I am bearing it very well. 
 Nothing worries me much save my hopeless, interminable 
 money difficulties. Once a man becomes early in life in- 
 volved in that terrible quicksand he never gets quite free." 
 
 Lamartine now found himself in much the same position 
 as the Heir of Linne in the old ballad, and, like him, it 
 was at the moment his fortunes had reached their lowest 
 ebb that his feet touched the first rung of the ladder which 
 was to lead to success. He threw himself into poetic com- 
 position more earnestly than ever he had done before, and, 
 no longer hampered by the fear of injuring his official 
 prospects, he resolved to publish. His letters to Virieu are 
 full of copies of verses sent for criticism or approval ; and, 
 at the end of a few months, with a roll of manuscript under 
 his arm, he began the round of the publishers. 
 
 He could afterwards afford to tell, with slightly malicious 
 
 G 
 
82 LAMART1NE. [1815- 
 
 pleasure, how the estimable M. Didot, then and justly the 
 head of the profession, received him with patronizing kind- 
 ness, but told him that his poems were quite unlike any- 
 thing he had ever read before, and advised him to try and 
 imitate the style of Delille, or Luce de Lancival, the then 
 popular poets of the day. Happily, M. Nicolle, to whom 
 he next applied, was not so critical ; and early in 1820 
 appeared, in a slender anonymous volume, " Les Premieres 
 Meditations." Their success was immediate and very 
 great ; the author, like Byron, awoke one morning to find 
 himself famous. 
 
 There are few things more difficult than to do justice 
 to the merits of the literature which has charmed and 
 influenced the generation immediately preceding our own. 
 So much that to them was original and striking is to us 
 trite and commonplace. In the space of thirty years so 
 many illusions are dispelled, so many idols shattered, so 
 many mines worked out, so many new and apparently 
 inexhaustible ones opened, that dust is apt to accumulate 
 on volumes which, not many years ago, used to be read 
 and read again with passionate eagerness. It is, therefore, 
 somewhat surprising to be told, in the preface written by 
 M. de Laprade for the volume of Lamartine's "Poesies 
 inedites," lately published for the first time, " Les adorateurs 
 de Lamartine composent une sorte d'eglise indestructible, 
 et qui survivra aux ecoles les plus bruyantes et les plus 
 populaires. Nos plus pures, nos plus hautes jouissances, 
 c'est a lui que nous les devons ; l'age lui-meme n'emousse 
 pas la vivacite de ce sentiment, n'en alteYe pas la profondeur." 
 M. de Laprade was not a man to use such words lightly. 
 No doubt the little congregation still exists, that tapers are 
 
1821.] FRENCH POETRY. 83 
 
 burning at their shrine, and the air is heavy with incense ; 
 but we suspect that each succeeding year visibly thins its 
 ranks, and that the achievements of Lamartine's unques- 
 tioned genius are rather to be traced in results less direct, 
 but also less perishable. For though a portion of his 
 success may be ascribed to his possessing what the French 
 call " the irresistible note of contemporaneity," the tempera- 
 ment at once receptive and sympathetic, which enabled him 
 to feel keenly and to express forcibly the varying and con- 
 flicting influences which swayed his generation, it must be 
 remembered that, if he reflected the spirit of his time, he 
 likewise dominated it. " While still a very young man," 
 writes Scherer, " Lamartine unquestionably gave the tone 
 to French literature." Indeed, it is hardly too much to say 
 that he was, for a time, the master of all who sang. As 
 such he is hailed in Musset's beautiful ode, and his influence 
 is plainly to be traced in the earlier poems of Victor Hugo. 
 Doubtless the disciple is ranked higher than the master (at 
 least, it would require much self-confidence now to hazard 
 a contrary opinion), yet one may be permitted modestly 
 to suggest that the fame of the younger poet would not 
 have suffered had he retained longer the grace and sim- 
 plicity of his first manner. Lamartine, though he belongs 
 both by the date of his birth and by his intellectual sym- 
 pathies to the modern period, never lost his respect for the 
 dignity of style, for the consummate art, which had matured 
 under the old regime. In his earliest days especially, he 
 took much pains with his diction ; his natural good taste 
 made him dislike the careless versification of which 
 Voltaire set the fashion, and he strove to emulate the 
 severity of the earlier traditions. He excels in the sustained 
 
84 LAMARTINE. [1815- 
 
 period which runs through ten or even twenty lines with 
 perfect clearness and harmony, yet is saved from monotony, 
 by skilful use of the pause, or hemistich, so essential in 
 French verse, and which varies the rhythm without destroy- 
 ing it ; but he never learnt " the crowning art, the art to 
 blot." He is the troubadour of modern French poetry, his 
 verse trilling on like the song of a bird ; his composition an 
 improvisation, best described by his own simile : — 
 
 " Mes fortes pensees, 
 Au but de leurs desirs volant comme des traits, 
 Chaque fois que mon sein respire, plus pressees 
 
 Que les colombes des forets. 
 Montent, montent toujours, par d'autres remplacees, 
 
 Et ne redescendent jamais ! " 
 
 In " L'Isolement," with which the first volume of " Les 
 Meditations " opens, the author, after the fashion of youth- 
 ful bards, tells his readers that life is vanity, emptiness, 
 mirage ; that for him the summer sunshine has no reviving 
 warmth, the flying hours carry no message worth listening 
 to ; that he himself is but a seared leaf tossed by autumnal 
 gales : — 
 
 " Quand la feuille des bois tombe dans la prairie, 
 Le vent du soir s'eleve et 1'arrache aux vallons, 
 Et moi, je suis semblable a la feuille fletrie, 
 
 Emportez-moi comme elle, orageux aquilons ! " 
 
 The same note of suave and tender melancholy pervades 
 " Le Vallon," so well known from Gounod's beautiful 
 setting : — 
 
 " Mon coeur, lasse de tout, meme de l'esperance, 
 N'ira plus de ses voeux importuner le sort ; 
 Pretez-moi seulement, vallons de mon enfance, 
 Un asile d'un jour pour attendre la mort. 
 ***** 
 

 1821.] LAMARTINES POEMS. 85 
 
 " Repose-toi, mon ame, en ce dernier asile, 
 
 Ainsi qu'un voyageur qui, le coeur plein d'espoir, 
 S'assied, avant d'entrer, aux portes de la ville, 
 Et respire un moment l'air embaume du soir. 
 
 " Comme lui, de nos pieds secouons la poussiere ; 
 L'homme par ce chemin ne repasse jamais, 
 Comme lui, respirons au bout de la carriere 
 Ce calme avant-coureur de l'eternelle paix. 
 
 " Tes jours, sombres et courts comme des jours d'automne, 
 Declinent comme l'ombre au penchant des coteaux ; 
 L'amitie te trahit, la pitie t'abandonne, 
 
 Et, seule, tu descends le sentier des tombeaux. 
 
 " Mais la nature est la qui t'invite et qui t'aime ; 
 
 Plonge-toi dans son sein qu'elle t'ouvre toujours ; 
 Quand tout change pour toi, la nature est la meme, 
 Et le meme soleil se leve sur tes jours. 
 
 " Suis le jour dans le ciel, suis l'ombre sur la terre ; 
 Dans les plaines de l'air vole avec l'aquilon ; 
 Avec les doux rayons de l'astre de mystere 
 
 Glisse a travers les bois dans l'ombre du vallon." 
 
 In the longer poems of this volume, " La Foi," 
 " L'Immortalite," " Le Desespoir," religious and philo- 
 sophical speculations are descanted on with perhaps more 
 fluency than power ; while, on the other hand, " Le Lac," 
 written in the days of anguish which preceded the death of 
 Elvire, shows, in its more than wonted fulness of thought 
 and conciseness of expression, traces of strong though 
 carefully disciplined emotion. " The sense of the implacable 
 flight of time, the resistless passage of the hours" is per- 
 fectly given in the opening lines : — 
 
 " Ainsi, toujours pousses vers de nouveaux rivages, 
 Dans la nuit eternelle emportes sans retpur, 
 Ne pourrons nous jamais sur l'ocean des ages 
 Jeter l'ancre un seul jour? 
 
S6 LAMARTINE. [1815- 
 
 " Eternite, neant, passe, sombres abimes, 
 
 Que faites vous des jours que vous engloutissez ? 
 Parlez ; nous rendrez-vous ces extases sublimes, 
 Que vous nous ravissez ? 
 
 The " Nouvelles Meditations," which appeared in the 
 course of the following year, are not so highly finished or 
 so self-contained as the first series ; they open on larger, 
 more luminous horizons. In breadth of style, in fulness of 
 thought, Ste. Beuve considers them superior ; but they show 
 traces of more haste in the writing. In u Les Etoiles " the 
 influence of Ossian, on whom Lamartine lavishes so much 
 praise, is clearly seen — the images are multiplied till the 
 poet finally loses himself in the mystic depths of the mid- 
 night skies. " Les Preludes," in which, with rapid, flexible 
 fingers, Lamartine strikes every chord of his lyre, give full 
 utterance to the hopes, fears, and aspirations of a genera- 
 tion unsettled on all points, and without strong convictions, 
 nonchalant, indifferent, and yet eager for strife. " Ischia," 
 " Le Passe," u Les Consolations," Scherer reckons among 
 Lamartine's finest pieces. " Bonaparte " has a clarion-like 
 note, and breathes a more generous spirit to the fallen foe 
 than was often found among Royalist writers of that period. 
 The rhythm and cadence are admirable : — 
 
 " II est la ! . . . sous trois pas un enfant le mesure ! 
 Son ombre ne rend pas meme un leger murmure, 
 
 Le pied de l'ennemi foule en paix son cercueil. 
 Sur ce front foudroyant le moucheron bourdonne, 
 Et son ombre n'entend que le bruit monotone, 
 De la vague contre l'ecueil. 
 
 1 ' Les dieux etaient tombes, les trones etaient vides ; 
 La victoire te prit sur ses ailes rapides ; 
 
 D'un peuple de Brutus la gloire te fit roi ! 
 Ce siecle dont l'ecume entrainait dans sa course 
 Les moeurs, les rois, les dieux . . . refoule vers sa source 
 Recula d'un pas devant toi ! 
 
1821.] LAMARTINES POEMS. 8? 
 
 " Tii combattis l'erreur sans regarder le nombre ; 
 Pareil au fier Jacob tu luttas contre une ombre ; 
 Le fantome croula sous le poids d'un mortel 
 Et de tous ces grands noms profanateur sublime, 
 Tu jouas avec eux, comme la main du crime 
 Avec les vases de l'autel. 
 ***** 
 " Jamais, pour eclaircir ta royale tristesse, 
 La coupe des festins ne te versa l'ivresse, 
 
 Tes yeux d'une autre pourpre aimaient a s'enivrer. 
 Comme un soldat debout qui veille sous ses armes, 
 Tu vis de la beaute le sourire ou les larmes, 
 Sans sourire et sans soupirer. 
 
 " Tu grandis sans plaisir, tu tombas sans murmure, 
 Rien d'humain ne battais sous ton epaisse armure ; 
 
 Sans haine et sans amour, tu vivais pour penser, 
 Comme l'aigle regnant dans un ciel solitaire, 
 Tu n'avais qu'un regard pour mesurer la terre, 
 Et des serres pour 1'embrasser ! 
 
 " Etre d'un siecle entier la pensee et la vie, 
 Emousser le poignard, decourager l'envie, 
 
 Ebranler, raffermir, l'univers incertain ; 
 Aux sinistres clartes de ta foudre qui gronde 
 Vingt fois contre les dieux jouer le sort du monde, 
 Quel reve ! et ce fut ton destin ! 
 
 " Tu mourus cependant de la mort du vulgaire, 
 Ainsi qu'un moissoneur va chercher son salaire, 
 
 Et dort sur sa faucille avant d'etre paye ; 
 De ton glaive sanglant tu t'armas en silence, 
 Et tu fus demander justice ou recompense 
 Au Dieu qui t'avait envoye. 
 ***** 
 
 " Son cercueil est ferme ; Dieu l'a juge. Silence ! 
 Son crime et ses exploits pesent dans la balance ; 
 
 Que de faibles mortels la main n'y touche plus ! 
 Qui peut sonder, Seigneur, ta clemence infinie ! 
 Et vous, fleau de Dieu, qui sait si le genie 
 N'est pas une de vos vertus ? " 
 
 There is, however, a more enduring charm in the beau- 
 tiful stanzas entitled, " Le Poete Mourant." 
 
88 LAMART1NE. [1815- 
 
 " La coupe de mes jours s'est brisee encore pleine ; 
 Ma vie en long soupirs s'enfuit a chaque haleine, 
 
 Ni larmes ni regrets ne peuvent l'arreter ; 
 Et l'aile de la mort, sur l'airain qui me pleure, 
 En sons entrecoupes frappe ma derniere heure ; 
 Faut-il gemir ? faut-il chanter ? 
 ***** 
 " La lyre en se brisant jette un son plus sublime j 
 La lampe qui s'eteint tout-a-coup se ranime, 
 
 Et d'un eclat plus pur brille avant d'expirer ; 
 Le cygne voit le ciel a son heure derniere ; 
 L'homme seul, reportant ses regards en arriere, 
 Compte ses jours pour les pleurer. 
 
 " Ma harpe fut sou vent de larmes arrosee ; 
 
 Mais les pleurs sont pour nous la celeste ros£e ; 
 
 Sous un ciel toujours pur le cceur ne murit pas ; 
 Dans la coupe ecrase, le jus du pampre coule, 
 Et le baume fletri sous le pied qui le foule 
 Repand ses parfume sous vos pas. 
 
 " Je jette un nom de plus a ces flots sans rivage ; 
 Au gre des vents, du ciel, qu'il s'abime ou surnage, 
 
 En serai-je plus grand? Pourquoi? ce n'est qu'un nom. 
 Le cygne qui s'envole aux voutes eternelles, 
 Amis, s'informe-t-il si l'ombre de ses ailes 
 Flotte encore sur un vil gazon ? 
 ***** 
 " Brisez, livrez au vent, aux ondes, a la flamme, 
 Ce luth qui n'a qu'un son pour repondre a mon ame : 
 
 Celui des Seraphins va fremir sous mes doigts. 
 Bientot, vivant comme eux d'un immortel delire ! 
 Je vais guider, peut-etre, aux accords de ma lyre, 
 Des cieux suspendus a. ma voix. 
 
 M Bientot. . . . Mais de la mort la main lourde et muette 
 Vient de toucher la corde, elles brise, et jette 
 
 Un son plaintif et sourd dans le vague des airs ; 
 Mon luth glace se tait. . . . Amis, prenez le votre ; 
 Et que mon ame encore passe d'un monde a l'autre 
 Au bruit de vos sacres concerts ! " 
 
 The "Harmonies poetiques et religieuses," which Lamar- 
 tine wrote between the years 1825-1828, " established,'' 
 
1821.] LAMARTINE'S POEMS. 89 
 
 Ste. Beuve tells us, "his claim to something more than 
 popularity." From "the first 'Meditations,' to the 'Har- 
 monies,' he goes on developing with progress, rising from 
 the elegy to the hymn, from poetic expression to poetic 
 thought. In the 'Novissima Verba,' is exhaled the 
 poignant anguish which sometimes seizes on the noblest 
 natures in their hour of triumph, and flings them prostrate 
 in an icy sweat, asking for mercy." But the same poem is 
 criticized by M. Planche for its needless prolixity. He 
 compares it to Bernini's figures, crushed under the weight 
 of their own draperies, and ranks it much higher than the 
 " Jehovah," " passages of which leave on the memory a 
 track of light." The " Hymne a la Douleur," shorter and 
 more sustained throughout, contains some fine lines : — 
 
 " II est peut-etre en moi quelque fibre sonore 
 Qui peut sous ton regard se torturer encore, 
 Comme un serpent coupe sur le chemin gisant, 
 Dont le troncon se tord sous le pied du passant. 
 ***** 
 
 II n'est pas dans mon cceur, 
 Une fibre qui n'ait resonne sa douleur ! 
 Pas un cheveu blanchi de ma tete penchee 
 Qui n'ait ete broye comme une herbe fauchee ! 
 Pas un amour en moi qui n'ait ete frappe, 
 Un espoir, un desir, qui n'ait peri trompe ! 
 Tu fais l'homme, 6 Douleur ! oui, l'homme tout entier, 
 Comme le creuset l'or, et la flamme l'acier, 
 Comme le gres noirci des debris qu'il enleve, 
 En dechirant le fer, fait un tranchant au glaive ; 
 Qui ne t'a pas connu, ne sait rien d'ici-bas, 
 II foule mollement la terre, il n'y vit pas ; 
 Comme sur un image il flotte sur la vie ; 
 Rien n'y marque pour lui la route en vain suivie ; 
 Le sueur de son front n'y mouille pas sa main, 
 Son pieds n'y heurte pas les cailloux du chemin, 
 II n'y sait pas, a l'heure ou faiblissent ses armes ! 
 Retremper ses vertus aux flots brulans des larmes, 
 II n'y sait point combattre avec son propre cceur, 
 Ce combat douleureux dont gemit le vainqueru." 
 
90 LAMARTINE. [1815- 
 
 " La Source," and " Le Rossignol " are excellent ex- 
 amples of the charm — " vague, yet not without a power of 
 sweet coercion — of Lamartine's tender elegiac strain ; " 
 while " Milly, ou la terre natale," reveals, not so much the 
 genius of the poet, as the simple trustful nature of the man, 
 He yields to no temptation to gild the framing, or decorate 
 the picture of a place so dear to him ; its personal associa- 
 tions, the sweet and tender memories it evokes are 
 sufficient : — 
 
 " II est sur la terre une montagne aride 
 Qui ne porte en ses flancs ni bois ni flot limpide, 
 Un coteau qui decroit et, d'etage en etage, 
 Porte, a l'abri des murs dont ils sont etayes, 
 Quelques avares champs de nos sueurs payes, 
 Quelques ceps dont les bras, cherchant en vain l'erable, 
 Serpentent sur la terre ou rampent sur la sable ; 
 Lieux que ni le doux bruit des caux pendant l'ete, 
 Ne le fremissement du feuillage agite, 
 Ni l'hymne aerien du rossignol qui veille, 
 Ne rappellent au cceur, n'enchantent pour l'oreille ; 
 Mais que, sous les rayons d'un ciel toujours d'airain, 
 La cigale assourdit de son cri souterrain. 
 II est dans ces deserts un toit rustique et sombre 
 Que la montagne seule abrite de son ombre, 
 Et dont les murs, battus par la pluie et les vents, 
 Portent leur age ecrit sous la mousse des ans. 
 Sur le seuil desuni de trois marches de pierre 
 Le hazard a plante les racines d'un lierre 
 Qui, redoublant cent fois ses nceuds entrelaces, 
 Cache l'affront du temps sous ses bras elances ; 
 Un jardin qui descend au travers d'un coteau, 
 
 Y presente au couchant son sable altere d'eau ; 
 La pierre sans ciment, que l'hiver a noircie 
 En borne tristement l'enceinte retrecie : 
 
 La terre, que la beche ouvre a chaque saison, 
 
 Y montre a nu son sein sans ombre et sans gazon ; 
 Ni tapis emailles, ni cintres de verdure, 
 
 Ni ruisseau sous des bois, ni fraicheur, ni murmure ; 
 Seulement sept tilleuls par le soc oublies 
 Protegeant un peu d'herbe etendue a leurs pieds, 
 
 Y versent dans l'automne une ombre tiede et rare, 
 D'autant plus douce au front sous un ciel plus avare ; 
 
1821.] LAMARTINE'S POEMS. 9 1 
 
 Arbres dont le sommeil et des songes si beaux, 
 
 Dans mon heureuse enfance habitaient les rameaux ; 
 
 Dans le champetre enclos qui soupire apres l'onde, 
 
 Un puits dans le rocher cache son eau profonde, 
 
 Ou le vieillard qui puise, apres de longs efforts, 
 
 Depose en gemissant son urne sur les bords ; 
 
 Une aire ou le fleau sur l'argile etendue 
 
 Bat a coups cadences la gerbe repandue ; 
 
 Oil la blanche colombe et l'humble passereau 
 
 Se disputent l'epi qu'oublia le rateau ; 
 
 Et sur la terre epars des instruments rustiques, 
 
 Des jougs rompus, des chars dormant sous les portiques, 
 
 Des essieux dont l'orniere a brise les rayons, 
 
 Et des socs emousses qu'ont uses les sillons." 
 
 Many of Lamartine's poems are extremely religious in 
 tone and feeling — a circumstance which has certainly con- 
 tributed towards making their popularity widespread and 
 enduring. For though most of the Latin hymns of the 
 mediaeval Church — the finest religious poetry that exists — 
 were written by Frenchmen, there is very little good 
 religious poetry in modern French, and to thousands it was 
 a revelation to find in verse a vehicle for expressing their 
 most exalted aspirations, nourishment for their most 
 intense feelings. " Poetry/* writes Amiel of Lamartine, 
 " which raises you as this does, heavenwards, and fills you 
 with divine emotion, which sings of love and death, of 
 hope and sacrifice, and awakens the sense of the infinite." 
 Some of Lamartine's religious verse is in the form of 
 invocation ; as, for instance, his " Morning and Evening 
 Hymns," and " Child's Morning Prayer ; " in others, he 
 teaches the lesson of the world from the point of view of 
 Catholic dogma ; of these the " Pensee des Morts," with 
 its vivid realization of the Divine purity, its firm grasp of 
 the communion of Christian souls, which no accident of life 
 or death can affect, is perhaps the best known. 
 
92 LAMAR TINE. [1821- 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1821-1831. 
 
 " My book," writes Lamartine to Virieu, " has a success 
 which is astounding for poetry in these days. MM. Mole, 
 Mounier, Pasquier, all the anti-poets are reading and 
 quoting it. So you see you were a true prophet ! " Even 
 Talleyrand, whom no one would suspect of lyrical predi- 
 lections, wrote to a lady who had lent him the volume, that 
 he had sat up half the night reading it. 
 
 The author's friends profiting, as he modestly puts it, 
 by the momentary celebrity of the " Meditations," made 
 a last vigorous effort, and succeeded in obtaining for him 
 the place of secretary to the French embassy at Naples — 
 an appointment the more valued as it removed the only 
 serious obstacle to his marriage. The offer was made by 
 M. Pasquier in very flattering terms, and at the same time 
 M. Simon, Minister of the Interior, sent him Didot's fine 
 edition of the classics, with a gracious message from the 
 King, who himself supplemented the paucity of the diplo- 
 matic salary with a pension of two thousand francs. 
 
 But lights and shadows were ever wont to alternate 
 quickly in Lamartine's life. His mother, as she was rejoicing 
 over his triumphs, received a letter summoning her hastily 
 to Paris, where she found him stricken down by a severe 
 
1831.] . ILLNESS. 93 
 
 attack of inflammation of the lungs. However, kind friends 
 had been at his bedside from the first, and, though he lay 
 for a time between life and death, he was finally pronounced 
 convalescent. The knowledge that health, fortune, and 
 happiness were all coming back to her beloved son, filled 
 the mother's heart with joy. There is a touching passage 
 in her journal telling how, on Easter Sunday evening, going 
 to the Church of St. Roch, where she had often worshipped 
 in her youth, her emotions of joy and gratitude well-nigh 
 overwhelmed her. But it is evident from the letters in 
 which Lamartine opens his mind unreservedly to Aymon 
 de Virieu, that his convalescence was painful and trying 
 enough : " I am only conscious that I live," he writes, 
 " from the suffering I endure, and the feeling of affection 
 for you and a few others. We shall surely meet again, my 
 friend, here or elsewhere, most likely elsewhere. If I do 
 recover, I shall marry Miss Birch this year. She is indeed 
 the woman whose price is beyond rubies ; in everything 
 she has been perfect. It is you and she I should regret 
 most to leave. I shall write often, but only a few lines." 
 
 However, Lamartine's return to health, if slow, was 
 complete, for in April we find him at Aix in the character 
 of an engaged lover. His letters show a serious sense of 
 the importance of the step he is about to take. " The time 
 has come," he writes to Virieu, "to regulate a hitherto 
 wasted life according to the established laws, whether they 
 be human or Divine ; according to my view, if human, then 
 of necessity Divine. Time flies, half the allotted span has 
 already passed away ; let us find a clear and definite aim 
 for the portion that yet remains, and let that aim be the 
 most exalted of all, the wish to please God." 
 
94 LA MAR TINE. [1821- 
 
 Nor was his mind quite free from minor preoccupations. 
 His means were limited, and he went through extreme 
 mortification at not being able to add to the corbeille de 
 noce, which in France is offered by the bridegroom, a 
 gift of jewels. Happily a remittance arrived unexpectedly, 
 at the eleventh hour, and he rushed off to Geneva, where 
 he procured a lovely parure, which was received with the 
 most gratifying rapture. But, though he does not mention 
 it, we learn from another source that the present most 
 valued by the somewhat romantic young English lady was 
 a manuscript copy of the " Meditations," in the delicate, 
 aristocratic handwriting of the author. 
 
 On the 6th of June following, the marriage was 
 solemnised in the private chapel of the Governor of Cham- 
 be>y. " My daughter-in-law," writes Madame de Lamartine, 
 " was dressed in the most suitable way possible ; she wore 
 a very beautiful gown of embroidered muslin, and a superb 
 lace veil, which covered her almost entirely from head to 
 foot. Nothing could have been more graceful and dignified 
 than her demeanour, or more touching than her piety. 
 Words cannot express all I felt in seeing my son at this 
 most important moment of his life. What adequate tribute 
 of praise and thanksgiving can a mother find to offer when 
 such a blessing is vouchsafed ? Having seen the happiness 
 of her child thus secured, she may well feel her earthly 
 task is accomplished." 
 
 At Geneva, the marriage according to the Protestant 
 rite was solemnized, and the bridal party, including Madame 
 de Lamartine's mother, Mrs. Birch, started for Naples, 
 halting at Turin, Florence, and Rome on the way. 
 
 Lamartine's marriage was productive of much happi- 
 
1831.] MARRIAGE. 95 
 
 ness, and may be considered one of the most fortunate 
 events of his life. His wife, who seems to have combined 
 all the good qualities of both English and French women, 
 was devotedly attached to him, yet had plenty of indi- 
 viduality of character, and was thoroughly suited for 
 a position which, judging from some recent biographies, 
 would seem to be the most difficult of all, that of the wife 
 of a man of genius — accepting the trials, burdens, and 
 responsibilities thereto pertaining, with unfailing and en- 
 thusiastic self-devotion. It is remarkable that Lamartine, 
 who was certainly not reticent in discoursing about his 
 belongings, and repeatedly gave the world minute personal 
 details as to his parents, relations, and friends, never alluded 
 to his wife in any of his published writings, save incidentally 
 in his travels, when it could not have been avoided without 
 affectation, but even then always in a way which proved he 
 respected her English reserve. His letters to his friends, in 
 his early married life, show that her unselfishness and quiet 
 discipline of character made a deep impression on him. 
 He is constantly urging them to follow his example without 
 delay, and, above all, not to select some young, unlessoned 
 girl, but, like himself, a helpmate with formed and culti- 
 vated mind. Writing many years after his marriage, he 
 speaks more fully, and with less reserve, as to his conjugal 
 happiness. His wife had brought him, he says, virtue, wit, 
 amiability, attractiveness, love, and fortune. The beautiful 
 lyric inserted in * Les Preludes," beginning — 
 
 " L'onde qui baise ce rivage, 
 
 De quoi se plaint-elle a ses bords," 
 
 was inspired by Madame de Lamartine. 
 
 The travellers journeyed in two comfortable post-chaises, 
 
 1 
 
9^ LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 halting frequently on the road, after the pleasant and 
 leisurely fashion of the time. The first stage was to Turin, 
 where M. Aymon de Virieu was secretary of embassy, and 
 some happy days were spent in his company. At Florence, 
 Madame d'Albany, whom Lamartine had known on his 
 former visit, gave them a gracious reception. M. de 
 Fontenay, the French minister, was charming, and Madame 
 de Lamartine fully shared her husband's enthusiasm for 
 Dante's " beautiful sheepfold." 
 
 The first shadow that crossed the newly married 
 couple's path was the news that " the Revolution " (it used 
 to be the fashion to speak as if it were an epidemic) had 
 broken out at Naples, making the roads unsafe for travellers, 
 so Lamartine had to hurry on to his post, leaving his wife 
 and mother-in-law in Rome. At the end of a month he 
 was able to return and escort them to a house he had 
 secured, overlooking the gardens of the Villa Reale on one 
 side ; on the other was a foreground of orange and fig 
 groves, with Pausilipo in the distance. But as the heat 
 was still oppressive at Naples, the autumn was passed in 
 a chalet at Ischia. Here all the emotions and feelings of 
 the spring-time of his life, when he first " saw Naples and 
 lived," came back to Lamartine with renewed force, and 
 brought fuel to the flame of his more cultivated and exer- 
 cised genius : many of his most pleasing and popular 
 poems were, if not written, at least inspired at this time ; 
 for what Tivoli was to Horace, the Bay of Naples was to 
 Lamartine. 
 
 " There are not ten days in the whole French summer," 
 he writes to Virieu, " worth these autumnal ones ; one in- 
 hales life, sunshine, love, genius, with every breath. I think 
 

 1831.] DIPLOMATIC SERVICE. 97 
 
 of you when, stepping out on my balcony in the early 
 morning, I look down on the glittering sea that lies beneath 
 me, fringed by the orange groves of Pausilipo, all incom- 
 parably more lovely than it even seemed to memory. 
 Come and see. We have a room which is called yours." 
 He goes on in a more prosaic strain : " Neapolitan politics 
 are a curious study, even for such connoisseurs as we French- 
 men are in revolutions and constitutions. Can you fancy 
 a Committee sitting round Virgil's tomb, and clubs of 
 Carbonari in the temples of Baiae and Pozzuoli ? However, 
 the crisis seems to have passed over peaceably, and even 
 Sicily is settling down. The rebels, indeed, are fortifying 
 Palermo, and troops are to be sent out from here to 
 act against them, but both parties appear to waste as 
 much time looking at each other as ever did Homer's 
 heroes." 
 
 At the time of his entrance into diplomacy Lamartine 
 was most fortunate in his chiefs. M. de Narbonne, whom 
 he found at Naples, possessed a charm of conversation and 
 manner which is a matter of history, and in private life was 
 kindly, sensible, and easy to live with. He liked letter- 
 writing, and transacted almost all the diplomatic business 
 of the embassy himself, an arrangement of which Lamartine 
 highly approved. After a few months M. de Narbonne 
 was succeeded by M. de Fontenay, who at Florence had 
 been simply charming, but is now described as the " rigid 
 yet amiable Fontenay." He did not share M. de Nar- 
 bonne's views as to the uses of attaches, but kept his occa- 
 sionally for two days successively at their desks. However, 
 this was accepted with good grace by Lamartine, who was 
 pleased to find that he could work both hard and well, and 
 
 H 
 
98 LA MAR TINE. [1821- 
 
 cherished the prospect of soon rising a step higher, with 
 an increase of income. 
 
 He was now in his thirtieth year, and it seemed as if 
 domestic happiness, literary celebrity, an assured position, 
 and a profession he liked were all firmly secured to him, 
 when an unexpected blow dashed his hopes ; a severe 
 attack of illness struck him down, and, after six weeks of 
 acute suffering, left him quite unfit to resume his duties. 
 Immediate change of air was imperative. M. de Fontenay 
 obtained for him an indefinite leave of absence ; and the 
 early days of January, 1821, found him in the Via Barberini, 
 Rome. His sufferings were still very great. He describes 
 himself as bruised, crushed, shattered in every nerve ; the 
 disappointment caused by the alteration in his prospects 
 very considerable ; yet he writes, " Still I bless God, and 
 am happy ; such is the change a kind, tender, amiable, 
 adorable companion has wrought in my life." 
 
 And we find in his mother's journal of about the same 
 date: " Alphonse writes to me that he is completely happy. 
 Such language from him is so unusual that it must be 
 sincere. He sends me a sum of money for his old master, 
 the Abbe Dumont, who is ill and in great poverty. I am 
 touched by this recollection of one whom he might easily 
 have forgotten amid the pre-occupations of his present life." 
 
 A little later she goes on to say, " On the 8th of May, 
 at Rome, my daughter-in-law gave birth to a son. Alphonse 
 writes he is beautiful as an angel, and is called Alphonse, 
 after him. He was baptized in St. Peter's ; his godfather 
 is an Italian, the Marquis Pagliati, his godmother the 
 Princess Oginski, a Pole. This news makes me very 
 happy. The child, they say, resembles me, so I picture 
 
1831.] FAMILY LIFE. 99 
 
 him to myself exactly as his father was at the same age. 
 They will come here when she is strong enough to travel." 
 
 But the young mother's health did not allow of this 
 visit being made for some time. The summer was spent 
 at Aix-le-Bains, where both the invalids, by dint of taking 
 asses' milk and living out of doors, were tolerably restored. 
 Still it was evident that fresh air and a temperate 
 climate and a country life were absolutely necessary for 
 Lamartine and his wife ; and they decided to give up the 
 prospect of any immediate advancement in diplomacy, 
 and, for a time at least, to settle down at St. Point, which 
 had been given to him by his father on his marriage, and 
 where all these could be found. The chateau had not 
 been occupied for some years, and to make it habitable 
 with the very limited means at the young couple's disposal 
 was not an easy task. 
 
 " There are entr'actes in life," he writes to Virieu, " if, 
 indeed, the whole of life be not itself merely an entr'acte. 
 I am, at any rate, passing through one at this moment. 
 All my faculties are concentrated on bricklayers' bills and 
 farm accounts. Let us hope that minds, after a period of 
 hibernation, make a doubly vigorous spring growth. I 
 write from my mountain lair, which is being got into order 
 as quickly as may be. My wife and my mother-in-law are 
 beginning to be satisfied. I shall have a good, substantial 
 house, more substantial than its owner. You know St, 
 Point is the twin-brother of Pupetieres ; they are two nests 
 of similar construction, prepared for two birds of like 
 plumage. You will find here your towers and passages, 
 your lime-trees of Henry IV., your woods, and fields, and 
 brooks ; only St. Point is somewhat the larger, and while 
 
IOO LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 I restore with one hand I destroy with the other, to bring 
 the house into proportion with my means and my tastes. 
 I long to be settled here." 
 
 But for various reasons the installation was delayed. 
 In May, 1822, a daughter was born at Macon, and the 
 end of the summer found the Lamartines in London, 
 living at 4, Great Cumberland Street Lamartine seems 
 at first not to have been able quite to make up his mind 
 as to " questo dubbio paese," — " The sky is gloomy, the 
 earth dolce e lieto, the houses extremely small, and 
 smoked outside, but the interiors are enchanting ; here 
 is the apotheosis of physical existence embellished and 
 ennobled by elegance. Life is, on the whole, cheaper here 
 than in Paris ; house rent and provisions very much so, 
 only everything that requires manual labour is dear. I 
 like the people better than I expected ; all our connections 
 are excellent, noble, grave, and amiable. Since I have 
 been here I have done a good deal of sightseeing, and 
 mean to do more ; it is a beautiful country, and worthy of 
 many visits. Our richest Gothic conceptions are fully 
 realized ; I have acquired a passion, a mania, for this style, 
 and am in despair at having put a stone to St. Point before 
 my eyes were opened. Remember my words, and beware 
 of doing anything to Pupetieres until yours are." Unfor- 
 tunately this, Lamartine's longest visit to England, was 
 darkened by a great sorrow ; his little boy was taken ill, 
 and remained some time between life and death. His 
 father, who writes with great bitterness of the " miserable 
 and murderous English medical practice," clung to the 
 hope that French air and French treatment might cure 
 him, and, when he could be moved, the poor little sufferer 
 
1831.] LIFE IN PARIS. 101 
 
 was brought to Paris, but only to die. The blow was 
 a cruel one, and is sadly alluded to in the few letters written 
 at this period. 
 
 Having taken their apartment for the winter, the 
 Lamartines remained in Paris, living in great retirement, 
 and seeing only " les incomparables et invariables Raige- 
 court," and a few equally intimate friends. Louis de 
 Vignet was there, but " absorbed by Duchesses." " Just as 
 it should be," writes Lamartine, with his usual indulgence ; 
 " he is quite right to try his wings." In the spring, Lamar- 
 tine went out himself a little more, frequently spending 
 a part of the evening in the salon of Madame de la Tre- 
 moille — " whose noble and simple manners take us back 
 to another and a better century. There is no one to 
 compare with her." Politics were a good deal discussed 
 at this time ; but Lamartine does not as yet seem to take 
 much interest in public affairs, and is displeased at the 
 change of ministry, chiefly because it has the result of 
 reducing his salary to half-pay. However, the King came 
 forward generously, and bestowed on him an additional 
 pension of two thousand francs ; and a second volume of 
 " Meditations," without having quite the success of the 
 first, was well received, and realized fourteen thousand 
 francs, which removed some anxiety as to the feasibility 
 of completing the restoration of St. Point. 
 
 The next two or three years passed uneventfully, and 
 on the whole happily, though not without some portion of 
 sorrow. The restoration of St. Point, like most such 
 undertakings, considerably exceeding the original estimate 
 of cost, plans of visiting Paris had to be given up, and the 
 winter months, during which the cold was very severe at 
 
102 LAMART1NE. [1821- 
 
 St Point, were spent at Macon. Meanwhile, Lamartine, 
 absorbed by masons and gardeners, did not find as much 
 time for writing as might have been expected ; he brought 
 out one poem on the death of Socrates, which, though he 
 alludes to it complacently in his letters, as "what 1 have 
 done best in the style meditatif" would not now-a-days be 
 read with much pleasure. The writer never possessed the 
 power of divining or reproducing the thoughts or feelings 
 of any epoch but his own. 
 
 The year 1824 was a specially sad one for the whole 
 family. In February the beautiful Cesarine de Vignet, 
 with the Fornarina face, died in her far-away home in 
 Savoy, too suddenly for any of her family to be summoned ; 
 and, almost at the same time, her younger sister, Suzanne, 
 who had married a Burgundian gentleman, M. de Mon- 
 therot, was pronounced to be dying of consumption. The 
 illness was long and trying. In a few pages written imme- 
 diately after the death of this beloved daughter, Madame 
 de Lamartine pathetically recalls each detail of those 
 months of suffering, borne with angelic patience, and the 
 last sad closing scene, " so edifying, so touching, so full of 
 consolation for all true Christians, but heartrending to her 
 mother. Throughout all," she writes, " Alphonse was of the 
 utmost help and comfort ; " and when the end had come, 
 and, according to the strange custom then usual in France, 
 father, mother, and husband left the house of death, he 
 stayed to fulfil the last sad offices, and then rejoined the rest 
 of the family at St. Point. Here they all remained for some 
 months, Lamartine devoting himself, with almost feminine 
 tenderness, to console his mother, and his wife doing her 
 utmost to supply the place of the daughter she had lost. 
 In November, 1824, a vacancy occurring in the Academie 
 
1831.] EACADEMIE FRANC A/SE. IO3 
 
 francaise, Lamartine was strongly pressed by his friends 
 in Paris to offer himself as a candidate. His first impulse 
 was to refuse ; but as this was vehemently opposed by his 
 father and mother, he started, though reluctantly, on the 
 quest. The business of candidature is not a very pleasant 
 one for sensitive temperaments. The first obligation im- 
 posed on an aspirant, which consists in clothing himself 
 from head to foot in ceremonious black, and, thus arrayed, 
 presenting himself to each of the thirty-nine, asking him for 
 his vote, is sarcastically described by Prosper Merimee, in 
 his " Letters a une Inconnue : " " In the mean time I con- 
 scientiously make visits ; I find every one extremely civil, 
 accustomed to his part, and taking it very seriously. I do 
 my best, also, to take mine gravely, but it is difficult. 
 Does it not seem ridiculous to say to a man, ' Monsieur, 
 I think myself one of the forty cleverest men in France. 
 At any rate I am as good as you/ and such like facetiae ? 
 I have to express this in terms of politeness graduated 
 according to the importance of the persons." 
 
 However, an amusing gloss on this irreverent satire is 
 to be found in another correspondence of the period, that 
 of M. Ximenes Doudan : " The election of M. Ste. Beuve 
 and Prosper Merimee has been an exciting campaign. To 
 begin with, both, as they candidly acknowledged, were 
 intensely eager to get in. M. Merimee consulted Homer, 
 opening the volume at random, and considering the first 
 line of each page as prophetic. Since his election all the 
 lines are proved to have been clearly in his favour. M. de 
 Ste. Beuve was withering away so visibly with fear and 
 expectation, that to refuse him a vote would have required 
 a heart of steel." 
 
104 LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 At first Lamartine, in his confidential letters to M. de 
 Virieu, speaks of the distinction of belonging to the " Flock 
 of Immortals " quite as disparagingly, and let us hope with 
 more sincerity than M. Prosper Merimee. But once fairly 
 launched in the campaign, he became, as is the case with 
 most candidates, anxious to succeed. His earlier bulletins 
 were trumpet-notes of triumph. " All goes," he writes, " on 
 four wheels. Roger has assured me of his devotion. Ville- 
 main says he is free, and that he admires me. Daru 
 received me gushingly, and Raynouard also very well. 
 Look after Lacretelle and Campenon, who alone are hostile. 
 Augier, too, is not with me ; he let me see it. I have just 
 seen M. Laine ; he was charming. L'Abbe Frayssinous has 
 promised my cousin that he will vote for me, and he brings 
 others with him." 
 
 Two days later the prospect had entirely changed : 
 " Alas ! and alas ! this diabolical journey ! I was in 
 perfect ignorance that the Academic flock follows blindly 
 a cabal of five or six bell-wethers, and I fell into the 
 trap. And who do you think is my rival ? A perfectly 
 unknown individual called Droz, who is the creature of 
 MM. Auger, Campenon, Lacretelle et Co. ! The Liberals 
 are all with him, and five Royalists also support him. So 
 I am shelved there, without a hope of breaking the bundle 
 of faggots. I have gone too far to withdraw, and must do 
 my best to make my defeat honourable and dignified, 
 which is the utmost I can hope for ; two days more of this 
 ordeal still remains to be gone through. Every one is 
 most kind. M. de Chateaubriand, with whom I have every 
 reason to be pleased, Michaud, Villemain, and tutti quanti 
 are zealous, but feel themselves beaten. The only chance 
 
1831.] FLORENCE. 105 
 
 would be if a third candidate offered himself, and so broke 
 the hostile coalition. ... I have seen Prevot, and learnt 
 from him that I may look forward within a year to 
 Florence and eight thousand francs as a compensation, if 
 I like to avail myself of it. ... I spent last evening 
 pleasantly, as in times of yore, at Madame de Montcalm's, 
 with MM. Mole\ Pasquierj etc. There is still some wit to 
 be found in that salon!' 
 
 In September, 1825, the Lamartines started for Florence, 
 where he had been appointed secretary of embassy, not 
 altogether without regret. " It is an exile, and I ask myself 
 what it is I go for. There will be less comfort than I can 
 command here, less* solitude, less leisure, fewer old associa- 
 tions and habits. But my wife's health, and her still very 
 vivid imagination, have weighed the balance down, so 
 I follow the path Providence seems to have marked out 
 for me." 
 
 But, as so often happens, what was anticipated did not 
 occur. The years of Lamartine's Florentine mission, far 
 from being a period of exile, were perhaps the happiest, 
 certainly the least troubled of his life. At the end of a 
 few weeks he had settled his family comfortably, close to 
 the Poggio Imperiale. The hotel, of which they occupied 
 half, had lovely terraced gardens ; cypresses for shade and 
 coolness, enchanting views > only bounded by the distant 
 southern hills. A few weeks later, and, to their great joy, 
 the Virieus arrived for the winter ; then the St. Aulaires, 
 Castellanes, and Valences ; forming a circle which even 
 in Paris would have been deemed delightful. 
 
 In Florentine society the Lamartines were appreciated 
 and liked ; though, in the early days of 1826, an incident 
 
106 LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 occurred which might have had serious consequences. His 
 arrival there as secretary of the French embassy naturally 
 caused his poems to be sought for and read with curiosity. 
 Speaking generally, it would be difficult to find an author 
 whose works would bear so close a scrutiny as Lamar- 
 tine's ; but, unfortunately, the death of Byron, his favourite 
 hero, inspired a lyric effusion, hastily written off. The 
 modern Italians are very unfavourably contrasted with the 
 Greeks, in a passage which ends with the lines — 
 
 " Je cherche ailleurs (pardon, 6 ombre romaine), 
 Des hommes, et non pas la poussiere humaine. " 
 
 The poem was about the most uninteresting Lamartine 
 ever wrote, and one would think no 'one of the present 
 generation would have the patience to read it through, but 
 that it was lately asserted, in a recent cause celebre, that 
 from it the sculptor of the Byron memorial in Hamilton 
 Gardens derived his inspiration. At the time of its publica- 
 tion, Lamartine had no thought of going to Italy, and the 
 lines passed quite unnoticed ; but when read and circulated 
 in Florence, they caused great indignation, shown in ways 
 which threatened to make his position very difficult. The 
 appearance of a brochure by a Neapolitan exile, Colonel 
 Pepe, in which his poetry was savagely criticized and his 
 personal character maligned, brought matters to a crisis. 
 Lamartine, though suffering severely from the effects of 
 a kick from a horse, at once sent the author a challenge, 
 which was accepted with the suggestion that the duel 
 should be postponed until Lamartine had completely 
 recovered. But, fearing that the Tuscan police might 
 interfere to prevent the meeting, Lamartine insisted on its 
 taking place at once \ his seconds being the Comte de 
 
1831.] ACCESSION OF FORTUNE. \0J 
 
 Villamella and M. de Virieu. After a few sword-thrusts 
 had been exchanged, Lamartine was severely wounded in 
 the arm. Colonel Pepe at once offered him an apology, 
 and a cordial reconciliation ensued. The incident naturally 
 caused some sensation. Colonel Pepe was arrested and 
 put on his trial ; but on Lamartine's taking all the blame 
 on himself, his adversary, at the instance of the French 
 minister, was honourably acquitted. This, together with 
 Lamartine's bearing throughout, caused a reaction in 
 Florentine feeling ; the Grand Duke took an opportunity 
 to express his appreciation of M. de Lamartine's con- 
 duct, and his former popularity came back to him with 
 interest. 
 
 During the years 1826- 1827, Lamartine inherited from 
 his uncles, the Abbe and the Comte de Lamartine, a con- 
 siderable amount of property ; he had, however, to give 
 large annuities to his surviving aunts, besides heavy charges 
 made in favour of his sisters and their children. In his 
 confidential letters he complains of having to combine the 
 responsibilities of the chef de famille under the old regime, 
 with the disadvantages of the modern system of division. 
 Still, the immediate addition to his income was- very 
 welcome, enabling him for the first, perhaps the only time 
 in his life, to live according to his tastes, unhampered by 
 anxieties or debts. Then the absence of his chief, the 
 Marquis de la Maisonfort, who for nearly two years re- 
 mained away on leave, gave Lamartine all the pleasant 
 privileges of the head of a legation, or, according to the 
 somewhat grandiloquent French phrase for the diplomatic 
 rank immediately below that of ambassador, of " Minister 
 plenipotentiary." To entertain frequently became at once 
 
108 LAMART1NE. [1821- 
 
 a duty and a pleasure ; the cordial and graceful hospitality 
 of the Lamartines soon made the French Embassy a social 
 centre, while their kindness and consideration for the 
 hitherto somewhat neglected French colony in Florence 
 were inexhaustible. 
 
 Decidedly, Lamartine's lines had fallen in pleasant 
 places ; the Court of Tuscany was, at the time, the most 
 brilliant and attractive in Italy. The Grand Duke, young, 
 handsome, and affable, had already gained much of the 
 personal popularity which, even in the darkest days for 
 Italian sovereignty, he never altogether lost. The Duchess, 
 a charming and accomplished Saxon, shared his wish to 
 maintain the intellectual supremacy of Florence, where 
 a literary reputation, far from being, as in France, a draw- 
 back to an aspiring diplomatist, was rather an advantage. 
 Lady Burghersh, the wife of the English minister, wrote 
 graceful verses. M. de Marcellus, charge" d'affaires at the 
 neighbouring Court of Lucca, was a successful author. 
 Encouraged by their example, Lamartine was only too 
 glad to beguile his leisure hours by exercising his poetic 
 faculty more seriously than he had done for some years. 
 Most of the lyrics afterwards published under the title of 
 " Harmonies poetiques et reUigieuses " were written at this 
 time, and, though not published in France for some years, 
 found at once in Florence an appreciative audience. The 
 Grand Duchess, who from the first showed a cordial liking 
 for Madame de Lamartine, was an enthusiastic admirer of 
 poetry, and specially, as was natural in a German, of Vecole 
 romantique. Accompanied by her sister, Princess Amelia 
 of Saxony, she often spent the afternoon at the Lamartines' 
 villa, where, after a little graceful reluctance, their host 
 
1831.] CHARGE D'AFFAIRES. IOO, 
 
 would read to them his latest effusion. " I was not Tasso," 
 he writes deprecatingly, " nor was she Leonora ; " but 
 it is evident the similarity of situation did not displease 
 him. 
 
 However, Lamartine's correspondence shows that, if 
 not insensible to social successes and literary triumphs, his 
 real interests and affections ever centred in his own home 
 circle. " Alphonse has now almost recovered," writes his 
 mother in her diary, " and all goes on well. He is occupy- 
 ing his leisure hours in the composition of some poems full 
 of religious thought and feeling, which he calls 'Harmonies.' 
 From time to time he sends me fragments which delight 
 me. This is the use to which I have always wished he 
 would end by turning his talents." And a little later : 
 " Alphonse is now the King's charge d'affaires for Tuscany, 
 Lucca, and Parma ; his superiors are pleased with him, 
 and he likes his position. The only drawback is that he 
 represents his country perhaps a little too expensively, but 
 Providence will watch over him. All my anxieties on his 
 account are past ; it is now he who gives me back a thou- 
 sand-fold in affection, and in solicitude for all my little 
 difficulties, any sorrows and sacrifices his youthful mistakes 
 and errors ever cost me." 
 
 Lamartine's own letters breathe a like strain of cheer- 
 fulness and content. Beyond all other sources of happiness 
 he puts that which he is beginning to derive from his 
 daughter. He writes to Madame de Raigecourt: "Julia 
 leaves me nothing to wish for ; she has health, intelligence, 
 beauty, and warm affections ; always gentle, tender, 
 caressing, she winds herself more and more round my 
 heart. I used to repine because my son was taken from 
 
110 LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 me, but Heaven knows better than we do what is best 
 for us." 
 
 And thus nearly three years passed away without 
 much change or incident, save that to the number of 
 Lamartine's friends was added the new English minister 
 at Florence, Lord Normanby, whom, after a long interval, 
 he was to meet again in 1848, amid very different sur- 
 roundings. Towards the end of 1827 we find Lamartine 
 much occupied by the purchase of the Casino Viviani, 
 which, though situated almost in the heart of Florence, 
 between the Boulevard and the Church of Santa Maria 
 Novella, possessed a jardin anglais, and, stretching out 
 behind, a little domain, comprising a large kitchen garden, 
 olive and lemon groves, grazing for three cows, and a field 
 of maize. The house, something between a cottage and 
 a convent, was rearranged and decorated by a M. Sylvestris, 
 who at first seemed to be a phcenix ; but finally, like the 
 majority of architects, sent in a bill threefold his original 
 estimate. " I paid it," writes Lamartine, " with a smile on 
 my face, but with rage in my heart. That is how one 
 must do here. But never again shall I be caught employ- 
 ing an architect to build as much as a chimney. Sylvestris' 
 charming manners and amiable expression of countenance 
 inspire confidence ; they only make him the more dan- 
 gerous." However, the villa, furnished from England for 
 comfort, from France for elegance, and decorated with 
 artistic treasures such as Italy only could produce, was 
 the admiration of Florence, and the source of much 
 pleasure to its owners. 
 
 But hardly were they settled, when the death of the 
 Marquis de la Maisonfort changed all their plans. His 
 
1831.] RETURN TO FRANCE. 1 1 1 
 
 successor, M. de Vitrolles, was to arrive in a few months, 
 and for Lamartine to go back to a subordinate position 
 after having been supreme so long would have been im- 
 possible. The post of first secretary of embassy at Berne 
 or Brussels was offered to him, and M. de Damas urged 
 him to accept the latter. But save at Rome or Constanti- 
 nople, Lamartine did not now care to be merely secretary ; 
 he thought his services and abilities entitled him to some- 
 thing better : he therefore elected to take an eight months' 
 leave, with the intention, in petto, of resigning if nothing 
 more suitable was offered to him ; and, having let the Casino 
 Viviani to Princess Galitzin, he and his wife began, not 
 without a pang, their preparations for departure. 
 
 " I hope soon," Lamartine wrote to Madame de Raige- 
 court, "to find myself in what is to me the great attraction 
 of Paris, your delightful and much-loved salon. But we are 
 sorrowful at leaving this beautiful country, and especially 
 the Court — the most agreeable, the most virtuous, the most 
 cordially kind to be found anywhere ; every possible mark 
 of friendship and affection has been showered on us." 
 
 To his own family the return of Lamartine, after a 
 three years' absence, was an immense joy. 
 
 11 At last," writes his mother, under the date of Septem- 
 ber 28, 1828, " at last Alphonse has come, and with him his 
 wife, his mother-in-law, and his sweet little girl ; all, thank 
 God, seem well. He has grown very thin, which grieves 
 me, but I must be satisfied. The time has been a very 
 happy one, full of joyful emotion, and of much occupation. 
 At my age all agitation is somewhat trying, but when the 
 heart is at ease, one recovers quickly. It would be difficult 
 to find a child of Julia's age lovelier or more winning. She 
 
1 1 2 LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 is indeed a treasure, and admirably brought up. Her 
 mother, too, grows in perfection ; pious, without affectation ; 
 fulfilling every duty with simplicity ; cultivating her talents. 
 She paints admirably, and has brought me some charming 
 sketches — among others, Julia's portrait." 
 
 At Montculot, the property inherited from the Abbe* 
 de Lamartine, the new owners were received with cordial 
 respect and affection ; while at St. Point the reception was 
 enthusiastic. At a distance of three miles from the chateau, 
 they were met, Lamartine tells M. de Virieu, " by tliree muni- 
 cipal bodies, all wearing white scarfs ; a hundred notables 
 from the neighbouring parishes, all in their best clothes 
 and carrying arms. Two batteries thundered at intervals 
 from the hilltops ; volleys were fired off at every hundred 
 paces by the National Guard. The fifes, tambours, trumpets, 
 laurel crowns, flags, and devices were innumerable. Groups 
 of people, stationed all along the road, held their hands out 
 to us as we passed,— altogether a sight as touching and 
 gratifying as ever a November sun shone on. When we 
 reached the house, I replied to all the speeches in a single 
 harangue, in praise of Providence, religion, and all good 
 people. Two hogsheads of wine ready broached made my 
 eloquence doubly effective. Then came a dinner, to which 
 two hundred sat down. Nothing had been suggested or 
 inspired, it was all spontaneous. This sort of thing it is 
 that attaches one to a place ; let it not be said that kind- 
 ness and consideration do not bring their reward. Some 
 of my friends rode with me ; I would have given a good 
 deal to have had you of the number." 
 
 Nor had Lamartine reason to complain, even in the 
 busy world of Paris, where three years bring many changes, 
 
1831.] AUDIENCE FROM CHARLES X. 113 
 
 of forgetfulness or neglect. The King, from whom he had 
 a very long audience, received him with great kindness. 
 " His majesty expressed his complete satisfaction with my 
 services, and said he used to read my despatches himself 
 with lively interest. He then went on to discuss several 
 important matters with perfect openness and confidence. 
 M. de la Ferronnays was also most cordial and friendly ; 
 he regretted that I would not stay on at Florence, where I 
 had so much influence and experience, but admitted my 
 claim to promotion. He promised me the post of secretary 
 of embassy in London within six months, adding, ' Even 
 if I should not then be myself in office, I shall have 
 arranged it with my successor.' I have every reason to 
 be more than satisfied ; I am on the high-road to promotion, 
 and shall be minister within a year at most. As for France, 
 I fear things do not look well ; now that I am in the midst 
 of the hurly-burly I cannot see anything very distinctly, 
 but where formerly I hoped I now fear." 
 
 It was at this moment of unwonted prosperity, with 
 every reasonable wish satisfied, and a successful career he 
 thoroughly liked opening before him, that a blow fell on 
 Lamartine causing him greater suffering than any trial he 
 had previously endured. These pages have sufficiently 
 indicated how strong and tender was his mother's love for 
 him, and his for her, all through his youth and early man- 
 hood. How powerless all the cares and distractions of 
 maturer life were to weaken his filial devotion, or the 
 burden of increasing years to deaden her maternal feeling, 
 a few more extracts from her diary will show. 
 
 "November 7, 1828. — Alphonse has just returned from 
 Paris, where he was admirably received, and especially by 
 
 I 
 
114 LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 the King. He brought me a beautiful chandelier for my 
 salon at Macon, and a considerable sum of money, which 
 he guessed by intuition I needed, to avoid troubling his 
 father with matters of business. He also gave me some 
 charming verses, which touch me because they express so 
 exactly my own thoughts. There are many things I realize 
 and feel very deeply without being able to put my thoughts 
 into words. I thank God that He has bestowed this gift 
 on my son." 
 
 A little later she records a visit to Paris : " Thanks to 
 my son, it was one of perfect and unbroken enjoyment. 
 It was a great pleasure to me to see once more the city in 
 which my early years were passed, and where now, among 
 the people most distinguished by merit and by position, 
 my son numbers so many friends. Madame Recamier, 
 whom some people say I resemble, received me with in- 
 comparable grace. In her salon I heard M. de Chateau- 
 briand read his tragedy ' Mofse.' I was more interested in 
 him than in his verses ; he had the majestic beaming of 
 a king surrounded by his court. For though I really prefer 
 the natural, unpretending manners of many men of great 
 name and great talent who were also there, a reputation 
 such as his has for me an immense prestige." 
 
 " Milly, October 21, 1829. — To-day is the anniversary 
 of my son's birth. I am here alone, and have spent much 
 of the day in reflections, which will, I hope, prepare me for 
 and sustain me in death. How often at different dates of 
 my life have I paced to and fro in this allee de meditation, 
 sometimes saying my rosary, sometimes in silent prayer. 
 Alas ! what would have become of me amid the many 
 trials of life, if the Divine mercy had not sustained me, 
 
1831.] LAST DAYS OF MADAME DE LAMARTINE. 1 1 5 
 
 putting into my mind holy, strengthening thoughts. The 
 love of silence and solitude is itself a great grace. I felt 
 it to-day as I walked up and down the allce, and my whole 
 life seemed to pass in vision before me, as it certainly will 
 pass, on the day when I shall stand before my Creator to 
 be judged. May He then be merciful to me ! I saw 
 myself, as it were yesterday, a child playing in the leafy 
 avenue of St. Cloud ; then a young chanoinesse chanting 
 in the chapel at Galles, undecided as to whether I should, 
 like my companions, take the final vows, and consecrate 
 my whole life to singing the praises of God in that quiet 
 haven. Then I saw my husband, young, handsome, in his 
 rich uniform, visiting his sister, Madame de Villars, under 
 whose special care I had been placed. Gradually it dawned 
 upon me how frequent his visits became, and how he 
 sought every opportunity of speaking to me, and, at the 
 same time, how frank and manly was his air, how winning 
 and noble the proud expression that always softened when 
 he looked at me. Then came the message, conveyed to 
 me by his sister, if his asking me in marriage of my parents 
 would be displeasing to me ; then the long negotiations, 
 and all the difficulties which arose, all my tears and prayers 
 through those three years of uncertainty ; then the sudden 
 and wonderful sweeping away of all obstacles ; our first year 
 of happiness in this poor little cottage of Milly ; his danger 
 in the terrible days of August ; his being cast into prison ; 
 and the months of misery during which, with my child in 
 my arms, I went to and fro to Dijon and to Lyons, trying 
 to touch the hearts of those representatives of the people 
 on whose slightest word hung life or death ; the fall of 
 Robespierre ; our return hither ; the births of my six other 
 
Il6 LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 children, their education, their marriages, the passing away 
 from earth of those two angels for whose loss not even 
 those left to me ever brought me consolation. . . . And 
 now, after all these labours, rest has come, and with rest 
 old age. For whatever others may say, I feel old. The 
 trees my own hands planted, the ivy grown from seed I 
 sowed, now covering the whole house, the cedar which, 
 when my little Sophy was four years old, just measured 
 her height, and under whose branches I am now sitting, all 
 tell me I have grown old. The graves of the peasants I 
 remember as young men and women now lie across my 
 path as I go into the house of God. All these, too, tell me 
 this is not my abiding dwelling-place, that another more 
 lasting will soon be prepared for me. And I weep when 
 I think of all I shall leave behind me : my poor husband, 
 older in years than I, not, indeed, weak in health, but 
 needing me by his side in days of sorrow as he used in 
 days of happiness. And my children, my dear children ! 
 Alphonse, and his wife, who is to me as another daughter ; 
 Cecile and her dear little children, — a third generation of 
 loved and loving ones. And those I miss, whose spirits 
 seem to be with me as I walk up and down this solitary 
 path : my Cesarine, my pride and joy for her wondrous 
 beauty, now sleeping far away from us behind that range 
 of snowy Alps, which never has ceased to remind me of 
 her ; Suzanne, who even in life seemed to mirror in her 
 eyes the light and purity of heaven. Alas ! to-day all are 
 absent or dead, and I am left alone, like a tree whose fruits 
 have been carried away by the Divine Husbandman. How 
 sad the thoughts which come on me, pressing me down 
 even to the ground ! Have I not, too, my ' Mount of 
 
1831.] LAST DAYS OF MADAME DE LAMARTINE. W] 
 
 Olives ' ? Be still, sad heart. Have we not, each of us, our 
 Gethsemane ? And is not mine the dearer to me from its 
 very desolation ? Even when I miss the white dresses of 
 my children, the joyous echo of their voices, must I not 
 ask myself, What had I ever done for God that He should 
 have given me this little piece of ground for my own 
 possession, this house which, if it has sometimes caused me 
 a false shame from its smallness and humility, has been a 
 safe and secure nest wherein to rear my brood ? May He 
 be blest for His gracious gifts ! . . . And now I hear the 
 belfry of Bussieres ringing the Angelus. It is better to 
 pray than to write ; I will repeat once more that prayer in 
 which the little voices of my children used to mingle with 
 mine, . . . but without undue emotion. Grief, the Scriptures 
 tell us, weakens the heart of man, and to fulfil one's duties 
 to the last all our strength is needed. As long as life is 
 left to us, we have with it to gain heaven. As I close this 
 book, I ask once more of God to pour forth on me and 
 mine His choicest blessings. May He bless me in my 
 children, in my friends, in all who love me or whom I have 
 loved ! " 
 
 With these tender words of blessing ends the last volume 
 of Madame de Lamartine's diary. But the presentiment of 
 approaching death which seems to have dictated them was 
 never mentioned by her, nor suspected by those who loved 
 her. Though now past sixty, she bore the burden of her 
 years with such sweet autumnal grace, she went through the 
 arduous works of charity which, now that her children were 
 no longer with her, made the occupation and solace of her 
 leisure hours, with such untiring energy and regularity, 
 that her friends might well laughingly assure her " she was 
 
118 LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 not old ; " and when, in the November following, her son 
 left her to spend a few weeks in Paris, the thought that the 
 parting was a final one never crossed his mind. The 
 catastrophe which cut short her life was as unexpected as 
 it was terrible. Only a few days before that he had named 
 for his return, Madame de Lamartine rose early to attend, 
 as was her daily custom, the service celebrated at daybreak 
 and therefore called " la messe des servantes." She then 
 took a bath, and, it was supposed, turned on the hot water 
 so that it struck her full in the chest with such force that 
 she for the moment lost Consciousness. Before help came 
 she was fearfully scalded, and, after a day and a half of 
 suffering, borne with angelic patience, her spirit passed 
 peacefully away. Her only lamentation had been over the 
 pain it would give her son not to have been with her at the 
 last moment. "Tell Alphonse," were her last words — 
 " tell him I am not suffering now ; I am very happy. My 
 God ! Thou hast been true to Thy promises ! I am very 
 happy." 
 
 In a most touching letter, Lamartine's wife implored 
 M. de Virieu, who was in Paris with her husband, to break 
 the cruel news to him. M. de Virieu performed his task 
 with utmost kindness, but the blow was terrible. Lamar- 
 tine started at once for Mdcon. Travelling night and day, 
 he reached home the third day after his mother's death, 
 hoping to have at least the consolation of gazing once more 
 on that beloved face. But the inflexible rule of custom in 
 France allows of little delay. The elder M. de Lamartine 
 was utterly prostrated and helpless, and those to whom it 
 fell to make the final arrangements, singularly indifferent 
 to the feelings of the family, so hurried matters that when 
 
1831.] HIS MOTHER'S BURIAL. 119 
 
 Lamartine arrived he found the snow already lying on his 
 mother's grave in the common cemetery of Macon. To 
 him, who remembered well how often from his earliest 
 childhood his mother used to point out the spot, now 
 further consecrated by the grave of his little son, where she 
 hoped one day to rest, it was intolerable to find her feelings 
 disregarded, and her dear dust mingling with that of 
 strangers ; and he resolved that, despite all difficulties- and 
 obstacles, it should not be. 
 
 Two nights later, he went to the churchyard, and, with 
 the assistance of Philiberte, the faithful maid who had 
 tended his mother to the last, was able to find the un- 
 marked spot. After an hour of sorrowful watching, a band 
 of stalwart peasants, summoned secretly from Milly, came 
 in silently one by one, to bear home the remains of their 
 beloved mistress. At midnight they started. Though the 
 night was bitterly cold, the snow deep on the ground, and 
 the number asked to attend strictly limited to the bearers, 
 yet all along the road, long before they drew near to Milly, 
 a long procession had formed, swelled by old men, women, 
 and children clad in such poor mourning as they could 
 afford, the silence of the night broken only by their stifled 
 sobs and by the heavy tread of the sabots on the frozen 
 snow. 
 
 After some three hours' march, they left the high-road 
 to follow the narrow, paved way which leads up the 
 mountain-side to the hamlet. There, at the door of each 
 cottage was suspended a little copper lamp, a humble but 
 pathetic token of respect. When the house was reached, 
 the bearers laid their burden down in the vestibule where 
 for so many years Madame de Lamartine used every 
 
120 LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 morning to receive all who came to her, whether sick, 
 sorrowful, or suffering, herself dressing their sores, pre- 
 scribing for their ailments, giving them help, advice, kind 
 words of consolation ; the oak benches on which these 
 poor people used to sit waiting their turn now served as 
 trestles for her coffin. Seeing this, old and young wept 
 aloud ; then, coming one by one, according to the pious 
 custom of their country, they walked round the coffin, 
 sprinkling holy water on it as they passed. Her son, 
 meanwhile, sat bowed down with grief in the adjoining 
 room. 
 
 At the first streak of dawn they set off again, in order 
 to traverse the difficult and dangerous path which led 
 across the mountain to St. Point by daylight. In many 
 places the road lay across deep ravines, now filled up with 
 snow, so that the only landmarks were the giant trunks of 
 chestnut-trees. But for the courage and devotion of the 
 robust men of Milly, the task could never have been 
 accomplished As it was, the journey took seven hours. 
 Evening had almost closed in before the Chateau of St. 
 Point was reached. After a second night of sorrowful vigil 
 the last rites were solemnized at break of day, and the 
 gentle lady laid to rest among her own people. " She is 
 never alone," Lamartine writes to Virieu. " Night and day 
 prayers rise up to heaven from around her grave. As for 
 me, I am happier now she is here, in the church she prayed 
 in so often and loved so dearly." 
 
 Three days later he returned to Macon on foot, for the 
 snow was still deep on the ground. Here fresh cares and 
 complications awaited him. As his father was no longer 
 able to manage his property single-handed, it was decided 
 
1831.] LE TOMBEAU D'UNE MERE. 121 
 
 in family council to carry out at once the division which at 
 his death would be compulsory. In order to secure to the 
 old man the undisturbed possession of the family house at 
 Macon, Lamartine had it included in his own share ; conse- 
 quently Milly fell to the widower of his sister Suzanne, 
 M. de Montherot. This was to Lamartine a cruel trial. 
 More than once he alludes in his letters to the pain it gave 
 him to feel that the cradle of his childhood, endeared to 
 him by a thousand memories, would pass into the hands of 
 strangers. Finally, an arrangement was made by which 
 Lamartine purchased from his brother-in-law all the pro- 
 perty that had belonged to his father ; but at a considerable 
 sacrifice of income, for he had to raise money at a high rate ; 
 it thus began the gradual wasting away of his fortune. 
 
 The winter was spent at Macon in sorrow and seclusion. 
 It was at this time he wrote the poem, " Le Tombeau d'une 
 mere," beginning with the lines — 
 
 " La, dorment soixante ans d'une seule pensee ! 
 * * * * 
 
 Tant de nuits sans sommeil pour veiller la soufifrance, 
 Tant de pain retranche pour nourrir l'indigence, 
 Tant de pleurs toujours prets a s'unir a des pleurs, 
 Tant de soupirs brulans vers une autre patrie ; 
 Et tant de patience a porter une vie 
 
 Dont la couronne etait ailleurs ! " 
 
 But though Lamartine, like other mourners, found solace 
 in clothing his grief in verse, his was no transient sorrow, 
 no passionate indulgence in a short-lived emotion. Years 
 afterwards, amid the interest and excitement of a long- 
 planned journey to the East, he writes as if his loss had 
 been but of yesterday : * The only person who, had she 
 been spared, would now at this moment completely share 
 my happiness is my mother. In all that happens to me, 
 
122 LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 whether of joy or sorrow, my thoughts turn undeviatingly 
 to her, and one on whom our thoughts are constantly fixed 
 is never really absent. That which lives within us so 
 powerfully, so completely, is not dead. It was my habit 
 in her lifetime to communicate to her every impression 
 I received, and find it again in fresh colours, vivified, em- 
 bellished, in her sparkling imagination. I see her now in the 
 peaceful solitude of Milly, where, when the accidents of life 
 separated us, she sat watching and waiting ; I see her 
 receiving, reading, commenting on my letters, carried away 
 even more completely than I am myself by the current of 
 my thoughts. Alas ! 'tis but a vision ! The world we inhabit 
 is one of realities ; to her our fleeting dreams are no longer 
 anything. Yet her spirit is with us — following, protecting 
 us ; in the region of eternity we may yet converse." Of 
 Lamartine it may with truth be said that "all the lapse 
 of years, all the events of his life, however strongly they 
 might move or affect him, never could remove that sainted 
 image from his heart, or banish that blessed love from its 
 sanctuary." 
 
 In March, 1830, the Lamartines came for three months 
 to Paris. The time was one of great political tension. A 
 cabal of the Extreme Left, by joining the Ultras unex- 
 pectedly, on a not very important division, had driven 
 M. de Martignac from office. Short as it was, his adminis- 
 tration has historical interest, as one during which French- 
 men enjoyed more civil and religious liberty than at any 
 subsequent period of the present century, and its fall was 
 deeply deplored by Lamartine on public grounds, although 
 the new premier, Prince Jules de Polignac, was eager to 
 show him the utmost kindness and favour ; treating him, 
 
1831.] HIS ELECTION TO THE ACADEMY. 1 23 
 
 notwithstanding the difference in their ages and positions, 
 rather as a friend than as a subordinate. All through the 
 month of March, Lamartine was constantly sent for to the 
 palace, and kept for hours in confidential conversation. 
 But as to the subject of these interviews, Lamartine's 
 correspondence is discreetly silent. 
 
 However, the business which brought him to Paris was 
 literary rather than political. It will be remembered that 
 in 1824 he had offered himself as a candidate for the chair 
 then vacant in the Academie franchise, and was defeated, 
 as he believed, by the intrigues of a petty cabal. Whatever 
 the reason of the rejection, the Academy repented of it 
 and paid him, in 1829, the very unusual compliment of 
 nominating him, without any fresh canvassing on his part, 
 and by an overwhelming majority. 
 
 Owing to his recent bereavement, the reception was 
 postponed till the April following, when -it was the most 
 stirring incident of the season in Paris. For whatever 
 difference of opinion there may be as to the literary dis- 
 tinction conferred, there can be no doubt that the ceremony 
 of reception is a social event of the highest importance. 
 All class, all political differences are forgotten in the 
 anxiety to obtain tickets of admission. In Lamartine's 
 case there were additional elements stimulating expecta- 
 tion. His political and personal popularity, his reputation 
 for eloquence, his good looks and distinguished bearing, 
 probably counted for something ; but, above all, the cir- 
 cumstance that he was the first writer of the romantic 
 school to whom the Academy had opened its classic 
 portals, made the occasion one of exceptional interest. 
 
 The speech of Baron Cuvier, to whom it fell to welcome 
 
124 LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 Lamartine in the name of his colleagues, was of course 
 extremely laudatory, and well turned, though certainly 
 more personal than would be thought good taste on 
 similar occasions in England, in its allusions to Lamartine's 
 recent sorrow, and to the amiable character and brilliant 
 career which silenced criticism and baffled envy. He also 
 emphasized the religious character of Lamartine's lyrics, 
 perhaps a little maliciously, for in his closing paragraph — 
 " But you do not, of course, Monsieur, flatter yourself that 
 you have said quite the last word on subjects which, when 
 discussed at some length more than three thousand years 
 ago in the Idumean desert, caused a momentary coolness 
 between Job and his friends ; and on which, in our days, 
 Leibnitz, Clarke, and Newton are not agreed," — M. Cuvier 
 certainly shows the cloven foot of the scientific rationalist. 
 Lamartine's discours de reception opened, according to 
 the unvarying formula, with the panegyric of his pre- 
 decessor, M. Daru. It had been Napoleon's custom, on 
 annexing a new province, to send there at once some 
 French man of letters, whose task it was to ransack the 
 archives, and put together in the form of a history every- 
 thing that could throw discredit on the former Government, 
 and, in most cases (as was done by Llorente at Madrid), to 
 burn all the papers which told in the contrary direction. 
 M. Daru discharged his task with more talent and judgment 
 than most of his fellow-labourers ; and, unfortunately for 
 Venice, his history remained for three parts of a century 
 the unchallenged authority on all matters appertaining to 
 Venetian institutions and history, till the lifelong researches 
 of Mr. Rawdon Browne and the eloquent indignation of 
 Mr. Ruskin made his untrustworthiness known. That the 
 
1831.] DISCO URS DE RECEPTION. 1 25 
 
 historiographer of Napoleon was not likely to be a favourite 
 in the society of the Restoration was only an additional 
 motive for Lamartine to make his panegyric as glowing as 
 possible. Then, having done full justice to this portion of 
 his subject, he went on to survey the present condition of 
 France in language for which his august audience were by 
 no means prepared. Phrases such as, " The development 
 of the human intellect, no longer stifled and confined in 
 narrow channels ; " " the influence and freedom of the press, 
 a blessing bestowed by Providence to renew the youth of 
 nations;" "reason and liberty working together for the 
 happiness of mankind," leading up to a brilliant climax 
 about the Monarchy "to which France owes everything, 
 even the golden fruits of liberty." . . . from the lips of 
 the poet of religion and romance, the recognized favourite 
 of Prince Polignac, and on such an occasion, produced 
 much the effect of a shower of rockets. 
 
 When all was over, and Lamartine passed out through 
 the crowded ranks of his friends, reproaches were audibly 
 mingled with the usual congratulations. " You have gone 
 over to the enemy, disappointed all our hopes, ruined your 
 career," was the passionate exclamation of the Cardinal 
 Due de Rohan. But the event proved that these prophets 
 of evil were " more Royalist than the King." 
 
 A few days later Charles X. received the new Acade- 
 mician with his accustomed kindness ; even Prince Polignac, 
 whether from the generosity of a temperament not prone 
 to take offence or from an utter blindness to the fact that 
 the course he was preparing to follow was in any way 
 opposed to liberty or to the Charter, showed no difference 
 in his demeanour, and renewed once more an offer he had 
 
126 LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 made to appoint Lamartine as his immediate subordinate 
 in the Foreign Office, which, as the Prince's time was now 
 almost entirely engrossed by home politics, would have 
 made him virtually Minister of Foreign Affairs. Lamartine 
 fully appreciated the generosity of the offer ; but, much as 
 he personally liked and admired Prince Polignac, he saw 
 that his policy was detaching the Crown from the people 
 "as completely as the axe of the woodman severs the bark 
 from the tree," and persisted in his refusal. " I could not 
 go against my convictions," he wrote to M. de Virieu, " and 
 so declined to have any hand in a work sure to end in an 
 explosion." 
 
 In the last days of May, Lamartine returned with his 
 wife to Burgundy, where, by taking into his own hands all 
 the property that had hitherto been his father's, he had 
 added considerably to his cares, and, as he was never inclined 
 to do things by halves, undertook agricultural improvements 
 on a large scale, giving employment to a hundred labourers. 
 " I planted six thousand trees before breakfast this morn- 
 ing," he writes, " and shall be most of the week laying out 
 a new road." But the burden of his still recent sorrow 
 weighed too heavily on him for enjoyment in his work ; he 
 felt, he says, like one maimed or paralyzed, unable to take 
 interest in anything. His health, too, had suffered, and 
 the Baths of Aix gave him no relief. Even the news that 
 he was named as the charge d'affaires to the new Court 
 of Athens, one of his most cherished ambitions, left him 
 doubtful as to whether he was pleased or not. Practically, 
 he saw for France no future but chaos. " We are going 
 down the road which leads to Avernus, and there is nothing 
 to stop us. Our only hope is in heaven and in the strength 
 

 1831.] ABDICATION OF CHARLES X. \2J 
 
 of the instinct of self-preservation. Do you ask if France 
 is ill ? To me she seems as one dying", or at least in a 
 convulsion which resembles death. Who told you I was 
 on the wrong side ? I am against fools certainly ; but 
 there happily still are honest and God-fearing Royalists, 
 men who march under a very different banner from 
 that of MM. Barthier, Vitrolles, etc. I am neither with 
 Paul nor with Cephas ; but with common sense, with the 
 monarchy, with fidelity to the dynasty. Alas ! I fear, at 
 the rate things are going, we shall soon have to prove our 
 loyalty by deeds rather than by words. Let us lift up our 
 hands thither whence help can come, for here there is no 
 help. The redemption of France is not in a government 
 of remorses and repentances ; nor in one of memories, 
 whether aristocratic, autocratic, or theocratic : it is in the 
 union of all interests and of all intelligences in a broad and 
 righteous way ; in hopes which date, not from the empire, 
 not from an older and more worn-out order, but from the 
 Restoration." 
 
 The morning papers of the 29th of July brought to Aix 
 the news of the publication of the Ordannances. A letter 
 of a little later date, from M. de Virieu, told of the abdica- 
 tion of Charles X. 
 
 " Nothing in your letter surprises me," was Lamartine's 
 answer, " unless it be the swiftness of it all. Anarchy is at 
 our gates ; there is nothing between it and us but an im- 
 provised Government." For a moment it seemed as if, in 
 the provinces at least, anarchy was inevitable. Rumours 
 were circulated among the peasantry that the chateaux 
 were to be pillaged ; bands of thieves and vagabonds wan- 
 dering about created terror, though the mass of the people 
 
128 LAMARTINE. [1821- 
 
 were quiet and well-disposed. Lamartine had reason to 
 be pleased with the loyalty of his tenants, those of Milly 
 especially, who got ready to rise en masse with two other 
 communes to defend the chateau, if necessary. To reward 
 them he spent the winter there. It was a sad time enough. 
 " I have been suffering beyond measure," he writes in the 
 early spring, " Now I ride for four hours every day, and 
 then return to my books." 
 
 It will be remembered that Lamartine had been nomi- 
 nated as minister at Athens, and he was making preparation 
 to start at the moment when the Revolution broke out. 
 The policy of Louis Philippe's Government was to retain in 
 office all who gave in their adhesion to the new dynasty. 
 This, however, Lamartine did not deem it consistent with 
 his personal dignity to do, and he sent in, through Count 
 Mole' a letter, couched in respectful terms, tendering an 
 absolute resignation of his diplomatic rank. But his 
 correspondence shows that he refused to rally to the Irre- 
 concilables, who would hardly allow that any civic duty 
 remained binding, since the monarch they adhered to had 
 been exiled. He, on the contrary, stoutly maintained that 
 the extreme danger of lapsing into utter anarchy made 
 it an obligation incumbent on all Frenchmen to take part 
 in public affairs. Accordingly, when at the approach of 
 the general election of June, 183 1, he received an invita- 
 tion from the Royalists and the Moderate Liberals of the 
 electors of Bergues, he accepted at once. From the cir- 
 cumstance of his sister Eugenie having married a neigh- 
 bouring landowner, M. Coppens d'Hondschoote, he was 
 well known to his constituents, and, for a time, was sanguine 
 of success. But, two days before the poll, the Liberals 
 
1831.] UNSUCCESSFUL CANDIDATURE. 1 29 
 
 unexpectedly required him to sign a paper expressing 
 personal devotion to the reigning dynasty, which he felt 
 would be to pledge himself to the exclusion of the elder 
 branch — a simple impossibility. Even after his refusal the 
 contest was close, and he polled 181 votes against 1 88. 
 
 Notwithstanding his defeat, the election was of use in 
 showing the interest he took in politics. Soon after he 
 published a brochure, which, though too moderate in tone 
 to have much success at the moment, was not without 
 effect on public opinion, and defined clearly his political 
 standpoint of combining with unchanging personal attach- 
 ment to the elder branch of the House of France, respectful 
 submission to the Government, and conscientious acceptance 
 of all civic duties and responsibilities. 
 
 K 
 
1 30 LAMARTINE. [1832- 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1832-1833. 
 
 The year 1832 found the Lamartines preparing to carry 
 out a long cherished project of visiting the Holy Land. 
 They had intended to start early in the spring, but the 
 terrible epidemic of cholera which then swept over France 
 delayed them. It had appeared suddenly in Paris in the 
 beginning of March. Among its victims was Madame de 
 Montcalm, one of Lamartine's kindest and most constant 
 friends of the elder generation. On the 20th of April, still 
 apparently in perfect health, she wrote to Lamartine that 
 she hoped the cholera might release her from the many 
 cares and burdens pressing her ; two days later the deliver- 
 ance had come. To him, her loss was a real sorrow. * I 
 hardly realized," he writes, " till she was gone how strong 
 the tie of friendship between us." 
 
 From Paris the plague spread rapidly through the 
 northern provinces. The Lamartines remained quietly at 
 St. Point, " waiting for it to come." As president du conseil 
 dfyartemental, Lamartine was able to do much to alleviate 
 the sufferings it caused : he appointed a sanitary commis- 
 sion and worked hard on it himself, organizing and dis- 
 tributing relief three days in the week at Macon, the other J 
 
 
1833.] JOURNEY TO THE EAST. 131 
 
 days in the country ; apparently with success, for by the 
 end of June he felt free to leave home. 
 
 In those days steam-yachts were not thought of; but 
 Lamartine hired a large sailing vessel of 250 tons, the 
 Alceste, and had her fitted up with every possible comfort 
 and convenience. The party included, besides Madame 
 de Lamartine and her daughter, two friends, MM. de 
 Capmas and Perseval, a doctor and six faithful servants, 
 who, after the hardships and possible perils awaiting them 
 had been fully pointed out, eagerly asked to be allowed to 
 accompany their master and mistress. 
 
 The record of the journey, which occupied about a year 
 and a half, was published later by Lamartine, under the 
 title of " Un Voyage en Orient." The novelty of the under- 
 taking is shown by his thinking it necessary to devote 
 several pages of his work to enumerating the causes which 
 impelled him " to leave a loved and peaceful home, rendered 
 more delightful by perfect domestic happiness, and embark 
 on a vast ocean for unknown shores and an uncertain 
 future." One was the wish to nourish his imagination with 
 fresh ideas and images. From his youth he had longed to 
 visit the scenes of the Biblical drama, made familiar to 
 him in his mother's earliest teachings. He had dreamt of 
 such a journey as of a great act in the meditative life ; it 
 seemed to him that by it all the doubts and cavils of the 
 mind would be set at rest, all the problems and difficulties 
 of religious belief solved. Then came the wish to break 
 loose from those political questions now become so painful. 
 " A younger generation is rising up amongst us, to whom 
 our prejudices, our fears, our recriminations are as things 
 of a distant past ; they can press forward full of pure 
 
132 LAMARTINE. [1832- 
 
 enthusiasm to seize with energy the glorious career before 
 them. Let us make way for such ! " He winds up with 
 a touching invocation to his departed mother, " to watch 
 over the pilgrim band, to place herself as a saving provi- 
 dence between them and all dangers, to bless an expedition 
 with which her own ardent soul would so deeply have 
 sympathized, and if there were anything of imprudence in 
 undertaking it, to plead for forgiveness and avert all evil 
 consequences " — a prayer, which in the letter, was unhappily 
 not granted. 
 
 After some delay from contrary winds, the Alceste 
 sailed out of the port of Marseilles on the 13th of July, 
 and, after coasting Africa, reached Malta on the 22nd. 
 They remained for some days at La Valette, meeting 
 everywhere a degree of hospitality which at once gratified 
 and surprised Lamartine. " The English," he writes, " are 
 a great people morally ; but, speaking generally, they are 
 not a social people. Concentrated in the sweet and sacred 
 intimacy of their home life, when they leave 'tis usually 
 not to amuse themselves or to communicate their thoughts 
 and sentiments, but either from custom or from vanity. In 
 the colonies it seems to be otherwise ; there is something 
 really chivalrous in the brilliant and generous hospitality 
 which, unsought and unexpected, has been heaped on 
 strangers like ourselves." He was particularly touched 
 by the kindness of Captain Lyons, commanding H.M.S. 
 Madagascar, who, on Madame de Lamartine's expressing 
 some anxiety, rather on her daughter's account than her 
 own, about the long sea-voyage to Greece, obligingly 
 delayed his ship's departure for some days, in order to 
 give the Alceste the advantage of her escort, offering even 
 
1833.] IMPRESSIONS OF GREECE. 1 33 
 
 to take her in tow if she was unable to keep up with the 
 frigate. The proposition was gratefully accepted, and the 
 two vessels set sail on the 1st of August. 
 
 A few hours after leaving the port they were becalmed, 
 and lay for several days " on a sea as glittering and smooth 
 as a mirror, above them a heaven as of molten brass ; " it 
 was not till the 6th that they saw at daybreak the unequal 
 summits of the mountains of Greece rising over the horizon. 
 That evening, as they were sailing before the wind between 
 Cape Matapan and the Island of Cerigo, an incident 
 occurred which recalls vividly what were the perils of the 
 deep even fifty years ago. The English frigate, having 
 sighted a suspicious-looking vessel, went out of her course 
 to reconnoitre, and was separated from the Alceste by 
 a distance of several miles, when a Greek pirate came 
 bearing down from the opposite direction in full sail. 
 Without a moment's delay the crew and passengers of the 
 Alceste, numbering twenty-five well-armed men, were in 
 their places on deck. Twice the pirate came so near that 
 they could see distinctly the villainous faces of her crew ; 
 some in Albanian costume, some in tattered European 
 garments, all armed to the teeth. But finding them so 
 well prepared, the pirates passed on, leaving the Alceste 
 unmolested. 
 
 The period of Lamartine's journey was one of great 
 disorder and anarchy in Greece ; the murder of Capo 
 d'Istria was of recent date, Missolonghi had just been 
 sacked, and every courier coming from inland brought 
 news of the burning of a town or of the massacre of 
 a population. At Nauplia, where they stayed two nights, 
 no one could venture outside the gates without a strong 
 
134 LAMARTINE. [1832- 
 
 escort. Prince Karadja offered a troop of Palikars to take 
 the travellers to the tomb of Agamemnon ; but Lamartine 
 replied that he did not care sufficiently about Agamemnon 
 to risk a single human life on his account. Indeed, 
 although Lamartine's descriptions of the scenery and 
 monuments of Greece are at once eloquent and graphic, 
 there are considerable limitations to his enthusiasm. The 
 impression made on him by the modern Greeks was most 
 unfavourable. " No language," he says, " can give an idea 
 of the horrible convulsions by which the Greeks are bring- 
 ing shame and disgrace on themselves, and ruin on their 
 country ; but for the presence of the French and English 
 squadrons they would tear each other in pieces. As it is, 
 unless the Bavarian Prince come quickly, he will not find 
 a house standing to shelter him." 
 
 It was characteristic of Lamartine to generalize quickly 
 and positively from any fact passing before his eyes ; 
 and his youthful ardour for the Greek cause now gave 
 place to a strong preference for their former masters, 
 which he retained through life, and which, in later years, 
 influenced his views on the Eastern question. Even a 
 fortnight spent at Athens, enjoying delightful hospitality 
 with a perfect cicerone in M. Gropius, did not sensibly 
 modify his impressions. " In the Parthenon, Pericles yet 
 lives ; in the temple of Theseus the gods of Greece will be 
 for ever worshipped ; " but still all seemed to him dis- 
 appointingly small and circumscribed, and the emotions he 
 anticipated were not awakened. 
 
 It had been the Lamartines' intention to go from 
 Athens to Constantinople, then through Syria, travelling 
 slowly, and halting at all places of interest. But the 
 
1833.] SYRIA AND PALESTINE. 135 
 
 increasing delicacy of their daughter Julia, whose health 
 had for two years caused them uneasiness, modified their 
 plans ; it was evident the hardships and fatigues of such 
 a journey would outweigh the benefits the doctors had 
 anticipated from the soft climate of the East, and it was 
 decided to go straight from Athens to Beyrout, which 
 was to be the winter residence for Madame de Lamartine 
 and her daughter, for Lamartine and his two friends a 
 starting-point for various excursions into the interiors of 
 Syria and Palestine. 
 
 The sea-voyage was accomplished prosperously, but to 
 find a suitable house at Beyrout was no easy task ; how- 
 ever, at last, at a distance of a few hundred yards from the 
 town, a group of buildings was secured, which the skill of 
 the Arab carpenters transformed into a comfortable abode, 
 not unlike the villas which are found in the neighbourhoods 
 of Lucca or Leghorn. Divans were scattered about, book- 
 shelves quickly improvised, pretty trifles strewn about on 
 the quaint inlaid sweet-scented tables, even the walls were 
 brightened up with frescoes from Madame de Lamartine's 
 skilful brush ; and so was made, out of most unpromising 
 materials, an abode at once homelike and picturesque. 
 The views and surrounding scenery were most beautiful ; 
 Lamartine, who preferred the charms of nature to those of 
 either antiquity or art, dilates on them in pages of glowing 
 and poetic description. As soon as his wife and daughter 
 were comfortably settled, and had formed in the foreign 
 colony at Beyrout some pleasant social relations, he, with 
 M. Capmas and some other friends, began to explore the 
 interior. 
 
 One incident on which Lamartine dwells at considerable 
 
1 36 LAMARTINE. [1832- 
 
 length, and to which he was afterwards fond of referring, 
 was a visit he was permitted to pay Lady Hester Stanhope. 
 He prefaces his account of it by a slight sketch of the 
 Oriental life of this remarkable woman, describing the 
 state and pomp with which she was at first surrounded. 
 When fairly conversant with the customs, habits, and 
 language of the country, she organized a large caravan, 
 loaded a long file of camels with costly presents wherewith 
 to propitiate the various tribes, and travelled over the 
 whole of Syria, staying for some time sucessively at Jeru- 
 salem, Damascus, Aleppo, Baalbec, and Palmyra. At the 
 last-named place, the Arabs gathered round her to the 
 number of forty or fifty thousand, proclaimed her queen of 
 Palmyra, and engaged themselves by a treaty, said to have 
 been observed as long as she lived, to allow any European 
 protected by her to visit with perfect security the desert 
 and ruins of Palmyra, on payment of a tax of a thousand 
 piastres. When, after many hairbreadth escapes, she 
 became weary of wandering, Lady Hester, he goes on to 
 say, settled herself on an almost inaccessible solitude on 
 the flank of a mountain of the Lebanon range, near Said, 
 the ancient Sidon, and dwelt there for some years in 
 Oriental splendour, surrounded by a large retinue of 
 European and Asiatic domestics. She was treated with 
 the utmost respect by the Pasha of Acre, and entertained 
 political relations with the Porte, with the ruler of the 
 Lebanon, Emir Beschir, and with the Arab sheikhs of Syria 
 and of the country round Bagdad. 
 
 After dwelling, with perhaps a touch of unconscious 
 exaggeration, on this part of Lady Hester's career, Lamar- 
 tine goes on to give, with still deeper respect and sympathy, 
 
1833.] VISIT TO LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 1 37 
 
 the record of her later years. Improvidence, extravagance, 
 probably treachery, had impaired her fortune ; most of the 
 attendants who had at first surrounded her had either died 
 or deserted ; the friendship of the Arabs, which always 
 requires to be nourished by presents, grew cold. But neither 
 poverty, isolation, nor even personal danger could subdue 
 that undaunted spirit. She never for a moment dreamt of 
 retracing her steps ; she wasted no regrets on the world or 
 on the past ; she shrank not under her forlorn condition, 
 her misfortunes, nor even from the prospect of an old age 
 of oblivion and neglect. Without books or newspapers, 
 without letters, without friends, without even servants 
 attached to her person, attended solely by some black 
 slaves, with a few Arab peasants to cultivate her gardens, 
 once rivalling those of Semiramis, she lived on, resolute 
 and undaunted. It was said, and Lamartine himself 
 inclined to the belief, that her preternatural strength of 
 mind was due partly, indeed, to her personal character, but 
 still more to her religious theories, in which the teachings 
 of Christianity were almost obscured by strange accretions 
 of Oriental mysticism, and by a firm belief in the occult 
 influences of the celestial bodies. 
 
 To European visitors, those of her own nation especially, 
 her doors were known to be closed ; but feeling a strong 
 desire to see her, and remembering the gracious reception 
 she had accorded years before to his friend, M. de Mar- 
 cellus, Lamartine, finding himself in Lady Hester's 
 neighbourhood, resolved at least to make the attempt, and 
 despatched an Arab messenger with a note in which, after 
 describing himself as too sensible of the charms of solitude 
 and of the value of liberty not to shrink from intruding on 
 
I38 LAMART1NE. [1832- 
 
 her secluded life, he yet asked to be allowed not to leave 
 the East without seeing a lady who was herself one of the 
 wonders of that land of mystery. The letter proved an 
 open sesame ; a messenger came with an order to convey 
 him and his party to Dgioum, where, on the day following, 
 they arrived. 
 
 Lamartine devotes several pages to describing this 
 mysterious and romantic abode; the atmosphere of dignified 
 simplicity which pervaded it ; the mild, grave, majestic 
 traits of the pale figure draped in Oriental costume, worn 
 with the freedom and grace as of one who for years had 
 never known any other. Lady Hester rose to receive him, 
 extending her hand, which he kissed with deep respect. 
 An interview beginning thus was not likely to turn on 
 commonplace civilities ; it merged into a dialogue befitting 
 a poet and a prophetess. During the two days Lamartine 
 spent at Dgioum he and his hostess discussed, amid clouds 
 of fragrant smoke, many mystical and metaphysical themes 
 — happily in harmonious acquiescence, though Lady Hester 
 would not hold her guest altogether free from the reproach 
 of being one of those who place too strong a reliance on 
 human will, from insufficient belief in the inscrutable forces 
 of destiny. He was much struck by the strength and 
 vividness of her intellect, and especially by the perspicacity 
 of the judgments she passed on people with whom he, too, 
 was personally acquainted. It was evidently a mortification 
 to find that his own name was totally unknown to her, but 
 his note had pleased her, and she believed him to be one 
 who had a work to perform in the future. Before he left 
 she insisted on casting his horoscope ; as the result, she 
 was able to congratulate him on being born under fortunate 
 

 1833.] DEIR-EL-KAMMAR. 1 39 
 
 stars and gifted with corresponding powers ; one was cer- 
 tainly Mercury, "who gives clearness and colour to the 
 mind and tongue. The sun has also much influence over 
 your destinies. Be thankful ; there are not many to whom 
 the stars are as propitious." These, and other prophecies 
 equally flattering, Lamartine records with becoming 
 modesty, giving his readers to understand that, although 
 not himself a believer in Lady Hester's supernatural 
 powers, he was convinced both of her sincerity and her 
 sanity. 
 
 From Dgioum the travellers pushed on to the country 
 of the Druses and Maronites, and were hospitably enter- 
 tained by the Emir Beschir at Deir-el-Kammar, where 
 they spent some days in the society of the most high-bred 
 and cultivated Syrians, which Lamartine, who possessed in 
 an eminent degree the happy and gracious flexibility of 
 nature which has a fascination for Orientals, found delightful. 
 His descriptions of Deir-el-Kammar and its inmates recall 
 Tancred's visit to the castle of Canobbia, as the guest of 
 another Emir of the House of Shehaab. Indeed, there is 
 more than one passage in Disraeli's Eastern romance which 
 seems to have been suggested by the " Voyage en Orient." 
 
 Finding on his return to Beyrout his wife and daughter 
 cheerful and well, he resolved to lose no time in visiting 
 the goal of all Christian pilgrims in Syria, and on the 8th 
 of October the caravan of eighteen horsemen started afresh, 
 following the road which, by a graduated ascent, leads over 
 the amphitheatre of hills encircling Beyrout. When they 
 arrived at the summit, a long line of coast stretched out 
 beneath them. Far away in the distance they were shown 
 the group of crumbling ruins marking the spot which once 
 
140 LA MAR TINE. [1832- 
 
 was Tyre, recalling to Lamartine's memory some lines of 
 one of his earlier poems : — 
 
 " Je n'ai pas entendu sous les cedres antiques 
 Les cris des nations monter et retentir, 
 Ni vu du noir Liban les aigles prophetiques 
 Descendre, au doigt de Dieu, sur les palais de Tyr." 
 
 The " black Lebanon " lay before him ; but the vultures 
 which, according to prophecy, were to come down unceas- 
 ingly from the hills in order to feed or to seek their food in 
 the accursed city, where were they ? Hardly, he tells us, 
 had the doubting thought passed through his mind, when 
 his eye fell on what seemed to be five formless, motionless, 
 statues of black marble, crowning the summit of an 
 adjacent peak. As the travellers drew near, the dark 
 masses were seen to move. They concluded it must be 
 a group of wandering Bedouins. But as they came closer 
 still, five huge eagles, slowly lifting their heavy wings, 
 raised themselves a few yards in the air. They did not 
 show signs of fear, nor move away to a distance, but 
 hovered over the doomed city as if it were theirs by divine 
 right. One of the Arab guides, lifting his rifle, fired at 
 them twice, still they did not seem to heed, but sailed 
 round majestically, as if they would say, " You cannot 
 harm us ; we are the eagles of God." 
 
 Turning inland, the travellers camped on the second 
 day at Solomon's Wells ; then, crossing the plain of Acre 
 they again began to ascend. It was not, as is the case 
 with most Europeans, from the rocky path leading from 
 Jaffa to Jerusalem, whence only a dwarfed and circum- 
 scribed landscape can be discerned, but from the heights 
 of the Galilean hills that Lamartine first viewed the Holy 
 
1833.] FIRST VIEW OF THE HOLY LAND. 141 
 
 Land. Far as eye could see it lay stretched before him, 
 "as of old beneath the failing vision of Moses. To the 
 left the rugged range of Lebanon rose against the dark 
 blue of the morning sky ; below lay the plain of Zabulon, 
 the soft shores of the Galilean Lake, once the garden of 
 Palestine ; and, far as eye could reach, a perspective of 
 mountains and valleys, hills and ravines, glistening as the 
 mists lifted in the bright Eastern sunshine ; — a landscape 
 one may well believe to have been designed by the hand 
 of the Creator as the dwelling-place of His chosen people." 
 " On this day," he goes on to say, " new impressions 
 sprang up in my mind. Hitherto in travel, my eyes, my 
 thoughts, my imagination had been interested and occu- 
 pied ; but now, setting foot in this land of prophecy and of 
 mystery, the land of Jehovah and of Christ, the land whose 
 name I had lisped in childhood, the land where first were 
 revealed those sweet and sacred teachings which, at a later 
 period, roused my inmost soul, I felt as if springs long ice- 
 bound had melted before a summer sun, as if feelings 
 paralyzed for years had been vivified and restored ; my 
 heart and my soul were touched to their very depths. As 
 one whose feet have led him unawares out of the busy 
 street to the silence of a sanctuary, this land of the 
 Scripture, whose sacred earth my feet are now treading, 
 is to me the Temple of God. Silently and alone, I lifted 
 my soul up to Him in prayer ; I gave Him thanks for per- 
 mitting me to visit this His sanctuary. And from that day, 
 as I journeyed on through the hills of Judea and by the 
 shores of Galilee, an ever-deepening impression of tenderness 
 and reverence dominated all others. Here travel becomes 
 a prayer. With thoughts such as these in my mind, 
 
142 LAMARTINE. [1832- 
 
 I rode slowly on, till, having crossed a ridge of hills, I saw, 
 nestling down in the valley, the white houses of Nazareth. 
 In another moment, I found myself kneeling prostrate in 
 the dust, unable to utter any words save ' Et Verbum caro 
 factum est, et habitavit in nobis.' With deep emotion 
 I kissed in silence, I moistened with tears of repentance, 
 love, and hope the ground which had brought forth a 
 Saviour." 
 
 After spending a few days in the Latin convent at 
 Nazareth, they went on to Mount Tabor, called, from a 
 tradition dating from the days of St. Jerome, the Mountain 
 of the Transfiguration. This, however, Lamartine was 
 inclined to doubt, as there is evidence that, at the period 
 referred to, Tabor was a citadel, garrisoned by the Romans. 
 Crossing the Jordan, and following the low line of volcanic 
 hills that border the lake of Galilee, they returned by Cana 
 to Nazareth, the state of the country making it impossible 
 to go direct to Jerusalem. The Egyptian troops under 
 Ibrahim Pasha had lately defeated the Turks, and taken 
 St. Jean d'Acre, which they had reduced almost to ruins. 
 War had been followed by pestilence, and a rigorous 
 quarantine cut off the Holy City, where the plague was 
 said to be lingering, from intercourse with the outer world. 
 However, Lamartine was provided with powerful letters of 
 introduction, one written in Mahomet Ali's own hand to 
 his son Ibrahim, by means of which he procured, through 
 a courier, an order from Ibrahim to the governor of Jaffa, 
 desiring him to provide the Frankish travellers with all 
 they needed, and troops, if necessary, for their protection. 
 
 From Nazareth, therefore, the little caravan journeyed 
 on to Jaffa, receiving at the various places where they 
 
1833.] FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 1 43 
 
 halted generous hospitality from the rich Greek and the 
 Frankish merchants. All this took time, so that it was 
 not till the 28th of October that, resolved, despite the 
 entreaties of their friends, to see Jerusalem, they started 
 from Jaffa. The Turkish-Egyptian governor had also 
 warned them of their danger ; but Lamartine's reply, " If 
 it be the will of God that we die of the plague, we shall be 
 no safer at Jaffa than at Jerusalem," was to a Moslem 
 unanswerable. Admiring his submission to the will of 
 Allah, the governor replied that he still could not allow a 
 guest so recommended to him by Ibrahim Pasha to be 
 exposed to any dangers that could be avoided, and that he 
 would select from among the garrison a guard of the 
 bravest and most reliable men to preserve him and his 
 friends from the treachery of the Bedouins, and from 
 contact with the plague-stricken. 
 
 The day following was fixed on for their departure, and 
 they started at early dawn, accompanied as far as Ramleh 
 by their Jaffa friends. Lamartine himself organized the 
 troop : two horsemen, acting as scouts, rode fifty paces in 
 front ; the rest followed one by one in file, to diminish as 
 much as possible the dangers incident to passing any 
 infected caravan, a strong body of Egyptian soldiers bring- 
 ing up the rear. Thanks to the admirable discipline of 
 the soldiers, this order was kept during twenty-five days' 
 march without break or interruption, the result being 
 perfect immunity from plague. 
 
 But there were other dangers ahead. The cities of 
 Palestine might have Turkish or Egyptian garrisons, but 
 the open country was, even more than it is now, in the 
 hands of the Bedouins, a large party of whom on the third 
 
144 LAMARTINE. [1832- 
 
 day were seen advancing in martial order. It was a 
 considerable relief to find that, far from being hostile, they 
 were sent from Abougoush, the most powerful of the Arab 
 chiefs, to inquire if Lamartine was the Frankish lord in 
 whose name Lady Hester Stanhope had lately sent him a 
 robe of honour, desiring that he should be treated as her 
 friend. On being answered in the affirmative, they were 
 invited to visit Jeremiah, where the tribe was then en- 
 camped, received with much honour, and provided with an 
 escort commanded by Abougoush's nephew and heir. But 
 the account given by the Bedouins of the state of Jerusalem 
 was even worse than what they had heard at Jaffa. The 
 plague was increasing in violence, the deaths numbering 
 sixty to seventy in the day ; all the convents and hospices 
 were closed. After much parleying, it was finally arranged 
 that the party should camp outside the walls of Jerusalem, 
 visit its sacred places and those situated in the country 
 adjoining, and return to the camp each night. It was on 
 the 29th of October that Lamartine and his companions 
 entered Jerusalem. They were met at the Bethlehem Gate 
 by a guard sent by the Pasha to escort them through the 
 streets, that they might be saved all contact with the 
 funeral processions which alone disturbed its solitude. 
 
 The terrible and exceptional circumstances of Lamar- 
 tine's visit to the Holy Sepulchre added much to its 
 impressiveness. There was no noise or confusion of a busy 
 city to interfere with devotion, no throng of pushing 
 pilgrims to turn worship into a scuffle. At his earnest 
 request, a privilege hardly any have enjoyed was conceded 
 to him : he was allowed more than once to enter unaccom- 
 panied the Inner Sanctuary, and worship in solitude and 
 

 1833.] RETURN TO BEYROUT. 1 45 
 
 silence at that most hallowed spot. And, in truth, Lamar- 
 tine needed all the strength and consolation religion could 
 give ; for, on his return to Beyrout, the crowning sorrow 
 of his life awaited him. Of the motives which had brought 
 the Lamartines to Syria, the most pressing was the hope 
 of benefiting the health of their daughter Julia, which 
 during the last two years had often caused them anxiety. 
 The physicians they consulted thought that a prolonged 
 residence in the soft climate of the East would ward off 
 any possible danger of consumption, and at first there 
 seemed every reason to hope the experiment was success- 
 ful. All her father's earlier letters describe Julia as 
 enchanted by the journey, entering with a degree of in- 
 telligence far beyond her years into the thoughts and 
 interests of her parents, helping her mother to arrange and 
 decorate their Syrian home ; but delighting, above all, in 
 accompanying her father, to whom she was passionately 
 attached, in his walks and rides. Her health seemed so 
 much improved and strengthened that almost all anxiety 
 on her account had passed away ; and it was Lamartine's 
 intention to journey on from Jerusalem to Egypt, and 
 spend some weeks there before returning to Beyrout. 
 
 While encamped outside Jerusalem, he received, on his 
 return from an excursion to Jericho, a packet of letters 
 forwarded by his wife, in which she described her daughter 
 as perfectly well and happy. But at the foot of the letter 
 was a postscript in Julia's own writing, imploring her father 
 not to stay away longer. This pathetic little appeal, 
 probably dictated by anxiety for his safety, determined 
 Lamartine to start at once on the return journey, and he 
 reached Beyrout on the 6th of November. His daughter 
 
 L 
 
146 LAMARTINE. [1832- 
 
 greeted him with more than usual delight ; nothing seemed 
 now wanting to her happiness. 
 
 A few days later, she accompanied him on a long ride 
 over the hills surrounding Beyrout, resting for their mid- 
 day halt on a plateau which commands perhaps the most 
 beautiful view in the world. Beneath their feet lay the 
 Mediterranean, with its wonderfully varied coast-line ; while 
 eastward rose the snow-clad peaks of Lebanon, and in the 
 further distance lay the plains of Palestine, bathed in the 
 soft autumnal sunshine, rich in gorgeous and glowing 
 colouring, but still more in their thousand associations and 
 memories. 
 
 They did not return until the sun was already setting 
 behind the great pine forest of the Emir Fakredeen. Julia, 
 who had, unlike her wont, remained a long time silent, 
 turned to her father, saying, with girlish rapture, " Tell me, 
 father, is not this the longest and the most beautiful ride 
 we have ever taken ? Is there anything in the world that 
 can be compared with it .? How good God is," she went 
 on, " to allow a girl like me to see such wonders ! " 
 
 It was not only the longest and most beautiful ride the 
 poor girl had ever taken, it was also to be the last. A few 
 days later, she was stricken down by fever, and, on the 
 20th of December, Lamartine wrote to Virieu that he was 
 childless. " After five days' illness our angel has been 
 taken from us. There is no need to tell you how it is with 
 us. It seems as if life were but a dream of transient 
 happiness, followed by despair. All its joy and hope, all 
 its zest and interest, are gone for ever. The reason of it God 
 only can make plain. I came back from a six weeks' tour, 
 and found her apparently full of life and strength ; loving, 
 
1833.] HIS DAUGHTER'S DEATH. 1 47 
 
 joyous, caressing, yet already almost a woman in in- 
 telligence. I had taken every possible precaution to 
 strengthen her chest, which for two years had given us 
 uneasiness ; daily she rode out, generally with me. At the 
 first change of weather, she began to cough, inflammation 
 came on, and in five days she was taken from us, despite 
 all the care and skill of two French physicians and an 
 excellent English One. All was in vain ! But, at least, 
 save for a few hours, she did not suffer. We are crushed 
 and stupefied, unable to return home till spring, for the sea- 
 voyage has too many dangers. I shall then leave my wife 
 in Italy, and return home alone. What a home-coming it 
 will be!" 
 
 Of the sad months that followed, passed in crushing 
 grief at Beyrout, neither letters nor journal give any 
 record. At last M. and Madame de Lamartine each felt 
 that for the other's sake some change was to be desired, 
 and in April they started from Beyrout to visit Baalbec 
 and Damascus. The first night they spent at Hammanna, 
 where rooms had been prepared for them by order of the 
 Druse sheikh, in a castle said to be built by the crusaders, 
 which, from the beauty of its architecture, recalled and 
 rivalled those which are the glory of Touraine. The day 
 following they were the guests of the Greek Bishop at 
 Zakle, whence they reached Baalbec, where they remained 
 for some days, entertained by the Emir, whose horsemen 
 escorted them to the gates of Damascus, at that time a 
 lotbed of Moslem fanaticism. No traveller or agent of 
 tny Christian power was admitted within its walls. But for 
 te kindness of M. Baudin — a French merchant who, by 
 [opting the dress and habits of the Moslems, had managed 
 
I48 LAMART1NE. [1832- 
 
 during the last ten years to remain on sufferance in order 
 to guard the interests of his countrymen, and whom they 
 had met at Beyrout — the Lamartines and their friends 
 could never have penetrated within its walls. As it was, 
 they were obliged completely to disguise themselves. The 
 gentlemen of the party already had assumed the Eastern 
 dress, and before they approached Damascus Madame de 
 Lamartine and her maid were swathed from head to foot 
 in white drapery, after the manner of Asiatic women. At 
 the city gate a guide, who was watching for them, came 
 forward, and silently directed them, away from the well- 
 ordered gardens and sparkling fountains which have made 
 Damascus famous, through narrow streets, to the Armenian 
 quarter, where they stopped before a door so mean and 
 narrow that they could hardly get through. Thence a 
 dingy corridor led to a court, where, as if by enchantment, 
 rose up a palace. They were received with Eastern 
 magnificence, happily blended with European refinements, 
 by M. Baudin and his family. With these kind friends 
 some weeks were spent. Lamartine, in his Eastern dress, 
 associated with the Armenians, who numbered thirty thou- 
 sand, and about whom he gives, in his published travels, a 
 good many interesting details. 
 
 It was on the return journey that an incident occurred 
 which ultimately gave a fresh direction to Lamartine's life. 
 The caravan had left Hammanna at early dawn. For the 
 first two hours the sun's rays did not pierce the welcome 
 screen of mist rising from the valley. All sign of human 
 habitation had been left behind; hardly could the tower 
 of some lonely monastery or the belfry minaret of some 
 isolated village be discerned in the furthest distance. At 
 
1833.] ELECTION TO BERGUES. 149 
 
 the place selected for the noonday halt, the eyes ranged 
 over a boundless horizon of solitude, unbroken save on the 
 line which marks the great highway to Damascus, crossed 
 at long intervals by groups of horsemen. From one of 
 these a solitary rider detached himself to follow the track 
 they had themselves made. It proved to be a courier sent 
 from Beyrout with a packet of letters lately arrived from 
 Europe, one of which announced to Lamartine that he had 
 been elected as deputy by the arrondissement of Bergues, 
 which, it will be remembered, he contested unsuccessfully 
 two years before. His first impulse was to send the 
 messenger back with an unqualified refusal ; a life of 
 action had now no attraction for him. His wish, as far as 
 he had one, was to retire to St. Point, and there cherish in 
 silence and isolation the memories which were more to 
 him than all the world besides. But, happily, wiser 
 counsels prevailed. His friends asked him at least to 
 defer his answer, and their arguments, strengthened by 
 his wife's earnest entreaty, prevailed on him not to add to 
 the regrets of life that of opportunities neglected and 
 talents wasted. He accepted the post, with the condition 
 that he was not expected to undertake its duties till the 
 following autumn. 
 
 On returning to Beyrout, the preparations for leaving 
 Syria were begun. The original plan had been that the 
 Alceste, which had been laid up at Marseilles during the 
 winter, should call back in May, and, after a protracted 
 cruise among the Isles of Greece and along the shores of 
 the Bosphorus, take them home to France. But all was 
 now changed. Julia, when she felt life ebbing away, had 
 earnestly prayed that she might at least be buried at 
 
1 50 LAMART1NE. [1832- 
 
 St. Point. To spare his wife an additional pang, Lamartine 
 chartered another vessel, the Sophie, in which the party 
 were to start on their homeward journey, while the Alceste 
 sailed straight back to France "with her sad freight — a 
 vanished life." 
 
 It was with heavy hearts that they went on board the 
 Sophie, leaving behind them, short as had been their stay 
 in Syria, many sympathizing friends. After going through 
 the sufferings and dangers of a terrible hurricane, and 
 resting for short intervals at Rhodes, Cyprus, and Smyrna, 
 they reached Constantinople on May 29th. Here, but a 
 short time before, the European quarter of Pera had been 
 almost entirely destroyed by fire ; neither an hotel nor 
 even a private house in which it was possible to find a 
 lodging was left standing. However, Eastern hospitality 
 speedily made up for the deficiency. M. Truqui, the 
 Sardinian consul-general, on hearing of the arrival of the 
 Lamartines, went at once on board the Sophie, to put his 
 country house at their disposal. A few hours later, the 
 French ambassador, Admiral Roussin, invited them to his 
 hotel at Therapia. The first offer was gratefully accepted, 
 and they had no reason to regret it. Partly from gratitude 
 for the kindness of their host, partly to give the friends 
 who had been faithful to them during so many sad and 
 dreary months some opportunity of enjoyment ; perhaps, 
 also, because each dreaded for the other the sad home- 
 coming, the Lamartines agreed to remain at Constantinople 
 for a longer time than they had originally intended. 
 
 The time was put to account by Lamartine to inform 
 himself as much as possible on Eastern affairs, which were 
 then threatening to become a serious question in European 
 

 
 1833.] CONSTANTINOPLE. 1 5 1 
 
 politics. Nor, despite his grief, could he fail to be deeply 
 impressed by the many wonders of the beautiful city, then 
 so little known to Europeans. In describing his visit to 
 the Seraglio, which, since the massacre of the Mamelukes, 
 had been deserted by Sultan Mahmoud, he mentions that 
 he was the only European who had crossed its threshold 
 since Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. He had also the good 
 fortune to be allowed to accompany Admiral Roussin in 
 the one visit which each newly arrived foreign ambassador 
 is allowed to make to the Mosque of Saint Sophia, which, 
 with its columns taken from the Temple of Ephesus, its 
 gigantic figures of the Apostles plainly visible through 
 the crumbling plaster of the Arabic ornaments that had 
 once concealed them, he calls, in poetic phrase, " le grand 
 caravanserail de Dieu." 
 
 Nor could he be otherwise than interested in much 
 that was going on in the social and political world of 
 Constantinople. The Russian fleet, which had been help- 
 ing the Sultan to curb the power of the Viceroy of Egypt, 
 now lay at anchor in the Bosphorus, under the walls of 
 Therapia, and a detachment of Russian troops occupied an 
 entrenched camp on the Asiatic shore. Would they, their 
 task being now completed, stay or go? was the question 
 asked on all sides with the keenest anxiety. Lamartine 
 had the satisfaction of being one of the first enlightened, 
 Count Orloff having shown him an autograph letter from 
 the Czar, couched in about these terms : — 
 
 " My dear Orloff, 
 
 " When Providence makes a man the ruler of 
 forty millions of other men, it is in order that he may give 
 
152 LAMARTINE. [1832- 
 
 the world an example of the highest probity. I wish to 
 be worthy of the mission I have received. As soon as the 
 difficulties between the Grand Seignior are ended, bring my 
 fleet and my army back at once." 
 
 He therefore unhesitatingly expressed his confidence in 
 the good faith of Russia, and was justified by the result. 
 Early in July, her troops and fleet departed. " They now 
 know the way to Constantinople," he remarks, "and the 
 Turks have become used to seeing them here. The 
 opportunity was admirably used ; the language of the Czar 
 is noble and worthy of him. But Constantinople will not 
 fly away." 
 
 A few days later, Lamartine met at dinner the Prince 
 Royal of Bavaria, whom he describes as extremely culti- 
 vated, delighting in good conversation, and himself an 
 admirable talker. He had been staying with his brother, 
 King Otho, and consulted Lamartine as to the future 
 capital of Greece. The latter pleaded eagerly for Athens. 
 " Greece has risen from the dead. The form she assumes 
 must be that in which she is known to men. Her indi- 
 viduality must be unchanged. But for Athens, she would 
 be but a scantily peopled wilderness." 
 
 By this time they had reached the end of July. Even 
 at their seaside villa, the heat was becoming oppressive. 
 Having decided to return to France overland, Lamartine 
 arranged with a carriage owner in Stamboul to provide 
 five arabas, each drawn by six horses, to take him, his wife, 
 and M. de Capmas, with their servants, in twenty-five days' 
 march, to Belgrade. To these were added a train of mules 
 to carry beds, cooking utensils, and such luggage as was 
 
1833.] HOMEWARD JOURNEY. 1 53 
 
 needed on the journey, and six riding horses, in case the 
 roads proved too hard of transit. They started late in 
 July, at two a.m., from a trysting-place in the suburb of 
 Eyoub, to avoid the confusion of passing through the 
 streets of Constantinople. 
 
 The first stages of the journey were pleasant enough. 
 Lamartine, having got letters from the Grand Vizier and 
 other powerful personages, was able to send forward each 
 day his interpreter and two Tartar horsemen to prepare 
 rooms, generally in the house of some Greek or Armenian 
 merchant ; their food was procured and prepared by their 
 own cooks. At Philippopolis, a young Greek, M. Mauridis, 
 insisted on their coming to his house as guests, and re- 
 maining for some days. Two days after this welcome 
 rest, they came to Tatar Bazir, where a son of the Grand 
 Vizier, who was governor, placed at their disposal a 
 charming country house just outside the town. 
 
 After leaving Tatar, the aspect of the country changed ; 
 the roads became so bad that it was only on men's 
 shoulders the carnages could be got over difficult places, 
 and the nightly bivouac was generally in some miserable 
 village. At one of these Lamartine sickened with fever, 
 and lay for twenty days between life and death on the 
 floor of a mud-walled cabin. He ascribes his recovery to 
 his wife's promptitude in sending men at once to search 
 the swamps of the whole country side for leeches. After 
 much trouble they were procured, and gave him immediate 
 relief. Still, he had little hope or desire to live, and en- 
 trusted M. de Capmas with his last wishes, telling him the 
 exact spot where he wished to be buried, under a spreading 
 tree he had noticed by the roadside. 
 
1 54 LAMARTINE. [1832- 
 
 Nothing could exceed the desolation and helplessness 
 of his devoted nurses, M. de Capmas and Madame de 
 Lamartine. They knew not where to turn for help, when 
 on the sixth day, their late host, M. Mauridi, rode up, 
 bringing with him an excellent doctor, and every comfort 
 the most thoughtful kindness could suggest He had 
 heard casually that a Frankish traveller was fever-stricken 
 at Yenisiki, and guessing at once it must be Lamartine, 
 started that night at ten o'clock, and rode without inter- 
 ruption night and day to bring relief. His kindness was 
 itself a restorative, the danger gradually diminished, and 
 by the end of a fortnight the invalid had sufficiently re- 
 covered to resume the journey. 
 
 The inhabitants of Yenisiki were Bulgarians. Though 
 poor and half civilized, they had given many proofs of 
 kindness and sympathy. The remainder of the route 
 lay across Servia. Travelling by short stages and with 
 frequent halts, Lamartine had opportunities of becoming 
 acquainted with the Christian populations of northern 
 Turkey, and, notwithstanding his predilections for the 
 Ottomans, it was to these subject races he trusted for the 
 future regeneration of European Turkey. The Bulgarians 
 he seems personally to have liked the best, but their 
 gentleness and simplicity, which he attributes to their 
 partial enfranchisement, made him, perhaps, underrate 
 their tenacity and martial spirit as compared with their 
 neighbours, the Servians, whom he looked on as the 
 nucleus of a great Slav Empire, to be established at no 
 very distant date. To accept an invitation from Prince 
 Milosch to spend some weeks with him at Belgrade was 
 an attraction, but the health of M. de Capmas was causing 
 
1833.] RETURN TO ST. POINT. 1 55 
 
 some anxiety, and it was thought better, on reaching the 
 Danube, to proceed at once by boat to Vienna. Some 
 weeks later, Lamartine, leaving his wife with friends at 
 Geneva, went on alone to Marseilles, and brought his 
 daughter's remains thence to St. Point. 
 
 
1 56 LAMARTINE. [1833- 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1833-1836. 
 
 In September, Lamartine and his wife returned to their 
 desolate home, where, in mourning and sadness, they 
 passed the autumn. Fortunately, Lamartine's position as 
 deputy obliged him to be in Paris during the winter, and, 
 painful as was the change, both husband and wife benefited 
 by it. From the moment Lamartine took his seat he con- 
 centrated his thoughts and energies on acquiring a ready 
 and facile elocution, not at all underrating the difficulties 
 of the task, which he calculated would take three or four 
 years, during which he was prepared to endure failure with 
 equanimity. " Even ridicule, harder to bear than the 
 thrust of a dagger," should not deter him. Never in his 
 life, he writes, did he work so hard. His first speech was 
 on January 4, 1834. Four days later he spoke again, and 
 found his audience tolerably attentive. By the end of 
 the month he tried his hand at improvisation. Then he 
 went down to Burgundy, and at the Conseil-General of 
 the department spoke at every opportunity, and on every 
 subject. His success surprised him, as he admits with 
 amusing naiveti:"! am delighted to find I am master of 
 my instrument ; the most spontaneous improvisation, the 
 
1836.] HIS SUCCESS AS A SPEAKER. 1 57 
 
 clearest, the most crushing reply, are equally easy to me." 
 " I have spoken nine times in seven successive debates," 
 he wrote in 1836, "and each time the Chamber has been 
 silent, attentive, sometimes even enthusiastic. ... I have 
 reduced lawyers, peers, and deputies to mute astonishment. 
 It amuses me extremely. I feel like a schoolboy who has 
 been a long time studying a new language and suddenly 
 finds he knows it." 
 
 In a speech delivered on July 3, 1839, when a vote of 
 supply was asked for the augmentation of the French fleet 
 in the Mediterranean, Lamartine seems to have produced 
 a great impression. Royer Collard, in a somewhat theatrical 
 apostrophe, told him he was the most eloquent orator of 
 the nation, and prophesied still greater triumphs. " Your 
 poetic past has been glorious ; I venture to predict your 
 political future will be greater still." And all through the 
 following years his reputation rose, till at last, if we may 
 believe his bitterest enemies, the time came when one 
 phrase from Lamartine's lips would have sufficed to uphold 
 a throne and reinstate a dynasty. 
 
 But this is to anticipate very considerably. In 1834, 
 though taking his Parliamentary career seriously, Lamartine 
 speaks of it as merely an interlude, which is to last three 
 or four years at most, after which he proposed devoting 
 himself to forwarding by his pen the development of 
 notions and theories already fermenting in his brain. 
 There is a project of a political Review to be started in 
 company with Ballanche, Pages, Lamennais, and others 
 but this was put an end to by the publication of Lamen- 
 nais' " Paroles d'un croyant," from which Lamartine tried 
 in vain to dissuade him. 
 
158 LAMARTINE. [1833- 
 
 Meanwhile, there hangs over the house the shadow of 
 a great sorrow, which kind friends do all they can to soften. 
 Madame de Lamartine, still suffering in health, was quietly- 
 taking up the threads of her former daily occupations- 
 " My wife," writes Lamartine, " employs herself in her 
 household duties, in visiting the poor, and writing letters. 
 She is the better for it, but very little. As for me, I rise 
 early, thus gaining a few quiet hours for study, prayer, and 
 sorrow. Towards noon, I ride for a couple of hours ; at 
 three I go to the Chamber till five or six, and in the even- 
 ings our friends, knowing they will find us at home, never 
 leave us quite to ourselves." 
 
 In the autumn of 1835 the Lamartines settled them- 
 selves in No. 82, Rue de l'Universite^ which was their town 
 residence for many succeeding years. In those days, for 
 the modest rent of six thousand francs, it was possible 
 to get what is described as " une installation de grand 
 seigneur " — a long suite of rooms on the first floor, looking 
 on the one side across a spacious courtyard, opening on 
 the other into one of the large shady gardens which even 
 now are found here and there among the secluded streets 
 of the Faubourg St. Germain. The flat, by an arrange- 
 ment not usual in French houses, had its separate staircase, 
 and was entirely cut off from the rest of the house, securing, 
 much to the satisfaction of Madame de Lamartine, some- 
 thing of the privacy of an English home. On the left of 
 the ante-chamber was a large dining-room ; then came the 
 salon, to which Turkish hangings gave an oriental character 
 uncommon in those days. Beyond the salon was Madame 
 de Lamartine's own sitting-room. The rooms specially 
 allotted to the master of the house were laid out after 
 
1836.] HIS POLITICAL POSITION. 1 5 9 
 
 much the same fashion. To the right of the ante-chamber 
 was a library ; beyond, a tiny study, in which, at early 
 dawn, or in winter by lamplight, Lamartine worked as- 
 siduously. Here he received his intimate friends. One 
 of the special features of the house was that, unless on 
 exceptionally fine days, clear, bright fires burnt continuously 
 in all the rooms — a luxury rather unusual in thrifty Parisian 
 households. 
 
 Still mourning the loss of their daughter, the Lamar- 
 tines saw little company save old and dear friends. 
 By his family connections, and by the majority of his 
 personal friendships, Lamartine belonged socially to the 
 Faubourg in which he had pitched his tent ; politically his 
 position was still, and from choice, undefined. By his resig- 
 nation, on Louis Philippe's accession, of the post of Minister 
 at Athens, and his withdrawal from the career of diplomacy, 
 he had proved his loyal attachment to the elder branch of 
 the Bourbons ; on the other hand, his refusal in 1830 to 
 endorse the policy of Prince Polignac, and still more the 
 independent tone of his first speeches, showed he had 
 separated himself from the hot-headed fanatics who now 
 claimed to represent the Legitimist cause. Besides, 
 Royalist though he was, Lamartine had been cradled, so 
 to speak, in the very trough of the revolutionary wave, 
 and there had passed into his spirit something of that 
 weird and thrilling epoch, inclining him to look on great 
 social cataclysms as inevitable crises of civilization, and 
 to put some rather Utopian theories as to the progress of 
 humanity, the redressing of inequalities and restrictions, 
 the development of civil and religious liberty, before any 
 interests of dynasty or creed. This tendency was very 
 
l6o LAMAR TINE. [1833- 
 
 manifest in a debate on the " Law of Association," in which 
 Lamartine, while strenuously pleading for the utmost 
 possible protection of individual liberty, supported the 
 Government in their endeavours to uphold order and 
 strengthen authority. This line of conduct being directly 
 opposed to that followed by the Legitimist members, he- 
 was violently denounced in the lower class of their 
 newspapers. But the leaders of the party, anxious not to 
 lose so valuable an ally, were more moderate ; the Gazette 
 de France, edited by Lamartine's personal friend, the Abbe 
 de Genoude, offered him its columns wherein to refute his 
 assailants; and in December, 1834, he was formally 
 invited to join a conference held at the house of a M. 
 Hennequin, in which the line of the party during the 
 winter session was to be discussed. But this was already 
 a foregone conclusion, it being well known that the policy 
 resolved on was that of determined and continued oppo- 
 sition to every act and measure of the Government, and to 
 all the other parties in the Chamber except the extreme 
 Radicals, or " Republican Left." To a scheme of conduct 
 so unpatriotic, so demoralizing, and, as the event proved, 
 so entirely mistaken, Lamartine absolutely refused his 
 adhesion. He put forth all his powers of argument and 
 of language to show how fatally shortsighted such tactics 
 were. " I made them feel," he writes to Virieu, " the 
 absurdity of political Congregationalism at a time when, 
 entering the new Chamber, as they now are, perfectly free 
 from tie or fetter, they might as individuals join the most 
 conscientious and patriotic sections ; if they persisted in 
 this latter course they would one day find themselves very 
 strong. They admitted I was right, but respect of persons 
 
1836.] CONVERSATION WITH TALLEYRAND. l6l 
 
 and the clamour of their own newspapers are forces they 
 have not courage to resist." 
 
 A few days later he tells the same correspondent how, 
 when dining with Prince Talleyrand, the sincerity of his 
 professions of independence was put to a severer test. 
 Towards the end of the evening, his host, with a solemnity 
 of manner which rather amused Lamartine, drew him aside 
 to a sofa at the furthest end of the room, and cere- 
 moniously congratulated him on his admirable entry into 
 les affaires, an expression which generally implies official 
 employment. 
 
 "You are laughing at me, Prince," replied Lamartine. 
 " I have nothing to do with les affaires. I am altogether 
 an outsider." 
 
 " ' Do not be falsely modest. You have made a better 
 start in public life than any man since 1830. You have 
 shown more depth, more intelligence, more initiative than 
 any one,' And thereupon," continues Lamartine, "he went 
 on for nearly an hour, unrolling before me the plan of 
 campaign I ought to follow, exactly as I had arranged in 
 my own mind. What do you think of that for a man of 
 eighty-two ? " 
 
 One gathers from this anecdote some insight into the 
 secret of Talleyrand's success as a diplomatist, but in this 
 instance, beyond charming his auditor, no ulterior gain was 
 achieved. Lamartine, in spite of all blandishments, kept 
 steadily to the line of conduct he had laid out for a period 
 much longer than the residue of Talleyrand's life, and when 
 at last he passed beyond, it was from causes and convictions 
 neither he nor any one else could in those early days have 
 anticipated. 
 
 M 
 
1 62 LA MARTIN E. [1833- 
 
 When, in August, 1834, the new Parliament met for the 
 first time, the result of the election was seen to be ex- 
 tremely favourable to Government. The Republicans had 
 been almost everywhere defeated ; seventy members of 
 their party in the last Chamber had now lost their seats ; 
 twelve others had retired from the contest. Consequently 
 the juste-milieu y as the supporters of the Ministry were 
 called, mustered no less than 320 votes out of 460 ; the 
 irreconcilable Opposition, counting both Royalists and 
 Republicans, amounted only to 90, while the intermediate 
 party, among whom Lamartine was included, was reckoned 
 at 50. 
 
 The Legitimists, though only 15 in number, had 
 considerable influence, owing partly to their historic past 
 and to the powerful interests they represented, partly to 
 the eloquence of their leader, Berryer. Tall, and of 
 commanding presence, singularly graceful and dignified in 
 gesture, however displeasing the matter of his speeches 
 might be to the majority of his hearers, the very first tones 
 of his perfectly modulated voice never failed to arrest 
 attention. His style was pure and correct; he treated his 
 subject habitually from a lofty moral standpoint, seldom 
 forgetting the respect due to himself and to his audience ; 
 but when occasion required, he was scathing in his 
 denunciations, unsurpassed in the swiftness of his crushing 
 retort. While adhering with rare fidelity to the cause he 
 had espoused, he always kept a certain independence of 
 attitude. His personal friends were of all camps ; and at 
 the bar, where his greatest triumphs were won, he was 
 the defender, without distinction of creed or party, of all 
 who were unfortunate, friendless, or oppressed. The only 
 
1836.] POLITICAL PARTIES. 1 63 
 
 fault his bitterest foes could fasten on Berryer was, that, 
 while holding himself aloof from all unworthy tactics, he 
 did not attempt to exact similar forbearance from the rank 
 and file of his party. Probably if he had tried to do so 
 he would have failed. 
 
 The extreme Left, likewise not very numerous in the 
 Chamber, had as leaders Garnier-Pages and Armand- 
 Carrel, men of character and intellect. Garnier-Pages 
 especially was as remarkable for his habitual urbanity and 
 charm of manner as for his unflinching resolution on all 
 critical occasions ; both perhaps most fortunate in that 
 death cut them off before the theories they advocated with 
 eloquent enthusiasm came to be put in practice, and the 
 spirits rashly evoked became masters instead of servants. 
 But the strength of this party lay not so much in its leaders 
 as in the stern, unbending phalanx of Republicans outside 
 the Chamber, fired with the bitterest hatred for those who 
 had, as they conceived, filched from them the fruits of the 
 " three glorious days." Subdued for the moment by the 
 failure of the April insurrections, they now began to apply 
 themselves the more earnestly to undermine the existing 
 social order with a network of secret societies. 
 
 The supporters of the Ministry filled the centre benches, 
 forming a majority far too large to allow the opposition 
 any hope of outvoting it, but, from its very numbers, 
 unwieldy and liable to break up at any moment into 
 hostile factions. The Prime Minister, Marshal Soult, had 
 been brought into office by the Conservative reaction 
 
 I which followed the suppression of the insurrection of 1833, 
 and for several months carried on the Government success- 
 fully, though with a somewhat high hand. But the debate 
 
1 64 LAMARTINE. [1833- 
 
 opening the session of 1834 showed that he had enemies 
 in his household, and, on being outvoted in Council on the 
 question of replacing the military governor of Algeria by 
 a civilian, Marshal Soult resigned. 
 
 His successor, Marshal Gerard, was personally popular, 
 and became still more so by at once pledging himself to 
 reductions in expenditure, always opposed by Soult, and 
 now loudly called for throughout the country. But he 
 allowed himself to be led by the flatteries of the group 
 called the Third Party, of which M. Dupin was the leader, 
 into a democratic line of policy to which the other ministers 
 were opposed, and which he had not sufficient personal 
 weight to carry out single-handed, so that by the end of 
 three months he could save his dignity only by resigning. 
 The King then sent for Count Mole, who endeavoured to 
 form a cabinet, but failed, owing to the intrigues of the 
 Third Party, and there was for some weeks an interregnum. 
 The remaining members of the Ministry now resolved 
 to foil their enemies by leaving them to bear the burden of 
 the day. Accordingly they resigned in a body, and M. 
 Dupin was summoned to the Tuileries. He prudently 
 abstained from taking office himself, but selected among 
 his friends a Ministerial list which, when published in the 
 Moniteur, was received with incredulity, followed by peals 
 of laughter. The unfortunate ministers, lacking courage 
 to face the storm of ridicule before them, resigned at the 
 end of three days, which the Parisian wits, parodying the 
 famous " Journee des Dupes " of Mazarin's time, called 
 " Les Journees des Dupins." To avoid a deadlock iu 
 public business, an arrangement was made by which the 
 former Cabinet resumed their places, with Marshal Mortier 
 
1836.] THE DUC DE BROGUE. l6$ 
 
 as President of the Council, instead of Marshal Gerard. 
 But Mortier, a brave, loyal soldier, had neither experience 
 in the conduct of affairs nor the faculty of public speaking, 
 and his incapacity for the post soon became, as he was 
 himself the first to acknowledge, painfully manifest. 
 
 It was felt that after such a series of misadventures, no 
 fresh combination should be tried until a premier had been 
 found with character and position sufficiently commanding 
 to restore the respect Ministerial Government had almost 
 forfeited, and all eyes turned to the head of an historic 
 house in which great talents have been for centuries as 
 hereditary as great possessions. Equally attached to the 
 Throne and to the Charter, the Due de Broglie had dreaded 
 and disliked the Revolution of July, but, once it was ac- 
 complished, he had loyally done his best to uphold the 
 dignity and authority of the Crown, and, though personally 
 averse to public life, could always be relied upon at those 
 times "when no wise man will seek office, and no honourable 
 man refuse it." With him as President of the Council, and 
 MM. Guizot and Thiers holding the portfolios of foreign 
 affairs and of public instruction, the " Ministry of October, 
 1832," returned to office. 
 
 Lamartine, though not personally affected by these 
 Ministerial complications, watched them with interest. 
 u Although," he writes to M. de Bienassis, " I try to keep 
 philosophically aloof from the political movements of the 
 hour, I am drawn into them against my will. Watch me 
 from afar, and if you will not come down into the plain, at 
 least pray for me on the mountain-top. But in these days 
 every one ought to be among the combatants." 
 
 In the debate of January, 1835, on the question of 
 
1 66 LAMARTINE. [1833- 
 
 amnesty, which Lamartine ' considered desirable both on 
 political and on moral grounds, he was for the first time 
 in decided opposition to the Government, and had with 
 M. Guizot a somewhat sharp altercation. A fortnight 
 later, in a discussion on the Polish question, he approved 
 their policy, and would have spoken on their side, but 
 was prevented by his Legitimist friends, " who," he writes, 
 "by tactics well known in the Chamber, but impossible 
 to explain to outsiders," kept him out of the rostrum, 
 notwithstanding his repeated efforts, during the six hours 
 the debate lasted. 
 
 But a little later an opportunity came. In March, 
 
 1834, the Due de Broglie had resigned office on account of 
 a hostile vote of the Chambers, refusing him a credit of 
 twenty-five million francs admittedly due by France to the 
 United States for losses sustained by American subjects 
 in consequence of the Milan decrees of Napoleon. The 
 question had been postponed for the time, but in April, 
 
 1835, a direct and haughty interpellation from President 
 Jackson revived it with urgency. An angry debate ensued, 
 in which the Opposition, posing as champions of national 
 pride and patriotism, were for refusing payment. Lamar- 
 tine, who had on the previous occasion voted in the 
 minority upholding the Due de Broglie's policy, now, in 
 an eloquent and exhaustive speech, argued that to fulfil 
 strictly and to the letter the obligations incurred was the 
 really patriotic course, and the only one open to a sensitive 
 and honourable people. " The true dignity of nations lies 
 in acting justly." With remarkable simplicity and clearness 
 of language he went through the history of the question, 
 proved that the justice of the American claim had never 
 

 1836.] LAWS OF SEPTEMBER. 1 67 
 
 been disputed "; pointed out the misery which provoking 
 a war, or even leaving the question undecided would bring 
 on the industrious populations of the west coast, "to whom, 
 as they had proved a thousand times by their readiness to 
 shed their blood for their country, the honour of France 
 was as dear as to any deputy in the Chamber, but who 
 had a right to ask that the fruit of their labours, the bread 
 of their families, should not be sacrificed to the unreal 
 sensitiveness of political animosities." The vote, on which 
 the Due de Broglie had a second time staked the duration 
 of his Ministry, was passed by the Chamber. 
 
 A few weeks later, the diabolical attempt of Fieschi to 
 destroy the Throne and its supporters by a wholesale 
 massacre brought about a strong reaction. For the first 
 time since 1830, Legitimists and Republicans passed to- 
 gether through the portals of the Tuileries, vying in eager- 
 ness to congratulate the Sovereign on his escape, and show 
 their abhorrence of the crime. The necessity of strengthen- 
 ing the hands of the Executive, and of repressing the 
 scurrilous publications which had so long with impunity 
 encouraged crime of all kinds, was denied by none. Three 
 measures, intended to meet the evil, were brought forward 
 by the Ministry, and submitted to the Chamber, which, not 
 content with passing them by a large majority, added very 
 considerably to their stringency. Of these enactments two 
 were reasonable enough. The first introduced various 
 alterations and abbreviations in the form of procedure 
 against press offences ; the second authorized juries to 
 convict by a majority of eight or seven, and enjoined 
 secrecy as to the votes given. But the third clause was 
 extremely drastic ; by it an offence against the person 
 
1 68 LAMARTINE. [1833- 
 
 of the Sovereign or the monarchical principle was to be 
 summarily punished by heavy fines ; no engraving, emblem, 
 or drawing was to be exposed for sale without the sanction 
 of the censors ; the caution money to be found by journalists 
 was increased to the amount of ^4000 in cash. 
 
 However, such was the indignation Fieschi's crime had 
 excited throughout the country, that, severe as were these 
 enactments, but few voices were raised in opposition. The 
 most forcible was that of Lamartine, who, in words which 
 recall a famous passage in English literature, protested at 
 once against those who would give to licence the sacred 
 name of liberty, and against those others who would stifle 
 all expression of thought. " If," he went on to say, " I 
 thought freedom of the press an insuperable obstacle to 
 the exercise of authority, I should be the first to say, 
 1 Muzzle the press ; ' but it is not so. With a free press, 
 government may be difficult ; without it, 'tis impossible. 
 And have you not, in the awful crime which has been 
 committed, better security against future outrage or law- 
 lessness than any laws of repression, however severe, could 
 give you? Has it not already borne fruit? From the 
 office of Deputy to that of the humblest councillor, do 
 we not see the popular voice unanimous in electing none 
 but men of property and of good repute? Do we not 
 see the churches, so lately desecrated and pillaged, now 
 filled with worshippers, who recognize but one origin 
 for religion and for monarchy? Do we not see Royalty, 
 so recently insulted and attacked, now honoured and 
 applauded ? The corpses strewn about your streets, the 
 funeral procession followed by a mourning people, — these 
 solemn lessons of an overruling Providence, appealing in 
 
1836.] SESSION OF 1 836. 1 69 
 
 living language to the emotions of the multitude, have 
 had effects more powerful and more lasting than your laws 
 of a day will ever produce." 
 
 But so strong was the feeling that the evils devastating 
 society were mainly due to the action of the press, that 
 the coercive laws, known as the " laws of September," were 
 passed by enormous majorities, after which the Chambers 
 were prorogued. 
 
 The session of 1836 opened under favourable auspices ; 
 the King was able to make the prosperity of the country 
 the principal theme of his speech. But there were tokens 
 that the Ministry did not feel their position one of absolute 
 security. M. de Broglie, in a recent speech, had said, 
 " Dangers are passing away, and with dangers the remem- 
 brance of them, for we live in times when impressions are 
 very evanescent. As order is being gradually restored, 
 the exalted posts we occupy become more and more the 
 goal of honourable ambition ; in quiet times changes of 
 administration are no longer looked upon as dangerous to 
 public safety. Then, men wear out quickly in office. Do 
 you want to know the result of our work ? It will be to 
 have prepared, perhaps to have hastened, the advent of our 
 successors. Be it so ; we joyfully accept the omen." 
 
 But the hour for the actual accomplishment of this 
 prediction came somewhat unexpectedly. On the 15th of 
 January, M. Humann, minister of finance, in bringing 
 forward the Budget, ventured, without consulting his 
 colleagues, to suggest that the moment was favourable for 
 the reduction of the interest on the National Debt. This 
 caused the utmost embarrassment to the Ministry ; the 
 question, first brought forward, in 1824, by M. de Villele, 
 
170 LAMART1NE. [1833- 
 
 was always a crucial one for French administrations. It 
 would have been wiser not to make it a Cabinet question ; 
 but M. de Broglie, with characteristic indifference to results, 
 stood up at once, and stated plainly that the Govern- 
 ment had no present intention of bringing forward such 
 a measure ; as to what they might do or not do at any 
 future period, he refused to pledge himself. Whereupon 
 M. Humann, who had perhaps expected to force his 
 colleagues' hands (though Guizot acquits him of any such 
 treachery) resigned. But angry passions had been roused, 
 many interests affected, and the Finance Committee of the 
 Chamber passed a resolution in favour of conversion, which 
 would certainly have alleviated the ratepayers, but at the 
 expense of the stockholders. 
 
 Lamartine, who felt very strongly on the question, 
 made two effective speeches in the course of the debate 
 which ensued. He dwelt forcibly on the injustice of 
 applying such a measure to existing debtors, the rate 
 of interest having been settled partly as a compensation 
 to the original holders of Government stock, who, in 1797, 
 agreed to a reduction of two-thirds of the value of their 
 stock, with the express understanding that the compromise 
 was to be final ; then on its cruelty, the holders of stock 
 being chiefly old men, widows, and orphans, who in 
 troublous times invested their little all in Government 
 securities ; and, lastly, on the improvidence, not to say dis- 
 honour, of taking advantage of a perhaps transient gleam 
 of prosperity to shake the foundations of national credit. 
 He, however, allowed that in all future loans the State 
 should reserve the power of paying off its creditors at par. 
 
 The result of the debate was that the Ministry found 
 
1836.] DEFEAT OF THE MINISTRY. 171 
 
 themselves in a minority of two, and resigned. It was a 
 matter of universal surprise that a question which cropped 
 up as if by chance should have provoked such a cata- 
 strophe ; as if a minute grain of sand had stopped a machine 
 which to all appearance was working smoothly. There 
 had been, however, hostile influences at work, the most 
 powerful being that of M. de Talleyrand, who was irritated 
 by the Due de Broglie's adherence to the English alliance, 
 for which he was anxious to substitute that of Russia. 
 Sharp criticisms, in the guise of oracles issuing from the 
 Hotel St. Florentin, were circulated in political coteries. 
 Such as "M. de Broglie's vocation is not the Foreign 
 Office," or, " I do not know how it is, but M. de Broglie 
 has contrived to make himself hated equally and simul- 
 taneously at St. Petersburgh, London, and Vienna." As 
 to London, the statement was quite without foundation, 
 but none the less effective. 
 
 The immediate result of the Ministerial defeat was to 
 break up the coalition of M. de Broglie, Thiers, and Guizot, 
 which, during the six years it had lasted, though resting on 
 a somewhat insecure basis, had been efficient and fruitful 
 for good. The Due de Broglie, though he continued to the 
 end of his life to support all causes which seemed to him 
 just ones, held himself henceforth aloof from all combi- 
 nations of party. With M. Guizot it was different. His 
 inclinations and his ambition made him at once accept the 
 position of leader of the Conservatives, or Right Centre ; 
 while M. Thiers' course remained for the moment undecided. 
 
 The King found difficulty in forming a fresh Cabinet. 
 Marshal Gerard, Count Mole, M. Dupin, were successively 
 applied to in vain. Meanwhile, Talleyrand, putting forth 
 
172 LAMARTINE. [1833- 
 
 all his influence in behalf of M. Thiers, was gradually 
 gaining for him the support of the foreign ministers of the 
 other continental powers, by pointing out how opposed 
 Thiers had always been to the Anglo-French alliance 
 favoured by the Due de Broglie. To those who objected 
 to the obscure antecedents of his protege, he had the reply 
 ready, " M. Thiers n'est pas parvenu, il est arrive." Whether 
 he was cognizant or not of these manoeuvres, M. Thiers' 
 own conduct was irreproachable. To all overtures he 
 opposed a firm refusal to replace his former colleagues, 
 save with their full consent. This the King undertook to 
 procure from M. de Broglie. who gave it at once. 
 
 Lamartine had been deeply interested and concerned 
 throughout the whole crisis. The side he had espoused as 
 to the " question des rentes " was the unpopular one ; and 
 as his speeches, reprinted in the form of a pamphlet, had 
 attracted considerable notice and influenced several votes, 
 he was severely censured in the papers. For this he cared 
 little, but he regretted the accession to power of M. Thiers, 
 whom he admired as a writer, yet disliked and distrusted 
 as a politician. However, the beginnings of the new 
 Ministry were better than had been anticipated. As their 
 predecessors had been overthrown on the "question des 
 rentes," it was expected they would at once bring in a 
 measure in harmony with the view so emphatically ex- 
 pressed by the Chamber ; but, to the general surprise, the 
 matter was suffered to drop, with the formality of adjourn- 
 ing it to the next session. 
 
 Thiers, at that time, was in many ways rather a puzzle 
 to his contemporaries. From the early days of the July 
 monarchy he had been manifestly eager to take a pro- 
 
1836.] MINISTRY OF COUNT MOLE. 1 73 
 
 minent part in politics ; it was only a question to which 
 side he would definitively give the benefit of his brilliant 
 talents. At first his friendship with such men as Odillon- 
 Barrot, Armand-Carrel, and Lafitte seemed to point to a 
 union with the Republicans ; but, in the debate on the 
 hereditary peerage, he unexpectedly gave the Conservatives 
 his warm support, thus taking his place in the ranks 
 of the "politique de resistance," to which, in 1836, he 
 still apparently continued to belong. During the first 
 few months of his tenure of power, he steered with much 
 skill and success. By the mere force of his oratory he 
 allayed a storm provoked by a considerable excess in 
 the estimates, and got a vote for a large sum of secret- 
 service money passed, contrary to all expectations, by a 
 majority of two hundred, the extreme Left supporting him 
 in a body ; while, by paying off the last instalment of the 
 United States claim, and by joining Russia and England 
 in guaranteeing a Greek loan, he gained favour abroad. 
 But these successes had the unfortunate effect of making- 
 
 o 
 
 him too confident. Always disposed to the aggressive line 
 of policy known as Chauvinism, M. Thiers became fired 
 by the desire of effecting a French intervention in Spain. 
 To this Louis Philippe was strongly opposed, and a 
 Ministerial crisis ensued, which resulted in the resignation 
 of M. Thiers and his Cabinet, and the appointment, in 
 September, 1836, of a new Ministry under the leadership 
 of Count Mole, who was supported by M. Guizot and the 
 doctrinaires. 
 
 From the date of the fall of the Broglie Ministry, to the 
 end of the session of 1836, Lamartine did not take much 
 part in purely political debates, but he spoke frequently on 
 
174 LAMARTINE. [1833- 
 
 other topics. On the question of the revenue derived from 
 licensing gambling tables, he had a sharp encounter with 
 the President of the Council (M. Thiers), who endeavoured 
 to stop any discussion of the subject. Lamartine put 
 forward, though without producing any result beyond 
 momentary applause, the trite argument that no fiscal 
 advantage could counterbalance the moral injury of giving 
 legal sanction to a vice which was ruining thousands. " The 
 most avaricious of the Roman emperors," he concluded, 
 "said indeed that gold, no matter whence it came, was 
 sweet to his nostrils. A free and a noble people is more 
 scrupulous. To the money thus acquired clings the evil 
 odour of corruption and misery. To this Chamber, to the 
 whole French nation, it is therefore repugnant." 
 
 Again, on the question of free trade, the theories 
 Lamartine propounded, though startling to the majority 
 of his hearers, were those which have since found universal 
 acceptance. In the name of five millions of vine cultivators, 
 he pleaded for the removal of prohibitive laws which 
 hindered France from being the richest of commercial 
 nations ; in the name of thirty-three millions of bread- 
 consumers, for the repeal of enactments protecting the 
 interests of three millions of bread-producers. "Light 
 duties and customs," he allowed, " are, considered as items 
 of the national revenue, legitimate enough ; but when 
 they amount to commercial restrictions, to hateful mono- 
 polies, tending to keep up between the industrial and 
 agricultural classes of various nations a state of hatred, 
 envy, and ill-will, they work infinite mischief, and tend 
 more than anything else to bring about the wholesale 
 murder which is dignified by the name of war. Sweep 
 
1836.] ADVOCATES FREE TRADE. 1 75 
 
 away all arbitrary lines of demarcation, let nations mingle 
 freely for their common advantage, let the surplus produce 
 of one country be the daily food of another, and you 
 diminish enormously the chances, the probabilities, the 
 possibilities of war. What, for example, would be the 
 incentive to aggression or to conquest between France, 
 Belgium, and Germany, if there were no customs ? There 
 would be community of national life, free exchange, uniform 
 commercial legislation. What could tempt any one of 
 these nations to attack the other, knowing that by so doing 
 it would injure itself, lose a market for its goods, restrict 
 the sphere of its own activity? It is evident nations 
 would quickly learn to look upon one another as members 
 of one universal Fatherland, united under various flags and 
 sovereignties. 
 
 After this somewhat bold flight of prophecy, Lamartine 
 had to defend himself against an accusation of unpatriotic 
 conduct, brought against him by a M. Jaubert, inasmuch as 
 he had assisted an English apostle of free trade, Mr. 
 Bowring, to obtain information as to the principal manu- 
 facturing and agricultural industries of France, — " conduct," 
 it was said, "the more reprehensible because it was well 
 known that any Frenchman, venturing on such a mission 
 into cruel and perfidious Albion, would immediately have 
 been stoned." To which Lamartine replied that the 
 mission of Mr. Bowring was fully as much in the interest 
 of France as in that of England ; and that, to allay the 
 susceptibilities of the honourable member, he need only 
 
 I recall the generous hospitality and total absence of jealousy 
 with which the illustrious and unfortunate Jacquemont had 
 — 
 
176 LAMART1NE. [1836. 
 
 Again, when, a few weeks later, in a discussion on the 
 Budget of Foreign Affairs, the English alliance was violently 
 attacked, Lamartine repudiated the obsolete prejudices of 
 past generations, and showed that the friendship of Eng- 
 land was to France, not merely an advantage, but almost 
 a necessity. " Sometimes," he writes at this time, " I bring 
 before the House opinions which are called advanced, ideal, 
 even revolutionary, and yet which I believe to be eminently 
 Conservative. For I hold that nothing is so revolutionary 
 as an abuse that is allowed to endure; nothing so subversive 
 as an iniquity left unpunished " — a phrase which shows 
 how closely he followed the best traditions of English 
 eloquence. 
 
( 177 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1836-1840. 
 
 With winters and springs absorbed in the social and 
 political turmoil of Paris, alternated summers and autumns 
 whiled away more leisurely on the pleasant Burgundian 
 uplands. The principal seat of the Lamartine family was 
 Monceau, which Lamartine had, in 1827, inherited from his 
 uncle. It was a mansion of some pretensions, approached 
 from the high-road by a long avenue of walnut-trees, at 
 the entrance of which, at Madame de Lamartine's sugges- 
 tion, a lodge and gate in le style atiglais had been built. 
 The stately fagade of the dwelling-house, flanked at the 
 east end by a low pavilion, had been begun in the reign of 
 the Grand Monarque, but was decorated in the lighter and 
 more frivolous style which takes its name from his successor. 
 Within, all was brightness and comfort ; the long suite of 
 reception rooms opened on a gallery fitted up in semi- 
 oriental style, which was the favourite resort of the family. 
 With the exception of a wood of magnificent chestnut-trees 
 at the back of the house, the surrounding ground was 
 mostly laid out in vineyards, and wanting in interest ; 
 but from the terraced front the eye ranges across the 
 rich valley of the Saone, over the low vine-clad hills 
 
 N 
 
178 LAMARTINE. [1886- 
 
 of Beaujolais, to where can be seen, on clear days, the 
 chain of the Savoy Alps, crowned by the snowy peak of 
 Mont Blanc. When the Lamartines were residing at 
 Monceau, the guest-chambers were seldom empty. They 
 both liked to see around them bright young faces, and 
 these the numerous families of his sisters amply supplied. 
 There went also innumerable cousins of Madame de 
 Lamartine's, both English and Irish ; bright-eyed, lively 
 girls, described as being all fearless riders, astonishing 
 their Burgundian companions by their originality and 
 independence. Among the other guests were some who 
 could almost be counted as members of the family circle — 
 M. de Champeaux, who for many years was Lamartine's 
 secretary ; M. and Madame Dargaud, the former a Bur- 
 gundian settler in Paris, and author of a "History of Religious 
 Liberty" which made some stir in its day; his wife a charm- 
 ing woman and devoted helpmate, both sincerely attached 
 to Lamartine, — M. Dargaud would, it is said, had his life 
 been spared, have written Lamartine's biography, a work 
 for which he was eminently fitted ; M. A. Salamon, the 
 sculptor, whose wife, like her hostess, gave her time chiefly 
 to works of charity ; M. Louis Ronchaud, counted by 
 Lamartine among " the few elect souls who live only to be 
 consumed like incense before the sacred shrine of art ; " 
 Edgar Quinet, and his German wife, of whom Longfellow 
 wrote, " She is the most beautiful and interesting woman I 
 have ever met ; " the Abbe Cceur, a distinguished preacher, 
 in whose conversation Lamartine took particular pleasure. 
 Besides this inner circle of friends, whose visits were of 
 yearly recurrence, there were other frequent but more 
 erratic guests ; young men of talent, who, attracted at first 
 
1840.] MONCEAU. 1 79 
 
 by Lamartine's genius, eagerly sought his society. Among 
 these, MM. A. de Tocqueville, Beaumont, Carne, Courcelles, 
 became ultimately the best known. Lamartine, whose 
 most earnest wish it Was to kindle in the rising generation 
 a strong faith in social progress rather than in political 
 reforms, took great pleasure in their society, and was 
 tolerant of their failings. Some of his letters to them, 
 showing the keenest interest in their welfare, are admirable. 
 As years rolled on, the ever-widening circle of guests came 
 to include almost every name of note in literature or in 
 society — the Girardins, the La Granges, A. de Vigny, 
 Laprade, the two Dumas, Liszt, Veuillot, George Sand, 
 Victor Hugo, the Ecksteins, the D'Esgrignys, etc. 
 
 The most ceremonious receptions at Monceau were the 
 gathering together of provincial notabilities during the 
 sittings of the Conseil general du departement, an institution 
 which has some resemblance to our grand jury, and of 
 which Lamartine was for many years president. Until the 
 time when he became absorbed by politics, these meetings 
 of the Conseil general were a great interest to Lamartine. He 
 was personally much liked, and his oratorical gifts gave 
 him exceptional influence, which he took every legitimate 
 means of increasing. Among his diplomatic experiences 
 he had learnt the importance of a well-kept table, and 
 spared no trouble to secure it. On one occasion, when 
 everything had passed off to his satisfaction, he was 
 enthusiastic in his praise of a cook, whom he passed on to 
 a friend as " Le roi des hommes, et fort bon cuisinier ; 
 l'honnetete, l'economie meme. Faites qu'il sache le 
 t^moignage que je me plais a lui rendre." Frugal as he 
 was, and almost a vegetarian, Lamartine had a French- 
 
ISO LAMART1NE. [1836- 
 
 man's amiable weakness for sweets ; one of his letters, after 
 a serious dissertation on the politics of the day, ends with 
 the imperative request, " Send me ten pounds of chocolate 
 pastilles as quickly as possible." He was fond, too, of 
 talking about cookery, and had a recipe for the salting 
 of hams, to which he attached immense importance ; not 
 Dumas himself could have been more sententious on a 
 subject entirely out of his line. "I invented it myself," 
 he used to say ; " it will outlive my greatest works. It is 
 exquisite, and contains six poisons, one of which was given 
 me by Lady Hester Stanhope ; another ingredient is that 
 of which Mithridates used to partake so freely — however, it 
 is now proved to be entirely harmless." 
 
 But the two summers following their return from the 
 East, as well as considerable portions of all succeeding 
 years, the Lamartines spent at St. Point, preferred by them 
 on account of the beauty of the surrounding country, 
 and for its many associations. During the thirty years 
 which had elapsed since the elder Madame de Lamartine, 
 somewhat alarmed by its decay and dilapidation, took 
 possession of it with her little brood, the chateau of 
 St. Point had undergone much transformation. Though 
 of no great size, it was now a comfortable, as well as 
 picturesque abode : the windows had been altered so as to 
 keep the wind out and let the sun into the tastefully 
 furnished rooms ; the latest improvement, a slender Gothic 
 clock tower, if a trifle too flamboyant in style, gave variety 
 to the outline ; the lichen-encrusted stone of the balustrades 
 was enlivened by the brilliant plumage of peacocks ; and 
 though there was no regular flower garden, masses of 
 flowering shrubs, cultivated chiefly for their fragrance, 
 brightened every available spot. 
 
1840] ST. POINT. l8l 
 
 The routine of life at St. Point was simple enough. 
 Lamartine invariably rose at five ; he did not, however, 
 disturb his household, but, passing into his study, lit the 
 fire, and made himself a cup of tea. Then, seated at the 
 large black table, which was almost the only furniture of 
 the room, he worked for hours, rapidly covering sheets 
 of paper of unusual dimensions with the fine, clear writing 
 which remained to the last unchanged. When the bell rang 
 for the eleven o'clock dtfjeuner, he would proceed to com- 
 plete his toilet, and come in towards the end of the meal, 
 followed by the two or three dogs which were his constant 
 companions. Fido, the eldest and most favoured, was a 
 personage of importance in the household ; it was of him 
 that Lamartine wrote lines among the most beautiful his 
 race, beloved of poets, has ever inspired. Most of Lamar- 
 tine's time at breakfast was taken up in feeding these 
 humble friends, for he treated meals cavalierly, and a dish 
 of vegetables, with a dessert of fruit, met all his require- 
 ments. 
 
 Then followed the task of visiting the horses, almost as 
 great favourites as the dogs. The long range of stabling 
 had seldom a stall empty ; but, except a white Arab 
 named Saphir, well known in '48 in the streets of Paris, 
 and a pair of English carriage horses, there were none of 
 much value. But to their master's eye all were unrivalled ; 
 any addition to his stud was to him an immense delight; 
 and at once credited with all the perfections of Mahomet's 
 mare. 
 
 After the stables had been passed in review, other 
 outdoor occupations, more seriously engrossing, had their 
 turn. On the owner of St. Point and Monceau devolved 
 
1 82 LAMART1NE. [1836- 
 
 the management of extensive vineyards, and the care and 
 skill required to produce the high-class Burgundian wines 
 are not trifling. All through the vintage, which began early 
 in September, Lamartine was on horseback from noon to 
 nightfall, going to and fro between Milly, Monceau, and 
 St. Point, taking his share of the labour, and sometimes 
 (but not often) rewarded by success. As he used to say, 
 " A vineyard is a tapis vert, presided over by two inexorable 
 croupiers, Sun and Rain, who distribute ruin more freely 
 than riches." 
 
 The evening meal was usually gay and sociable, visitors 
 from Macon and the neighbourhood dropping in. But, 
 save on very special occasions, Lamartine would take his 
 candle at the stroke of nine, and retire to his own room ; 
 Madame de Lamartine and her nieces lingering on for 
 another hour, after which the guests were left to solace 
 themselves with cigars, or, as one enthusiastic disciple 
 writes, " with the thought that under the same roof some 
 inspired verse was perhaps at that very moment flashing 
 into light." 
 
 M. Henri Lacretelle, in an article contributed in 1872 
 to La Cloche, then edited by an earnest admirer of Lamar- 
 tine, Louis Ulbach, described his first visit to St. Point, 
 whither he was taken by his father soon after the Lamar- 
 tines' return from the East. The elder Lacretelle was that 
 member of the Academie franchise who, in 1825, opposed 
 Lamartine's candidature so vehemently, but, afterwards 
 repenting his injustice, energetically supported him. He 
 was an influential member of the Liberal party at Macon, 
 and, not knowing that Lamartine was one of those 
 people, even now but rarely found in France, who do 
 
1840.] ST. POINT. 183 
 
 not allow their politics to interfere with their friendships, 
 had been rather surprised at receiving a warm invitation 
 from the Legitimist owner of St. Point to visit him when- 
 ever he passed that way. However, he gladly availed 
 himself of it, and, one pleasant afternoon in September, a 
 ten-mile ride across the hills brought father and son to 
 where St. Point, despite its sombre setting of sentinel 
 mountains, lay bathed in the autumn sunshine. 
 
 They found Madame de Lamartine, still clad in deep 
 mourning for her daughter Julie, but always gracious and 
 hospitable, seated at a table formed of a single block of 
 stone, and said to have been used for the same purpose by 
 Abelard. Before her was a pile of newspapers, from which 
 she was making selections for her husband's use. This 
 lady, whose kindness and simple goodness impressed all 
 who came in contact with her, had now been married 
 some years, and had become " as much a Frenchwoman," 
 writes M. de Lacretelle, "as was possible in one not so 
 born." Her mastery of the language was perfect ; she 
 spelt better than her husband (the spelling of even the 
 best-educated French people is sometimes curiously faulty), 
 and was accustomed to correct his proofs. But Madame 
 de Lamartine was quite free from literary pedantry. Her 
 favourite occupations were painting, for which she had 
 considerable talent, and works of charity, in which much 
 of her time was spent. The only fault at which M. de 
 Lacretelle even hints was too fervent piety. " She had 
 thrown herself," he says, " with all the zeal of a neophyte 
 into all the beliefs and practices of the faith she had 
 espoused," — in the eyes of a French Liberal, an almost 
 unpardonable sin. But he allows — and from him the 
 
1 84 LAMARTINE. [ 1 9* - 
 
 concession is immense — that her zeal was tempered with 
 charity, and that she was still more attached to the spirit 
 than to the letter of her creed. At a later period, when he 
 recalled her bearing with unsubdued spirit the heaviest 
 trials, unswerving in her love, faith, and devotion, he wrote, 
 forgetting his shibboleths : " I think of her as a saint and 
 a martyr." 
 
 After a few minutes' conversation with their hostess, 
 they were joined by Lamartine, who brought with him 
 some other guests, Aime Martin, a rather dull litterateur, 
 the cure of a neighbouring village, and Edgar Quinet, who 
 had just published his famous romance, " Ahasuerus." In 
 this weird tale, the ocean, Mont Blanc, and the coloured 
 glass windows of Cologne Cathedral all figure as actual 
 personages ; but there was nothing uncanny in Quinet's 
 conversation. He had brought the last news, political and 
 social, with him from Paris, and had lately been spending 
 some evenings, rather out of his usual element, in the 
 salon of Madame Recamier, where Chateaubriand was 
 persuaded to read aloud portions of his " Memoires d'Outre- 
 tombe," after which M. Quinet extracted from him some 
 indiscreet revelations of the terrible dulness of the Court 
 circle at Prague, where the Due d'Angouleme was reigning 
 under the name of Charles XI. This did not please 
 Madame de Lamartine, an ardent Legitimiste, and when, 
 later, the conversation turned on religious topics, and the 
 elder M. de Lacretelle aired some very advanced opinions, 
 M. Quinet, anxious to regain her good graces, unexpectedly 
 took up the challenge, and, probably for the only time in 
 his life, broke a lance as the champion of orthodoxy. 
 After this, an apparently safe subject, the ruins of the 
 
1840.] ST. POINT. 185 
 
 neighbouring Abbey of Cluny were discussed. Here M. 
 de Lacretelle, an enthusiastic antiquarian, was in his 
 element, and, having every reason to think himself on 
 perfectly safe ground, dilated eloquently on the marvels of 
 that once-majestic centre of mediaeval light and learning, 
 winding up with a diatribe against the Vandalism which, 
 in 1810, had destroyed what the Revolution left untouched. 
 To his dismay, Madame de Lamartine suddenly looked 
 excessively disconcerted) the cure\ who sat opposite, plunged 
 his face into his plate, and Lamartine, abruptly cutting 
 M. de Lacretelle short, began a lively description of a visit 
 he had once made to the Abbey of Monte Cassino in 
 company with a Roman prince and two lovely daughters. 
 The narrative, evidently improvised, lasted to the end of 
 the meal. 
 
 When the guests began to disperse, M. de Lacretelle 
 took an opportunity to draw his host aside, saying, " I see 
 I was guilty of some terrible blunder, but have not the 
 remotest conception in what it consisted." 
 
 "A thousand pardons, mon cher confrere" replied 
 Lamartine, " but M. le Cure, your vzs-d-vis, was one of the 
 demolishers of Cluny." 
 
 How this could have been is a problem left unexplained 
 by M. de Lacretelle ; but the anecdote shows how extremely 
 difficult conversation must be among French people who 
 happen to hold opposite opinions. 
 
 Sometimes, when the company consisted only of very 
 intimate friends, the afternoon was spent at Milly. The 
 first time M. Henri de Lacretelle was admitted to this 
 privilege, it was arranged that Madame de Lamartine and 
 the other ladies should drive thither, and be met by 
 
1 86 LAMARTINE. L1836- 
 
 Lamartine and M. de Lacretelle, who were to ride by a 
 much shorter path across the hills. The young man, to 
 whom the prospect of a tfte-a-tete ride with Lamartine was 
 delightful, was rather surprised at the moment of starting 
 to see his host, who, on humanitarian grounds, abhorred 
 shooting, take a gun, the explanation being that it was in 
 case of meeting a mad dog. Fortunately, no such encounter 
 interrupted the delightful flow of conversation in which old 
 memories, present interests, and future projects all had 
 their share. As they passed a somewhat secluded field, 
 Lamartine observed, " I once fought a duel here." 
 
 M. de Lacretelle ventured to ask with whom. 
 
 Lamartine replied, " With a Pole." 
 
 Feeling it might be indiscreet to question further, 
 Lacretelle casually asked, " Have you fought many duels ? " 
 
 " Yes ; no one who drew breath in the eighteenth 
 century could escape the infection ; especially in the early 
 years of this, when one could hardly sit down in a cafe 
 without being challenged by some of Napoleon's officers 
 on half-pay. The wisest plan was to go out, and say 
 nothing about it. My duel with Pepe was the only one 
 I was concerned in which had any notoriety. I was wrong 
 in bringing a general indictment against a nation. The 
 nation was avenged by a brave man, who put three inches 
 of steel into me. Afterwards we became fast friends. But 
 I always liked fencing, sword play, and military matters 
 generally. I think if I had been a soldier I should have 
 made my mark. I have often felt a longing to influence 
 large masses of men, and feel that I have missed my 
 vocation." 
 
 Lacretelle, who, besides not having been born in the 
 
1840.] MILLY. 187 
 
 eighteenth century, had imbibed the neo-humanitarian 
 ideas of the nineteenth, was somewhat scandalized, and 
 did not know how to answer. As they drew near Milly, 
 the many beautiful lines inspired by the poet's birthplace 
 rushed in on his mind. He felt " as if approaching a 
 sanctuary, upheld, like that of Loretto, by the hands of 
 angels." This ecstatic state was followed by a terrible 
 reaction, when he saw before him the humble, unpretending 
 abode, mesquin in its surroundings, without even the life 
 and animation of a farmhouse ; for, since the death of 
 Lamartine's mother, Milly had remained untenanted and 
 dismantled. Even the little salon, in which the ladies of 
 the party, who had arrived before them, sat shivering, 
 looked commonplace and dreary. 
 
 But when Lamartine entered all was changed. He 
 took his guests from room to room, recalling the traditions, 
 the memories, the anecdotes attached to each. At the 
 touch of the magician's wand, the vanished past came back ; 
 they saw the imposing figure of Lamartine's father, seated 
 in his favourite chair, getting his gun ready for use; his 
 mother, loving and beautiful as of old, filled the room with 
 her gracious presence ; his sisters, in their girlish loveliness, 
 each with her triumphs, her trials, her innocent romance, 
 swept smiling by. Milly, glorified, transfigured, justified 
 all the love, all the poetry lavished on it. But to Lamartine 
 the best moment of the day was when a very old man, 
 without going through the ceremony of touching his hat, 
 came up to him, and said, " Bonjour, Alphonse." 
 
 In the years following his return from the East, 
 Lamartine got through a great deal of literary work. His 
 first task was to complete, from notes made during the 
 
1 88 LAMAR TINE. [1h3«- 
 
 journey, his "Voyage en Orient." Undertaken from prac- 
 tical motives, to repair the breach the journey had made in 
 his finances, the book gave him little satisfaction, save that 
 of knowing his publishers recouped themselves amply for 
 the ^"5000 they paid him in advance. It was, however, 
 translated into English and most other European languages, 
 and held its own for many years as a standard work on 
 the Holy Land. 
 
 With his next publication, " Jocelyn," the case was 
 reversed. The writing of it gave him immense pleasure. 
 For years he had meditated on the plan of a great epic 
 poem which was to illustrate each principal period of 
 history, from the dawn of Creation to the Day of Judgment, 
 and to bring its author immortality. Hitherto he had 
 produced only incomplete fragments ; now he set seriously 
 to work, and in the years 1 844-1 845 wrote "Jocelyn," 
 which is certainly the most important, and perhaps the 
 most beautiful of his poems. Into it he worked much of 
 his own inner life, the illusions, hopes, despairs, of his 
 youth ; the struggles, doubts, and forebodings of his man- 
 hood. It did not at first achieve the success of his earlier 
 poems. There were in it passages enthusiastic in their piety 
 which displeased freethinkers ; philosophical questioning 
 which puzzled the orthodox ; solutions of problems best 
 left unanswered. But before many years had elapsed, 
 every one with a taste for poetry could repeat hundreds of 
 lines out of "Jocelyn," and now its place among the 
 classics of French literature is uncontested. 
 
 The hero is an ecclesiastical student who, driven from 
 the seminary by the Revolution before he had completed his 
 studies, falls in love with Laurence, a young girl whose dying 
 
1840.] " JOCEL YN." 1 89 
 
 father had left her in his charge, and is on the eve of 
 marrying her when the aged Bishop who had been his 
 teacher sends for him to the prison where he lies con- 
 demned to death, and imperiously requires Jocelyn to 
 receive Orders that he may be able to administer to him 
 the last rites of the Church. After a terrible struggle the 
 young man consents, takes the vows which cut him off 
 from all human ties, and, after fulfilling the task imposed 
 on him, goes forth broken-hearted to his lonely ministry. 
 Laurence, whom his desertion has driven to despair, he 
 never meets after their agonized parting till he is summoned 
 by an aged man to her death-bed, assures her of the pardon 
 of heaven, and receives hers. 
 
 The story is cumbrous and far-fetched, and Lamartine 
 lacked the dramatic power needed to give it the semblance 
 of probability. The personages, though drawn gracefully, 
 are too vague in outline ; but the poem abounds in striking 
 thoughts and noble sentiments, and many of the descrip- 
 tions are admirable, — those specially of the communion of 
 the proscribed priest, and of the presbytery of Valneige are 
 so frequently cited as to have become classic pieces in 
 French literature. But modern readers will probably take 
 more pleasure in the pictures of rural life. Lamartine's 
 talent as a painter of landscape is unquestioned, and he is 
 considered by many to have been the founder of the 
 modern French descriptive school. Unlike his successors, he 
 spiritualizes all he touches ; the trees and fields and woods 
 are very beautiful in his eyes : he has the artist's perception 
 of detail, and the poet's phrase to clothe it in ; but what he 
 values most is the Divine origin of which they bear the 
 trace, the tender human memories they enshrine. 
 
19O LAMARTINE. [1836- 
 
 M Le vent, 1'epine en fleurs, l'herbe verte ou fletrie, 
 Le soc dans le sillon, l'onde dans la prairie 
 Tout me parle une langue aux intimes accents." 
 
 Unfortunately, though "Jocelyn," perhaps more than 
 any of Lamartine's poems, abounds in vivid and graceful 
 pictures, it is not easy, from the author's incorrigible aver- 
 sion to correcting or condensing his verse, to find many 
 passages of sustained beauty. The description of the 
 advent of spring in the Alpine solitudes, in the fourth canto, 
 may be worth quoting : — 
 
 " II est des jours de luxe et de saison choisie 
 Que sont comme les fleurs precoces de la vie, 
 Tout bleus, tout nuances d'eclatantes couleurs, 
 Tout trempes de rosee et tout fragrans d'odeurs, 
 Que d'un nuit d'orage on voit parfois eclore, 
 Qu'on savoure un instant, qu'on respire une aurore, 
 
 ***** 
 Tout ce que l'air touchait s'eveillait pour verdir, 
 La feuille du matin, sous l'oeil semblait grandir ; 
 Comme s'il n'avait eu pour ete qu'une aurore, 
 II hatait tout du souffle, il pressait tout d'eclore, 
 Et les herbes, les fleurs, les lianes des bois 
 S'&endaient en tapis, s'arrondissaient en toits, 
 S'entrelacaient aux troncs, se suspendaient aux roches, 
 Sortaient de terre en grappe, en dentelles, en cloches, 
 Entravaient nos sentiers par des reseaux de fleurs, 
 Et nos yeux eblouis dans des flots de couleurs ! 
 La seve debordant d'abondance et de force, 
 Coulait en gommes d'or des fentes de l'ecorce, 
 Suspendait aux rameaux des pampres etrangers, 
 Des filets de feuillage et des tissus legers, 
 Oil les merles siffleurs, les geais, les tourterelles, 
 En fuyant sous la feuille, embarrassaient leurs ailes ; 
 
 ***** 
 Tous ces domes des bois, qui fremissaient aux vents, 
 Ondoyaient comme un lac aux flots verts et mouvans ; 
 Chaque fois que nos pieds tombaient dans la verdure 
 Les herbes nous montaient jusques a la ceinture, 
 Des flots d'air embaumes se repandaient sur nous, 
 Des nuages ailes partaient de nos genoux, 
 
1840.] A MODERN IDYL. ICjI 
 
 Tous semblaient se hater d'epuiser a l'envie 
 Leur coupe de bonheur et leur goutte de vie, 
 Et l'air qu'ils animaient de leurs fremissemens 
 N'etait que melodie et que bourdonnemens. " 
 
 But perhaps the most pleasing pictures are to be found 
 in the interlude of " Les Laboureurs," which Mr. Hamerton 
 quotes in his " Sylvan Year " as one of the most perfect 
 specimens of the idyl in modern literature. It is a very 
 real description of a day of toil — not, however, real in the 
 sense of realistic : there is no deepening of lines, no accentua- 
 tion of impressions ; the incidents are portrayed simply as 
 they are : — 
 
 " Laissant souffler ses bceufs, le jeune homrae s'appuie 
 Debout, au tronc d'un chene, et de sa main essuie 
 La sueur du sentier sur son front male et doux, 
 La femme et les enfans tout petits, a genoux 
 Devant les boeufs prives baissant leur corne a terre, 
 Leur cassent des rejets de frene et de fougere 
 Et jettent devant eux en verdoyans monceaux 
 Les feuilles que leurs mains emondent des rameaux , 
 lis ruminent en paix, pendant que l'ombre obscure, 
 Sous le soleil montant, se replie a mesure, 
 Et laissant de la glebe attiedir la froideur, 
 Vient mourir et border les pieds du laboureur. 
 II rattache le joug, sous la forte courroie, 
 Aux cornes qu'en pesant sa main robuste ploie ; 
 Les enfans vont cueillir des rameaux decoupes, 
 Des gouttes de rosee encore tout trempes, 
 Au joug avec la feuille en verts festons les nouent, 
 Que sur leurs fronts voiles les tiers taureaux secouent, 
 Pour que leur fianc qui bat et leur poitrail poudreux 
 Portent sous le soleil un peu d 'ombre avec eux ; 
 Au joug de bois poli le timon s'equilibre, 
 Sous l'essieu gemissant le soc se dresse et vibre, 
 L'homme saisit le manche, et sous le coin tranchant 
 Pour ouvrir le sillon le guide au bout du champ. 
 ***** 
 Un travail est fini, l'autre aussitot commence ; 
 Voila partout la terre ouverte a la semence ; 
 
192 LAMARTINE. [1836- 
 
 Aux corbeilles de jonc puisant a pleine main 
 
 En nuage poudreux la femme epand le grain ; 
 
 Le froment repandu, l'homme attele la herse, 
 
 Le sillon raboteux la cadote et la berce ; 
 
 En groupe sur ce char les enfans reunis 
 
 EfTacent sous leur poids les sillons aplanis ; 
 
 Le jour tombe, et le soir sur les heroes s'essuie ; 
 
 Et les vents chauds d'automme ameneront la pluie, 
 
 Et les neiges d'hiver sous leur tiede tapis 
 
 Couvriront d'un manteau le duvet des epis ; 
 
 Et les soleils dores en jauniront les herbes, 
 
 Et les filles des champs viendront nouer les gerbes, 
 
 Et tressant sur leurs fronts les bluets, les pavots, 
 
 Iront danser en choeur autour des tas nouveaux ; 
 
 Et la meule brotra le froment sous les pierres ; 
 
 Et choisissant la fleur, la femme des chaumieres, 
 
 Levee avant le jour pour battre le levain, 
 
 De ses petits enfans aura petri le pain ; 
 
 Et les oiseaux du ciel, le chien, le miserable 
 
 Ramasseront en paix les miettes de la table, 
 
 Et tous beniront Dieu dont les fecondes mains 
 
 Au festin de la terre appellent les humains ! " 
 
 This is no graceful idyl in the Strephon and Chlorinda 
 style. The toil is severe and unremitting, the guerdon 
 the bare means of subsistence ; the peasant, for all we 
 know, may be as grasping, mean, and miserly as his 
 comrades in the terrible sketches of Israels or of Balzac. 
 But the sympathy of the poet is so true and strong that 
 a generous glow of enthusiasm and faith floods the 
 picture with a golden light. There is a justly famous 
 passage in ancient literature, so frequently quoted and 
 translated as to have become familiar to all, describing a 
 character so well balanced that no adverse stroke of fate 
 can ruffle its sublime calm : — 
 
 " Against whose sphere-like surface, free of fault, 
 Fortune falls baffled after each assault." 
 
 This is unquestionably very fine, but does not convey 
 
1840.] "JOCELYN." 193 
 
 much of hope or solace to suffering- humanity. Lamartine's 
 hero neither repels his sorrow nor struggles against it ; he 
 bears it hidden in his bosom till, purified and transformed, 
 it has become a perennial spring of strength and sweetness. 
 
 " J'ai trouve quelquefois, parmi les plus beaux arbres 
 De ces monts ou le bois est dur comme les marbres, 
 De grands chenes blesses, mais ou les bucherons 
 Vaincus, avaient laisse leur hache dans les troncs, 
 Le chene dans son noeud la retenant de force, 
 Et recouvrant le fer de son bourlet d'ecorce, 
 Grandissait, elevant vers le ciel, dans son coeur, 
 L'instrument de sa mort, dont il vivait vainqueur ! 
 C'est ainsi que ce juste elevait dans son ame, 
 Comme une hache au cceur, ce souvenir de femme ! " 
 
 It will be seen that the versification is more careless in 
 " Jocelyn " than in Lamartine's earlier poems, the rule of 
 alternating masculine and feminine rhymes is frequently 
 transgressed, and there are repetitions which show that the 
 time was approaching when he would not even read over 
 what he had written, but left the task of correction to other 
 and very inferior hands. Yet, despite of many blemishes, 
 it may be considered his most characteristic and interesting 
 achievement in verse, and that on which, in conjunction 
 with the " Harmonies," his poetic reputation most surely 
 rests. 
 
 Still, despite the success of " Jocelyn," the mind of the 
 author was, at the time of its publication, centred in politics. 
 Readers of the elder generation will remember how 
 Coningsby, when, in the winter of 1837, he came fresh 
 from his Oxford honours to Paris, eagerly inquired of 
 Sidonia, " This Prince, of whom one hears so much in all 
 countries, and at all hours, on whose existence we are told 
 the tranquillity, almost the civilization of Europe depends, 
 
 O 
 
194 LA MAR TINE. [1836- 
 
 yet of whom the accounts are so conflicting and so contra- 
 dictory, tell me, you who can tell me, what he is ? " 
 
 " I have," was the reply, " a theory of mine own that 
 the great characters of antiquity are at times reproduced 
 for our instruction and for our guidance. Nature, wearied 
 with mediocrity, pours the warm metal into an heroic 
 mould. When circumstances placed me in the presence of 
 the King of France, I recognized Ulysses ! " 
 
 Lord Beaconsfield lived probably to regret not having 
 remembered the advice of Solon before committing to print 
 so high-flown a panegyric of the monarch who, by the 
 way, always styled himself King of the French. But his 
 opinion as a young man, though not (to quote him again) 
 of great importance, is of some value as showing the favour- 
 able estimate intelligent contemporaries formed of Louis 
 Philippe's talents as a ruler, and of the chances of his 
 dynasty. So secure did he himself deem his possession of 
 the throne, that when, in 1836, Prince Louis Napoleon 
 made his abortive attempt at Strasburg to shake the 
 allegiance of the army, the King good-naturedly pardoned 
 him at once. It was, however, thought necessary to punish 
 the other persons implicated. As to their guilt there was 
 no question, but the sympathies of the Alsatian jury were 
 Bonapartist, and, in the face of the strongest evidence, the 
 prisoners were acquitted, — the first link in the long chain 
 of events which has brought to that unhappy province such 
 lasting misery. 
 
 After this startling proof of the impossibility of entrust- 
 ing civilian juries with the trial of military offenders in 
 political cases, the Ministry, early in the session of 1837, 
 brought forward a Bill by which civilians were to be tried 
 
1840.] " THE LAW OF DISJUNCTION" 195 
 
 as heretofore, in ordinary jury courts, but military men 
 before courts-martial, in the case of offences committed by 
 them in common. This measure, called " the Law of Dis- 
 junction," was violently opposed by a coalition of the 
 Extreme Right with the Extreme Left ; most of the 
 speakers judging the case, not as on its merits, but as they 
 thought most advantageous to the interests of their party. 
 Lamartine spoke in defence of the measure with eloquence 
 greater than he had ever before displayed — plainly discern- 
 ing that to oppose it was to imperil the constitutional 
 liberties of France. 
 
 " Is there," he asked, " any parity of situation between 
 a simple citizen invested with no powers, charged with no 
 responsibilities, and a military commander who can, by a 
 word, dispose of thousands of bayonets, and at once over- 
 turn a Government, pillage a city, violate all the sanctities 
 of private life ; who can, by displacing a battery, cause the 
 loss of thousands of men, or, as at Strasburg, seduce his 
 soldiers to violate all laws, trample under foot all oaths, and 
 light the fires of civil war in a peaceful land. There is no 
 parity in the cases — there should be none between the 
 courts that try them. The military man to the crime of 
 the civilian has added one of far deeper dye which is 
 exclusively his own ; a crime against military honour and 
 subordination, stigmatized by the common consent of all 
 nations. The proposed disjunction of the trials is there- 
 fore justified by the still more marked disproportion 
 between the crimes, emphasized by the difference which the 
 nature of things has established between them." 
 
 But the occasion was one on which eloquence and 
 argument alike availed little ; it was really a trial of strength 
 
196 LAMARTINE. [1836- 
 
 between the Ministers and the Opposition, which resulted 
 in the Bill being thrown out in committee. The three 
 Ministerial members protested indignantly, but in vain ; 
 especially as the chairman, M. Dupin, though he had 
 accepted the support of the Ministry in his election as 
 President of the Chamber, now, at the eleventh and crucial 
 hour, turned against them. At the reading of the address 
 to the Throne, the excitement was indescribable ; the 
 debate which followed has become historical as the most 
 magnificent tournament of oratory ever known in the 
 French Chamber. 
 
 The attack was opened by speeches from the leaders of 
 the Centre and of the Left Centre, impeaching the Ministry 
 on entirely opposite grounds. " What use have you made 
 of your powers ? " thundered M. Guizot. " Where are our 
 liberties ? " shrieked M. Thiers, careless if their missiles 
 crossed, provided they were aimed at the common foe. In 
 point of eloquence the finest speech of the whole debate 
 was that of Berryer, whose tremendous indictment of Count 
 Mole's administration (which might, however, have been 
 launched with equal fitness at either of the ex-Ministers on 
 whose side he was fighting) so thrilled the Chamber that 
 at its close all the members rose in homage to his mag- 
 nificent talent, and the sitting was suspended " in order to 
 give the deputies time to recover from their emotion." 
 
 Against these, and a score of other minor but yet able 
 speakers, Count Mole had to contend almost single-handed. 
 His colleagues, though men of talent and of character, 
 were unequal to weathering such a storm. M. de Monta- 
 livet, when striving to reply to a terrible onslaught, actually 
 fainted on the tribune. During twelve sittings, M. Mole 
 
1840.] ATTACK ON COUNT MOLE. 1 97 
 
 spoke seventeen times, facing democratic violence and 
 party intrigue with a courage as undaunted as that with 
 which, two centuries before, his famous ancestor had 
 defended the privileges of Parliament against the encroach- 
 ments of the Crown. His eloquence was not of the highest 
 order, but it was reasoned and sustained ; when his enemies 
 were literally raging against him he never lost his temper 
 for a moment, and his replies were sometimes singularly 
 felicitous. When M. Guizot tried to apply to him the 
 phrase of Tacitus, "Omnia serviliter pro dominatione," 
 Count Mole quickly interposed, " Quand Tacite disait cela, 
 il parlait non pas des courtisans, mais des ambitieux." A 
 retort felt to be so happy that it elicited applause even 
 from the ranks of the Opposition, — M. Royer Collard, who 
 entirely disapproved the course taken by his former pupil, 
 literally beaming with delight. 
 
 Still, despite the spirit and steadfastness of the President 
 of the Council, the fight was an uphill one, and could 
 probably indeed hardly have been carried on, but for the 
 unexpected and vigorous aid rendered him by Lamartine. 
 During the earlier period of the debate, the member for 
 Macon had remained silent, but a feeling of respect and 
 sympathy for Count Mole, joined with the belief that the 
 administration now so pitilessly lampooned was the very 
 best France could hope for under the circumstances, moved 
 him to throw himself into the fray with all the chivalry 
 of his nature, and to identify himself as completely with an 
 evidently hopeless cause as if he were a member of the 
 Cabinet. As was a matter of course, he drew on himself 
 the bitterest hatred of the coalition, and was interrupted 
 and insulted every moment. On one occasion M. Thiers 
 
198 LAMARTINE. [1836- 
 
 was so outrageous and so persistent in his interpella- 
 tions, that the President, sold to the coalition as he was, 
 threatened to suspend the sitting. At last the strife 
 drew to a close ; the Ministers winning so far the honours 
 of the fray as to succeed in passing a series of resolutions 
 which entirely changed the character of the Address which 
 the coalition were endeavouring to force on them, though 
 by infinitesimal majorities ; at the last division they. won 
 by 222 votes against 208.* 
 
 Satisfied at being able to retire with honour, Count 
 Mole resigned. Now was seen the hollowness of the 
 coalition. Marshal Soult, with whom all parties were 
 willing to act, was asked by the King to form a Ministry, 
 but, after spending some days in trying every variety of 
 combination, he had to give up the task. On this the 
 King made a strong personal appeal to Count Mole to 
 resume the reins at least provisionally, and appeal to the 
 country, which he was convinced would show its disap- 
 probation of the coalition as plainly as the mercantile 
 classes had done. A Council was held at the Hotel Mole, 
 at which Lamartine was invited to attend. He threw the 
 whole weight of his eloquence and influence against the 
 dissolution, which he foresaw would have the effect of 
 making M. Thiers master of the situation. " Not," he 
 writes, " that I wished to yield weakly to M. Thiers, but 
 because a combination was still possible by which he 
 would have been constitutionally defeated." But the 
 King's entreaties prevailed, and, against his own judgment, 
 which coincided with that of Lamartine, Count Mole 
 dissolved the Chamber. 
 * Karl Hildebrandt, "Geschichte Frankreichs, " 1830-1871, vol. ii. p. 317. 
 
1840.] HE REFUSES OFFICE. 1 99 
 
 The distinguished part sustained by Lamartine during 
 this crisis added much to his influence. His speech of 
 the 29th of January, with its famous climax, " La France, 
 c'est une nation qui s'ennuie," had been, after that of Berryer, 
 incomparably the most eloquent of the debate. To quote 
 the picturesque phrase of an admirer, " Chaque matin, ses 
 discours de la veille bondissaient sur toutes les dalles du 
 pave de Paris." 
 
 After the resignation of Count Mole, the 226 members 
 who had supported him at the last, sent a deputation to 
 Lamartine, asking him to become their leader ; and at the 
 same time he received a message from the King, that, 
 in the Ministerial combinations then going on at the 
 Tuileries, any portfolio he liked was at his disposal. But 
 despite these seductive offers, Lamartine adhered firmly 
 to the line of conduct he had, from the time of his first 
 entrance in political life, laid out for himself — that of 
 keeping free from connection with any of the parties then 
 existing. At times, in his letters, he gives expression to 
 the hope of some day being the chief of a group of men 
 with whose aid his political ideals should be realized. But 
 when he goes on to explain that his desire was ** to 
 establish a social order which should embody at once 
 liberty and authority ; combine a profound respect for 
 human dignity with obedience to the dictates of morality, 
 and apply the laws of nature, justice, and charity to 
 political power, which was thus to become an expression 
 of the Divine mind," we feel that this is only saying what 
 any high-principled and sanguine public man would say 
 in some form or other, and that a clearer definition is 
 required for the creed of a party. But the position he 
 
200 LAMART1NE. [1836- 
 
 achieved by his abstention was that which probably suited 
 him far the best ; he became, as M. Scherer tells us, the 
 Ministre sans portefeuille de la haute opinion philosophique, 
 for a period far exceeding the duration of many Cabinets. 
 
 Lamartine's letters to M. de Virieu, in the beginning of 
 1839, throw a good deal of light on the situation. 
 
 " February 14, 1839. 
 
 " The dissolution which has been decided on is against 
 my judgment. At the last Council (to which I was called 
 confidentially and alone) I did my best. For a moment I 
 made them waver ; but they were not to be convinced. Now 
 that it is done, there is no use in wasting time in regrets ; 
 we must fight, else we may find ourselves plunged in a 
 revolutionary whirlpool, with wars abroad and hopeless 
 confusion at home. We can only hope that Providence 
 and whatever fraction of good sense remains in the country 
 may rescue us. I have received offers of election from 
 twenty-two departments, many of them couched in enthusi- 
 astic language. I have refused all but two, the Nord and 
 the Gironde, which I wish to keep in reserve, in case 
 anything should go wrong at Macon. Hitherto I have suc- 
 ceeded in keeping within the bounds of a wise moderation. 
 Two hundred and twenty-six deputies have asked me to 
 be their leader. I have to speak two or three times at 
 each of their daily meetings. I told them that, till the 
 crisis is past, they may count on me, but that when it is 
 over I shall retire, leaving, I trust, the germ of future 
 confidence, and a well-established reputation of integrity. 
 As to the rest, except Berryer, Suleau, and the fanatics of 
 the Extreme Right, I am as pleased as possible with all 
 your friends. The Faubourg St. Germain people, some 
 
1840.] MINISTERIAL COMBINATIONS. 201 
 
 of whom I meet every day, are perfect, — moral, con- 
 servative, and as indignant as you yourself are with les 
 tapageurs in the Chamber. This gives hope of a recon- 
 ciliation, in my opinion absolutely necessary, between the 
 juste-milien and the leaders of society, who are equally 
 menaced. Meanwhile, I am very popular in the ancieu 
 monde. See how the wheel goes round ! At the very 
 moment I am doing my best to support the Government, 
 the Duchesses and the salons applaud me ! 
 
 " I often meet your sister. She hates and despises me. 
 But she is charming, all the same, as she was in the old 
 days at Lemps. I am just starting to dine with her. 
 Adieu." 
 
 A few days later, he writes to the same correspondent : 
 " I have just finished a campaign of fourteen days' hard 
 fighting, during which I have had to speak twice every 
 day, in the Chamber and at private meetings. I am fairly 
 done up. Last night I had to fight Guizot, Thiers, Berryer, 
 Barrot, Garnier-Pages and Co. It was a hard struggle, 
 but I gained my point — a majority sufficient to prevent 
 Thiers from being King, and plunging us into a war with 
 Belgium, just to serve his own ends at home." 
 
 As time passed on, the difficulties of forming a new 
 Cabinet grew more and more evident. Between January 
 and April, 1839, eight combinations were made and 
 rejected. Once the carriages ordered to convey a batch of 
 newly named Ministers to the Tuileries were seen by the 
 expectant populace to drive to their houses and return 
 empty. And this state of things, which was visibly under- 
 mining the respect for constitutional government through- 
 out the country, might have gone on indefinitely, but for 
 
202 LAMART1NE. [1836- 
 
 the insurrection headed by Barbes and Blanqui, which, 
 though immediately quelled, drew attention to the fact 
 that some steersman was needed at the helm. On the 
 13th of May an arrangement was come to by which MM. 
 Thiers, Guizot, and Odillon-Barrot all agreed to stand 
 aside and divide the portfolios among their respective 
 followers, Marshal Soult being President of the Council. 
 The only name of any eminence among the new ministers 
 was that of M. Villemain, more distinguished, however, in 
 literature than in politics. But the necessity of carrying 
 on public business was so strongly felt, that they got in 
 their nominee, M. Sauzet, as President of the Chamber, 
 and passed all the measures they proposed without any 
 difficulty. 
 
 The invasion of Syria by Ibrahim Pasha brought the 
 Eastern question once more into prominence. On the 
 1 2th of July the Due de Valmy, a leading Legitimist, 
 opened the debate by blaming the Government for their 
 policy, " which had weakened French influence in Constan- 
 tinople without strengthening it at Alexandria." His 
 sympathies and those of his party being with Turkey against 
 Egypt, M. Carne\ on the other side, pressed the Govern- 
 ment to hail in Mahomet Ali the regenerator of the Arab 
 race. To enthrone him, by the help of France, at Con- 
 tantinople was, he insisted, the only way to maintain the 
 integrity of the Ottoman empire and oppose a strong 
 bulwark to Russian ambition ; while the Government in- 
 clined to maintaining the status quo. 
 
 Lamartine, following M. Carne at the tribune, ex- 
 pounded in a very powerful speech his own view — that of 
 the division of the Ottoman empire among the European 
 
 i 
 
1840.] THE EASTERN QUESTION. 203 
 
 powers in the interests of civilization. The notion that 
 either the Pasha of Egypt or the Sultan could preserve its 
 integrity he utterly scouted. " Where," he asked, " are we 
 to look for the Arab nationality? Is it among the in- 
 coherent, the monstrous agglomeration which is called 
 Egypt, or the idolatrous Druses, or the Catholic Maronites, 
 or the Bedouins of the desert ? Mahomet Ali is spoken 
 of as if he were the founder of an empire ; but in a country 
 in which there are neither institutions, nor a legal system, 
 nor any political instincts — a country which has but one 
 master and many slaves as its whole social hierarchy, can 
 a great man be anything but a casual incident ? Even if 
 such an one there be, he will take away with him in dying 
 the mantle of his genius, leaving an empty void behind." 
 
 Passing to the system advocated by the Government, of 
 maintaining the status quo : — " I could have understood the 
 system of status quo for the maintenance of the Turkish 
 empire before the treaties of 1774, before the treaty of 
 1792, — even as late as 181 5, say up to the destruction of 
 the Turkish fleet, in a fit of insanity, by France and England 
 for the benefit of Russia in 1829 ; but after the usurpation 
 of the Crimea, the Russian protectorate in Wallachia and 
 Moldavia, after the treaties of Adrianople, of Unkiar- 
 Skelessi, of Katayia, after the despoiling of half the Ottoman 
 empire by you, its protectors, the status quo is, allow me to 
 say, as great a farce as the nationality of Poland. But if 
 you really believe the maintenance of the Turkish empire 
 necessary to the peace of Europe, be consistent, — instead of 
 encouraging the revolt of Syria, strengthen the legitimate 
 Sovereign in Constantinople. Lend your counsels, your 
 engineers, your officers to help Mahmoud in his heroic 
 
204 LAMARTINE. [1836- 
 
 efforts to civilize his people, to crush Ibrahim, to reconquer 
 Egypt." 
 
 This speech, delivered at a time when Mahomet AH 
 was the hero of the hour, supports M. Scherer's view — that 
 if Lamartine had not all the qualities required to make 
 a great statesman, he had, at least, keen political insight. 
 It was listened to with respect, but did not materially 
 affect the division ; the Government received the eleven 
 millions they asked for, and were supported in their policy 
 of joining England in compelling Ibrahim Pasha to retire 
 from Syria and confining Mahomet Ali to the Pashalic of 
 Egypt. But before it could be carried out, the victory of 
 Nezib, gained by Ibrahim, and the treacherous surrender 
 by the Turkish Admiral of the Sultan's fleet to Egypt, 
 completely changed the situation. The public opinion of 
 France became enthusiastic for Mahomet Ali, and, by the 
 end of February, 1840, Thiers was Prime Minister, had 
 withdrawn from the English alliance, and thrown the 
 influence of France on the side of Mahomet Ali. 
 
 During the leisure of the recess which followed, Lamar- 
 tine was employed in writing, in the Journal du Sadne et 
 Loire, a series of articles on the Eastern question, of which 
 the Quarterly Review said : " Some articles, lately published 
 by M. de Lamartine in a prominent newspaper, have pro- 
 duced a great sensation, not only in France, but throughout 
 Europe. This writer, by the elevation of his sentiments, 
 by the enthusiastic yet practical nature of his views, by the 
 honesty of his intention and the soundness of his reasoning, 
 has immense influence, although from his indifference to 
 political power he has party spirit of every shade and creed 
 arrayed against him." 
 

 1840.] MINISTRY OF THIERS. 20$ 
 
 All through the session of 1840, Lamartine fought 
 against the anti-English policy of Thiers, but, though 
 listened to respectfully, he made little way. The Premier, 
 supported enthusiastically by the press, fancied himself 
 omnipotent, and, with a heart as light as that of M. Ollivier 
 in 1870, was bringing France to the verge of an Euro- 
 pean war. " A majority of forty ambitious voices," writes 
 Lamartine, " is oppressing the Crown, the peers, and the 
 real majority of the Chamber. M. Thiers is no longer a 
 Parliamentary Minister ; he has become a tyrant. The 
 only future I can foresee (and many others think with 
 me), is either the entire degradation of the Chamber, and 
 internal troubles, or war with all its miseries and all its 
 consequences." 
 
 As Thiers' tenure of office rested chiefly on his personal 
 popularity, he left no stone unturned to increase it, and 
 sought allies on all sides. Of the 226 supporters of Count 
 Mole, whom Lamartine was striving to guide in the path 
 of liberal progress, he detached fifty by tactics which the 
 Parisians called "the system of individual annexation." 
 He then tried to turn to account the tide of enthusiasm for 
 the Napoleonic legend, which, under the spell of Beranger's 
 songs and of his own History of the Empire, was rising 
 rapidly, by the striking and unexpected proposition to 
 bring over to France the ashes of the great Emperor. 
 Having first privately assured himself of the consent of 
 England, given through Lord Palmerston with a cordial 
 grace which might well have disarmed enmity, Thiers pro- 
 posed it in a speech of much eloquence and fire, which was 
 received with unbounded enthusiasm. 
 
 Among the few warning voices was that of Lamartine. 
 
2o6 LAMART1NE. [1836- 
 
 Not that the author of the spirit-stirring " Ode a Napoleon " 
 was moved by any feeling of personal or class hostility, 
 but he saw clearly the danger that, beneath the laurels 
 heaped on the conqueror's tomb, might be concealed daggers 
 ready to strike at the heart of Liberty. " The lesson you 
 are teaching is this — that nothing is really popular but 
 military renown. Be great and do what you will. Win a 
 battle, and you can then destroy the institutions of your 
 country with as much impunity as if they were Chinese 
 toys." 
 
 However, when the project was agreed to, Lamartine 
 would not have it carried out in a parsimonious spirit, 
 but voted in support of the large subsidy asked by the 
 Government. And with all befitting state and dignity 
 was the solemn pageant gone through ; the remains of 
 Napoleon, brought to France by a Prince of the House of 
 Bourbon, were received by the whole nation with an intense, 
 passionate enthusiasm, such as never in the days of his 
 greatest triumphs had greeted the conqueror laden with 
 spoil. It seems hard to grudge the fulfilment of his last 
 pathetic wish — " Je desire que mes cendres reposent sur les 
 bords de la Seine, au milieu de ce peuple Fran^ais que j'ai 
 tant aime " — to one who, after the rancour of the enemies 
 he crushed, after even the cynic candour of his own house- 
 hold have said their worst, still remains incomparably the 
 most striking figure in modern history. But the sequel 
 proved the truth of Lamartine's warning, "The ashes of 
 Napoleon are not yet cold ; beware lest you kindle them 
 to a devouring flame." Years afterwards, when Beranger, 
 at once ah ardent admirer of Napoleon and a fervent Re- 
 publican, used to ask in angry excitement, " What is it, 
 
 i 
 
1840.] WAR RUMOURS. 207 
 
 this Second Empire ? " " Why, Beranger," was Lamartine's 
 reply, " is it not one of your songs ? " 
 
 Meanwhile, Mahomet Ali was growing more powerful 
 in the East, more popular in France, and Thiers' vaguely 
 ambitious forecast seemed to be ripening into a definite 
 policy. He easily got the supplies he wanted to strengthen 
 the armed forces of France, sent Walewski on a mysterious 
 mission to Alexandria, and declined with affectation any 
 immediate action in concert with the other Powers. All 
 this did not perhaps mean very much, but it produced an 
 impression that any further delay in settling the Eastern 
 question might give France the opportunity of working 
 mischief, and so drew together Russia and England. Lord 
 Palmerston, ever quick to secure an advantage to his own 
 country, drew up an ultimatum, which, while guaranteeing 
 to Mahomet Ali the hereditary Viceroyalty of Egypt, 
 secured to Turkey all that it was yet possible to save for 
 her, and was collectively signed by the Four Powers 
 without waiting for France. 
 
 So palpable a check, coming at a moment when he 
 thought himself scoring at every point, made Thiers furious. 
 What he first began as a game of brag, he was now eager 
 to follow up in earnest, regardless of consequences. On 
 the meeting of the Chambers, in October, 1840, he prepared 
 for the King a speech which amounted to a declaration of 
 war to the rest of Europe. He had the support of the 
 mob in every large town of France, and of the entire press ; 
 M. Jules Janin offering to raise an army which should at 
 once occupy the left bank of the Rhine : and if 1840 had 
 been 1 870, war was inevitable. But at the earlier date the 
 Chamber of Deputies was very differently constituted ; its 
 
 
208 LAMARTINE. [1836- 
 
 members were returned by a body of electors not exceed- 
 ing two hundred and sixty thousand in number, all belong- 
 ing to the class sometimes described as that of " people 
 who have sixpence to lose." Neither the deputies nor their 
 constituents were disposed to change the course of policy 
 France had pursued successfully for twenty-five years, to 
 follow the politique daventure of any Premier, however 
 eloquent or persuasive he might be ; and by one of 
 those happy inspirations which sometimes occur even to 
 Chambers of Deputies, they saw that to maintain peace 
 with honour the surest way was to entrust the foreign 
 policy of the country unreservedly to the Sovereign. 
 Therefore, when Louis Philippe refused to deliver the 
 speech prepared for him by M. Thiers, accepted his resig- 
 nation, and summoned M. Guizot to his councils, the new 
 Ministry at once received the support of the Chamber ; 
 and, known as the Ministere du 29 Octobre, proved the 
 longest lived of the reign. 
 
 During the formation of the new Cabinet, Lamartine 
 received flattering offers to join it. On his refusal, 
 M. Guizot pressed him warmly to accept one of the two 
 great embassies, London or Vienna ; but though this last 
 offer had great temptations, he persisted in his refusal, pre- 
 ferring to keep his independence. Neither did the political 
 principles of M. Guizot, though he preferred him to 
 M. Thiers, altogether satisfy him. He thought him mesqui?i, 
 and mistrusted his earnestness in the causes of social pro- 
 gress and the development of political liberty, neither 
 could he altogether forgive him for having helped to bring 
 about the present humiliation of France by heading the 
 coalition against Count Mole. But though he declined to 
 
1810.] THE KINGS SPEECH 209 
 
 join the Ministry of the 29th of October, Lamartine more 
 than once did it good service. 
 
 The first trial of strength between the Ministry and the 
 Chamber was in the debates of December, 1840, on the 
 discussion of the Address in reply to the King's speech. 
 The opening paragraph, on which the interest of the debate 
 turned, and which was believed to have been written by 
 the King himself, ran as follows : " The measures which 
 the Emperor of Austria, the Queen of Great Britain, the 
 King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Russia have taken in 
 concert to regulate the respective positions of the Pasha of 
 Egypt and of the Sultan have imposed on me serious 
 duties. The dignity of our country is as dear to me as its 
 peace and safety. By pursuing the moderate and con- 
 ciliatory policy of which for the last ten years we have 
 enjoyed the benefits, I have made France strong enough to 
 face any contingency which the course of events in the 
 East may bring about. The extraordinary credits which, 
 from motives you appreciate, have been opened on this 
 account, will be submitted to you, while I continue to hope 
 that peace will remain unbroken. The preservation of it 
 is necessary to the common interests of Europe, to the 
 happiness of populations, to the progress of civilization. I 
 count on you to assist me in sustaining it, as I count on 
 you likewise, if the honour of France, the upholding of her 
 rank among nations, require greater sacrifices." 
 
 Although the Chamber were really anxious for peace 
 and grateful to the King for his exertions to maintain it, 
 they were not generous enough to run the risk of impairing 
 their own popularity by giving him their open and un- 
 grudging support. Thiers opened the attack by accusing 
 
 P 
 
2IO LAMARTINE. [1836. 
 
 the Ministry of ignominious concessions ; and Berryer, 
 following tactics which Lamartine stigmatized as " unworthy 
 alike of his party and of himself," took the same line, with 
 more than his wonted eloquence. 
 
 " I wish," wrote Lamartine, describing the scene to 
 M. de Virieu — " I wish you had been in the House when I 
 broke a lance with Berryer last week. It required all the 
 courage I could muster to take up the gauntlet ; he had 
 been sublime in his vehemence, in his appeals to popular 
 feeling. The Chamber was as if it were pulverized ; no one 
 would answer him. At last, when the Ministers and all 
 the rest had refused, I stood up, and, with a passionate 
 reply, made on the spur of the moment, took the Assembly 
 by storm. I send it you. Do not be too severe on the 
 style ; remember all I had to contend against. At this 
 moment I am the most unpopular and the best-abused 
 man in France." 
 
 Finally, the Ministry carried the Address by a majority 
 of eighty-six, a result to which Lamartine's speech, of 
 which three thousand copies were sold in two days, had so 
 visibly contributed, that he was once more besieged with 
 offers of office ; that of Minister-Plenipotentiary to a 
 European congress supposed to be impending, tempted 
 him for a moment ; but no congress assembled, and the 
 following month found him in direct conflict with Guizot 
 on the question of the fortification of Paris. 
 
 This had always been a cherished project of Louis 
 Philippe. Brought forward in 1833, it was then rejected 
 by a large majority and allowed to drop. But the military 
 spirit which animated the whole country in 1840, gave 
 promise that it would now be popular ; and by a bold 
 
1840.] FORTIFICATIONS OF PARIS. 211 
 
 stroke of policy a credit of £40,000,000 was advanced by- 
 Royal ordinance during the recess, to begin the works at 
 once ; and in February, 1841, the Chamber were asked to 
 ratify the loan. Lamartine was much excited by the 
 question. He spent November and December in studying 
 it at all points, reading up every work of military authority 
 he could lay hold of, and with a perfect arsenal of argu- 
 ment, opposed the motion in a speech of several hours' 
 duration. 
 
 As a rule, a speech delivered fifty years ago is not 
 better reading than a newspaper of the same date, but this 
 of Lamartine has something of the interest of fulfilled 
 prophecy, and is a curious instance of what he would have 
 called "the poet's gift of prescience." He describes what 
 would happen " if France, with an army of eight hundred 
 thousand men, had lost two or three of those great battles 
 that decide the morale of nations ; if her regular troops 
 were vanquished, dispersed, dismembered, demoralized to 
 the point of no longer presenting any solid obstacle to the 
 invasion of her territory. In such utter absence of all 
 resisting power, in such entire desertion of fortune, with 
 the enemy's corps cCarmee of three or four hundred thou- 
 sand men converging by different routes to a terrible 
 rendezvous under her walls, Paris could not save France ; 
 she could not save herself! 
 
 H You say Paris might gain time for France to rise up 
 and recompose her forces ; that a new army would be 
 recruited, and the siege of Paris raised. What ? Would 
 the crushed and severed limbs be able to accomplish that 
 which their united and unbroken strength had failed in ; 
 would a few isolated, dislocated fragments of an army 
 
212 LAMARTINE. [183(5- 
 
 achieve that which the Marshals, the Government, the 
 whole organized strength of the country had not achieved ? 
 " You talk of ' a flank manoeuvre which would rally the 
 dispersed garrisons, and crush the enemy between their 
 bayonets and the walls of Paris.' But would not the enemy 
 have his own base of operations, leaving his rear and wings 
 free to occupy your fortified places — unless indeed you 
 suppose the enemy more weakened by victory than we 
 should be by defeat ? Or is it that you want a battle to 
 be fought under the walls of Paris? But besides that 
 your armies are annihilated, has not Napoleon told you 
 that a battle-field without a base and with a town behind 
 it, which must be traversed before any new manoeuvre 
 could be attempted, is a battle-field made for defeat ? 
 Or do you want to shut up your army within the walls 
 of Paris ? But Marshal Saxe has told you, and Napoleon 
 has repeated, that an army shut up in a town is useless 
 for fighting, and certain within a given time to succumb 
 to famine. Do you contemplate locking the Government 
 up in Paris ? But a Government occupying an unfortified 
 house such as the Tuileries, surrounded by a population 
 of 1,500,000 souls, either starving or raging, what could 
 it do for France ? There would be a 20 Juin every day ! 
 Or if you intend the Government to leave Paris, the 
 morale of Paris would be destroyed, terror and despair 
 would take possession of the people. To separate Paris 
 from the Government of France is to separate soul and 
 body ; it would be to sign the death-warrant at once of 
 the Government and of the capital. I pass over the ruin 
 of Paris blockaded, and surrendered by the very nature 
 of things to the most violent and the most desperate 
 
1840.] FORTIFICATIONS OF FARIS. 213 
 
 factions — imagination recoils before sounding such a gulf, 
 — I reject this motion as an outrage on military science, 
 whose fundamental principles it ignores ; as an outrage on 
 public policy, for it subordinates all Fiance to the fate of 
 Paris, and Paris herself to the desperate domination of 
 extreme factions ; an outrage on humanity, because it 
 tramples on the recognized laws of warfare, by yielding up 
 helpless old men, women, and children as victims to arson, 
 famine, and assault ; and, finally, as an outrage on liberty, 
 because Liberty cannot long subsist with cannon pointed at 
 her breast. In the name of the common-sense, the dignity 
 the humanity of my country, I reject this motion." 
 
 But from opposite motives the fortifying of Paris was 
 strongly supported by two parties : the Government, who 
 hoped the fortifications would serve as dykes to restrain 
 popular licence ; and the Republicans, who saw in them 
 weapons which could be advantageously turned against the 
 Government. And the Bill was passed by a large majority, 
 a result which many of those who voted for it had ample 
 leisure to deplore, when transported, on the night of 
 December 2, 1851, to the casemates for the construction of 
 which they had so energetically worked. 
 
214 LA MARTI NE. [1840- 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1840-1847. 
 
 All through the session of 1840-41 Lamartine was much 
 occupied. He sat on several Committees ; that on the 
 extension of copyright interested him specially, and 
 brought him into collision with M. Emile de Girardin's 
 paper, La Presse, without, however, interfering with their 
 private friendship. He also spoke as the " representative 
 of enlightened public opinion " on a number of questions. 
 His position, as he wrote at this time to M. de Virieu, was 
 all he could wish for : politically he was a power in the 
 State ; among parliamentary orators he was in the first 
 rank ; and idolized as a poet. The memoirs of people as 
 unlike as Eugenie de Guerin, the La Ferronays, Renan, 
 Madame d'Agoult, combine to show that his verses were 
 household words in every refined home ; while of un- 
 challenged respect and tender personal affection he had 
 all heart could desire. Yet, thoroughly as Lamartine 
 appreciated and enjoyed all these things, his burdens and 
 sorrows were not few ; his health and strength barely 
 sufficed for the demands made on them from all sides. 
 
 In the summer of 1840, change of air and scene being 
 prescribed both for his wife and for himself, they went 
 
1847.] • DEATH OF HIS FATHER. 21 5 
 
 through the Pyrenees and the north of Spain, received 
 everywhere with distinction, generally with enthusiasm. 
 Yet Lamartine's health benefited but little. In August we 
 hear of him at Hyeres, suffering cruelly from neuralgia. 
 He playfully asks Madame de la Grange to undertake a 
 pilgrimage or some other of her many good works, to 
 obtain the cure of at least one or two of those terrible 
 nerves which made him, in this year of combat, incapable 
 of anything but resignation. 
 
 From Hyeres he was recalled by the news of his 
 father's illness, and, after some weeks passed in anxious 
 watching, the old man passed quietly away. The loss was 
 inevitable, for M. de Lamartine had reached his ninetieth 
 year, but was not the less deeply felt. 
 
 " It is," wrote his son to M. de Virieu, " as if half my 
 own life were gone from me. I am as a tree severed from 
 its root ; lopped of its branches. Still God is over all ; in 
 Him our lives will be renewed. I cannot now leave my 
 wife, else I should go to you ; but her sorrow is as great as 
 mine. Write to me, and, when you can, come and see me, 
 The void around me makes me love you more arid more." 
 
 A little later, after thanking M. de la Grange for his 
 affectionate sympathy, Lamartine glances at politics. 
 " You have chosen a bad time to visit your constituents. 
 They do not know where they are. Thiers, with his four- 
 teen newspapers, is scattering darkness abroad, and no one 
 dares to contradict him. Yet I discern gleams of doubt, 
 and suspect that the little man is beginning to inspire as 
 much dread as admiration. For myself, I can do nothing. 
 I cannot even read (but have to be read to), much less 
 write. I just manage to dictate, but very little at a time. 
 
216 LA MARTIN E. [1840- 
 
 Even in this note, I have had to break off twice ; and yester- 
 day I got twenty-eight letters ! Several Legitimist deputies 
 write to me, and seem inclined to join me in the hour o! 
 peril. How will it all end ? That depends on Marshal 
 Soult, on the Due d'Orleans, and, above all, on Providence. 
 Thence only comes our salvation. Adieu, let us love each 
 other." 
 
 In December, Lamartine had recovered sufficiently to 
 resume his seat in the Chamber, and to make another 
 speech on the question of the fortifications of Paris. Ac- 
 cording to his wont, he goes over the subject in his letters 
 to M. de Virieu, whose approbation he values far beyond 
 any windfalls of popular applause. 
 
 " I do not know how it is," he writes, " but of late years 
 we have come to be in unison on almost all questions. It 
 makes me very happy, and strengthens me in every way. 
 This letter, which I began last night, I close this morning, 
 1st of January, 1841, in order that I might end the old 
 year and begin the new one with you, my one, my only 
 friend." 
 
 This letter is almost the last of a correspondence which, 
 during the long span of thirty-five years, had been kept up 
 without a break. In the month of April following, M. de 
 Virieu died so suddenly that there was not even time for 
 Lamartine to be with him. The blow must have been 
 overwhelming. In the few letters written at that time, 
 Lamartine thanks his friends for their sympathy in brief 
 phrases, which show the subject was too painful to be 
 dwelt on. Only in one letter, written to M. de Virieu's 
 sister, does he speak of their common loss. 
 
 " What can I say of myself that will be anything but 
 
1847.] DEATH OF AYMON DE VIRIEU. 2iy 
 
 an echo of what you are now feeling and suffering ? Was 
 he not to me also a brother, and much more than a 
 brother ? My loss is as great as yours ; it includes my 
 whole past, and all the affection, all the future promise of 
 my life. Only in heaven and in memory do I now possess 
 a friend. What you and M. de Miramon have told me 
 of his last moments is consoling to us, who believe firmly 
 in an eternal reunion. To die with this thought, so 
 intensified by prayer that it has become a reality, is hardly 
 to die ; it is only to reach home a little before the rest. 
 Like you, I rejoice at the grace vouchsafed ; the remem- 
 brance of it will be our great support in the mournful path 
 we have henceforth to tread alone. When Madame de 
 Virieu has recovered sufficiently for you to speak to her for 
 me, I entreat of you to do so. Assure her of my absolute 
 devotion to his memory, to his affections, to his wishes, 
 above all, to her and hers. My greatest happiness will be 
 in proving to her that he whom she mourns has left a 
 brother. Adieu, mademoiselle. During many years you 
 were witness of a friendship death is powerless to destroy ; 
 be good enough to allow me sometimes to find it still 
 living in the memory and in the affections of the two 
 persons he most loved." 
 
 It is by the blank left in Lamartine's correspondence his 
 loss and sorrow can best be gauged. The remaining letters, 
 covering a span of twenty years, scarcely fill a volume, nor 
 do we ever again find the unrestrained outpouring of 
 thought and feeling, the certainty of sympathy which 
 marked all those addressed to this beloved and familiar 
 friend. And not only in Lamartine's affections is the 
 place filled by M. de Virieu henceforth vacant, his death, 
 
21 8 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 occurring at a turning-point in Lamartine's life, influenced, 
 as we shall see hereafter, its whole tenour. 
 
 A few weeks later, we find Lamartine again a mourner, 
 and this time at the deathbed of one to whom he was 
 bound by the double tie of affection and of kindred. The 
 Chevalier de Pierreclos, Lamartine's old playfellow, after a 
 brilliant but somewhat stormy youth, had died in early 
 manhood. Towards his only son Lamartine acted as an 
 affectionate and careful guardian. 
 
 Leon de Pierreclos evidently inherited his father's im- 
 petuous character. While quite a boy, he wrote to ask his 
 guardian to take him away from school. Lamartine replied 
 with much tact and kindness. He showed neither dis- 
 pleasure nor surprise ; but explained, at some length, to his 
 young correspondent that the position of public affairs at 
 the time made it difficult to find him a suitable career, and 
 that it was really a matter of great good fortune to be able 
 to postpone the decision a couple of years. " What is 
 essential for the moment is for you, without troubling as to 
 the future, to strengthen yourself in your studies as much 
 as possible, and to prepare by varied acquirements, and by 
 serious solidity of character, for whatever career the course 
 of events may trace out for you. The stormier and more 
 critical the period in which we live, the more necessary it is 
 that our characters should be proportionately strengthened 
 and elevated by study and by the assiduous exercise of 
 self-control. It is this exercise which forms us to moral 
 and political virtue, never more needed than now. But I 
 do not pity you on that account. I prefer for you these 
 revolutionary times, trying as they are, to the sloth and 
 corruption of the last century. They infuse more strength 
 
1847. J LEON DE PIERRECLOS. 2IO, 
 
 in the soul ; they make a man better able to discern, and 
 better able to reach the one aim he has to strive for — self- 
 devotion and virtue. Now is the time for you to study 
 history ; work at it during these final years of your school 
 life. Remember that if a European war should break out, 
 you would never have again the chance of making up for 
 the time you would then lose. And remember, too, all this 
 advice is only for your good. Tell me if there is anything 
 that would be useful or pleasant to you in the way of 
 books, masters, etc. Remember me to your mother, and 
 ask her not to spoil you by too much indulgence. Adieu, 
 my dear Leon. Never be afraid of tiring me by asking 
 my advice or assistance in any way. I will keep my 
 promise to your father by taking as much care of you as 
 if you were my own son, until you are able to take care of 
 yourself." 
 
 Not many people in Lamartine's position would have 
 taken so much trouble in dealing with a refractory school- 
 boy. But the trouble was evidently well repaid. His 
 subsequent letters to Leon de Pierreclos are full of affec- 
 tionate approval ; the later ones are written as if to a 
 friend of equal standing, with unrestrained confidence. 
 M. Leon de Pierreclos seems to have entered the Civil 
 Service. He was given, in 1840, an appointment in the 
 south of France, which it was hoped would have proved a 
 stepping-stone to promotion. But his health failed, and 
 he had to return to his home in Burgundy, to be tenderly 
 nursed by his wife, who was one of Lamartine's nieces. 
 There is frequent mention of him in Lamartine's letters for 
 some months ; but gradually hope faded away. As the 
 end drew near, he and his wife came to Macon to be within 
 
220 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 reach of daily intercourse. M. de Pierreclos' last words 
 were of gratitude to his friend and guardian, to whom only- 
 remained the sad task of bringing the poor widow back to 
 St. Point. " You have lost a friend, and I almost a son," he 
 writes to M. de Champeaux. "What you have written 
 under the impulse of a still fresh sorrow is worthy of him 
 and of you. He died as a just man should, seeing only 
 God in suffering, and immortality in death. In my 
 thoughts his pure and stainless memory will always abide 
 as a perfume, which will never lose its sweetness. And 
 you will always remain worthy of your friend, maturing in 
 heart and in mind. Thanks for having wept with us." 
 
 Besides the personal sorrows of this year, Lamartine 
 had at this time the additional trial of financial embarrass- 
 ment. Though the estates he inherited from his uncles 
 were considerable in extent, they were encumbered with 
 charges in favour of their surviving sisters and nieces, and, 
 as he was loth to part with even a single acre, he had to 
 raise considerable sums on these accounts, as well as to 
 meet his own expenses, which, without much actual ex- 
 travagance, were large. His hospitality was not ostentatious ; 
 but he kept open house at St. Point and Monceau for 
 several months each year, and he was generous to a fault. 
 Finding himself seriously hampered, he contemplated for a 
 time resigning his seat in the Chamber, and living altogether 
 in the country ; but an unusually good vintage and a loan 
 raised, not without some difficulty, enabled him to tide 
 over the crisis. 
 
 " The man has come to look over my estates. He 
 examined them carefully, and found them very well tilled. 
 When he saw my vines and my vineyard labourers, with 
 
1847.] ELECTION OF A PRESIDENT. 221 
 
 their happy, well-housed families, he said he now realized 
 the phrase he had heard somewhere, ' Lamartine, premier 
 cultivateur de France.' You think it is a joke, but it was 
 said with much solemnity. Whether he will lend the 
 money I want on moral security is the question, and I 
 shall not know for a month." 
 
 Apparently the answer was favourable, for we hear no 
 more of Lamartine's resigning his seat, which would have 
 been a considerable sacrifice ; political life had become 
 intensely interesting to him, and he felt himself the leading 
 spirit in a forward movement, of which neither he, nor 
 probably any one else, even vaguely foresaw the results. 
 
 It is the custom in the French Chamber for the Presi- 
 dent, whose position is, speaking generally, analogous to 
 that of the Speaker of the English House of Commons, to 
 be elected annually. At the opening of the session of 
 1841-42, Lamartine's was among the names proposed. 
 His opponents described him as extremely desirous to 
 succeed, and embittered by his defeat. But, in a con- 
 fidential letter to M. Emile de Girardin, dated Novem- 
 ber 25, 1 84 1, of which there is no reason to doubt the 
 sincerity, Lamartine begs him not to waste his time in 
 canvassing for him, as besides that his chance was a very 
 slight one, he did not, for two categorical reasons, desire 
 the presidency. 
 
 " It is a neutral position, and I like positive and com- 
 bative positions. It is the decoration of a political career, 
 not its strength ; the purple on the garment, not its 
 substance. Finally, to propose me as a candidate is to 
 risk, on a successful or unsuccessful attitude in an arm-chair, 
 the prestige of a name which already has some political 
 
222 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 weight, and may one day be put to higher uses. He who 
 fills that place is not much increased thereby ; when he 
 loses it, he may be much diminished. Therefore, let there 
 be no canvassing on my behalf; those who like to vote for 
 me, pay me a compliment by which I cannot but feel 
 flattered." 
 
 Ultimately, sixty-four votes were given for Lamartine, 
 against 193 for M. Sauzet, and it was to the former a 
 painful surprise to find that his supporters were all from 
 the Liberal section of the house, the Conservatives evi- 
 dently mistrusting his ideas of progress. He did not, 
 however, move from his seat on the Right benches, nor 
 cease to support them on many occasions ; but it is likely 
 that his hopes of enlisting their sympathies for the com- 
 prehensive measures of social amelioration, on which his 
 heart and soul were set, became much less sanguine. 
 
 The uncertainty of Lamartine's mental attitude was 
 illustrated in the debates of April, 1842, on the increase 
 of the electorate. The qualification was the payment of 
 200 francs of direct taxes, which gave only the obviously 
 inadequate number of 220,000 electors out of a population 
 of over thirty millions; and in 1839 M. Arago had pro- 
 posed with much eloquence, but with a want of discretion 
 which deprived him of any serious support, a measure of 
 extension. 
 
 By 1842 the question had assumed such proportions 
 that it could no longer be safely postponed ; all thinking 
 men had agreed that a change was necessary. The Due 
 d'Orleans, who had Liberal opinions on many subjects, was 
 believed to favour it ; and when it became known that a 
 solemn debate was to be held on the question in the 
 
1*17.] QUESTION OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 223 
 
 Council of State, a considerable increase of the electorate 
 was reckoned on. But from the opening of the discussion 
 it was seen that the King was strongly adverse to any 
 change, he maintaining that the cry for reform was a 
 malady of the age, which, if judiciously treated, would pass 
 away. " Other monarchs preserve themselves by inspiring 
 terror ; for my part I prefer the homoeopathic method, and 
 have found it successful." 
 
 M. Guizot followed in the same tone, describing the cry 
 jfor reform as a fictitious one got up for party purposes, 
 Which, having no foundation on the real interests or per- 
 manent feelings of the country, might be put aside without 
 endangering public tranquillity. 
 
 The expression of the Due d'Orleans' views was now 
 anxiously looked for, but probably out of respect for his 
 father, for whom, although differing from him in opinion 
 on many points, he always showed profound deference (or 
 possibly at the instigation of M. Thiers, who, it was said, 
 wished to reserve any electoral reform for his own ad- 
 ministration), he silently acquiesced in the decision of the 
 preceding speakers, and voted with the rest of the Council 
 for resistance to any proposal for reform. 
 
 This decision was a severe blow to all enlightened and 
 thoughtful men, and in April, 1842, two motions were 
 brought forward by members anything but hostile to the 
 Government. The first was to the effect that members of 
 the Chamber of Deputies who were not office-bearers at 
 the time of their election should be disqualified from 
 receiving any appointment for a year after they continued 
 to hold their seats. This measure, intended to lessen the 
 influence of the Ministry on the Chamber, was opposed by 
 
224 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 Lamartine on the ground that it would exclude from office 
 the very men most fitted, by their position, talents, and 
 experience, to do good service to the country. 
 
 After giving Government valuable help towards the 
 rejection of this motion, Lamartine attacked them un- 
 sparingly in the debate on that which followed. M. Ducos, 
 in order to obtain some extension of the electorate on 
 perfectly safe and constitutional lines, proposed to give 
 votes to all whose names were on the departmental list 
 of jurymen. Moderate as was this demand, Guizot refused 
 it in a long and carefully prepared speech, in which, putting 
 forth all his powers of irony and of invective, he showed 
 plainly his determination to reject even the slightest ex- 
 tension of popular power or privilege, his resolute hostility 
 to Liberalism under any form. 
 
 In his reply, Lamartine, as was rather his custom, began 
 by unfolding to his hearers the statistical aspects of the 
 question, with a precision to which other speakers had not 
 accustomed the Chamber. He gave a r&um<? of all the 
 electoral bases which had successively prevailed in France 
 since 1788, showing that the object of each had been 
 gradually to increase the number of electors till it should 
 include all who by their position or character were com- 
 petent to exercise the duties of citizenship. He then went 
 on to say, " In all countries and in all ages there have been 
 men honourable, well-intentioned, but blinded by political 
 passion, entrenched behind a numerical majority, shutting 
 their eyes to all good, matured, even necessary changes. 
 In vain have you served these men in their legitimate 
 interests, in vain have you supported them in the struggles 
 every Government has to maintain against factions, in vain 
 
1847.] QUESTION OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 225 
 
 have you stood forward to defend them or to perish with 
 them. All is forgotten. Their esteem, indeed, they do 
 not refuse you ; but from the hour when a measure of 
 innovation, however wise, prudent, even conservative in its 
 spirit, is suggested, from that moment they count you as 
 an enemy. In saying this, I indulge in no personalities, 
 I simply recount the history of all the great epochs, 1789, 
 181 5, 1829, to the present time. It is in vain that the 
 balance of power is altered, that the moral forces of the 
 country are visibly corrupted ; men such as I have spoken 
 of fear nothing, provide for nothing ; to shroud themselves 
 in the immobility of despotism is their one resource. You 
 have long inscribed on your banners, ' Resistance, eternal 
 resistance.' At the period which immediately followed the 
 Revolution of 1830 I can understand this being your watch- 
 word. During all that period resistance was the first duty 
 of the Government, and you discharged it worthily, 
 gloriously. But after 1834 the danger was over, the neces- 
 sity for resistance existed no longer, and a variety of 
 questions arose on which the ideas of our leading states- 
 men were not in accordance with the spirit of the age. I 
 grieve to say it, there has come to France a period, not of 
 national degradation — the nation never will be degraded, — 
 but one in which important interests are strangled, just and 
 passionate desires thwarted. If you value the country's 
 welfare, do not now reject a proposition which, by infusing 
 into the body of the electorate a living, patriotic force, will 
 communicate new life to its decaying members, and make 
 France strong to resist the coalition of Europe arrayed 
 against her independence and her liberties." 
 
 One of the characteristics which made Lamartine so 
 
 Q 
 
226 LAMART1NE. [1840- 
 
 dangerous an opponent was his power of improvising some 
 happy epithet, which caught the popular ear, and became 
 at once a password. On this occasion he told Guizot that 
 " if immobility is the one thing required of a Government, 
 it is quite superfluous to have ministers ; boundary stones 
 would suffice ; " and the nickname " Les Conservateurs- 
 bornes " adhered to Guizot and his followers as long as the 
 monarchy lasted. Another successful epigram was, "In 
 France the Grand Elector is not the list of registered voters, 
 it is public opinion." He wound up by a direct and 
 impassioned appeal to Guizot himself, which seems for a 
 moment to have pierced even his armour of impertur- 
 bability, " not to set aside lightly a proposal of which the 
 certain result would be to give the electoral body a much 
 needed supply of active, intelligent patriotism, and, by 
 impulse to the political life of France, strengthen her 
 against her enemies ; but rather to strike without fear the 
 soil which would bring forth, not as in the classic legend, 
 legions of armed men — France need never fear that in the 
 day of battle her children will fail her, — but a strong and 
 noble contingent of citizens who would bring back to the 
 electoral body a fresh supply of the vitality it is so quickly 
 losing, and, to the political institutions of the country, 
 respect and love." 
 
 Needless to say his warning was entirely thrown away. 
 Guizot persisted in that systematic opposition to any 
 extension of popular power which has been regarded by 
 many writers as the proximate cause of the Revolution of 
 1848, and the motion was lost. 
 
 But a few weeks later we find Lamartine speaking in 
 support of a measure approved of by the Ambassadors of 
 
1847.] THE RIGHT OF SEARCH. 227 
 
 the Four Great Powers, who met in London in December, 
 1 84 1. A mutual right of search, instituted with the view 
 of stopping the slave trade, was agreed to. This mutual 
 right of search was totally different from that England had 
 claimed during the wars with Napoleon ; it was established 
 on the base of complete reciprocity, without any claim on 
 England's part of superiority over any other Power, and it 
 was certain that without it the horrible traffic in human 
 flesh could never be abolished. Unfortunately, the recol- 
 lection of Lord Palmerston's entire disregard of French 
 susceptibilities on the Eastern question during Thiers' 
 administration was still fresh, and the moment the terms 
 of the treaty were published in Paris in the Moniteur, a cry 
 of indignation rose up from one end of France to the other. 
 It was worse than Leipzic, more disgraceful than Waterloo ; 
 a bowing of the neck to England for which no precedent 
 could be found in history ; and when the subject came up 
 for discussion in the Chamber, M. Jacques Lefevre proposed 
 an amendment which was practically a censure of the 
 Ministry. 
 
 Lamartine answered by showing that, even if French 
 susceptibilities had hardly been enough considered in 
 points of detail, nothing had been done which affected the 
 national honour, and, on behalf of the oppressed and 
 tortured slaves, pleaded eloquently for the ratification of 
 the treaty. Such, however, was the temper of the House, 
 that the question had to be withdrawn, and the Govern- 
 ment, much weakened in prestige by what had occurred, 
 dissolved the Chamber. 
 
 In the election which followed, Lamartine had no 
 anxiety as to his own seat. At many successive elections 
 
228 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 he had been returned by the town of Macon by increasing 
 majorities ; this time with only sixty dissentient voices. 
 But he had to regret the absence from the Chamber of 
 several members whose places were but inadequately filled. 
 The general result was to give M. Guizot a decided 
 majority, but not a very large one ; while two of his most 
 distinguished supporters — MM. Remusat and Duvergier 
 d'Hauranne passed to the Left Centre, and in the large 
 towns the increased strength of the Republicans was very 
 marked. They returned nine out of the twelve members 
 for Paris ; among whom were Michel (de Bourges), Marie, 
 and Henri Carnot, all Radicals of an advanced type. The 
 newly developed socialistic party was led by Ledru-Rollin 
 and Louis Blanc. 
 
 But a few weeks before the date fixed for the opening 
 of the new Chamber, all minor interests paled before the 
 overwhelming news that the Due d'Orleans had been 
 thrown from his carriage on the road to Neuilly, and killed 
 on the spot. History has few pictures more pathetic than 
 that of the aged King and Queen following on foot, as a 
 last token of love and respect, the litter which brought 
 the dead body of their son back to the Tuileries. That 
 mournful train might almost be called the funeral proces- 
 sion of monarchy in France; perhaps, indeed, of much 
 more. For if the Due d'Orleans had lived to succeed 
 his father it can hardly be doubted that he would have 
 inherited his kingdom, and have bequeathed it, in his turn, 
 to his descendants. In him were united, in a remarkable 
 degree, all the qualities most valuable to a ruler of men — 
 a noble presence, high intelligence, conspicuous valour, 
 facile eloquence, and, it is said, a marvellous aptitude for 
 
 
1847.] DEATH OF THE DUC H ORLEANS. 2 29 
 
 discerning the tendencies of the times. That the soldiers, 
 whose privations he had shared through more than one 
 African campaign, should have been strongly attached to 
 him, was perhaps only natural ; but it is a strong proof of 
 his superiority that even in Paris, where the habit of cease- 
 less raillery makes it difficult for those occupying exalted 
 positions to escape ridicule, the Due d'Orleans was admired, 
 and, in the best sense of the word, extremely popular. 
 
 There is, generally speaking, truth in the common 
 saying that no one is really necessary ; but, to secure 
 through another generation the peace of Europe, to main- 
 tain intact the frontiers of France, experience has proved 
 this Prince's life was necessary. Such seems, even at the 
 time, to have been Lamartine's feeling ; for he writes from 
 Marseilles : "We are cut to the heart; the more one reflects 
 on this fatal news, the more terrible it seems. I have given 
 up my journey to the South, as I must be in Paris for the 
 opening of the Chambers. It is a matter of duty; absence 
 would be impossible." The . task of drawing up the 
 Deputies' address of condolence devolved on him, and was 
 discharged with great eloquence, tact, and delicacy. 
 
 A few weeks later, the question of the Regency, in the 
 not unlikely event of the King's decease before his grand- 
 son should have reached his majority, came up for discus- 
 sion. By the will of the late Duke, the Duchess was left 
 guardian of the persons of her sons and of their private 
 estates, the Due de Nemours named as the future Regent 
 of the kingdom. This second clause required the sanction 
 of the legislature, and the Ministers brought forward a Bill, 
 the principle of which was, that in default of a male heir of 
 full age, the Regency should belong by right to the next 
 
230 LAMART1NE. [1840- 
 
 in succession to the throne, who in this instance was the 
 Due de Nemours. To this M. Odillon-Barrot objected, on 
 the ground that not to the Chamber, but to the people 
 alone, it belonged to choose a Regent. Guizot made the 
 unanswerable rejoinder that the Chamber which had in the 
 person of Louis Philippe nominated a King, was surely 
 competent to select a Regent. Thiers followed on the 
 same side, while Berryer and his followers advocated 
 universal suffrage. 
 
 Contrary to expectation, Lamartine, after allowing that 
 his convictions were undecided, and describing the question 
 as a choice of difficulties, stood forth, to quote his own 
 words, as the champion at once of the female sex and of 
 liberty, insisting that the proposed law was neither conser- 
 vative nor dynastic, and that to banish a mother, the 
 natural guardian of her son, from his cradle, was a violation 
 alike of common sense and of justice. He showed that, 
 notwithstanding the Salic law, out of thirty-two Regents 
 in France twenty-six had been women ; to find an instance 
 in which the mother had been excluded they must go back 
 to times of barbarism. The circumstance that the Duchesse 
 d'Orleans was a Protestant, could, he argued, be no objec- 
 tion ; on the contrary, the principle of religious toleration, 
 embodied in the person of the ruler of the State, would 
 receive an additional guarantee. 
 
 With a Government majority of two hundred was 
 closed a debate on which a distinguished German writer, 
 Herr Hildebrandt, remarks : " Of a period rich in brilliant 
 debates this was the most brilliant, as if history wished to 
 teach us by a conspicuous example how uselessly talent, 
 emotion, and knowledge can be frittered away in Parlia- 
 
1847.] OPENING OF THE COLLEGE OF MACON. 2$ I 
 
 mentary discussions ; in all the political maxims, forms, and 
 theories listened to, the actual facts were hardly glanced 
 at ; it remains as a superb oratorical tournament, of which 
 the prize was a Regency which never came into existence." 
 
 The autumn of 1842 was a busy one, both at Monceau 
 and at St. Point The sittings of the Conseil general du 
 departement, and of other local bodies ; friends coming and 
 going ; increasing correspondence ; interruptions from all 
 sides, left scarcely a moment of leisure. The great event 
 of the season was the opening of the Royal College at 
 Macon. During Louis Philippe's reign education was 
 immensely developed all through France, and, both as 
 a literary man and as a politician, Lamartine was interested 
 in making Macon a centre of intelligence, and in obtaining 
 for the town some share in the educational endowments 
 which were being profusely distributed. For three years 
 he had been working towards this end ; at one time his 
 letters were full of indignation against the Minister of 
 Education, M. Villemain, who, as he conceived, had deluded 
 him with false hopes, and compromised him with his fellow- 
 citizens. However, by perseverance Lamartine prevailed, 
 and now, amid brilliant festivities, during which three 
 hundred guests were received one day at Monceau, the 
 College was inaugurated. At the opening seance all the 
 speakers vied in expressing the gratitude of the province 
 to Lamartine for his zeal and sustained efforts. 
 
 In his reply, he happily applied to himself the passage 
 in which Cicero, writing from Rome to his friend Atticus, 
 says, " While my name is here tossed about on every wind, 
 a prey to Clodius and to Melibceus, I console myself with 
 the thought that there is at Arpinum a tranquil haven 
 
232 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 where, untroubled by the noises of the market place, it 
 abides in the love of my fellow-citizens ! " 
 
 About this time, an independent paper, Le Bien pit bln\ 
 was founded at Macon under Lamartine's auspices. For 
 many years he had been a frequent contributor to the 
 principal newspaper of the department, Le Journal du 
 Saone et Loire ; but, gradually, political differences became 
 apparent, and some of his articles having been accepted 
 only on the condition of their being altered, Lamartine felt 
 the need of an organ which would faithfully represent his 
 views. For a moment there was question of purchasing 
 a Parisian paper, La Presse, but the negotiation fell through. 
 He then summoned to St. Point a group of literary friends, 
 chiefly young men living in the neighbourhood, and rapidly 
 exposed to them his ideas. " What," he asked, " is the 
 signification of all our revolutions ? It is that France 
 requires a National Government ; a Government which 
 will call, without distinction of class, all the men most 
 distinguished by intelligence or by character to the exercise 
 of power ; a Government which will disperse its favours 
 over the whole area of national life ; which will apply to 
 the science of governing the principles of social charity. 
 Until this goal is reached, the stream of revolution will 
 follow its course ; sometimes troubled, sometimes outwardly 
 calm, according to the facilities or the obstacles it may 
 encounter. Let it be our task to construct a harbour in 
 which ideas, not tumultuous but vivifying, may find secure 
 shelter, and, like the fertilizing waters of the Nile, form a 
 deposit which will bring forth a rich harvest of human 
 liberty." 
 
 Passing to the practical side of the subject, Lamartine 
 
 
1847.] " LE BIEN PUBLIC" 233 
 
 explained to his auditors that the speculation was not 
 likely to be a paying one ; their reward would rather lie in 
 the consciousness they were helping a noble cause. This 
 did not at all damp their enthusiasm, and the foundation 
 of the paper was voted unanimously. 
 
 The editor was to be M. de Champvans, who had 
 already some journalistic experience ; among the con- 
 tributors were MM. de la Tour, Gamier, Charles Rolland, 
 Laguerronniere, Pelletan, and Lacretelle. The last, writing 
 in 1 870 of the Bien public, says, " It formed a generation 
 of citizens devoted to liberty in its purest sense, grouped 
 round a master incomparable in genius and in kindness of 
 heart. It was in this school M. Pelletan acquired the dis- 
 interested and unselfish policy which now gives him such 
 authority in the Chamber ; M. de Laguerronniere the 
 urbanity of style and perfection of manner which enabled 
 him, even as a senator of the Empire, to be sympathetic to 
 his opponents." 
 
 In striking contrast to most of the periodicals of the 
 day, the Bien public was a model of the best and purest 
 French ; Lamartine lavishing freely on its pages phrases 
 as large and as luminous as those which thrilled his hearers 
 in the Palais Bourbon. Its circulation was large, both at 
 home and abroad, besides which, Le Bien public had the 
 honour of furnishing matter to almost all the other papers. 
 All the Parisian, and most of the provincial journals used 
 to republish in full every article written by Lamartine, and 
 many that were erroneously attributed to him ; but this 
 compliment, though flattering, was not lucrative, so that, 
 despite its success, Lamartine's launch into journalism 
 must be reckoned as one among the causes of his financial 
 
234 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 difficulties. After about six years of provincial existence, 
 the publishing offices of the Bien public were, in 1848, 
 transferred to Paris. A little later it passed into other 
 hands, and, with some variation in its politics, still exists. 
 
 That the leaven of Republicanism was working in. 
 Lamartine's mind, and that he was likely to make a new 
 departure in politics, was now pretty generally felt. " I 
 am like Lamartine," writes the most delightful of corre- 
 spondents, M. Doudan ; " I have a number of conflicting 
 opinions on several subjects;" while, with characteristic 
 sententiousness, Humboldt delivered himself of the dictum, 
 " M. de Lamartine is a comet whose orbit has not yet 
 been determined." In his speech on the Address, after 
 recapitulating the special points on which he had at 
 different times opposed the Ministry, Lamartine ended by 
 expressing the conviction that what he should henceforth 
 oppose was the general drift of their policy, or, as he 
 summed up in a phrase which at once became current, 
 " their system." This declaration was hailed by the Liberals 
 with fervour, which apparently surprised Lamartine. 
 
 " Within three days," he writes, " I have received from 
 all parts of France two hundred and fourteen letters, tons 
 fanatiques d 1 entrainement et d'enthousiasme. The spark 
 that fell from the tribune has, contrary to my expectations, 
 lit up a conflagration such as you can hardly imagine. I 
 did not think disaffection had made such progress, and it 
 alarms me. If I meant, as some people seem to think, to 
 direct and discipline the Left, I should indeed have a 
 serious task before me, but I am thinking of nothing of the 
 sort." 
 
 A few weeks later, we find him censuring the foreign 
 
1847.] UPHOLDS THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 2$$ 
 
 policy of the Ministry as severely as he had before censured 
 their home administration : especially the spirit of jealousy 
 and suspicion they were encouraging against England, 
 showing that the assumed incompatibility in the interests 
 of the two countries had no real foundation. " It is false 
 that the earth and the sea are not wide enough to contain 
 these two great countries ; false that the one or the other 
 must be sacrificed ; false that the constant aim of English 
 politicians is the humiliation of France. It is England's 
 most vital interest that no one State should dominate the 
 Continent ; to avert this danger either the Russian or the 
 French alliance is necessary to her ; that of France on 
 many accounts preferable. The common weal of these 
 two nations rests on foundations which are permanent ; 
 which will long outlive our blind and fleeting resentments. 
 On the alliance between France and England depends the 
 peace of the world." 
 
 In March, M. de Sade brought forward again his pro- 
 position to exclude all Government functionaries from the 
 Chamber. Lamartine, in the debate which ensued, supported 
 the Ministry, taking occasion again to urge on them the 
 necessity of giving France that reality of representation 
 which he still hoped the pressure of public opinion might 
 gain by pacific means. But M. Guizot and his majority 
 were more inflexible than ever, so that the transient phase 
 of reconciliation only led to a wider schism ; and at a 
 banquet given in June to Lamartine by the town of Macon, 
 he made a speech in which the sequence of cause and effect 
 which transformed the Royalist in 1829, the defender of 
 Count Mole in 1839, into the tribune of the people in 1848 
 is pretty clearly foreshadowed. 
 
236 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 With the Government of July, Lamartine never had 
 any real sympathy. His historic sense and the kindness 
 he had received from Charles X. prevented his feeling any 
 personal loyalty save for the elder branch of the House of 
 Bourbon, and made him deeply regret the blow so thought- 
 lessly struck, in 1830, at the hereditary principle, to which 
 France owed her unity, her existence as a nation, and so 
 many centuries of greatness and of glory. Still he held 
 that, to a Frenchman, the interests of France must rank 
 before those of any dynasty, however august, and as long 
 as he believed that the Revolution of 1830 would, like 
 that of 1688 in England, lead to the further development 
 of civil liberty and of social progress, he allowed Louis 
 Philippe's claim on his allegiance, and gave, on all vital 
 occasions, his loyal support to the Crown. But now, he 
 held, the conditions had altered ; the stream of freedom, 
 instead of broadening down from precedent to precedent, 
 was ice-bound. In his words to Guizot, " France, if she 
 submits to the conditions you seek to impose on her, will 
 be France no longer." Still there was nothing factious 
 in his scheme of opposition. When at the Macon banquet 
 he was defining its outline a voice called out, " Like 
 O'Connell in Ireland," Lamartine at once replied, " I hear 
 O'Connell's name. No, gentlemen, there is nothing in 
 common between us and O'Connell." And he emphasized 
 his repudiation of the parallel in a pamphlet in which, 
 after expressing his deep admiration for O'Connell's earlier 
 career, he strongly censured the Repeal agitation, then at 
 its height, as indicating either aberration of intellect, or an 
 entire absence of moral sense in its promoters, "who must 
 know it to be as mischievous as it is useless." Again, in a 
 
1847.] THE LEGITIMISTS. 237 
 
 letter addressed about the same time to M. de Champvans 
 as to the line to be followed in editing Le Bien public, he 
 says : " Remember that one cannot break even the statue 
 of a saint without striking a blow at religion. The religion 
 of the Tuileries is the Royal prerogative ; we must perforce 
 come into pretty strong collision with it, but let it be done 
 respectfully." 
 
 It had always been Lamartine's hope that, for the policy 
 of abstention from public life, which, during the years 
 immediately following Charles X.'s abdication, had been 
 the most dignified and probably the wisest line of con- 
 duct for the Legitimists, there might, as time passed on, 
 be gradually substituted one of active support of all 
 such measures as were unquestionably for the public 
 welfare. He was convinced that if to the prestige of a 
 historic past, and of great territorial possessions, were 
 added enlightened patriotism, moderation, energy, and 
 good sense, this party, which alone had a living political 
 faith, firm religious convictions, and a distinct principle 
 to fight for, must, sooner or later, become masters of 
 the situation. Again and again he exerted his eloquence 
 to induce all who came within his influence to pursue 
 this course, and his correspondence shows that there 
 were times when he had hopes of success. And although 
 as early as 1834 he had plainly stated his intention of 
 following an independent path in politics, Lamartine never 
 failed to take pleasure in recording occasions on which 
 he found himself acting in concert with the party which 
 possessed the largest share of his sympathies. In 1837, 
 he thanks the editor of the Moniteur de la Religion 
 for some favourable judgments ; the year following he 
 
240 LAMARTIXE. [1840- 
 
 repudiation of Guizot's saying—" Le Catholicisme, c'cst la 
 plus grande, la plus saintc ecole de respect qu'ait vue le 
 monde." 
 
 This was particularly unfortunate at a time when the 
 strained relations which, at the beginning of Louis Philippe's 
 reign, existed between Church and State were undergoing 
 considerable change. The Queen and the junior members 
 of the Royal family were models of enlightened piety ; the 
 King, if not himself a religious man, was anxious to secure 
 the support of the clergy ; while M. Guizot, although a 
 Protestant, had much more sympathy with their views and 
 aims than most French statesmen, and was now endeavour- 
 ing to pass a Bill which would have increased the influence 
 of the Church over higher education. But half-measures 
 did not satisfy the zeal of the editor of the Univers, nor 
 of the group of pamphleteers he had rallied round his 
 standard ; and a broadside of abuse was poured out, 
 sparing neither friend nor foe. In vain did the Archbishop 
 of Paris, Mgr. AfTre, exhaust admonition and persuasion in 
 the endeavour to keep the zeal of the too ardent neophyte 
 within bounds ; and in a pastoral letter, of which the 
 address was unmistakable, point out its inevitable results. 
 " Bitterness alienates men's minds. How many hitherto 
 peaceful spectators have become irritated, have descended 
 into the arena to defend what they deem rights ruthlessly 
 attacked ! How often has not virulent personality reached 
 the level of serious injustice?" But no rebuke (not even 
 direct Papal censure) ever did more than silence M. Veuillot 
 for the moment. His license of language and virulent 
 personality grew more and more offensive, and among 
 those who, in the words of the Archbishop of Paris, 
 
 , 
 
1847.] LES GIRONDINS. 24 1 
 
 " becoming irritated, descended into the arena," was 
 Lamartine, who, in a pamphlet headed "L'Eglise, l'Etat, 
 l'Enseignment," defended the University system. This 
 brought on him vials of wrath from the Univcrs, whereupon 
 the writers of the Bien Public took up their leader's cause 
 enthusiastically, and a duel of newspaper articles ensued. 
 Happily, Lamartine's temperament was too serene to allow 
 of his dwelling long in the heated atmosphere of con- 
 troversy. It rather amused him to find himself in the 
 course of a week, the same week, denounced by one paper 
 as a Jesuit in disguise, and by another as the enemy of all 
 religion, an atheist, and an infidel ! Nor was he, as is so 
 often the case with men of weaker minds, driven by unjust 
 aspersions into the enemy's camp, for he was among 
 the most eloquent opponents of Thiers' measure for the 
 expulsion of the Jesuits ; and we find in Mgr. Dupanloup's 
 memoirs, recently published, a letter from Lamartine 
 warmly congratulating the Bishop on a pamphlet which 
 he wrote a little later on the much-vexed " University 
 question." Still the incident was probably among the 
 causes which made Lamartine give up trying to turn the 
 Conservative element to any practical account as a hopeless 
 task, and led him to devote himself to literature more 
 seriously than he had done for many years. 
 
 " I am getting on," he writes in August, 1843, "with the 
 first book of ' Les Girondins.' I have never before written 
 anything in this style. Partly from uncertain health, and 
 partly from other causes, I cannot hope to have the volume 
 finished before the end of 1844. We are here for the 
 Conseil g^ne>al du Departement. I was, in concert with 
 M. de Lacretelle, to have delivered a lecture on literature 
 
 R 
 
242 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 at the College of Macon on the day of the distribution of 
 prizes ; but the Recteur of Dijon has just arrived with 
 counter-orders. Macon is thought to have been too 
 loquacious of late, so we are to hold our peace. I am 
 delighted ; the town very discontented. The musicians 
 and the audience wished to absent themselves, but I have 
 persuaded them not to humiliate an institution that has 
 been successful, and of which we all are proud. I shall be 
 present, but shall not speak." 
 
 " St. Point, September, 1843. 
 
 " Your letter charmed me, I have no time for writing, 
 for I work hard for four hours in the morning, and am on 
 horseback all the rest of the day. Champeaux is working 
 hard for the Bien public ; I occasionally suggest a para- 
 graph to him, without accepting any responsibility. I 
 know nothing as to how the affairs of the country are 
 faring, being entirely engrossed by my own, which are not 
 flourishing. To keep one's-self independent costs dear, but 
 it is worth the price. I had rather go to Ste. Pelagie now, 
 than to Turin or Madrid." 
 
 To the Marquis de Lagrange. 
 
 " January, 1844. 
 
 " Thanks for your valuable details as to the anatomy of 
 a corpse. What life could you expect to find in a Chamber 
 capable of taking the grimaces of D. [Dupin ?] seriously ? 
 Away with it, as unworthy our attention. I should like to 
 be at my post, but my post is where the law of necessity 
 keeps me. Happy the men ' who have straw in their 
 boots ' — I have only stones in mine. I pity you for having 
 
1847.] POLITICAL INCIDENTS. 243 
 
 to sit out the debate on the Parliamentary address of 1844. 
 But do not'say this. Say, what after all is the truth, ' He 
 is furious at not being here.' " 
 
 " Paris, February 10th. 
 
 " Great events are happening. The Opposition is 
 going through the process of entire reconstruction. The 
 Republicans have separated from the Extreme Left. 
 MM. Thiers and Odillon-Barrot are reconciled. They are 
 making me splendid offers to be the Mark Antony of 
 their triumvirate. I am staying on account of Macon, 
 which shall have her railroad, though I do not promise it 
 before 1845." 
 
 " Paris, May, 1844. 
 
 " I am not working much in the Chamber this year. I 
 do not care to appear mixed up in the little oppositions 
 which begin again the little intrigues of 1840. I shall be 
 home before the month is out." 
 
 "May 8, 1844. 
 
 " Here is a speech, and a famous one ! as they say at 
 Milly, on the prisons. Never was a greater or a more un- 
 expected effect produced on the Chamber. My wife and 
 Surigny were there. The law was lost, and I resuscitated 
 it by inserting deportation, without which it would have 
 been valueless. You must not judge by the newspaper 
 reports, which are ridiculous. But the Chamber was more 
 impressed than I have ever before seen it — friends and foes 
 alike. I have had no sleep, and am thoroughly done up. 
 The railroad is crushing me ; I doubt our carrying it this 
 year. Nothing new in politics ; they are sleeping less 
 heavily." 
 
244 LA MARTI NE. [1840- 
 
 " Monceau, July 8th. 
 
 "Your letter was most welcome. It explains the in- 
 comprehensible mysteries of the marriage settlement [of 
 the Due de Nemours]. The King and M. Guizot are ill- 
 advised ; it is a deplorable affair. I pity you for having 
 to breathe the air of Paris ; I am inhaling the perfume of 
 our vines. My wife is at St. Point, where I join her to- 
 morrow. I work every morning at my history ; my vines 
 flourish ; I am well and cheerful, and wish you were within 
 ten miles of us. Make up for the distance by your letters ; 
 yours are the only ones that have interest for me now. 
 Take us on your way from Bordeaux. My constituents 
 are full of gratitude for the new railway ; they welcomed 
 me with a hymn of praise. I am now forgetting their 
 existence, listening to the soughing of the wind among the 
 chestnut-trees. A thousand tender and respectful remem- 
 brances to Madame de Lagrange. When this volume of 
 my history is done, I will send her some verses, but ' bread 
 must go first to the oven ! ' " 
 
 To M. Dargaud. 
 
 " Marseilles, August 5th. 
 
 "Your letter went to my heart. It is pleasant to be 
 understood, better still to be loved. We are at Marseilles — 
 my wife, Madame de Cessia, her son and daughter — and 
 to-morrow we start by steamer for Naples ; we go then to 
 Ischia, where we shall have the sea and the choice of 
 fourteen mineral springs. We stay there till the end of 
 September, returning to Monceau in October. I am taking 
 my books, and shall work for forty days at Ischia, then for 
 three months at Monceau. My year is full." 
 
1847.] M. VILLEMAIN. 245 
 
 " Geneva, October 4th. 
 
 " Here we are at the end of our Odyssey of a thousand 
 leagues ; we crossed the Simplon Alps amid thunder, rain, 
 and snow, and are now resting for a few days at the house 
 of an old friend. I have taken up my pen to ask you to 
 Monceau, where a cosy chimney-corner awaits you. Come 
 quickly ; I hear the vintage has been good, and I have 
 written a volume and a half on various topics. Champeaux, 
 who joined us at Rome, is with me." 
 
 About this time, M. Villemain, Minister of Education, 
 retired from office under circumstances peculiarly painful 
 Though a writer and lecturer of great ability, he had not 
 the toughness of fibre necessary to statesmen in those 
 days, and had felt deeply the way in which his Bill for the 
 creation of a new scholastic system, which was to work 
 under the direction of the University, had been received. 
 The difficulty of reconciling the religious feeling of others 
 with his own convictions on the subject of education, 
 together with the violent attacks made on him by the 
 party of which the Univers was the mouthpiece, so preyed 
 upon him that his health gave way, and his reason became 
 impaired. At the time of the foundation of the College of 
 Macon, in 1843, Lamartine, who had reason to think him- 
 self unfairly treated by the Minister of Public Instruction, 
 wrote of him with a very unusual amount of bitterness ; 
 but, on hearing of his misfortune, forgot all former griev- 
 ances. 
 
 "The news of Villemain saddens me beyond expres- 
 sion," he writes to M. de Lagrange. " If an intellect so 
 full, a judgment so upright as his have failed, what are 
 we ? Empty bubbles of renown, on whom God breathes 
 
246 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 and we cease to be. I pray to Him for this poor Villemain, 
 once so kind to me. I pray for you, for myself, for all. 
 As for the chaff of ambition to be harvested in the Salle 
 des Conferences, you are right in despising it, as I do. 
 What does it matter whether the puppet set up for the 
 moment is called Mole, or Guizot, or Thiers, or Lamartine ? 
 Let it be our task to devote ourselves to distinct truths, to 
 the organic ideas of our time, and let the rest pass by." 
 
 To M. de Lagrange. 
 
 " Paris, January 22nd. 
 
 "Thanks to you and to Gizorne, the Bien public has 
 a wonderful reputation ; nowhere else is political sense 
 found. But as for politics, they are, as far as I am con- 
 cerned, dead and buried long ago ; men succeed each other, 
 but nothing is done. I myself am between a lawsuit and 
 ruin. I think it will always be thus. God is good, and 
 sorrow is the portion of His prophets. It seems as if He 
 fights on the side of His enemies ! Do not hurry yourself; 
 there is nothing to be done here save to weep over Jeru- 
 salem. No one is at this moment more popular in the 
 Chamber than I am ; Guizot is abhorred ; but men sell 
 themselves as in the open market. The Opposition is 
 divided into four groups. M. Barrot tried a little while 
 ago to bring about a fusion, which ended in a fresh break- 
 up. Such is the bulletin of the political Waterloo. But 
 at Waterloo blood flowed ; now it is honour which oozes 
 at every pore." 
 
 " Monceau, May 24th, 1845. 
 " I have hardly time for a word. I have on hand 
 (1) a great concert given by Liszt and Felicien David ; 
 
 
 
1847.] LETTERS TO M. DE LAGRANGE. 247 
 
 (2) a procession combining music and patriotism, which is 
 to come out here from Macon ; (3) to-morrow an improvised 
 banquet with speeches— the country is enthusiastic." 
 
 " Monceau, May 26th. 
 "All has passed off well; music, festivities, Liszt, piano, 
 speeches, toast ; a cordial fusion of working-men, aristocrats, 
 juste-milieu, all one in heart and mind. We can only send 
 you the dry bones of the speeches gathered up and put 
 together next day by Gizorne, Lenormant, and me. At 
 Monceau all goes on well. I have my dear nieces close 
 to me. The weather is good ; the vines are growing and 
 thriving." 
 
 To M. de Lagrange. 
 
 " St. Point, August 22nd, 1845. 
 
 " I found your letter here among two hundred others, 
 and hasten to answer it the first. I can see you in the 
 middle of your installations, political and domestic. You 
 are like the oak which throws its roots deep down among 
 the rocks, and thus braves the storm with impunity. But 
 your rock is at once firm and yielding ; you are one of 
 those deputies who are not to be dislodged. Putting 
 friendship aside, where else could they find your equal in 
 name, in talent, in perfect independence, in capacity and 
 sincerity of intention. That kind of grain does not grow 
 under the feet of most electors. As for your domestic 
 installation, I have passed half my life at that business. 
 It has its pains and its pleasures ; it makes you feverish, 
 but it is like the fever of public speaking — give it up, 
 and you return to it unconsciously. I can see from here 
 Madame de Lagrange's genius displaying itself in the 
 
246 LAMARTINE. [1810- 
 
 and we cease to be. I pray to Him for this poor Villemain, 
 once so kind to me. I pray for you, for myself, for all. 
 As for the chaff of ambition to be harvested in the Salle 
 des Conferences, you are right in despising it, as I do. 
 What does it matter whether the puppet set up for the 
 moment is called Mole, or Guizot, or Thiers, or Lamartine ? 
 Let it be our task to devote ourselves to distinct truths, to 
 the organic ideas of our time, and let the rest pass by." 
 
 To M. de Lagrange. 
 
 " Paris, January 22nd. 
 
 "Thanks to you and to Gizorne, the Bien public has 
 a wonderful reputation ; nowhere else is political sense 
 found. But as for politics, they are, as far as I am con- 
 cerned, dead and buried long ago ; men succeed each other, 
 but nothing is done. I myself am between a lawsuit and 
 ruin. I think it will always be thus. God is good, and 
 sorrow is the portion of His prophets. It seems as if He 
 fights on the side of His enemies ! Do not hurry yourself ; 
 there is nothing to be done here save to weep over Jeru- 
 salem. No one is at this moment more popular in the 
 Chamber than I am ; Guizot is abhorred ; but men sell 
 themselves as in the open market. The Opposition is 
 divided into four groups. M. Barrot tried a little while 
 ago to bring about a fusion, which ended in a fresh break- 
 up. Such is the bulletin of the political Waterloo. But 
 at Waterloo blood flowed ; now it is honour which oozes 
 at every pore." 
 
 u Monceau, May 24th, 1845. 
 
 "I have hardly time for a word. I have on hand 
 (1) a great concert given by Liszt and Felicien David ; 
 
1847.] LETTERS TO M. BE LAGRANGE. 247 
 
 (2) a procession combining music and patriotism, which is 
 to come out here from Macon ; (3) to-morrow an improvised 
 banquet with speeches — the country is enthusiastic." 
 
 " Monceau, May 26th. 
 
 " All has passed off well ; music, festivities, Liszt, piano, 
 speeches, toast ; a cordial fusion of working-men, aristocrats, 
 juste-milieu, all one in heart and mind. We can only send 
 you the dry bones of the speeches gathered up and put 
 together next day by Gizorne, Lenormant, and me. At 
 Monceau all goes on well. I have my dear nieces close 
 to me. The weather is good ; the vines are growing and 
 thriving." 
 
 To M. de Lagrange. 
 
 " St. Point, August 22nd, 1S45. 
 " I found your letter here among two hundred others, 
 and hasten to answer it the first. I can see you in the 
 middle of your installations, political and domestic. You 
 are like the oak which throws its roots deep down among 
 the rocks, and thus braves the storm with impunity. But 
 your rock is at once firm and yielding ; you are one of 
 those deputies who are not to be dislodged. Putting 
 friendship aside, where else could they find your equal in 
 name, in talent, in perfect independence, in capacity and 
 sincerity of intention. That kind of grain does not grow 
 under the feet of most electors. As for your domestic 
 installation, I have passed half my life at that business. 
 It has its pains and its pleasures ; it makes you feverish, 
 but it is like the fever of public speaking — give it up, 
 and you return to it unconsciously. I can see from here 
 Madame de Lagrange's genius displaying itself in the 
 
248 LAMARTINE. [1810- 
 
 drapery of a curtain, and yours in the laying out of a 
 garden. Do it thoroughly and completely while you are 
 about it, is my advice ! 
 
 "We have just come from the waters of Neris, which 
 have done us neither good nor harm. I have sold ' Les 
 Girondins ' for 250,000 francs, but for ten years only. I 
 hope then to make as much more if — if — a great many 
 more * ifs.' I shall have twenty more volumes of writings, 
 old and new, to sell in the next three years. 
 
 "As to quality, the vintage is bad, but we have quantity. 
 Yesterday evening, two stout brokers from the neighbour- 
 hood came up unexpectedly and bought the whole vintage 
 of Milly and Monceau from me on foot. Have I done well 
 or ill ? I don't know, but I stumbled on the opportunity, 
 and seized it at once. 
 
 " No one admires your friend, M. Thiers, more than I 
 do. To persevere in opposing him, I have to struggle 
 against a strong natural inclination, but instinct must be 
 overcome by logic. M. Thiers may be an excellent minister ; 
 he can neither be a leader nor even a member of the 
 Opposition after his fifteen years of triumphing over Liberal 
 principles. I am sorry to say you will see this opinion of 
 mine in print ; it has just been sent to a Macon paper, 
 whence it will probably be copied into the Parisian ones. 
 When Thiers and I have a common creed, I will profess it 
 with a joy as sincere as yours, but the Laws of September, 
 the Eastern Question, and the Fortifications have put 
 between me and him a political gulf no feeling of personal 
 liking is sufficient to bridge over. I am at present absorbed 
 in the study of the Revolution, and give but a side-glance 
 from time to time at the politics of the day. But I am 
 
1847.] RE-ELECTED FOR MACON. 249 
 
 reading M. Thiers' fifth volume with serious admiration. 
 If you see him, tell him this. He is mistaken if he counts 
 me among his enemies ; I am only his adversary, and that 
 with regret." 
 
 Lamartine did not take much part in the debates of 
 the session of 1846. He had put his name down to speak 
 against the annexation of Texas by the United States, 
 foreseeing that it would lead to the extension of slavery, 
 but gave way to M. Guizot, who spoke on the same side. 
 On the 5th of July, he made a long speech in the sense of 
 not allowing French influence in Syria to be overshadowed 
 by that of Russia or of England, especially with the view 
 of supporting the Emir Beschir, whose hospitality he had 
 enjoyed in Syria. 
 
 To M. RONOT. 
 
 " Paris, April, 1846. 
 
 " Thanks, but the questions as to England and the 
 Navy have been passed over. Now, nothing is talked of 
 but the salt-tax, which, at the sound of my voice, crumbled 
 away like the walls of Jericho. There has been nothing 
 like it since August 6th, '90 (la nuit des sacrifices), the 
 Chamber giving up forty-eight millions of taxes under the 
 influence of a single voice. Paris is extraordinarily kind 
 to me this year ; I hardly know how to respond to the 
 enthusiasm which everywhere greets me. It is, alas, little 
 merited, but genuine. As for Macon, I hear I am being 
 undermined on all sides. The saying as to the prophets 
 will stand good for eternity." 
 
 " St. Point, August, 1845. 
 
 " I have been returned for Macon with a calm, deliberate, 
 and kindly unanimity, which is a miracle of wisdom on the 
 
250 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 part of the Progressive-Conservative party, which looked 
 on me as a deserter in 1842. I, who care little for politics, 
 am touched to the heart. I am here alone with my family, 
 no longer troubled with rheumatism, and all day on horse- 
 back. Three-fourths of the Milly vintage was destroyed 
 by hail, but I shall still have twelve thousand pieces de vin 
 for sale, I hope at seventy francs the piece." 
 
 To Madame Emile de Girardin. 
 
 "August, 1846. 
 
 " Banned be the carriage that played you false, and 
 blessed the post-chaise that will bring you. You will find us 
 alone, sad, but happy in having you under the humble 
 rafters of St. Point. Write, that I may know when we 
 are to meet you at Macon. But do not come unless you 
 are prepared to vegetate all day and to go to roost with 
 the chickens, and do not forget to bring ' Cleopatre.' 
 Mille tendres respects" 
 
 Madame de Girardin arrived in due course. Among 
 the other guests were the Esgrignys, Lafon the actor and 
 his pretty young daughter, Paul Delaroche, le docteur 
 Pascal, M. Ronot, and Madame de Pierreclos, " still in 
 deep mourning, but at times letting fall reparties which 
 almost eclipsed Madame de Girardin," who herself was 
 never more brilliant. 
 
 A few weeks later, Lamartine wrote to her : " Since 
 you left I have not had a moment to myself — between the 
 Conseil-general, the Academie de Macon, estate business, 
 accounts, and festivities ; so I came here yesterday from 
 Monceau, and am just beginning to draw breath. First, 
 I must thank you for your charming letter to my wife, and 
 
1847.] MADAME DE GIRARDIN. 25 1 
 
 for the enchanting bonhomie which made you as rustic as 
 any of us at St. Point. There is a Latin line which says 
 admirably, ' Omnis Aristipp decuit color ; ' in French, 
 1 Tous les habits seyaient a Aristippe.' And in like manner 
 everything you do suits your nature, at once strong and 
 supple ; you wear with equal grace the buskin and the sabot. 
 
 " I am sending you one of two of my articles ; one of 
 yesterday on wheat {sur la crise des subsistances), another 
 of this morning, terribly severe on the Spanish marriages, 
 but still courteous. The King's name is not mentioned. 
 He does wrong in hating me ; no one else, while attacking 
 his policy, speaks as well of him personally. 
 
 " My vintage is over, and it is scanty. We must live, 
 and to live must write. Adieu. Love us, for here you are 
 loved truly and sincerely." 
 
 To M. Dubois. 
 
 '* Monceau, December, 1846. 
 44 Thanks for your good news. As for politics, you 
 know my opinions. The day on which the King put his 
 signature to the Spanish marriage treaty, he signed the 
 eventual abdication of his dynasty. I could prove this to 
 you on ten different grounds, but have only time to assert 
 it. Adieu et attachment. I finish * Les Girondins ' this 
 week, and go to Paris January 15th. There is nothing to 
 be done save to wait. The King is a madman ; M. Guizot, 
 a bladder inflated with vanity ; M. Thiers, a teetotum ; the 
 Opposition, a woman who has lost her reputation ; the 
 nation, Geronte.* But for many the farce will have a 
 tragic ending." 
 
 * The allusion is to a character in Destouche's comedy, "Le Philosophe 
 marie. " 
 
252 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 The correspondence of 1847 opens with a letter to a 
 village labourer, who, having accidentally become pos- 
 sessed of the first volume of " Jocelyn," read it aloud to his 
 family. Being too poor to purchase the second volume, he 
 wrote to Lamartine, asking him for a copy. 
 
 " February, 1847. 
 
 " Monsieur, 
 
 "Your letter has touched me deeply. Never 
 did any token of esteem for my poor work give me greater 
 pleasure. To give comfort and intellectual food to a poor, 
 isolated, and virtuous family ; to be thus intimately linked 
 with aspirations which arise from the village hearth to God ; 
 to have a name among the memories and in the thanks- 
 givings of an honest man to whom one is personally 
 unknown, and by whom one is yet loved, this, to my mind, 
 is true glory, and I owe it to you. 
 
 " I hasten to thank you, thinking that a letter written 
 by my own hand will give you more pleasure than one 
 dictated to a secretary, and I send you the second volume 
 of 'Jocelyn,' to which I add my 'Voyage en Orient,' a 
 work in prose, which may interest you in the winter 
 evenings. 
 
 " Continue to refresh yourself after your manual labours 
 by reading, and do not be unhappy because you are only 
 a village labourer. Labour is the universal law. Ours is 
 perhaps quite as hard as yours. The mind must sweat 
 as well as the brow. God blesses both equally, and will in 
 good time pay us our wages, without considering whether 
 we wrote poems or ploughed furrows. I wish you a long 
 life, virtuous children, and your daily bread. 
 
 " Lamartine." 
 
1847.] "LES GIRONDJNS." 253 
 
 In the March following, Lamartine's most important 
 historical work, " Les Girondins," of which portions, appear- 
 ing at intervals, had aroused general expectation, was 
 published in four volumes. Three years previously, partly 
 to sustain his literary reputation, partly to increase his 
 intellectual capital as a politician and as an orator by 
 thorough study of an important period in French history, 
 Lamartine had agreed with a publisher to write within a 
 given period a history of the Revolution ; but when he 
 found how enormous was the amount of material to be 
 studied, compared, sifted, he limited himself to a single 
 episode — the history of the party of the Gironde, — and 
 applied himself with the utmost ardour to the thorough 
 fulfilment of his task. Besides much patient and con- 
 scientious labour among archives, papers, files, letters, he 
 made himself familiar with the localities in which the scenes 
 of the great drama had been enacted: the house of Madame 
 Roland at Villefranche ; that of Charlotte Corday's aunt 
 at Rouen ; the fetid dens where Marat lay in ambush ; 
 Robespierre's neat appartement in the Rue St. Honored — 
 and, despite the lapse of half a century, unearthed living 
 witnesses of the events he wanted to describe, adding many 
 strange figures to the circle of his acquaintances, as, for 
 example, Danton's widow and an intimate friend of 
 Fouquier Tinville, who, when questioned as to the personal 
 characteristics of the "purveyor of the guillotine," replied 
 with enthusiasm, "He was a charming fellow ; always in 
 good spirits." 
 
 After these preliminary studies, Lamartine's pen sped 
 swiftly over the paper. From the first the work delighted 
 him, and thoroughly suited his personal predilections ; for, 
 
254 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 notwithstanding many errors and some crimes, the Giron- 
 dins represent, not unworthily, the ideal and intellectual 
 side of the Revolution. To illustrate it he concentrated 
 all his powers, and succeeded so perfectly as to have 
 created single-handed the " Legend of the Gironde." The 
 story, which opens at the deathbed of Mirabeau, and closes 
 at the scaffold of Robespierre, is told with great force 
 and effect, justifying the warm, but not very gratifying, 
 encomium of the elder Dumas : " You have raised history 
 to the level of romance ! " Lamartine possessed what 
 many would consider the first qualification of an historian 
 — the gift of telling a story with such animation and vivid- 
 ness that the events narrated seem to be passing before the 
 reader's eyes, and that in an admirable, flowing style, with 
 a due sense of proportion. In his judgments he was 
 generous, and certainly strove to be impartial. Republican 
 though he was, he never strives to minimize the crimes of 
 the democrats. His descriptions of the September massacres 
 and of the fiendish cruelties practised upon the unfor- 
 tunate Royal family have not been surpassed in force. 
 He was bitterly reproached at the time for taking too 
 favourable a view of Robespierre's character, and with 
 passing over too lightly the sufferings and the heroism of 
 Marie Antoinette. Of this last accusation the following 
 passage, to which might be added many others too long 
 for quotation, may be considered a sufficient refutation. 
 
 " Marie Antoinette, whom her enemies describe on that 
 fatal night as a crowned fury, delirious in her excitement, 
 hysterical in her fear, showed no such weakness. She 
 behaved with simple, unaffected dignity, always and under 
 all circumstances what her sex, her rank, her position as 
 
1847.] "Z£S GIRONDINS." 255 
 
 mother, as wife, as Queen required of her. She feared, she 
 hoped, she desponded, she hoped again ; but there was no 
 exultation in her hopes, no undignified tremor in her fears ; 
 her heart and her nerve alike bore unshrinkingly the severest 
 blows fate could inflict. When she wept, her tears flowed 
 from love, not from weakness ; when she shuddered, it was 
 not at her own fate, but at that of her children. But her 
 tears and her tremor were alike shrouded from her enemies ; 
 the respect shown to herself, to her Royal station, to her 
 mother's memory, was a veil, hiding from those who sat 
 and watched her every trace of emotion." 
 
 Perhaps Lamartine's most conspicuous fault is that 
 he is inclined to give too much importance to the group 
 from which his history takes its title. However, the 
 Girondins were, it cannot be denied, a party distinguished 
 by great talents, great courage, by the high personal 
 characters of the leaders. The austere probity of Roland, 
 the eloquence of Gensonne, of Guadet, — above all, that of 
 Vergniaud, enabled them to sway for a time the National 
 Assembly. And the gist of Lamartine's narrative is to 
 show that, had but their influence continued to prevail, the 
 purest, the most virtuous of Republics would have been 
 established ; but that the King's flight to Varennes, and 
 the insurrection of the ioth of August, ruined everything. 
 The Girondins had henceforth before them the scaffold of 
 Louis XVI., Danton and Robespierre pressing on them 
 from behind. Condemned to failure, they illuminated an 
 inevitable defeat by an heroic struggle. Driven from the 
 clubs by the invasion of the Montagne, from the muni- 
 cipalities by the defeat of Roland and his colleagues, from 
 the army by the treachery of Dumouriez, there remained 
 
256 LAMART1KE. [1840- 
 
 to them only the Convention ; and here they intrenched 
 themselves, fought courageously, and finally succumbed. 
 When, on the 31st of October, Vergniaud and his friends, 
 twenty-two in all, mounted the scaffold, chanting the 
 " Marseillaise," all that was spiritual and heroic in the 
 Revolution perished with them. It henceforth became a 
 struggle between brutal force and feline cunning. 
 
 In consequence, perhaps, of the political action of " Les 
 Girondins," and of the poetry of its style, at once senti- 
 mental and picturesque, the fashion has been to allude to 
 the work as if it were a romance rather than a history, and 
 to overlook its more serious and abiding merits. Yet 
 Buckle, who assuredly was a good judge and one not likely 
 to be biased in the author's favour, considered " Les 
 Girondins " the best history of the French Revolution 
 extant in his day, and quoted it frequently. He selects 
 specially for approval " Lamartine's striking and beautiful 
 sketch of Madame Roland ; the thrilling account of the 
 September massacres ; that of the three days' interval 
 between the 31st of May and the 3rd of June, which was 
 the 10th of August of the Gironde." However, the minute 
 and persistent labours of two generations, harvested by 
 such writers as Sybel, Taine, and Hildebrandt, having at 
 their disposal documents inaccessible at an earlier date, 
 have diminished the value of "Les Girondins" from the 
 historical standpoint ; but the work has still value, as 
 showing in what light the Revolution appeared to men of 
 Lamartine's day, — to those who saw it, not as did the 
 generation which had gone through its terrible experience ; 
 not as we, to whom the inexorable logic of statistics has 
 unveiled what the Government of the Convention really 
 
 
1847.] BANQUET AT MACON. 2$7 
 
 was, see it now — its cruelty, its exactions, above all, its 
 incredible meanness, and the miseries it entailed on the 
 classes it professed to benefit ; but viewed through the 
 glamour of childish recollections, mingled with the con- 
 fused rhapsodies of surviving actors, whose interest lay in 
 depicting it as a great and beneficial event. 
 
 Financially, the success of " Les Girondins " has hardly 
 a parallel in French literature. Lamartine, being pressed 
 for money, sold the copyright for ten years to a com- 
 pany for £ 1 0,000 paid in advance. Within a week they 
 wrote him word that no work ever had such a sale. 
 Booksellers who had ordered ten copies, now sent for five 
 hundred, so that all their men, working night and day, 
 could not suffice to supply the demand. Within two 
 months the sale had exceeded £20,000, and so continued. 
 It would seem that the publishers then gave Lamartine 
 some additional share in the profits, for M. de Lacretelle 
 speaks of his having received £16,000 for the work. 
 
 From all sides congratulations poured in. The in- 
 habitants of Macon, fired by the general enthusiasm, became 
 eager to do honour to its most illustrious citizen, and asked 
 Lamartine's permission to erect his statue. On his refusal, 
 based on the ground that such an honour should be paid to 
 no man during his lifetime, " La mort seule consacre," a 
 second communication was forwarded, inviting him to a 
 public banquet, which he accepted, with the condition that 
 there was to be no advertising, no touting for subscriptions, 
 no exclusion of persons of any shade of public opinion ; 
 that it should be a simple expression of kindly feeling on 
 the part of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 From the moment it was announced the banquet far 
 
 s 
 
258 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 outgrew the original programme. Twenty neighbouring 
 departments asked to be represented by delegates ; the 
 number of guests was with difficulty limited to two thou- 
 sand, exclusive of a numerous audience of ladies. A large 
 open space on the right, bank of the Saone was selected. 
 There, on the 15th of July, were spread fifty tables, pro- 
 tected from the weather by tents and awnings, and 
 surrounded by galleries, crowded with spectators, " forming, 
 under a canvas dome measuring half an acre, a living, 
 breathing Coliseum, the like of which was never seen in 
 Greece or Rome." Besides its other attractions, this 
 banquet to Lamartine is said to have been one of the last 
 exhibitions of costumes of " Le Maconnais " and " La 
 Bresse." " For it the wives of rich farmers took out of 
 their presses of aromatic walnut wood, blacker than ebony, 
 silk gowns and lace head-gears, dating from the time of 
 Marguerite de Savoie; enamels of Bourg, gold crosses, 
 and necklets were everywhere glittering in the sun. The 
 ptie-mele was at once confused and majestic. Journalists 
 from Paris and from all points of the compass, priests in 
 their soutanes, artisans in their Sunday suits, stray soldiers, 
 English tourists, leaving their beaten tracks, were all fused 
 as in a moving, shifting kaleidoscope ; a crowd tumultuous 
 with eager expectation, yet restraining its own clamour, 
 mingling deep reverence with almost delirious excitement."* 
 When the bell of the old Church of St. Etienne had 
 rung out four o'clock, Lamartine appeared, escorted by the 
 municipality, and received an enthusiastic welcome. The 
 guests then sat down to the material portion of the banquet, 
 which was admirably organized, the only untoward incident 
 
 * Henri de Lacretelle, " Lamartine et ses Amis." 
 
1847.] LETTER TO M. CHAMBORRE. 2$g 
 
 being the serving at the principal table of a calf roasted 
 whole. " It was Homeric, but, save in the Iliad, is not 
 imposing." Meanwhile, as the feast was going on, the 
 dazzling July sunshine became obscured by a canopy of 
 thunder-clouds. Hardly had the Mayor of Macon, M. 
 Rolland, proposed Lamartine's health amid frantic applause, 
 when a terrific storm of thunder and lightning burst forth, 
 affording to the superstitious a presage of the impending 
 Revolution. But such was the suspension des esprits that, in 
 the immense assembly, not a chair moved ; all were intent 
 on catching the first accents of Lamartine's reply. 
 
 " You are, indeed," were his opening words, " the sons 
 of those Gauls who said, were the firmament to fall, they 
 would uphold it with their lances ! " And for more than two 
 hours, amid rolling peals of thunder and fiery forks of 
 ightning, he continued to deliver an impassioned harangue, 
 winding up, perhaps without being fully conscious of the 
 effect of his words, with an apotheosis of Republicanism, 
 and was finally escorted back to his hotel by a chorus of 
 two hundred voices singing the M Marseillaise." 
 
 A few days later, he writes to M. Chamborre, one of 
 his colleagues at the Academie franchise, who had, ap- 
 parently, been somewhat scandalized by the newspaper 
 report of the Macon banquet : — 
 
 " Monsieur et cher Confrere, 
 
 " I have read with pleasure the well-reasoned, 
 well-expressed letter you have done me the honour of 
 addressing to me. 
 
 " I am far from desiring a Revolution. In France 
 a Revolution has only one lever — war. Do me the justice 
 
260 LAMARTINE. [1840- 
 
 to remember that, alike in the ranks and out of the ranks, 
 I have always striven to break this weapon in the hands of 
 those who wield it. If I had wished for a Revolution in 
 1839 or in 1840, I needed but to join the coalition. Who 
 sang the 'Marseillaise,' from the balcony of Neuilly in 
 1830? Was it not the King? Who faced unpopularity to 
 snatch a declaration of war out of the weak hands of M. 
 Thiers ? Was it not I ? Remember this. I admit with 
 you that material progress is more secure in France with 
 the Conservatives than with the Liberals. But there is an 
 immense moral progress which it is necessary, obligatory 
 to achieve, and of this progress the Throne and the Con- 
 servatives of to-day have alike shown themselves incapable. 
 It is for this reason I think a more energetic impulse in 
 the forces of Government is desirable, and that I resolutely 
 run the risk, not of Revolution, but of Reform, in the 
 organic working of opinion. When we are together at 
 Charnay or at St. Point, I will tell you in what consists the 
 moral and political progress for which a country like 
 France must be ready when the prophetic hour strikes, to 
 hasten the advent of which I think it my duty to fan with 
 my weak breath the sacred fire of '89, of which the last 
 lingering embers will speedily die out unless a few like- 
 minded with me are found to cherish them. Do not fear 
 any excess of energy in France — it is not there the danger 
 now lies. Fear rather for her too heavy a sleep. And do 
 not be anxious if a few men of good will venture to utter 
 the words, ' Sursum corda.' 
 
 " With sincere attachment, 
 
 " LAMARTINE." 
 
1847.] INCREASING DISCONTENT. 26 1 
 
 The autumn of 1847 was felt by many to be an anxious 
 and critical time. " A strange disquietude," writes M. de 
 Tocqueville to a friend in England, " is coming over men's 
 minds ; not a ripple on the surface, yet many persons have 
 a secret conviction that the existing order will suddenly 
 and quickly collapse." New men, new interests, and new 
 forces were surging on all sides ; people felt that the 
 political hairsplitting, the changes of Ministries which had 
 sufficed to occupy public attention for the last six years, 
 were but a perpetual reshuffling of the same cards, in which 
 the vital interests of the country had been overlooked, and 
 that a fresh infusion of national life, and, above all, some 
 barrier against the overweening influence of the middle 
 class, now no longer balanced by a territorial aristocracy, 
 was imperatively needed. Every year the inadequacy of 
 the Parliament to represent the country was becoming 
 more evident, and now the Opposition, though not 
 numerically stronger than before, were more closely united. 
 A general meeting of the Liberals took place, at which 
 MM. Thiers and Odillon-Barrot, the leaders of the Dynastic 
 Opposition, agreed to join the Republicans on the under- 
 standing that legal measures alone were to be adopted 
 until the reforms demanded were achieved ; after that, each 
 party was free to pursue its own course. 
 
 The next step was to organize, under the direction of 
 the Committees constituted in 1845 to direct the elections, 
 a series of public banquets in all the principal towns — a 
 species of agitation which, not having been foreseen, was 
 less hampered by legal restrictions than any other. The 
 first banquet was held at Chateauroux, near Paris, under 
 the presidency of M. de Lasteyrie — Odillon-Barrot and 
 
262 LAMARTINE. [1840-1847. 
 
 Duvergier d'Hauranne making very violent speeches ; and 
 was followed by seventy others in different parts of the 
 country. The excitement and enthusiasm steadily in- 
 creased, those who at first stood aloof getting gradually 
 drawn into the vortex, especially as the general impression 
 was that the Government would not now allow the agitation 
 to go on unchecked, unless they intend ultimately to yield. 
 Lamartine, however, with what Herr Hildebrandt calls 
 "his wonderful, bard-like gift of second sight," judged 
 from the first that the movement would soon get beyond 
 the control of those who inaugurated it, and, always dis- 
 liking coalitions, refused to join this. 
 
 He and his wife spent the autumn in a villa on the 
 Mediterranean, where they were joined by his sisters and 
 their children. The welcome relief from pecuniary anxieties 
 which the success of his book procured, braced and 
 brightened his spirits, and he was able thoroughly to enjoy 
 the wave of popularity which came rippling to his feet. 
 
 The political horizon was clouded ; but never had 
 Lamartine's own position been more assured or fuller of 
 promise. 
 
( 263 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 February, 1848. 
 
 When the Chambers opened in December, 1847, many 
 and various were the rumours circulating in the salle des 
 pas perdus, the place where gossips congregate, and where 
 the Parisian deputies first make the acquaintance of their 
 provincial colleagues. Some said there would be a speedy 
 break-up of the Ministry, others prophesied an immediate 
 coup detat. The King's speech increased the excitement. 
 Louis Philippe, at all times too much inclined to parade 
 his personal feelings, after alluding at unnecessary length 
 to his own advanced age and accumulated experience, went 
 on to speak of " an agitation fomented by blind and hostile 
 passions," and wound up by attributing disloyal, if not 
 traitorous designs to those who had been present at the 
 political demonstrations of the last months. 
 
 This was accepted, both by them and by their opponents, 
 as a direct attack on the Left. It was felt to be dangerous 
 as well as undignified for the King to have thus stigmatized 
 publicl)'' proceedings which were avowedly not illegal, and 
 in the debate on the speech even the staunchest supporters 
 of the Government criticized severely the concluding para- 
 graph. Still, such was the strength of the Governmental 
 
264 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 majority, that an address which contained an echo of the 
 obnoxious passage was carried, after three weeks of angry- 
 discussion, during which Thiers, Lamartine, and Odillon- 
 Barrot all spoke with great force and effect, while it was 
 remarked of Guizot that the wonderful oratorical power by 
 which he had often triumphed over far greater trials now 
 seemed to have deserted him — he never made an effective 
 rally. And matters were made worse by a violent and 
 indiscreet speech of the Minister of Justice, M. Hebert, 
 who vehemently denied that the Constitution gave French- 
 men the right of free discussion ; whereupon M. Odillon- 
 Barrot shouted out, " Never would M. de Peyronnet have 
 used such language ! " justifying his words by his own 
 experience in the spring of 1830. 
 
 The position of the Liberal party was now a very 
 difficult one. After the manner in which the right to 
 convene public meetings, and the right to freedom of 
 discussion, had been alluded to, it was impossible they 
 should remain passive ; yet they felt that if agitation were 
 kept up too long, it might degenerate into a riot. After 
 much consideration, the course resolved on was to persevere 
 in the banquets ; should their meetings be prevented by 
 any display of force, not to resist, but to carry the question 
 at once before the legal tribunals. Accordingly, a banquet, 
 got up by the twelfth arrondissement of the city of Paris, 
 was announced for Tuesday, the 22nd of February, and, to 
 keep order, the National Guard were invited to line the 
 streets in uniform, but unarmed. 
 
 This calling out of the National Guard was, not un- 
 naturally, resented by the Government, which resolved to 
 forbid the banquet, but delayed to make its intention 
 
1848.] THE STORM GATHERS. 26$ 
 
 known until a sufficient number of troops were collected in 
 Paris to quench any outbreak which might occur. It was 
 not, therefore, till late on Monday night that the decision 
 was announced in the Chambers. The Opposition agreed, 
 after some discussion, not to hold the banquet, but to 
 impeach the Ministry. 
 
 On the morning of Tuesday, the walls of Paris were 
 placarded with copies of General Jacqueminot's order of 
 the day, desiring the National Guard not to take part in 
 the demonstration, and with a proclamation, signed by the 
 prefect of police, formally forbidding the banquet. This 
 excited much indignation, and the manifesto of the Oppo- 
 sition, posted underneath, declaring that, as the Government 
 had determined to suppress their meeting by force, they 
 would not expose the people to the consequences, had not 
 a soothing effect. Angry groups gathered, denouncing 
 them as traitors, and threatened to attack the Hotel des 
 Affaires Etrangeres, occupied by M. Guizot. They were, 
 however, easily dispersed by the military on duty, and the 
 city remained, on the whole, tolerably tranquil. 
 
 Still, those who remembered the Revolution of July, 
 1830, said it was very like the first day of that period. 
 And by the afternoon of Wednesday things wore a 
 threatening aspect. Barricades had sprung up in the 
 district between the Rue St. Martin and the Seine — always 
 the hot-bed of sedition. The troops were indeed fully 
 competent to settle matters ; but it was doubtful whether 
 they would act against the civic soldiers, should these take 
 the side of the populace, and much anxiety to avoid a collision 
 was shown. At twelve o'clock, the National Guard sent 
 a deputation of their officers to the Tuileries to say that 
 
266 LAMART1NE. [1848. 
 
 they would not help in putting down a popular demonstra- 
 tion against a Minister whom they detested, coupling the 
 message with a demand for a change of Ministry. It was 
 thought at first this would not be granted, but at five 
 o'clock M. Guizot informed the Chambers that he only 
 held orifice till Count Mold should have constructed a 
 Cabinet. 
 
 This concession acted like oil on troubled waters : the 
 funds rose at once ; many of the barricades were destroyed 
 by the people themselves, and a considerable portion of 
 Paris was spontaneously illuminated. But if the people 
 were satisfied, the revolutionary leaders were not, and at 
 the moment when tranquillity seemed to be restored, one 
 of the inexplicable incidents which seem like the touch of 
 destiny completely changed the face of affairs. 
 
 A group of about a hundred and fifty men, mostly 
 armed, followed by a band of idlers, went about insisting 
 that every house should illuminate. Having carried their 
 point at the Ministry of Justice, they went on to the Hotel 
 des Affaires Etrangeres, which M. Guizot had just vacated, 
 and where, to preserve order, a troop of horse was stationed. 
 Hardly had the mob reached the spot, when a shot, sup- 
 posed to have been fired by a reprieved convict, named 
 Lagrange, broke the leg of the horse of the officer com- 
 manding the troop, and brought the rider heavily to the 
 ground. The soldiers, thinking they were attacked, levelled 
 their muskets without waiting for orders, and a storm of 
 bullets swept the Boulevard. 
 
 The crowd at once dispersed into the different quarters 
 of Paris, shouting, " Treachery ! " " Vengeance ! " The 
 corpses, placed on waggons, were paraded through the 
 
1MB.] THE STORM GATHERS. 267 
 
 city ; and the populace, made to think they had been 
 wantonly attacked, became violently excited, and from 
 that moment determined to overthrow the monarchy. The 
 barricades just demolished were reconstructed at once ; the 
 trees of the Boulevards were cut down, and, together with 
 cabs, omnibuses, and every object on which the mob could 
 lay hands, converted into new ones. Orators moved from 
 group to group, exciting the people to begin a fresh con- 
 flict Parties were sent round to the houses of the National 
 Guards, insisting that all arms should be given up — collect- 
 ing in this manner a large provision from the terrified 
 inmates. 
 
 Meanwhile, at the Tuileries no such energy was shown. 
 Hour after hour was wasted in divided and contradictory 
 councils. Late in the evening Count Mole came to 
 announce that he had failed in forming a Cabinet, and 
 advised the King to send for M. Thiers, who agreed to 
 undertake the task, provided he were allowed to have 
 M. Odillon-Barrot 
 
 The next question was the disposal of the forces. 
 Guizot's last act, the appointment of Marshal Bugeaud 
 as commander-in-chief, had been a wise one. He was not 
 popular, but was known to be courageous and prompt in 
 action, and the troops were cheered by seeing him at their 
 head. He at once made excellent military dispositions, 
 and gave orders to prepare for an attack on the barricades. 
 At two in the morning he received his final instructions 
 from the King in person, and went out to the military 
 head-quarters in the city. Here he found everything in 
 confusion : very few officers in attendance, and no one 
 knowing who was to command, and who to obey. Never 
 
268 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 was seen more clearly what vigour and capacity, even in 
 the most terrible crisis, can achieve. As if by enchant- 
 ment, everything was changed, order succeeded to chaos, 
 consecutive movement to vacillating direction. By early 
 dawn, four columns were in motion, rapidly advancing to 
 the points assigned to them. At seven, the Hotel de Ville, 
 the Pantheon, and the whole centre of the city were strongly 
 occupied, without the troops left at the Tuileries and the 
 Hotel de Ville being weakened. Twenty-five thousand 
 men had done the whole, and done it by the mere force of 
 advance, without firing a shot ; barricades were being 
 surmounted and levelled, the important posts occupied. 
 From a military point of view, Paris was secure and the 
 victory gained, when Marshal Bugeaud received an order, 
 signed by Thiers and Odillon-Barrot, to cease action and 
 withdraw the troops. 
 
 The reason of this extraordinary and calamitous change 
 was the overweening vanity of M. Thiers, who seems really 
 to have believed that the mere announcement of his advent 
 to the Ministry would of itself restore order without any 
 military intervention. Unfortunately, the King, always 
 averse to bloodshed, was only too ready to adopt a policy 
 of conciliation, and trust to the National Guard for the 
 defence of his throne and person. A proclamation to this 
 effect greeted the citizens when they rose on Thursday 
 morning, and was read by the quiet and law-abiding with 
 dismay, not lessened by the undisguised triumph of the 
 Revolutionists. So bitter was the indignation of the 
 troops when marched through the barricades they had just 
 carried by assault, that the rank and file threw away their 
 muskets, and many of the officers broke their swords. The 
 
1848.] DISASTROUS CHANGE OF POLICY. 269 
 
 insurgents, though as yet few in number, became excited 
 and encouraged, pressing on as the soldiers retired. The 
 vacillating crowd, believing theirs the winning side, rapidly 
 swelled the ranks, while the brave and loyal despaired of 
 a cause its leaders had abandoned ; and, as might have 
 been anticipated, by ten o'clock the mob was in possession 
 of the whole of that portion of Paris which lies behind the 
 Palais Royal and the Tuileries. 
 
 The Royal family, in perfect ignorance of the situation, 
 were seated at breakfast, when MM. de Remusat and 
 Duvergier Hauranne came in, and called the Due de 
 Montpensier aside. The King asked what had happened, 
 and on being told that the populace and the few remain- 
 ing dragoons were in conflict behind the palace, put on his 
 uniform and went, accompanied by his two sons, to review 
 the National Guard and the handful of troops stationed in 
 the Place de la Concorde. His reception by the surround- 
 ing crowd was not encouraging ; the feeble cries of " Vive 
 le Roi ! " were drowned in far louder ones of " Vive la 
 Reforme ! " "A bas les Ministres ! " He returned to the 
 palace much dispirited, and there met M. Thiers, who, 
 having found, to his surprise, that his name had not 
 sufficed to restore tranquillity, had come to advise the 
 King to entrust everthing to M. Odillon-Barrot alone. As 
 he was speaking, a sharp volley of musketry announced 
 that an attack on the Chateau d'Eau was being made by 
 the insurgents, which proved successful, notwithstanding 
 the gallantry of the troops, who, it is said, perished to a 
 man. 
 
 The people were now marching rapidly on the Tuileries, 
 and among their ranks were to be seen several uniforms 
 
270 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 of the National Guard ! It was ascertained, later, that these 
 were for the most part insurgents who had assumed the 
 uniform, partly in order to save themselves from being 
 fired on, partly to serve as decoy ducks to such as might 
 be wavering in their allegiance, and that the majority of 
 the Guard were sincerely attached to the King, and would 
 gladly have fought in his defence, had they been properly 
 led. But the effect which their apparent defection pro- 
 duced on Louis Philippe was deplorable ; he had counted 
 blindly on the support of the bourgeoisie, to whom he owed 
 his crown, and now, believing they had turned against him, 
 he was ready to abdicate rather than provoke a sanguinary 
 and doubtful contest. In vain the Queen, once so reluc- 
 tant to accept the crown, now urged him to a more spirited 
 course, saying, " Sire, n'abdiquez pas ! Mettez vous a la 
 tete de vos troupes, et je prierais Dieu pour vous." Louis 
 Philippe, broken by sorrow, age, and infirmity, unsupported, 
 as a legitimate sovereign would have been, by the con- 
 sciousness of a just cause, signed the act of abdication 
 which terminated his reign. 
 
 Lamartine, wishing to have no hand either in destroy- 
 ing or in sustaining the existing order, had kept aloof from 
 the political movement of the last three days, so that his 
 precise view as to the Government most desirable for 
 France was an enigma, the solution of which, from his 
 position and influence, was of great importance. The 
 Radicals had frequently made him offers of leadership, 
 which he invariably rejected. At last, on the morning of 
 the 25th of February, when the King's abdication was felt 
 to be imminent, a group of deputies of the Left invited 
 
1848.] ABDICATION OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 2J\ 
 
 him, as he was on his way to the Chamber, to a conference 
 they were holding in one of the private rooms of the Palais 
 Bourbon, and asked him definitely to explain his views. 
 Thus pressed, he answered unreservedly, that, at the 
 present crisis, a Regency without the support either of a 
 legitimacy or of popularity would have no stability. " A 
 Republic alone can save France from anarchy, civil war, 
 the overthrow of society, the invasion of the stranger. The 
 remedy is a heroic one, but there are occasions when the 
 only safe policy is one as extreme as the crisis. The 
 Republic alone can dominate anarchy, conquer Com- 
 munism, avert bloodshed. Therefore, in reason as in con- 
 science, without fanaticism and without illusions, I repeat 
 that if the hour we are passing through brings forth a 
 revolution, I will not work for a semi-revolution ; I would 
 rather have a complete one. But, that such a crisis may 
 be averted, I am willing to accept a Republic, but will 
 have no hand in making one." With these words Lamartine 
 rose and left them. 
 
 When he reached the Chamber, all was tumult and 
 confusion. No business was going on, but the deputies, 
 broken up into groups, were talking eagerly and excitedly, 
 " not concealing," writes an eye-witness, " that they were, 
 for the most part, each far more occupied as to the effect 
 the march of events might have on his individual fortune, 
 than about the welfare of the nation." Some sensation 
 was caused by the arrival of M. Thiers, who rushed in with 
 the news of Louis Philippe's abdication and departure ; 
 then, throwing up his arms with an excited gesture, ex- 
 claimed, " The flood is rising ! " and disappeared from the 
 scene. At about half-past one, an officer in uniform came 
 
LAMARTINE. [184a 
 
 in, and whispered something in the president's ear. M. 
 Sauzet then informed the Assembly that the Duchesse 
 d'Orleans was on her way to the Chamber. A few minutes 
 later the folding doors were thrown open, and the Duchess 
 entered. The scene and her appearance are thus described 
 by Lamartine : — 
 
 " A respectful silence immediately ensued, the deputies 
 rising at once from their seats to receive the august Princess. 
 She was dressed in mourning ; her half-raised veil partly 
 disclosed a countenance in which the charm of youth and 
 beauty was enhanced by emotion ; her pale cheeks bore 
 traces of the widow's tears, of the mother's anxieties. No 
 man could look unmoved on that countenance, a single 
 glance sufficed to wipe away every feeling of resentment 
 against the monarchy. For a moment the eyes of the 
 Princess wandered over the hall, as if imploring aid. Her 
 slight and fragile form trembled at the sounds of applause 
 which greeted her ; a faint blush, the mark of reviving 
 hope, tinged her cheek ; a smile of gratitude flitted for a 
 moment on her lips : she felt she was surrounded by friends. 
 At her right hand walked her eldest son, the Comte de 
 Paris, with her left she led the little Due de Chartres, — 
 children to whom their own downfall was as a scene in a 
 play ! Dressed alike in short suits of black velvet, they 
 looked as if they had just stepped out of the canvas of 
 Vandyck's portrait of the children of Charles I." 
 
 Yet, graceful, dignified, and interesting as was the 
 deportment of the Duchesse d'Orleans, she wanted the one 
 quality which alone at such a crisis would have appealed 
 successfully to the national sympathies, — she was not a 
 Frenchwoman. Moreover, it was to her brother-in-law, 
 
 
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274 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 The Duchess, after a little hesitation, yielded so far to 
 the advice of those who surrounded her as to retire to a 
 higher place on the benches — a measure necessary for her 
 personal security, as the lower part of the Chamber was 
 being gradually invaded by the populace. 
 
 M. Marie then adjured the Assembly to nominate a 
 Provisional Government. " In the present state of Paris," 
 he urged, " the duty devolves on you of taking measures 
 for public security, and you have not a moment to lose. 
 You cannot create a new Regency to-day ; the laws forbid 
 it. I demand a Provisional Government, which may later 
 take the question into consideration in conjunction with 
 the Chambers." He was listened to, Lamartine tells us, 
 without opposition ; the ideas of Royalty and Regency 
 seemed to have vanished like smoke. 
 
 M. Odillon-Barrot, whose Ministry had begun and 
 ended with the passing hours of the day, spoke on the 
 other side, supporting the establishment of the Regency 
 for the sake of the real interests of the nation and of con- 
 stitutional liberty. But, popular as he was, he could not 
 command the attention of the House, and was followed by 
 M. de Larochejaquelin, who, in a few impassioned phrases, 
 dressed the Legitimist predilections he had inherited 
 with his name in the garb of Republican declamation, 
 telling the Chamber they were no longer anything, the 
 people were all in all ! And, as if by magic, the people 
 responded to the call : while he was yet speaking, masses 
 of insurgents, fresh from their triumph in the Tuileries, 
 invaded the Chamber on every side. 
 
 Lamartine, who had hitherto remained in his place, his 
 face buried in his hands, as if uncertain as to the course he 
 
1848.] A DIFFICULT DECISION. 2?$ 
 
 should pursue, now went up to the tribune. His opening 
 words were awaited with intense interest, for it was felt 
 that, were he to declare himself in favour of the Regency, 
 his eloquence might even now retrieve the fortune of the 
 fallen dynasty. It was true that to his " Histoire des 
 Girondins " was chiefly attributed the sudden and surprising 
 revival in France of Republican sentiment ; yet how 
 pathetic, how thrilling had been his sympathy for the 
 noble and innocent victims of the Revolution ! and those 
 who remembered the glowing peroration of the speech in 
 which he had, in 1842, upheld almost single-handed the 
 maternal rights of the Duchesse d'Orleans, could not now 
 but hope that the sight of this young and heroic mother 
 pleading for her children would kindle the imagination 
 and secure the fealty of a nature at once so chivalrous and 
 so impressionable. 
 
 Lamartine himself admits that such was the case, that 
 words which might have carried for the moment the 
 suffrages of his audience trembled on his lips, and that 
 nothing but a deep, reasoned conviction of the hopelessness 
 of achieving more than a momentary and therefore per- 
 nicious triumph kept him from leading the forlorn hope of 
 a cause to which no element of pathos and poetry were 
 lacking. This uncertainty impeded the ordinarily un- 
 embarrassed flow of his eloquence. It was not without 
 some hesitation and circumlocution that he at length 
 definitely pronounced in favour of a Provisional Executive, 
 " which should to-day put a stop to anarchy and bloodshed ; 
 to-morrow call into its councils the entire nation to decide 
 what form the future Government of France should take, 
 One word more," he was about to add, — but at this 
 
276 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 moment the doors of the Chamber were violently burst 
 open, and a band of over three hundred excited, half- 
 delirious men, led by Lagrange, rushed in. 
 
 A scene of indescribable confusion ensued. The 
 attendants of the Duchess, in agony for her life, hurried 
 her and her children away. The Assembly rose in the 
 utmost agitation, while the foremost of the ringleaders, 
 climbing up the benches, levelled their muskets at the 
 deputies. 
 
 When the first panic was over, it was found that the 
 President, M. Sauzet, had disappeared from the scene. 
 Lamartine, who had kept his place at the tribune, then 
 proposed that M. Dupont de l'Eure, a man whose patriarchal 
 age and experience gave him pre-eminence, should occupy 
 the chair. This having been done, cries for the proclama- 
 tion of a Provisional Government broke forth from all parts 
 of the House, mingled with calls to Lamartine to name the 
 members who were to compose it. This he declined to do, 
 but handed to M. Dupont a list of names to be accepted or 
 refused by acclamation. They were read out as follows : 
 " Dupont de l'Eure, Arago, Lamartine, Marie, Garnier- 
 Pages, Ledru-Rollin, Cremieux." As to the last, the story 
 current was that the original list only contained six names, 
 but that, amid the deafening clamour, poor old Dupont de 
 l'Eure, when called on to read it, could not make his voice 
 heard. He transferred the list to the person next him, 
 who, having a weak voice, was equally inaudible. As it 
 was important no time should be lost, the list was then 
 handed to M. Cremieux, who was known to have stentorian 
 lungs ; he added his own name, which was, amid the 
 clamour, adopted with the others, and, by happy dexterity, 
 
1848.] THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 277 
 
 he thus appropriated, one-seventh of absolute dominion 
 over thirty-seven millions of people. 
 
 The form of an election having thus been gone through, 
 it was suggested that the new rulers of France should 
 adjourn to the H6tel of the Ministry of the Interior, and 
 there instal themselves. But rumours began to circulate 
 that the Hotel de Ville had been invaded by a lower 
 stratum of the populace, and that there also a Provisional 
 Government was being established. Lamartine, seeing at 
 once the danger of allowing any rival authority to exist 
 even for an hour, and, above all, in the head-quarters of 
 former revolutions, the Aventine of Parisian sedition — 
 where gathered instinctively in times of anarchy the 
 surging masses of the surrounding Faubourgs, swarming 
 with desperate, half-crazy fanatics, ever biding the time 
 to revive the bloody scenes of '93, — urged his colleagues 
 to immediate action. Giving to those nearest him the 
 watchword, "A l'Hotel de Ville!" which was quickly 
 taken up by the people, he and Arago set out on foot, 
 escorted by some officers of the National Guard, one of 
 whom carried the tricolor flag, while Dupont de l'Eure, 
 who was old and in failing health, followed in a carriage. 
 The procession was not an imposing one, nor was the task 
 its leaders were undertaking easy. 
 
 Lamartine, in his u Histoire de la Revolution de 1848," 
 tells us that he and his colleagues felt keenly that their 
 election to the supreme power by a handful of insurgents 
 in a deserted Chamber was perfectly invalid. To those 
 who might question their authority they could give no 
 reply save by pointing to the empty throne, the dispersed 
 Legislature, the public buildings in flames, the city in 
 
278 LAMART1NE. [1848. 
 
 possession of an armed and excited populace. Their 
 authority was that which every citizen possesses at the 
 moment of his country's peril, to extinguish conflagration, 
 to avert bloodshed, to save life ; and, cost them what it 
 might, they were resolved to exercise it. 
 
 Having crossed the Pont Neuf, they came to the 
 barricade of the Quai de la Megisserie. It was with great 
 difficulty that Dupont de l'Eure was lifted over this 
 formidable obstacle, and the passage was painful to all. 
 The pavement tinged with blood, the corpses strewn about, 
 the wounded yet uncared for, bore witness to the severity 
 of the recent struggle ; and from this point the advance 
 became at every fresh step more difficult. All the 
 approaches to the Place de la Greve, in which the Hotel 
 de Ville stood, were blocked by a dense crowd, which knew 
 nothing of what had passed at the Chamber of Deputies, 
 and paid scant attention to the order, " Make way for the 
 Government ! " Indeed, when they realized that the little 
 group of deputies, preceded by a single officer carrying the 
 National flag, were about to become their rulers, the first 
 impulse was one of rage. Ominous cries of "Treason, 
 treason! They want to have 1830 over again!" were 
 heard. It was chiefly, Lamartine says, owing to the 
 respect felt for Dupont de l'Eure, who was personally 
 known to many of the crowd, that the Hotel de Ville was 
 at length reached. 
 
 Here still greater difficulties awaited them : the mob 
 was in full possession of the building ; many of the rooms 
 were filled with the dead and dying of yesterday's combat ; 
 others served as bivouacs for the victors ; while at every 
 door and staircase excited crowds were swaying to and fro. 
 
 
1848.] THE FIRST COUNCIL. 279 
 
 The members of the Government, sometimes violently 
 separated, sometimes as unexpectedly flung together, 
 unable to converse, to organize any plan or resolution, 
 were almost overwhelmed by the hopelessness of their 
 position. 
 
 The hours sped swiftly on, and still no human voice 
 could hope to dominate the many and terrible sounds 
 echoing through the vast pile of building, — the clatter of 
 arms carried by unskilful hands, the shrieks of the wounded, 
 the moans of the dying, the continual discharges of musketry 
 going on all round, the clamour of a hundred thousand 
 voices in the Place below. There seemed no prospect of 
 obtaining an instant of silence ; not so much as a pen or a 
 sheet of paper could be procured to enable the Provisional 
 Government of France to give some sign of authority or 
 even of existence. At last, when hope seemed idlest, an 
 unexpected deliverance came. One of the clerks of the 
 Prefecture, M. Flottard, having succeeded in reaching 
 Lamartine, whispered to him that he had in his pocket the 
 key of a room at the end of a secluded corridor, which 
 might serve as a council chamber, if the passages leading to 
 it were first quietly secured by the friends of the Govern- 
 ment. The offer was taken advantage of at once, the long 
 corridors garrisoned by men whose devotion could be relied 
 on, and within half an hour Dupont de l'Eure, Lamartine, 
 Arago, Cremieux, Ledru-Rollin, Garnier-Pages, and Marie 
 began their labours. 
 
 As the news spread through Paris that the Provisional 
 Government was installed, the Hotel de Ville became the 
 rallying point of all the partisans of order. The mayors 
 of the different quarters of Paris, deputies, leading citizens, 
 
280 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 civil and military officials, editors of newspapers beyond 
 counting, came in from all sides. A graphic description of 
 this first council is to be found in the " Histoire de '48," 
 by Daniel Stern. Dupont de l'Eure and Arago sat together, 
 thoughtful, anxious, obviously troubled by melancholy 
 recollections and still more melancholy forebodings. Gar- 
 nier-Pages and Marie, who had all through striven hard for 
 the Regency of the Duchesse d'Orleans, were yet more 
 desponding. Ledru-Rollin, the representative of the in- 
 transigeant Republican party, sat somewhat apart from his 
 colleagues, conversing with Louis Blanc. Albert and 
 Flocon, who having been, they announced, added by the 
 popular voice to the members of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment, made their entry in a very imperious fashion, but, 
 after some parleying, consented to accept the post of 
 Secretaries, with consultative voices. Cremieux seemed 
 cheerful and eager to talk, but carefully avoided com- 
 mitting himself to anything positive. Lamartine alone was 
 ready to face all possibilities with a serene and undaunted 
 spirit, his courage and eloquence rising visibly with the 
 occasion. Taking up a pen, he began to draft the procla- 
 mation by which the Government was to make the French 
 nation aware of its existence and of its mission. It was not 
 an easy task. Both the tidings brought by messengers from 
 without and the loud cries rising from some sixty thousand 
 voices, testified to the growing anxiety and impatience of 
 the populace for the proclamation of a Republic. Nothing 
 else, it was reported on all sides, would arrest anarchy, 
 pillage, and massacre. But, with the exception of Ledru- 
 Rollin, all the members of the Government were strongly 
 opposed to this course, feeling that, elected as they had 
 
 
1848.] THE FIRST COUNCIL. 28 1 
 
 been at haphazard, they had no right to impose a constitu- 
 tion on the French nation. A brisk altercation ensued, in 
 which Ledru-Rollin's views were warmly supported by 
 Louis Blanc, Flocon, and Marrast. 
 
 Meanwhile, the agitation was increasing every moment 
 outside, as fresh relays of populace came pouring in from 
 every avenue leading to the Hotel de Ville. In order to 
 restrain them, those in the Council Chamber had repeatedly 
 to go out, and make speeches, exhorting them to calmness 
 and silence, with repeated assurances that the Provisional 
 Government had no object but the good and the safety of 
 the people. 
 
 Only to Lamartine, however, would they listen at last. 
 He seemed at once better liked and more trusted than any 
 of his colleagues, though with the cries of "We want 
 Lamartine," " Vive Lamartine ! " that greeted him each 
 time he came out, were mingled others of " He is an 
 aristocrat ! a royalist ! a Girondin ! " But he, calm and 
 self-possessed, appeasing them by some happy phrase, 
 never failed in changing the mood of the populace, and 
 thus obtaining a momentary lull. 
 
 The proclamation, drafted amid such infinite difficulties, 
 after a few high-flown phrases, in which the people of Paris 
 were complimented on their admirable conduct during the 
 past three days, ran as follows : " A Provisional Govern- 
 ment, created with acclamation by the voice of the people 
 and of the Deputies of the Departments in the sitting of 
 the 24th of February, is momentarily entrusted with the 
 office of securing and organizing the national victory. It 
 is composed of MM. Dupont, Lamartine, Arago, Marie, 
 Cremieux, Garnier-Pages, Ledru-Rollin ; and has for 
 secretaries MM. Louis Blanc, Flocon, Marrast, Albert." 
 
282 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 But the most important phrase was that in which the 
 form the future Government of France must be indicated. 
 When first drafted by Lamartine, it stood thus: "Although 
 the Provisional Government, acting solely in the name of 
 the French people, prefer the Republican form, yet neither 
 the people of Paris nor the Provisional Government assume 
 to substitute their opinion for that of the citizens, who will 
 be consulted as to the definite form of Government which 
 the Sovereignty of the People shall assume." 
 
 This paragraph was considered too ambiguous, and for 
 it was substituted, in M. Cr^mieux's writing : " The Pro- 
 visional Government wish the Republic to be ratified by 
 the people, who will be immediately consulted." 
 
 Thus altered, copies of the proclamation, hastily printed 
 off in the bureaux of the Hotel de Ville, were thrown out 
 of the windows, to the exultation of the mob, which, 
 dispersing for the moment, hastened to convey the news 
 throughout Paris. Some approach to silence and order 
 being thus obtained, the organization of the Executive 
 began, and the principal portfolios were allotted. Dupont 
 was made President of the Council, without holding any 
 other office ; Arago had the navy ; Cremieux, the Ministry 
 of Justice ; Lamartine, that of Foreign Affairs ; Ledru- 
 Rollin, the Interior ; and Garnier-Pages was named Mayor 
 of Paris. There was some difficulty in filling the post 
 of Minister of War. Generals Bedeau and Lamoriciere, 
 though they gave in their adhesion to the Provisional 
 Government, respectfully declined to serve. It was then 
 given to General Subervier, who had served under Napoleon, 
 and was universally respected, but far too old for such a 
 post. 
 
1848.] THE FIRST COUNCIL. 283 
 
 It is hardly possible to give an idea of the labours and 
 difficulties of the Provisional Government during these first 
 days of its existence. " No sooner," writes Lamartine, 
 " was one messenger despatched with an order or a decree 
 scribbled in pencil on the corner of a scrap of paper, than 
 another arrived with a similar note, announcing that the 
 Tuileries was menaced with flames and devastation ; another, 
 that Versailles was surrounded by a raging mob, thirsting 
 to devour the last relics of royalty ; another, that Neuilly 
 was already half-burnt ; a fourth, that all the railway 
 stations were destroyed, the bridges cut or burned. It was 
 indispensable at once to re-establish the traffic on the roads 
 by which a capital with a million of mouths was to be fed ; 
 then huge mountains of barricades had to be cut through 
 in order to let the convoys pass when they did reach the 
 streets. Crowds who had been for three days famishing 
 were to be fed, the dead to be collected, the wounded 
 tended, the soldiers protected against the people, the 
 barracks evacuated, the arms and horses gathered together; 
 the palaces, the museums protected from pillage ; an 
 insurgent populace, numbering three hundred thousand, 
 were to be calmed, pacified, and, if possible, sent to their 
 workshops ; posts manned by the National Guards and 
 volunteers established at all points, in order to prevent 
 pillage. In a word, the things to be done were innumerable ; 
 it was hard to say where neglect would entail the most 
 serious evils." 
 
 Meanwhile, the crowd in the Place du Greve, thinned 
 for a moment by the distribution of the proclamation, soon 
 became denser and more unmanageable than ever. With 
 the unceasing flux and reflux of labourers and artisans, 
 
284 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 inevitable in a great city in which for three days all in- 
 dustry had ceased, were mingled other and more dangerous 
 elements. Idlers and loafers, with perhaps no political 
 ideas in their heads, but rejoicing in revolution for the 
 excitement it afforded, were going about among the people, 
 inciting them to fresh demands and to renewed violence, 
 and, as neither the troops nor the National Guard had yet 
 given in their adhesion, the new Government were perfectly 
 powerless, and could only trust to the isolated efforts of 
 their friends, and to whatever personal ascendency they 
 could gain. 
 
 And as evening closed in, the crowd surrounding the 
 Hotel de Ville became still more excited and menacing. 
 It had been largely recruited by men of dangerous types ; 
 combatants from the more distant barricades, dissatisfied 
 with the results of their victory. Conspirators, to whom 
 the rebellion against any authority was as the breath of 
 their nostrils, were moving about among the people, telling 
 them they were being deceived, betrayed, mocked ; spread- 
 ing rumours that the King was returning with an armed 
 force, and the garrisons of the detached forts preparing 
 red-hot shot to rain down on the devoted city. These 
 rumours, absurd and contradictory as they were, so excited 
 the people, that, forming themselves into an improvised 
 and tumultuous Assembly, they began to pass decrees and 
 resolutions to meet the treachery they supposed was plan- 
 ning their destruction. Some asked to have the red flag 
 hoisted, as a symbol of the blood which should not cease 
 to flow until all the enemies of liberty were crushed ; others 
 that all who had not fought on the barricades should be 
 excluded from any share of power ; others that the Govern- 
 
1848.] THE FIRST COUNCIL. 285 
 
 ment should deliberate only in the presence of delegates 
 named and trusted by the people. 
 
 Detachment after detachment of ringleaders were sent 
 up, threatening to throw all the occupants of the Council 
 Chamber into the street, unless their demands were com- 
 plied with. Each member of the Government, Lamartine 
 tells us, went out in turn to appease the seething multitude, 
 by appealing to their patriotism and to their sense of 
 justice ; trying to banish their fears and disarm their 
 passions. But all accounts concur in stating that he alone 
 exercised the slightest influence. Seven times during that 
 terrible night he went out, at first alone, then, as the 
 danger became greater and greater, escorted by a little 
 band of devoted friends, to harangue from the steps of the 
 Hotel de Ville the raging crowd. Received with impre- 
 cations and menaces ; having to fight his way through 
 a barrier of sabres, pikes, bayonets, quivering in the un- 
 steady hands of men maddened with rage and excite- 
 ment ; with difficulty gaining a hearing ; but, once he was 
 heard, subjugating by the irresistible force of his energy 
 and eloquence, or by his ready wit turning execration 
 into applause, — as once when the storm was at its wildest, 
 and the furious multitude, threatening to break down 
 all barriers, had directed a volley of firearms against the 
 lower windows of the Hotel de Ville, Lamartine came out, 
 and was greeted with cries of " Down with Lamartine ! 
 We will not hear him ! We want his head ! " But he, 
 with an expression of mingled amusement and disdain, 
 looking quietly at them, said, " You want my head ? Well, 
 things would certainly go on better if you had it on your 
 shoulders." At this the menacing cries turned to peals 
 
286 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 of laughter, and arms lifted to strike stretched out for a 
 cordial handgrasp. Still the temper of the mob, continually 
 reinforced by fresh comers, could not be counted on for an 
 instant. " What do you calculate," asked Lamartine of 
 Arago, the one of his colleagues with whom he had most 
 in common, " are our chances of seeing the sun rise to- 
 morrow ? " "I fear," replied the illustrious astronomer, 
 " the chances are decidedly the other way. But as long as 
 there remains even a single chance of saving the nation, it 
 is sufficient for us." 
 
 Nor were the historical associations of the Hotel de 
 Ville reassuring to those who occupied it at such a crisis. 
 Here had been fought out the last terrible struggle of the 
 Montagnards. In one of the rooms adjacent to that they 
 were using as a council chamber, Robespierre had lain 
 mangled till he was dragged forth to execution ; Robespierre 
 the younger and Henriot trying to escape from an adjoin- 
 ing window, were flung on the pavement and severely 
 injured. To the historian of " Les Girondins " it specially 
 recalled the 9th of September. "If there is a Barras waiting 
 for us outside," he whispered to Dupont de l'Eure, who 
 himself had sat in the Convention, " we are lost, for we 
 are precisely in the position of the Commune on the 9th 
 Thermidor, only our conspiracy is in the cause of peace 
 and of order, against anarchy and bloodshed." 
 
 But the exigencies of the situation left little leisure for 
 such reflections. Regardless of threats and interruptions, 
 the Provisional Government went on with its work. In- 
 numerable decrees, drawn up with the rapidity of thought 
 and the absolute determination of will which alone at such 
 a time could enforce obedience and command success, were 
 
1848.] THE FIRST COUNCIL. 287 
 
 sent by reliable messengers to the several public offices, and 
 the machinery of administration, shattered by three days' 
 anarchy, was beginning to work again. 
 
 How much suffering had been caused by the cutting off 
 for three days of all supplies, may be guessed by the fact 
 that the rulers of the most civilized and luxurious city in 
 the world were themselves all but starved on their first 
 accession to power. When at nightfall they asked for 
 some refreshment, nothing could be procured but a loaf of 
 black bread and half a bottle of wine, left accidentally in 
 the guardroom. A bucket of water was fetched, and the 
 rations divided, and, though insufficient for a party of men 
 who had not tasted food for twelve hours, were partaken of 
 with cheerfulness, Lamartine remarking that the feast 
 augured well for the economy of their rule. 
 
 Long and trying as the day had been, it came to an 
 end at last. By the time sixty-two proclamations of 
 immediate necessity had been issued, the good sense of the 
 people and Lamartine's influence had checked the evil 
 efforts of the would-be disturbers of the peace ; weariness 
 and lassitude did the rest, and at length all was so quiet 
 that it was agreed the Council might break up, leaving 
 Lamartine and Marie to guard the post of danger alter- 
 nately through the night. 
 
 In order to reassure his wife, who had gone through 
 terrible anxiety, Lamartine went home for a couple of 
 hours, returning at daybreak rested and refreshed. When 
 he went out first the people were going through a 
 semblance of military discipline and duty ; fires had been 
 lit in the Place du Greve, round which were gathered 
 groups of men told off for the duty of guarding the guns 
 
288 LAMART1NE. [1848. 
 
 which had been brought there the day before, and still 
 were loaded. Sentries were posted in many of the streets, 
 and volleys of small arms let off from time to time with 
 the object of warning the regular troops, whose dispositions 
 were not yet known, that the people were on the alert. 
 But on his return Lamartine found the streets far more 
 quiet and deserted ; the camp-fires had gone out, the 
 sentries were sleeping at their posts ; only from time to 
 time men, somewhat better dressed than ordinaiy artisans, 
 passed him in little groups of three or four, all of whom, 
 he noticed, had in their button-holes a tiny piece of red 
 ribbon — a circumstance to which he did not at the time 
 attach any importance. 
 
 Lamartine, whose " History of the Revolution of 1848 " 
 we are following substantially, though not exclusively, 
 before narrating the events of the 25th of February, pauses 
 to describe three groups into which he divides the principal 
 actors of the day. 
 
 First he puts what he styles the National and Liberal 
 party, composed of the friends of liberty and progress, 
 taken from all classes, without distinction of condition or 
 of fortune. This party, by its twenty years of oppo- 
 sition in the Chamber, by the agitation of the Reform 
 banquets, by its action in detaching the National Guard 
 from the King, had been the principal motor in the Revolu- 
 tion. To it Lamartine did not, strictly speaking, belong ; 
 his position in the Chamber had always been independent 
 of party ties, and on several occasions he had worked 
 earnestly and successfully against them. But " great move- 
 ments are oftenest led by brilliant outsiders ; " and the 
 rush of events during the past twenty-four hours had trans- 
 
 
1848.] THE TERRORISTS. 289 
 
 formed him from a distinguished free lance into a recog- 
 nized leader. And now, just as the National and Liberal 
 party thought they had successfully inaugurated, perhaps 
 established, an enlightened, almost ideal Republic, there 
 sprang forward unexpectedly two other factions preparing 
 to enter at the half-repaired breach, and rise on the necks 
 of their precursors to power. 
 
 One was that of the Socialists, whose schemes, however 
 impracticable, were not yet tainted with violence. Lamar- 
 tine expressly says that at this stage of the Revolution 
 they were distinctly opposed to the Terrorists, with whom 
 they afterwards coalesced, and that their most trusted 
 leader, Louis Blanc, who was at the time acting as secretary 
 to the Provisional Government, honestly did his best to 
 support it. 
 
 Far more powerful was the Montagnard or Terrorist 
 party, consisting of men with no desire of progress, 
 no visions of political regeneration, unfettered by the 
 illusions of those who think that the social edifice can 
 be regenerated without first burying a generation beneath 
 its ruins ; men without faith, without principles, full of 
 passion and violence, wishing for a state of society as 
 violent as themselves, whose theory of Government is a 
 prolonged Revolution ; without justice, without law, without 
 principle, without morality. Lamartine goes on to describe 
 the Terrorists as the producers of the Revolutionary litera- 
 ture which sprang up during the Restoration, and flourished 
 all through Louis Philippe's reign ; which endeavoured, by 
 heaping praise on the destroyers and contempt on the 
 victims, to reverse the verdict of history. In the vocabulary 
 of this party the Republic meant the violent triumph of 
 
 U 
 
290 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 a faction over a nation, the substitution of tyranny from 
 below for tyranny from above, its arbitrary will for law, 
 fury for justice, and the scaffold for Government. The 
 believers in this creed were mostly young men bleached 
 in the shade of secret societies, poisoned from infancy by 
 the classics of the Reign of Terror, accustomed to deify 
 Danton for his audacity in slaughter, and St. Just for his 
 pitiless cruelty ; to ascribe grandeur to actions that were 
 merely atrocious ; ready to purchase notoriety at any price. 
 
 And all through the night of the 25th of February, 
 when Lamartine and his colleagues, of necessity but im- 
 perfectly informed, believed all immediate danger of insur- 
 rection dispelled, these men, made desperate by their defeat 
 on the preceding day, were up and at work, intriguing, 
 combining, organizing another and far more terrible on- 
 slaught. 
 
 The Place de la Bastille, which was the centre of their 
 operations, had the appearance of an armed camp ; there 
 the sentries did not fall asleep at their posts, nor the watch- 
 fires die out. In the clubs of the adjoining faubourgs, orators 
 were thrilling their audiences with denunciations of their 
 new rulers : " These are not the men we want. A people 
 in Revolution ask for leaders, not for moderators ; for men 
 who will kindle their impulses, not for men who will sup- 
 press them. To moderate a Revolution is to betray it. 
 Do not, for the sake of such men as these, let the wages of 
 your blood be again filched from you at the H6tel de Ville. 
 Remember Lafayette ! And how do you know Lamartine 
 is not another Lafayette ? If he is one of us, let him serve 
 us as we wish, not as he wishes ; or if he will not, let him 
 be replaced by a man chosen by ourselves out of our own 
 
1848.] " LE DRAPE AU ROUGE." 29 1 
 
 anks. Let us be there when he and his colleagues consult 
 ogether, so that the Government may really be a plebiscite, 
 vith the axe visibly suspended over the heads of those men 
 vho would betray the people." 
 
 These and similar speeches wrought the famished, half- 
 lelirious crowd to uncontrollable excitement. One body 
 )f men set off before break of day to Vincennes, which they 
 ansacked for ammunition ; another made their way to the 
 nvalides, where, however, a force, hastily despatched by 
 he Minister of Police, succeeded in keeping them at bay. 
 Meanwhile, all through the morning, little bands of men 
 vere quietly, almost imperceptibly, taking possession of 
 he Place du Greve. They were mostly young, but to some 
 iegree disciplined in their bearing, and accustomed to 
 exercise authority over their fellows. They formed centres 
 ound which others of a somewhat inferior class grouped 
 hemselves, till the whole space between the Bastille and 
 he Hotel de Ville was one living, moving mass. Each of 
 hose who seemed to be leaders wore in his button-hole the 
 ittle red ribbon Lamartine had noticed on his way home 
 he preceding night, of which the significance now became 
 nanifest. As the crowd grew more dense and more 
 hreatening, men, stationed evidently for the purpose, began 
 o distribute scarfs, sashes, and flags of the same hue. As 
 he excitement increased, yards of red material were torn 
 ip and cast in fragments among the crowd, snatched by 
 outstretched hands, till the signal ran like lightning through 
 he masses. The Members of the Government, from the 
 Dalcony of the Hotel de Ville, could see it flashing out like 
 he flaming cross of Gaelic warfare, as far as the eye could 
 each. When from time to time a band of artisans paraded 
 
292 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 the streets, as had been their wont for the last few days, 
 carrying the tricolor banner, they were stopped, reasoned 
 with by the Montagnards, who, tearing down the national 
 flag of France, made them hoist instead the lurid symbol 
 of the Terror. 
 
 The excitement of the crowd increased every moment., 
 Urged by their leaders, they insisted on ransacking the 
 Hotel de Ville from cellar to attic under the pretext of 
 searching for arms. The few defenders of the Provisional 
 Government, consisting chiefly of students from the Ecole 
 Poly technique, and of personal friends of the members, 
 were driven back from post to post, till, pressed together 
 in the narrow corridor leading to the Salle de Conseil, theyj 
 held the foe at bay by sheer density. It seems as if the 
 ringleaders hesitated at actual violence, for they had recourse 
 to other, at first incomprehensible, tactics. Processions of] 
 men carrying the corpses of those who had perished at the 
 barricades came in from all parts of the city, laying down 
 their burdens in the courtyard of the H6tel de Ville, which 
 was literally piled up with these ghastly trophies, with the 
 evident intention of exciting the people to madness, and 
 also, it is supposed, to asphyxiate the Government if all 
 other means of coercion failed. 
 
 From the overwhelmed members a decree guaranteeing 
 employment to all was extorted ; then another bestowing 
 on the combatants at the barricades the million of francs 
 which it was very erroneously supposed would be saved to 
 the civil list by the abolition of royalty. But these con- 
 cessions merely whetted the appetites of the mob for further] 
 demands. Louder and more menacing grew the cries o|| 
 " Le drapeau rouge ! Nous voulons le drapeau rouge ! 
 
tt848.] " LE DRAPE AU ROUGE." 293 
 
 L&t this undisguised call for mob tyranny and the reign of 
 blood, the bravest hung back. Some members of the 
 Government were for temporizing, and Louis Blanc vehe- 
 mently urged immediate concession. Lamartine, who had 
 been lying on the ground, utterly exhausted and worn out, 
 on hearing this suggestion, sprang to his feet. 
 
 A writer, whose claim to speak with authority cannot 
 be gainsaid, has attributed the misfortunes of France during 
 the last century to the political influence exercised in 
 that country by men of letters. Doubtless the habit of 
 generalization has inclined minds, perhaps naturally not 
 ungenerous, to regard the losses, the torturing anxieties, the 
 ultimate ruin of thousands as the cheap price of Revolution ; 
 to accept even the crushing out of blameless lives, the 
 shedding of innocent blood, as eternal commonplaces of 
 human occasion. But — idealist as he was, and less con- 
 versant with the science of statesmanship than is desirable 
 in those who undertake to be rulers of men — Lamartine's 
 genius was of very different stamp. Far from deadening 
 his sensibilities, it quickened them tenfold. Nor did it 
 make him less prompt or decisive in action than men of 
 rougher natures. With the courage of Bayard — with a 
 courage Bayard himself might not have shown in civic 
 contest — while others were hesitating or talking of com- 
 promise, he went out alone to withstand the multitude. 
 Putting forth all his eloquence, he implored the people not 
 thus to sully their victory. 
 
 " Yesterday," were the concluding words of a long and 
 thrilling appeal — " yesterday you asked us to usurp, in the 
 name of the people of Paris, the rights of thirty-five millions 
 of our fellow-citizens by proclaiming the Republic without 
 
294 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 consulting France. And now you ask us for the red 
 instead of the tricolour flag. Citizens, neither I nor a 
 single member of the Government will ever consent to this. 
 And I will tell you why. The tricolour has made the 
 circuit of the world with the Republic and the Empire, 
 with your liberties and with your triumphs. The red flag 
 has only made the circuit of the Champ de Mars, drenched 
 with the blood of Frenchmen ! " 
 
 As to what passed immediately after this, there is some] 
 discrepancy of evidence, but it seems as if those within 
 the range of Lamartine's eloquence were subjugated ; but 
 that in the next moment another column of insurgents, 
 fiercer and more implacable than the last, poured in, 
 drowning the cries of "Vive Lamartine ! Vive le drapeau 
 tricolor ! " with those of " A bas Lamartine ! Point de 
 paroles ! Le decret ! ou le gouvernement de traitres a la| 
 lanterne." Lamartine was standing on a low scaffolding 
 in front of the great gate. The friends who had followed 
 him out, striving to keep back the mob, were pressed in 
 on all sides by a band of ruffians, who, with swords and 
 bayonets, struck wildly at him. His voice could not be 
 heard in the tumult ; a pike-thrust had wounded one of 
 his hands severely. Again and again he was implored to 
 retreat, but this he refused to do, and for a time there 
 seemed but a hair's-breadth between him and the fate of 
 Foulon, when he was saved, as in no other place in Europe 
 he would have been saved, by a man in the garb of a 
 beggar, who rushed in between him and his assailants, 
 invoked him as his father, his brother, the saviour of the 
 people, embraced him, blessed him, till he obtained for 
 him all he needed for his triumph — a hearing. Then the 
 
 
1848.] THE MARSEILLAISE OF PEACE. 295 
 
 last detachment of the Terrorists was subdued, as the 
 previous ones had been, amid cries of " Vive Lamartine ! 
 Vive le Gouvernement Provisoire ! " The tricolor, which 
 had been torn down, floated once more over the great 
 gates. The mob, breaking up into columns, paraded the 
 streets, singing the Marseillaise — the thrilling notes of that 
 magnificent but terrible hymn bringing for once a message 
 of peace. 
 
 Years afterwards, when friends were gathered round 
 Lamartine's fireside, they asked him, " Did you not, at the 
 sight of that raging crowd, shouting for your head, feel 
 something akin to terror ? " " Yes," was his reply ; " for a 
 moment I was afraid. But when I had laid my hand on 
 the lion's mane, and felt it quiver beneath my touch, I 
 knew I should conquer, and all fear passed away." 
 
 The struggle thus briefly narrated lasted for eight 
 hours, and it was evening before the Provisional Govern- 
 ment resumed their labours. This sitting Lamartine has 
 described with much enthusiasm. Thrilled, he tells us, 
 with patriotic emotion, each member of the Council sought 
 in the depths of his heart and intelligence for some much- 
 needed reform to be proposed ; for some hitherto untried 
 remedy which should bring healing to the wounds of 
 suffering humanity. The last vestiges of the slave laws 
 yet lingering in the colonies were swept away ; the " laws 
 of September," with their vexatious restrictions on liberty 
 of speech and thought, repealed ; popular suffrage substi- 
 tuted for the unreasonably restricted franchise so long 
 complained of; all class distinctions abolished. It has 
 been sarcastically said, parodying Lamartine's words, that 
 their sweeping reforms " bore the stamp of impulse rather 
 
296 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 than that of reason." But Lord Normanby, who certainly 
 had no Republican sympathies, writes, " Making allowance 
 for the difficulties under which they laboured, I think 
 many of the decrees of the Provisional Government do 
 great credit to their political capacities." And alluding to 
 the one abolishing the punishment of death for political 
 offences, which Lamartine, despite some reluctance on the 
 part of his colleagues, and furious resistance from without, 
 succeeded in passing, the same writer says, " I do not think 
 that in the history of the world there was ever such an 
 instance of the triumph of noble sentiments over the brute 
 instincts of the masses." 
 
 Those who, in the words of the old ballad, " live at 
 home at ease," can have a very faint notion of the anxieties 
 and tremors of peaceful citizens during a period of revo- 
 lution. The journal of the English ambassador shows that 
 even those to whom the law of nations — not violated during 
 the worst periods of the first French Revolution — gave 
 comparative security, were not without anxieties. All 
 through the 24th and 25 th of February the streets were 
 unsafe, and little was known of the state of affairs, save 
 that a Provisional Government was established ; of what 
 elements composed, it was impossible to conjecture. During 
 the night of the 25th, the firing slackened, but at early 
 dawn a lady who lived near the Embassy rushed in with 
 the news that her husband, who had been all night on 
 duty with the National Guard, had come to tell her that 
 a drunken, excited mob, fresh from the sack of Neuilly, 
 were setting fire to the Elys^e. The report proved to be 
 perfectly correct. Torches had been applied to the palace 
 in several places, a high wind was blowing, and for a time 
 
1848.] AN IRISH DEPUTATION. 297 
 
 it seemed as if nothing could save the quarter. But already 
 the exertions of the Government had begun to tell. A 
 battalion of the National Guard, in which a couple of 
 hundred men of the better classes had just enrolled them- 
 selves, turned out to oppose the incendiaries. They fixed 
 bayonets and charged ; on which the mob, opposed for 
 the first time since they sacked the Tuileries, soon gave 
 way. 
 
 Still, all through the day the anxiety was extreme. 
 Their personal influence was the only means of defence the 
 Government possessed, and the pressure brought to bear on 
 them was known to be terrific. So great was the danger 
 of the inmates of the Embassy felt to be, that a deputation 
 of Irish gentlemen, of whom Mr. John O'Connell was one, 
 came to say they had procured arms, and that two hundred 
 of their number were ready to garrison the building. And 
 to the fear of incendiarism and of mob violence was added 
 that of starvation. The barricades had completely im- 
 peded the free circulation towards the outskirts, and the 
 frightful reports of the state of anarchy within the town 
 deterred all those who usually supplied the city from 
 attempting to reach the centre. From want of flour the 
 bakers had ceased to supply bread, and closed their shops ; 
 food of any kind could only be had at exorbitant prices. 
 Pictures, statues, plate, apparel, all that people are accus- 
 tomed to look on as valuable possessions, were beginning 
 to be considered as useless lumber ; those who were seeking 
 safety in flight trying in vain to raise a pittance on the 
 costliest jewels. It seemed as if the most civilized city in 
 the world was reduced to the primitive conditions of barter, 
 when, according to the instincts of the savage state, the 
 
298 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 relative value of things is estimated according to their 
 utility in preserving life. 
 
 But by evening the prospect brightened. Six thousand 
 respectable citizens had been since daybreak guarding the 
 Hotel de Ville, armed to the teeth, and resolved to defend 
 the newly constituted Government at all hazards. During 
 the day the principal officers of the army and navy gave in 
 their submission. Persons of eminence from all the camps 
 into which France was divided — Legitimists, Orleanists, 
 Republicans — alike rallied to the Government, recognizing 
 that in the vigorous efforts it was making to moderate 
 public excitement and restore order lay the only hope of 
 salvation for society. 
 
 The Government, on the other hand, did not shrink 
 from responsibility. Within a couple of hours after the 
 proclamation of the abolition of capital punishment for 
 political offences, twenty-four marauders, taken in the act 
 of pillage, were sent to the nearest guard-house and shot. 
 One of Lamartine's happiest creations, that of the Garde 
 Mobile, dates from this time. From the first outbreak of 
 the insurrection he had noticed numbers of youths, hardly 
 more than schoolboys, drawn into the vortex by high 
 spirits and love of excitement, tossed about like froth on 
 the waves — raw material equally ready to be fashioned 
 into destroyers or saviours of society. He resolved to 
 make at least an effort to save them from the abyss into 
 which they were visibly drifting, and issued a decree for 
 the formation of a corps for the defence of the Executive, 
 to be composed of those who had been most conspicuous 
 for their courage and steadfastness on the barricades. The 
 result amply justified the venture. The most ardent and 
 
1848.] THE REPUBLIC PROCLAIMED. 299 
 
 ambitious of these youths eagerly filled up the cadastre, 
 and the restraint of military discipline speedily changed 
 them from the turbulent gamins into a band of resolute, 
 steadfast soldiers. The Garde Mobile, which soon num- 
 bered four thousand, showed their fidelity to the State on 
 more than one occasion by the ready sacrifice of their lives. 
 In the June insurrection they are said to have proved more 
 reliable than the National Guard, and as steadfast as the 
 troops of the line — a result principally to be attributed to 
 their enthusiastic devotion to Lamartine. 
 
 The proclamation of the Republic on the 27th of 
 February was made the occasion of a national fete. The 
 Members of the Provisional Government, attended by the 
 principal ministers and officials, proceeded in state to 
 the Colonne de Juillet, which commemorates the taking of 
 the Bastille in July, 1789. Dupont de l'Eure, Cremieux, 
 and Arago addressed the people, Lamartine effacing him- 
 self as much as possible. But everywhere he was greeted 
 with acclamations, and on his return from the ceremony 
 forty thousand citizens insisted on escorting him home with 
 cries of "Vive Lamartine! premier consul." Hearing this, 
 Lamartine turned round quickly and decisively, saying, 
 "You all know perfectly I do not want this," on which 
 they desisted. 
 
 But similar scenes repeated themselves again and again ; 
 indeed, it is hardly possible to give an idea of the enthu- 
 siastic admiration Lamartine's courage and conduct evoked, 
 not in France alone, but throughout Europe, and especially 
 in England. Perhaps the world was less selfish in those 
 days than it is now, for there is ample evidence, both in 
 the memoirs and correspondence of the time, that the 
 
300 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 knowledge of the terrible crisis through which a neighbour- 
 ing, even though alien, nation was passing, caused the 
 people of England almost insupportable anxiety, and when 
 it became known how terrific had been the struggle, how 
 doubtful the issue, how complete for the moment was the 
 victory, the news was received with rapture. And no 
 element of interest was wanting ; noble words had been 
 mated with noble deeds, and Lamartine's portrait, multi- 
 plied ten thousandfold, made the spell complete. "That 
 beautiful face," writes George Eliot, " worthy an aureole ! " 
 But perhaps the strongest testimony to the estimation 
 in which Lamartine was held is that of a writer whose 
 position makes his opinion of exceptional value, and whose 
 judgments seldom err on the side of laudation. In the 
 third volume of the Greville memoirs we read : " In 
 all this great drama he (Lamartine) stands forth pro- 
 minently as the principal character. How long it may 
 last God only knows, but a fortnight of such greatness the 
 world has hardly ever seen. For fame and glory it were 
 probably well for him to die now. His position is some- 
 thing superhuman at this moment ; the eyes of the universe 
 are on him, and he is not only the theme of general ad- 
 miration, but on him almost alone the hopes of the world 
 are placed. He is the principal author of the Revolution. 
 They say that his book has been a prime cause of that 
 which he has now the glory of directing, moderating, 
 restraining. His labour has been stupendous, his eloquence 
 wonderful. When the new Government was surrounded 
 by thousands of armed rabble, shouting, bellowing for they 
 knew not what, he contrived to appease their rage, to soften, 
 control, and eventually master them. So great a trial of 
 
1848.] RESTORATION OF ORDER. 301 
 
 eloquence was hardly ever heard of. Then from the be- 
 ginning he has exhibited undaunted courage and consum- 
 mate skill, proclaiming order, peace, humanity, respect for 
 persons and property. This improvised Cabinet, strangely 
 composed, has evinced the most curious, vigorous, activity 
 and wisdom ; they have forced everybody to respect them. 
 But Lamartine towers above them all, and is the presiding 
 genius of the new creation. He has acted like a man of 
 honour, and of feeling too. He offered the King an escort; 
 he wrote to Madame Guizot, and told her her son was 
 safe in England, and caused the report of this to be spread 
 about, that he might not be sought for, and, moreover, he 
 sent word to Guizot that, if he was not in safety, he might 
 come to his house. When he first proposed the abolition 
 of the punishment of death for political offences he was 
 overruled, but the next day he proposed it again, and 
 declared that if his colleagues did not consent he would 
 throw up office and quit the concern, and that they might 
 make him, if he pleased, the first victim of the law they 
 would not abolish. All this is very great." 
 
 It cannot be said that Lamartine wore his honours 
 altogether unconsciously. To his sympathetic nature and 
 vivid imagination this brimming draught of popularity was 
 even more delicious and exhilarating than it might have 
 been to colder spirits, and he certainly forgot that ele- 
 mentary teaching of history, that the triumphs of the 
 Gracchi are apt to be more evanescent than those of the 
 Caesars. But in dignity of demeanour, in restraint of 
 conduct, he never failed. 
 
 When, after the 26th of February, he was repeatedly 
 pressed by all, including Dupont de l'Eure himself, to 
 
302 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 assume the office of President, he as persistently refused. 
 When urged to make the Tuileries the seat of the Pro- 
 visional Government, he replied, " The citizens to whom 
 power has been momentarily entrusted have no palaces 
 save their own homes." And the unselfish consideration 
 for others, of which Mr. Greville quotes instances, was with 
 him a matter of course. At nightfall, on the 25th of 
 February, after sixty hours of continuous strain and fatigue, 
 he went, disguised and on foot, to the house of M. de 
 Montalivet, known to be one of the most devoted adherents 
 of the house of Orleans, to find out from him in what way 
 it would be possible to assist those members of the Royal 
 family who had not crossed the frontier. MM. Dargaud 
 and de Chamborand were then sent on special missions 
 for the purpose, while means were found to convey to M. 
 Guizot, who was still in hiding, the sum of fifteen thousand 
 francs. 
 
303 ) 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 March, April, May, 1848. 
 
 It was not till several days after his assumption of office 
 that Lamartine was able to give his attention to the de- 
 partment allotted to him, and take possession of the Hotel 
 des Affaires Etrangeres. The apartments of M. Guizot 
 seemed still tenanted by his shade. The room, the table 
 scattered over with papers, showed how unexpected had 
 been the departure of the minister who thought he was 
 leaving his house but for a moment, when in reality he 
 had left it for ever. Lamartine had asked a person in M. 
 Guizot's confidence to accompany him, and to remove all 
 the private documents and papers, as well as anything that 
 could be of interest or value to M. Guizot or to any of his 
 family, and, with characteristic delicacy of feeling, would 
 not occupy any of the private apartments till this had 
 been done at leisure, but had mattresses laid down in the 
 reception rooms for himself and his attendants. 
 
 The greater part of the first night spent under a roof 
 which hitherto had brought no good fortune to its in- 
 mates was passed, he tells us, in reflecting on the attitude 
 the Government should take with regard to external 
 relations. A warlike policy would much diminish the 
 
304 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 present difficulties of the Government, and make them 
 very popular : but Lamartine had too strong a sense of the 
 horrors and losses of war to allow such a consideration to 
 weigh with him for an instant ; his firm resolution was, 
 to do all in his power to preserve the peace of Europe 
 unbroken as long as the honour of France permitted 
 it. The difficulty lay in the fear and mistrust which 
 recollections of the first Republic revived in all the conti- 
 nental nations, at a moment when the strained, excited 
 state of public feeling in France was adding tenfold to the 
 national susceptibility. 
 
 The only foreign minister with whom Lamartine had 
 as yet any personal intercourse was the English ambassador, 
 with whom, ever since he had known him at Florence, he 
 had remained on terms of intimacy, and who, the day 
 before, had paid him an unofficial visit at his private 
 residence to congratulate him on the services he had 
 rendered to his country. Lamartine received Lord Nor- 
 manby with much cordiality, and said at once frankly that 
 his first desire was the development of the English alliance, 
 that all his efforts would be directed to that object, for he 
 felt that in doing this he would be promoting the only true 
 interests of France. With reference to foreign politics, 
 Lamartine went on to say there had been at first much 
 excitement on the question of the frontiers, and the war of 
 1815, and that an idea had begun to prevail that a war of 
 revolutionary propagandism should now be undertaken. 
 This feeling he had succeeded in calming, and had been 
 careful to insert in the circular to the corps diplomatique he 
 was about to issue, a paragraph to the effect that the 
 position of France in Europe remained the same, though 
 
1848.] HE SEES LORD NORMANBY. 305 
 
 the form of her internal government might change. He 
 added they had no desire to attack any one, and that he 
 was prepared to give any guarantee against such intention, 
 but that if any weaker State be attacked they would feel it 
 a duty to support it ; otherwise they would look to the 
 force of intelligence, not to the force of arms, for the 
 progress of liberal ideas. 
 
 A few days later, Lamartine, who was anxious to obtain 
 some outward expression of support from the English 
 Government, saw Lord Normanby again. The diplomatic 
 etiquette which made it impossible to accredit an am- 
 bassador to a Government which had neither the wish nor 
 the pretension to be anything but provisional, created a 
 difficulty which Lamartine regretted, not, he explained, as 
 far as he himself was concerned, but because the French 
 people always required something of show, and that any 
 act which could have proved that the cordial co-operation 
 of England was secured, would have been of immense 
 value. Lord Normanby convinced Lamartine, "who," he 
 remarks, " was very reasonable on the subject," that there 
 was no difference between the two countries, save in the 
 observance on the part of England of established forms, 
 and that Lamartine could use in any way he pleased the 
 fact that the sentiments of admiration for his conduct, and 
 the desire to cultivate friendly relations with France ex- 
 pressed by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, 
 had been personally communicated to him by the am- 
 bassador. 
 
 On the 3rd of March, Lamartine brought Lord 
 Normanby a summary of his circular to the European 
 Powers, which had been discussed the previous day in 
 
 x 
 
306 LAMART1NE. [1848. 
 
 Council, expressing infinite regret at the allusion it con- 
 tained to the treaties of 1815, allusions which he himself 
 had been anxious to omit. But the feeling which existed 
 on the subject in France was so strong as to make it j 
 imperative for him not to pass over the manner in which j 
 they had been violated at pleasure by the other Powers, I 
 and to deny that France was bound, as a matter of right, to 
 observe them. This, however, was moderated by an accom- 
 panying expression of readiness to maintain the existing I 
 territorial arrangements, laying down as a precept that 
 they were only to be modified by negotiation, and with the 
 consent of all parties. The conversation then turned on the 
 fate of the King, who was still weather-bound in conceal- j 
 ment at Havre, and for whom Lamartine manifested much ] 
 concern. This led Lord Normanby to speak of the condition 
 of the Royal family, especially as regarded their property. 
 
 Lamartine replied at once that he was glad of the 
 opportunity of giving an assurance that if, at the first 
 moment of excitement, there had been question of confisca- 
 tion, there did not really exist any such intention, especially 
 as regarded the private property of the House of Orleans, j 
 All had been sequestrated for the present, with the view of 
 making a careful distinction as to what might be said to 
 belong to the State. Lamartine had even succeeded in 
 obtaining from his colleagues a written promise to place 
 a million of francs at once at the disposal of the King, but 
 before this could be carried out there was such increased j 
 distress among all classes, mingled with fear that the com- 
 mercial credit of France would be sensibly afTected by the 
 unavoidable stoppage in public payments, that no one 
 could venture to send any money placed under official | 
 
 
1848.] FOREIGN RELATIONS. 30/ 
 
 charge out of the country ; the notice of such an incident 
 in the papers would have upset the Government, while it 
 was equally impossible to do it without publicity, and Lord 
 Normanby, anxious as he was to do all in his power for the 
 exiled Royalities, forbore to press it. 
 
 The circular just alluded to was published on the 6th of 
 March, and received " by France with applause, by Europe 
 with respect." Lamartine's next step was to reorganize 
 the diplomatic corps so that it should fairly represent the 
 new order. As it would have been a manifest contradiction 
 for a Provisional Government to assume the state and 
 authority of established ones, it was thought best to 
 employ simple ministers instead of ambassadors, except at 
 Rome, where, as a special mark of respect to the Supreme 
 Pontiff, M. d'Harcourt, distinguished by his ancient lineage 
 and great personal dignity, was sent as ambassador. In 
 London, the acting secretary of legation, M. de Jarnac, was 
 asked to continue at his post, but he, being honoured by 
 the personal friendship of the exiled Princes, begged to 
 be replaced, and M. de Talleney went in his stead. M. de 
 Lesseps was sent to Madrid, M. Thiard to Berne ; but at 
 Vienna and St. Petersburg, the two courts most unfriendly 
 to the Republic, it was thought best to leave the post of 
 minister vacant, the secretaries transacting all necessary 
 business. 
 
 In all these appointments, Lamartine is allowed to have 
 shown the tact and discretion of a man accomplished in 
 diplomatic usage ; still it occasionally transpired that in his 
 foreign policy he was not exempt from the weakness which 
 diminishes his value as a historian — he was too ready to 
 take on trust any report that attracted his sympathies. Of 
 
308 LA MAR TINE. [1848. 
 
 this, M. de Circourt, sent by him as minister to Berlin, 
 gives an amusing illustration. In imparting his final 
 instructions, Lamartine outlined the tendencies of Prussian 
 diplomacy, and the courses the minister had better pursue. 
 The King was to be encouraged in his efforts to gain over 
 the minor States and detach them from Austria — the State 
 looked on as the most dangerous enemy of France. " The 
 most important person at the Court of Berlin," Lamartine 
 proceeded to explain, " is the wife of the heir to the Crown. 
 She is a charming brunette, vivacious, spirituelle, already 
 well-disposed to France. Make yourself agreeable to her. 
 It will be for the interest of France." M. de Circourt, a 
 brilliant type of the Parisian jeimesse dorte, set off well 
 pleased with his mission, and eager to behold this charm- 
 ing " Queen Mab of the Borussians." One can picture his 
 dismay when, at his first audience, he found himself in the 
 majestic presence of the great lady now styled the Empress 
 Augusta ! 
 
 Another anecdote of Lamartine's official experiences 
 used to be afterwards repeated with much enjoyment in 
 M. Guizot's circle at Val Richer. When Lamartine was in 
 power, it was said, he used to jot down indiscriminately 
 hints for his poems and hints for his administration. On 
 a paper, containing among other things a list of PreYets, 
 was found the word David. The name appeared therefore 
 in the Moniteur Officiel, but as no one knew anything of 
 the newly appointed prefet, Lamartine's secretary came to 
 ask him for M. David's address. Lamartine was sorely 
 puzzled. The name was certainly in his writing, but how 
 it came there he could not tell. At last he recollected that 
 he had put it down as a memorandum of some allusion to 
 
 
1848.] FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. 309 
 
 the Royal Prophet, to be introduced in a " Meditatipn," 
 So another notice appeared in the Moniteur, nominating 
 
 M. A. B , in the place of M. David, " appele a d'autres 
 
 fonctions." For any friend of Lamartine to have recalled 
 that his latest " Meditation " was written years before, would 
 have been perfectly useless ; the story was far too good to 
 be discredited on such trivial grounds. 
 
 Meanwhile, financial difficulties beset the Government 
 on all sides. The panic caused by the Revolution, spread- 
 ing throughout the country, had stopped traffic, save in the 
 actual necessaries of life ; and even in these consumption 
 was reduced to the lowest point possible, the octroi of 
 Paris falling to nearly one-half. It seemed as if coin 
 would soon cease to circulate. At first the difficulty was 
 met by a decree postponing for a month the payment of 
 all bills falling due between the 25th of February and the 
 15th of March, but as this raised a clamour among the 
 holders of securities, it had to be followed by another 
 anticipating the payment of Government bonds. This 
 only made matters worse, and the Minister of Finance, 
 M. Gondchaux, had to resign. He was replaced by 
 Garnier-Pages, who, seeing that the situation was becoming 
 absolutely desperate, and that in a few days the Bank of 
 France would be entirely drained of specie, stopped all 
 cash payments, and issued notes to the amount of 
 ;£ 1 8,000,000 sterling. At the same time the greatest 
 efforts were made by the Government to sustain credit ; 
 discount banks and loan banks were established all over 
 the country, by means of which the Government advanced 
 large sums. It was necessary to provide for this immense 
 outlay, and as customs and export duties were almost 
 
310 LAMART1NE. [1848. 
 
 unproductive, the only way in which money could be 
 obtained was by raising the direct taxation forty-five per 
 cent. ; thus causing a degree of disappointment and indig- 
 nation of which it is difficult to convey a notion, especially 
 as the chief burden fell on the peasant proprietors, who 
 had hardly yet recovered from the distress caused by the 
 bad seasons of 1846- 1847. There was not, however, as 
 would have been the case in many other countries, the 
 least attempt at resistance. Many as had been the 
 shiftings of political power in France, her internal adminis- 
 tration, organized fifty years before by a master hand, 
 centred in the capital, radiating to the utmost bounds, still 
 retained its tremendous authority. A large accession of 
 revenue was at once obtained, and a crisis, which would 
 probably have resulted in anarchy, averted. 
 
 All was smooth on the surface, and, to outward seeming, 
 the establishment of the Republic on a durable basis was 
 becoming an accomplished fact. In his " Histoire de 
 1848," Lamartine describes in glowing colours those first 
 sunny days " when the Republic had no enemies, hardly 
 any unbelievers to contend with ; when those who had 
 shuddered at her name were gazing in astonishment at the 
 calm magnanimity, the harmony pervading everywhere. 
 The first programme of the new Government, the voluntary 
 respect of the people for authority, the patience of the 
 working-men, the charity of the rich, the serenity of all, 
 diffused over the first weeks of the Republic unclouded 
 radiance. The suffering classes were content to wait, 
 the affluent rejoiced in their unhoped-for security, opinions 
 the most adverse were being reconciled on the large 
 and common field of liberty, where all were welcome. 
 
1818.] A GOLDEN ERA. 3 I I 
 
 Even those who belonged to the vanquished party were 
 I grateful to the Government for the generosity with which 
 ( recriminations were silenced, proscriptions blotted out, and 
 the complete exercise of political rights thrown open to 
 all." And others were hardly less sanguine. M. de 
 Labonyale, writing of himself, says, " I looked forward with 
 confidence to a general disarmament, to peaceful progress, 
 and the coming triumph of liberty throughout the world. 
 Lamartine seemed to be realizing the Utopia of poets and 
 prophets, a new era in which Democracy would become 
 established without violence or bloodshed as the result of 
 a regular and apparently irresistible movement — 
 
 " ' La paix descendant sur la terre, 
 
 Semant de l'or, des fleurs, et des epis.' " 
 
 But this halcyon period was probably never as unclouded 
 in its actual present as it seemed in restrospect, and was, 
 even Lamartine admits, very brief. In summing up the 
 causes which deprived the Republic of 1848 of the crowning 
 grace of stability, he reckons first the intriguing, injudicious 
 action of the Radical section of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment, which the original defects of its constitution much 
 facilitated. It was almost inevitable that in an Executive 
 made up of men without administrative experience, without 
 the habit — so rarely acquired in mature life — of acting in 
 concert with others, each member should practically be 
 supreme in his own department. The divergence of action 
 which resulted, Lamartine gracefully veils in sonorous 
 phrases. " Unis dans les grandes tendences d'ordre et de 
 republicanisme, ils pouvaient diverger dans les details ; 
 chacun suivait son esprit et ne repondait qu'a sa conscience 
 et au salut de son pays." 
 
312 LA MAR TINE. ["1848. 
 
 But conscience and the public welfare are words which 
 admit of very various interpretation, and it soon became 
 manifest that Ledru-Rollin's reading of them was different 
 to that of his colleagues. A week's exercise of the functions 
 of Minister of the Interior showed him that the proximate 
 election was likely to return a large majority of deputies 
 who would strongly oppose the Radical section of the 
 Government, of which he was the leader. Accordingly he 
 sent down to the provinces four hundred commissioners 
 with ample salaries, in order to bring the constituencies to 
 the desired way of thinking. He issued his instructions to 
 them in the form of a circular letter, telling them that the 
 elections were to be their work, that their powers were 
 unlimited, that the Assembly must be animated by a 
 revolutionary spirit, and that, to effect this, new men must 
 be sought among the workmen and artisans, — thus initiating 
 a degree of interference with the freedom of election which, 
 had it been attempted by any previous Government, he 
 would justly have called the worst of tyrannies, and which 
 was entirely opposed to the views of his colleagues, who 
 only became aware of his proceedings from the disquietude 
 and irritation they excited. 
 
 Lord Normanby says that it was from him Lamartine 
 first received a copy of the Ministerial circular of the nth 
 of March. He was appalled by it, and, as he read, ex- 
 claimed repeatedly, " Tres mauvais / tres tnauvais ! He 
 wants to make Proconsuls, not Commissioners ! It is the 
 creation of an Electoral Dictatorship." 
 
 " I could not help," Lord Normanby goes on to say, 
 " telling M. de Lamartine I thought there could be no 
 duty more pressing on the leading member of a Govern- 
 
1848.] LEDRU-ROLLIN. 3 13 
 
 ment than not to allow such documents to go forth to the 
 public without his sanction." To which Lamartine replied, 
 " Que voulez-vous ? We have so much of such immediate 
 urgency." But he added that for the future he would 
 endeavour to watch these matters more closely, and that, 
 as to this mistake, he would correct it as far as lay in his 
 power. He could not, as a member of the Government, 
 publish a counter-manifesto, but he would to-morrow write 
 an address to his own department which should lay down 
 very different principles, and impose very different duties 
 on the electors. 
 
 A few days later Lord Normanby writes, " This Lamar- 
 tine did ; and again, a few days later, when a deputation 
 came to the H6tel de Ville to express the consternation 
 with which all sober citizens had been seized on reading 
 the alarming circular, Lamartine replied, ' The Provisional 
 Government has authorized no one to speak to the nation 
 in its name, and least of all to speak in language which 
 overrides the laws. The Government, recognizing freedom 
 of opinion, repudiates that worst of corruption, intimidation. 
 It has deliberately resolved not to interfere, either directly 
 or indirectly, in the elections. I trust public opinion will 
 be reassured, and not take in an alarming sense some words 
 indiscriminately used by ministers who often attach their 
 signatures in haste.' " 
 
 The effect produced by this energetic disclaimer was so 
 great that it was at first thought impossible M. Ledru- 
 Rollin could remain member of the Government. A 
 report prevailed, during a part of the day, that he had 
 resigned, and the funds at once rose four per cent. Un- 
 fortunately for his colleagues, M. Ledru-Rollin, if he had 
 
314 LAMAR TINE. [ 1 s 1 s. 
 
 not many gifts, possessed that of accommodating himself 
 to circumstances. He signed a paper prepared by Lamar- 
 tine, pledging the Government to resist all unnecessary 
 postponement of the elections, and remained at his 
 post. 
 
 " An increased gloom," writes Lord Normanby, under 
 the date of March I ith, " has, within the last three or four 
 days, been gathering over the political horizon ; every one 
 now talks with more despondency of the future, all speakers 
 beginning with, ' If we reach the National Assembly ? ' One 
 of the grounds of doubt certainly is the financial convulsion, 
 which has been much aggravated by panic, though most 
 serious in itself. Accumulating ruin is every day over- 
 whelming thousands, and will, before many months are 
 over, indirectly affect millions. This is, of course, calculated 
 to increase the pressure and double the danger of any 
 political crisis. The aspect of affairs is also threatening in 
 this respect — there is a decided schism in the Provisional 
 Government ; and yet, unless dissolved by some violent 
 expulsion, they must continue nominally to work together 
 till the National Assembly meets, being all equally sup- 
 posed to owe their power to a spontaneous emanation of 
 the popular will. The state of the case I take to be this : 
 the moderate party in the Government, to which the great 
 body of the nation are looking as their only safety, is led 
 by M. de Lamartine, who, as yet, has been backed by the 
 majority of the other members. The disposition of this 
 majority is still supposed to be good, but there are doubts 
 as to the courage of several, should the pressure from 
 without become intense. The great point in dispute at 
 this moment is whether or not the elections should be 
 
1848.] ROCKS AHEAD. 3 J 5 
 
 postponed ; this step is strongly advocated by M. Ledru- 
 Rollin, M. Louis Blanc, and M. Albert. Ledru-Rollin, the 
 nominal head of this party, is a man of no great capacity, 
 and of not undoubted moral courage, but a regular mob 
 orator of ruined fortunes, who is desirous, as long as he 
 can, to retain his present power, and quite bold enough to 
 attempt anything, providing he feels himself backed by 
 a multitude. The Jacobin clubs and the Communists are 
 said to form a very small proportion of the people of Paris, 
 but they are armed and organized, and one cannot but fear 
 they would be joined in any demonstration by the many 
 thousands of workmen out of employment. The general 
 feeling of the country is sound, but there exists no com- 
 bined object. They desire to resist what they dread, but 
 they have no rallying point. They cannot cordially support 
 a Government most of whose acts they disapprove ; and 
 they cannot conscientiously take for a leader a man who 
 himself is, though often unconsciously, a party to those 
 very acts. Lamartine is this very day prepared .to resist 
 with energy the demand that will be made at the Hotel de 
 Ville, by an overwhelming multitude, for the adjournment 
 of the elections, with the almost avowed purpose of 
 arranging machinery to tyrannize over the provinces. He 
 will there probably prevail by his eloquence and by his 
 firmness, but he unfortunately has not all the qualities 
 required to trace out the underplots by which his colleagues 
 endeavour to circumvent him. All at this moment depends 
 on the spirit and the resolution of the National Guard. It 
 happens that the time of the annual election of the officers 
 was fixed for next Saturday. Arrangements have been 
 made which, in most of the legions, would have ensured 
 
3 1 6 LA MARTINE. [1848 
 
 a very fair selection ; but the violent party wanted tc 
 swamp the original regiments with the recent admissions 
 and, in order that more of the working classes might enro 
 themselves, they have obtained four days' delay, nominall) 
 on the ground of giving time to fuse the flank companies 
 which have been dissolved into the others. The dissolutior 
 of the flank companies was in reality an insidious design tc 
 destroy their efficiency, and the effect of this measure wa: 
 not sufficiently foreseen by Lamartine, and has disgustec 
 four and twenty thousand of the best-disposed and mos 
 resolute men." 
 
 On the 1 6th of March, a large representative body o 
 the National Guard marched in procession to the Hotel d< 
 Ville, in order to lay their grievances before the Govern 
 ment. Many of the companies were intercepted on th< 
 quays by crowds of workmen partially armed, and obligee 
 to turn back. Those who made their way were addressee 
 by M. Marrast, the Mayor of Paris, and subsequently b] 
 Lamartine, who told them their conduct would serve a: 
 an encouragement to those who were endeavouring, b) 
 threatening demonstrations, to overawe the Government 
 and exhorted them to sacrifice their personal feelings t< 
 the vital interests of the country. M. Maxime du Camp 
 who was serving as a private in the ranks, says this advice 
 which, in his opinion, amounted to an intimation that wha 
 was allowable in every one else was forbidden to a Nationa 
 Guard, was not well received. Some ardent spirits proposec 
 that they should seize the Hotel de Ville, and throw th< 
 Provisional Government out of the windows ; but coole 
 heads suggested an immediate return to the barracks, whicl 
 wiser counsel prevailed; and so ended the "manifestation o 
 
1848.] DEMONSTRATION OF MARCH lyTH. 3 17 
 
 the beavers," as, from the head-gear of the flank companies, 
 it was facetiously called. 
 
 But the day following, March 17th, was one of real 
 anxiety and danger. For some time a great demonstration 
 had been in preparation, with the object of forcing on the 
 Government laws equalizing the rate of wages, and pro- 
 viding employment to all, which the Commission for the 
 Organization of Labour, then sitting at the Luxembourg, 
 had been for some time promising. With these demands 
 were coupled others for the postponement of the elections, 
 inspired by Louis Blanc, from the wish to see Socialism 
 fully established before the National Assembly met ; by 
 Ledru-Rollin, because he feared that, without some great 
 additional stimulus, the elections would result in the 
 triumph of the reactionary party. But, unknown to these 
 two leaders, other yet more reckless and ambitious spirits 
 were purposing to take advantage of the projected move- 
 ment ; the clubs were at work, rousing the whole of the 
 proletariat, in order to effect a demonstration which might 
 not merely coerce the Provisional Government, but com- 
 pletely overthrow it. 
 
 From an early hour, crowds began to gather on the 
 Boulevards and in the adjoining streets. By noon, a multi- 
 tude, said to number over a hundred thousand men, was 
 advancing towards the Hotel de Ville, which was only 
 defended by three battalions of the Civic Guard. Beyond 
 closing the outer gates, no defence was attempted. When 
 the heads of the columns were first seen from the upper 
 windows of the Hotel de Ville, Ledru-Rollin and Louis 
 Blanc scarcely tried to conceal their triumph. " When 
 I saw the people advancing," wrote the latter, " tears of 
 
318 LA MAR TINE. [184* 
 
 joy stood in my eyes." And Ledru-Rollin, in the excite 
 ment of approaching triumph, is said — though Lamartin 
 does not mention the incident — to have turned to hi 
 colleagues, exclaiming, " Do you know that your popularit; 
 is as nothing compared to mine? I have only to open thi 
 window, and call to the people, and you would all b 
 turned into the street. Do you wish me to try ? " Upoi 
 this, Garnier-Pages walked up to him, drew a pistol fron 
 his pocket, and placed it against Ledru-Rollin's breasi 
 saying, " If you take one step towards that window, it sha] 
 be your last." Ledru-Rollin looked daggers, paused 
 moment, and then sat down. A few minutes later, th 
 mob was thundering at the gate ; at first, admittance wa 
 refused, but after some parleying it was conceded to ; 
 limited number of delegates. The gate being opened 
 there rushed in sufficient numbers to fill the whole build 
 ing, the leaders making their way to the Council Chamber 
 
 The first glance at their faces entirely changed th< 
 attitude of the Radical section of the Government. Ii 
 addition to the men they expected, and whom they knev 
 to be in their interest, Louis Blanc and Ledru-Rollin founc 
 themselves face to face with Blanqui, Cabet, Raspail, anc 
 their followers, men personally unknown to them, bu 
 notorious from the violence of their opinions, — " Figure: 
 inconnues," writes Louis Blanc, " et dont l'expression avai 
 quelque chose de sinistre." 
 
 It was evident that the demonstration was led by th< 
 party of violence, and directed quite as much agains 
 Louis Blanc and Ledru-Rollin as against Lamartine anc 
 Garnier-Pages. Their demands, formulated by Blanqui 
 were — the postponement of the elections, the immediate 
 
1848.1 FIRMNESS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 319 
 
 and final removal of all troops from Paris, the implicit 
 obedience of the Government to the voice of the people, 
 as expressed by the clubs — in short, entire surrender to 
 the scum of the Parisian populace, ending in an imperative 
 demand for an immediate answer, made more emphatic by 
 the menacing strains of the " Marseillaise " rising in chorus 
 from the court below, and by the band of powerful, 
 determined men, numbering some eight hundred, who 
 crowded the building from basement to mansarde, seem- 
 ingly waiting for the signal to exterminate the Provisional 
 Government, who, unarmed and defenceless as they were, 
 constituted all that remained of political authority in 
 France. They, however, seeing their existence was at 
 stake, were firm ; a sense of common danger produced a 
 unanimity which surprised and disconcerted their foes. 
 Louis Blanc openly condemned the movement he himself 
 had originated ; and Ledru-Rollin spoke yet more emphati- 
 cally, and with ready, nervous elocution. 
 
 Lamartine's courage and eloquence were more than 
 equal to the occasion, and after some hours of angry dis- 
 cussion, the deputation, wearied and baffled, began to shift 
 their ground. " Be assured," said one of the speakers, " the 
 people have no other wish than to strengthen the Govern- 
 ment." " I quite believe you," replied Lamartine ; ** but 
 remember, demonstrations such as these, admirable as they 
 are, become dangerous ; the 18 Brumaire of the people 
 may lead to the 18 Brumaire of a despot, and neither you 
 nor I wish that." 
 
 These words told, and Sobrier and Cabet, who were to 
 some degree supported by Barbes, gave the signal of retreat, 
 to which Blanqui and his friends had reluctantly to submit, 
 
320 LAMARTINE. [1841 
 
 not without taunts levelled at Louis Blanc, on whose oppo- 
 sition to his colleagues they had counted. One of the 
 delegates, turning back, hissed out with a menacing 
 gesture, " So ycu, too, are a traitor ! " 
 
 A manifesto, drawn up by Lamartine, in which the 
 demands of the populace were decisively refused, was 
 unanimously signed and placarded, the mob, apparently 
 indifferent, quietly dispersing. But though, by their un- 
 looked-for union, the Government had surmounted an> 
 immediate danger, the manifestation of the 17th of March 
 produced a deep impression on the public ; it was felt thai 
 in the last three days a rapid retrogression towards anarchy 
 had been effected. " Encore un pas," writes Count Mole 
 "et nous sommes en plein '93." " And," added others, "in 
 the Convention there was indeed personal insecurity, 
 arising from capricious cruelty, but there was at any rate 
 a strong will which made a Government. Now all con- 
 fidence is crumbling away, there is no credit, no employ- 
 ment, no money, no physical force anywhere save in the 
 masses." 
 
 No one felt this more deeply than Lamartine. Early 
 in the morning of the 18th of March, he tells us, he 
 returned home anxious and dejected ; for he saw clearly 
 that he and his colleagues had no longer to deal with the 
 turbulent and emotional multitude of the first previous 
 weeks, that had been swayed by his eloquence and dis- 
 armed by his self-devotion, but with an army of prole Haires, 
 disciplined and organized by able, unscrupulous leaders, 
 who, if they had for once been disconcerted by not meeting 
 the aid they had counted on within the citadel, would 
 quickly recruit their forces and return to the assault. Still, 
 
1848.] DISTRIBUTION OF TROOPS. 321 
 
 he did not despair of the Republic. Many indications 
 showed that, despite Ledru-Rollin's commissioners and 
 circulars, the provinces might be relied on to return 
 moderate members in sufficient numbers to outvote the 
 Socialists of the town, and that their support would give 
 to the Executive the strength of legality. The question 
 was how to tide over the period intervening till the 4th of 
 May, which, from the enormous labour required in pre- 
 paring the lists of voters, was the earliest date at which the 
 new Chamber could assemble. 
 
 The unfortunate concession made by Louis Philippe, in 
 consenting to send away almost : the entire garrison of 
 Paris, could not easily be revoked by the Provisional 
 Government. But Lamartine had done much to strengthen 
 the army, and, acting as Minister of Foreign Affairs, in- 
 sisted on the collecting of large forces on the Italian and 
 Swiss frontiers ; the corps on which he relied chiefly being, 
 however, massed round Lille under the command of 
 General Negrier. Still anything likely to lead to a military 
 despotism would have been in contradiction to Lamartine's 
 whole previous career, certain not to be resorted to by him 
 save in the last extremity. He based his hopes chiefly on 
 the influence he was able to exercise on the people and on 
 individuals. 
 
 As far as his position permitted, he was in communi- 
 cation with the leaders of all parties and all factions. 
 Careless of personal danger, he laboured night and day to 
 become known to those most bitterly opposed to him, and 
 forced them, against their wills, to believe in his sincerity and 
 patriotism. His ready eloquence and the singular charm 
 of his manner were powerful auxiliaries, and if his success 
 
 Y 
 
322 LAMARTINE. [1848 
 
 was not always as great as his sanguine, sympathetic 
 temperament led him to suppose, it was sufficient to draw 
 on him the hatred of the Reds, " who bitterly denounced 
 him," writes Lord Normanby, " as ' the man whose egregious 
 popularity, produced by his writings and power of public 
 speaking, is no longer to be borne by those who value 
 their liberties. Will you submit to him ? Do you expecl 
 him to submit to you ? If not, what remains but to take 
 his life ? ' It is impossible," the ambassador goes on to say 
 " not to feel that the present position of M. de Lamartine 
 is now, and must remain for some weeks, one of great 
 danger. He does not himself seem to expect deliberate 
 assassination, as the reaction would be dreaded ; but there 
 is a plan to overpower the guard of the Hotel des Affaires 
 Etrangeres, and shut him up in one of the fortresses." 
 
 Of the other members of the Council, the most zealous 
 in the cause of order were MM. Marie and Marrast, whc 
 undertook to organize such elements of resistance as there 
 were in the bourgeoisie and better class of artisans, and tc 
 soothe the discontented spirits of the National Guard, whose 
 adhesion to the Government, after their recent rebuff, could 
 not be considered certain. The Minister of the Interior, 
 supposed to be the guardian of public safety, was, on the 
 contrary, growing more and more erratic in his line ol 
 conduct. Elected by the department of Sarthe after the 
 premature death of the elder Gamier- Pages in 1842, Ledru- 
 Rollin, a man of vigorous physique, considerable fluency 
 of speech, and untiring energy, had quickly risen to the 
 position of a leader in the second rank of the popular 
 movement. Lamartine had an amount of indulgence and 
 liking for him which has always remained a problem. 
 
1848.] LEDRU-ROLLIN. $2$ 
 
 Probably Ledru-Rollin's immense capacity for work, 
 coupled with a sort of good-humoured simplicity of 
 character, and a readiness to repent which almost kept 
 pace with his proneness to blunder, had something to do 
 with it. When he first came to the Ministry of the 
 Interior, he seemed, even more than his colleagues, absorbed 
 in anxiety to bring his department at once back to ordinary 
 working order. The first edict he sent forth, announcing 
 that the Exhibition of Sculpture would open as usual on 
 the 15th of April, caused some amusement. But, unused 
 to power, he was susceptible to flattery, and speedily fell 
 a victim to influences which might have turned a much 
 stronger head. 
 
 At the first tocsin of the Revolution, Madame Georges 
 Sand had hastened to Paris, and quickly became the central 
 figure of a talented and powerful coterie, which had as its 
 organ the weekly paper, La Cause du Peuple. M. Ledru- 
 Rollin was among the frequenters of Madame Sand's circle, 
 and very soon the documents emanating from the Ministere 
 de lTnteVieur bore clear evidence of the style of the most 
 accomplished writer of the day ; while in the milieu 
 politique, of which she held the threads, M. Ledru-Rollin 
 was hailed as future President of the French Republic. 
 
 As far as the tangled web can now be unravelled, it 
 appears that the Socialist leaders suggested to M. Ledru- 
 Rollin the remodelling of the Executive, to which, as long 
 as he believed himself sure of the post of leader, he did not 
 object, and he accordingly — notwithstanding the severe 
 lesson he had received in the demonstration of the 17th of 
 March — paid little attention to the notices he received that 
 a still larger one of the most dangerous kind was projected 
 
324 LAMARTINE. [1848 
 
 for the 1 6th of April. But at a meeting which took plac< 
 on the night of the 14th, he found that he was expected t( 
 divide his power with Blanqui, who, it was known, wouk 
 shrink at nothing — least of all at betraying a colleague 
 Ledru-Rollin's courage failed him, and after spending th< 
 remainder of the night in agonies of indecision, he resolvec 
 to throw himself on Lamartine's mercy and reveal every 
 thing. Accordingly he rushed into his room at break o 
 day, exclaiming, " We are lost ! A hundred thousand men 
 led by Blanqui, are marching on the Hotel de Ville 
 They are making use of my name, but I utterly renounce 
 them, and am ready to fight against them by your side 
 I am not, I have never been, a traitor ! " 
 
 " Then there is not a moment to lose," was Lamartine'' 
 reply ; and he at once suggested that Ledru-Rollin shoulc 
 order the rappel to beat for the muster of the Nationa 
 Guard, while he himself started off to summon three 
 battalions of the Garde Mobile, which he knew were read) 
 for action, to defend the Hotel de Ville. 
 
 Having done this, Lamartine, perhaps not altogethei 
 trusting his colleague, went himself to the head-quarters o 
 the National Guard. General Courtais, who was in com 
 mand, refused to believe in the danger or to beat the rappet 
 In vain Lamartine stormed and threatened. At last, finding 
 he was losing valuable time, he went to join Marrast at the 
 Hdtel de Ville. 
 
 The situation was most critical. Already the insurgent' 
 were gathering in numbers, and twelve hundred Gardes 
 Mobile were the only troops available. But a happ) 
 accident brought unexpected aid. General Changarnier 
 who had just been appointed to a foreign mission, callec 
 
M8] RISING OF AFRIL \6TH. 325 
 
 :hat morning to receive his last instructions from Lamartine, 
 ind hearing from Madame de Lamartine, who was in 
 terrible anxiety on her husband's account, of the critical 
 tate of things at the Hotel de Ville, hastened there at 
 once. He afterwards told Lord Normanby, that he found 
 Marrast, as might be expected of a man who had only 
 wielded pens all his life, as white as the paper he was in 
 the habit of spoiling ; Lamartine, prepared for the worst, 
 but perfectly cool and collected. Changarnier, when the 
 situation was explained to him, joined Lamartine in per- 
 suading Marrast that it was his duty, as Mayor of Paris, to 
 call out the National Guard when the safety of the town 
 was threatened. Marrast acquiesced, and Changarnier 
 then took the direction of the defence, wisely withdrawing 
 his handful of troops within the building, which he strongly 
 barricaded. 
 
 " If you can answer for three hours," Lamartine said to 
 him, " we are safe." 
 
 " I can answer for seven hours," was Changarnier's reply. 
 At the end of about two hours the insurgents began to 
 file into the Place du Greve in considerable numbers, and 
 with an evident determination to proceed at once to 
 extremities. Fortunately, before they could begin the 
 attack, a body of volunteers, entering the Place on the 
 opposite side, got between them and the building, and 
 with great courage and determination kept them at bay. 
 The odds were overwhelming, and for a moment it seemed 
 as if all were lost, when the glitter of bayonets was seen 
 on the quays, a strong detachment of the National Guard 
 came down at a brisk run, hemming in one body of 
 insurgents, and soon dispersing the rest. Their numbers 
 
326 LAMARTINE. [1*48 
 
 increasing every moment, they spread like an inundatioi 
 over the surrounding streets, and for a moment the triumpl 
 of the party of order was complete. 
 
 Lamartine and Marrast received an ovation whicl 
 lasted for hours, during which they were rejoined by thei 
 colleagues. Garnier-Pages was cordial and sympathetic 
 Albert and Louis Blanc visibly disconcerted ; Cremieu> 
 went to and fro, alternately condoling with them or con 
 gratulating Changarnier on the events of the day, whil< 
 Ledru-Rollin's happy temperament enabled him — though 
 really more to blame than any one — to rejoice unfeignedl) 
 in his reconciliation with Lamartine, and forget all thai 
 had passed. 
 
 The short space that intervened before the meeting 
 of the Assembly was got over smoothly ; the manifestation 
 of Conservative feeling which the late events evoked, was 
 taken advantage of by Lamartine to get the consent of the 
 other members of the Government to bring back as many 
 regular troops to Paris as would at least make a coup de 
 main on the part of the Socialists impossible. On the 
 20th of April, the distribution of the Republican colours tc 
 the Garde Mobile and to the National Guard of Paris and 
 the surrounding towns was made the occasion of an 
 immense review. The march past the Arc de l'Etoile, 
 where the Members of the Provisional Government had 
 taken their station, lasted from eight in the morning till 
 eleven at night, and fifty thousand men had to wait till the 
 morrow. Lamartine's description of the day, which he 
 looked on as one of the brightest of his life, is glowing. 
 Contrary to the expectations of many, the troops were 
 extremely well received by the populace ; the soldiers' 
 
1848.] RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS. 327 
 
 bayonets were decorated with ribbons ; the touch-holes of 
 the cannon wreathed with flowers ; joy and enthusiasm 
 prevailed everywhere. 
 
 The elections took place throughout the whole of 
 France on Easter Day, and — save at Rouen, where, without 
 much apparent reason, the troops shot fifty of the mob 
 dead in a single volley — there was no disturbance. The 
 difficulty seems to have been to get the working classes, 
 whose enfranchisement had been the chief excuse for the 
 Revolution, to take any interest in the matter. In many 
 places the practical side of the French character was 
 curiously illustrated. The peasants, who had been fur- 
 nished with lists, took them to any neighbour they respected, 
 to have the names of the richest candidates pointed out, 
 as they wished to choose the people most likely to be 
 useful to them. In other districts, the electors came in 
 bands to the notary of the nearest village, asking to have 
 lists made out for them, as they were going to exercise 
 their new right of voting. On being asked- what names 
 should be put down, they replied they did not care in the 
 least. In Paris, however, the electors showed themselves 
 rather disposed to resist dictation. Louis Blanc and his 
 friends prepared a list for the diffusion of Socialist prin- 
 ciples, prefaced with the names of twenty-four working 
 men. Of the thirty-six candidates they proposed, thirty- 
 two were defeated. 
 
 Generally speaking, however, the towns returned men 
 of extreme democratic opinions ; the provinces men of some 
 local celebrity, who, though nominally Republicans, were 
 known to be inclined to check the ultra-revolutionary 
 movement, — thus establishing between the rural and urban 
 
328 LAMARTINE. [1848 
 
 constituencies a line of demarcation which, if broadened 
 and deepened, must inevitably prove fatal to the Republic 
 Still the prevailing feeling was one of thankfulness thai 
 the long period of suspense and anxiety was over, though 
 even to the eve of the day fixed for the opening of the 
 Assembly, warnings and letters came in to Lamartine from 
 all sides, telling him that blood would flow before the 
 National Assembly would be suffered to meet. As to his 
 own fate, it was said that hundreds of fanatics were pledged 
 to proclaim the triumph of Socialism over his corpse. " It 
 may be so," was his reply, " but at the present hour France 
 is safe. Her choice is made, the names of her representa- 
 tives are known. If the present Government were over- 
 turned, these men will come from the provinces backed by 
 legality, escorted by millions of armed citizens, and will 
 easily crush the dictatorship of a Committee of Public 
 Safety. And what matters it if I die, since the future of 
 France is secure ? " 
 
 Fortunately, these sinister predictions were not verified, 
 and on the 4th of May — the anniversary of the meeting of 
 the States-General in 1789 — the opening ceremony took 
 place. 
 
 " Never," writes Lamartine, " was the sovereign of a 
 great people installed with such majesty. The Govern- 
 ment, assembled at an early hour at the Ministry of 
 Justice, went on foot, preceded by the General of the 
 National Guard and his staff, passing between ranks lined 
 by two hundred thousand men ; every roof and window of 
 the quarter filled with people ; the air ringing with cries 
 and plaudits. Never did any Government make its entry 
 into a capital, preceded by the enthusiastic hopes of a 
 
1 1848.] OPENING OF THE ASSEMBLY. 329 
 
 people, with such echoing acclamations as this Government, 
 which in another hour would no longer exist, received ! Its 
 faults, its weaknesses, its illegality, its insufficiency, were 
 all forgotten ; only its efforts and its disinterestedness 
 remembered. There was no affectation of pomp or circum- 
 stance on the part of any of its members ; they were citizens 
 wearing the garb of everyday life, having the authority, but 
 none of the accessories of sovereignty. People pointed out 
 to each other Dupont de l'Eure in the post of honour ; next 
 to him Lamartine and Louis Blanc. They saw personified 
 in Arago the homage due to science and political capacity ; 
 in Garnier-Pages, antique probity and simplicity; Cremieux, 
 Marie, Marrast, were respected for their services ; Flocon, 
 Albert, Ledru-Rollin, names dear to Republicans of the 
 older school, 'whose hopes lay in their past and in their 
 future.' " 
 
 Lord Normanby and M. Maxime du Camp, also eye- 
 witnesses, are much more reserved, to say the least, in their 
 descriptions, but they unite in speaking of Lamartine, 
 whose striking personality and perfection of manner 
 enabled him to fill the most difficult positions with self- 
 possession and dignity, as the undisputed sovereign of the 
 hour, the rallying point of all enthusiasm, — the cries of 
 " Vive Lamartine ! " far outnumbering those of " Vive la 
 Republique." 
 
 As the former Chamber of Deputies was quite in- 
 adequate to receive the nine hundred members of the new 
 Assembly, a temporary construction had been erected 
 within the precincts of the Palais Bourbon, in which they 
 now mustered. Even to the critical eye of the English 
 ambassador, "the appearance of the deputies, as a body, 
 
3 30 LA MAR TINE. [1848) 
 
 was highly respectable, though there were among them 
 some strange figures and wild countenances." 
 
 The Legitimists were represented by Berryer, Falloux, 
 Larochejaquelin, and a good many ecclesiastics ; with the 
 solitary exception of M. Thiers, all the former " Opposition 
 dynastique " had returned ; of the supporters of the last 
 administration only the most prominently unpopular were 
 missed. " France," writes Lamartine, " showed she had the 
 genius of transition, the supreme tact of circumstance ; nor 
 were they proscribed, but only postponed." 
 
 It had been decreed the deputies should wear a special 
 costume, of which a " gilet a la Robespierre " was the most 
 conspicuous part. But they had the good sense to dis- 
 regard this injunction, and only Caussidiere appeared in 
 the prescribed dress. * However, piquant contrasts, both 
 political and social, were not wanting. There was Barbes 
 sitting beside his former judges, mingling his voice with 
 the voices of those who had condemned him to death ; two 
 Bonapartes were in close proximity to Larochejaquelin ; 
 sons of regicides elbowed sons of crusaders ; the white robe 
 of the Dominican Lacordaire gleamed like a mediaeval 
 vision beside the sombre garb of the Lutheran pastor, 
 Coquerel, and the black frock-coat of the Jew, Cremieux. 
 
 When, ushered in by a peal of cannon from the In- 
 valides, the Provisional Government entered, the deputies 
 rose at once to receive them, and the cry, " Vive le Gouverne- 
 ment Provisoire ! " echoed through the hall, proceeding, 
 according to some, from the whole Assembly, according to 
 others, only from the Left and the galleries. 
 
 After the speech with which they surrendered their 
 powers to the representatives of the nation had been read 
 
1848.] OPENING OF THE ASSEMBLY. 33 1 
 
 by M. Dupont, Lamartine, speaking in his colleagues' name 
 as well as his own, gave a detailed compte rendu of their 
 internal administration and external policy. Alluding to 
 the latter, he said with just pride, "We accept the whole 
 responsibility of the situation, and congratulate ourselves 
 at being able to appear before the representatives of the 
 nation with the greatness of France unimpaired, her hands 
 full of alliances, and unstained by human blood." He was 
 listened to with extreme favour. His concluding phrase, 
 " May the record of the three months which have elapsed 
 between the fall of the monarchy and the enthronement of 
 the Republic be deemed (though at an infinite distance 
 from other more glorious epochs), yet not an unworthy page 
 in the history of our beloved country, and may there be 
 written on that page, not the obscure and forgotten names 
 of men whose only merit is that they willingly efface them- 
 selves for the public welfare, but the name of the People 
 that has established, and of God who has blessed the 
 formation of the Republic," elicited enthusiastic applause. 
 
 The first serious business awaiting the Assembly was 
 to make some arrangement for the government of the 
 nation pending the formation of a new constitution. It 
 was the general wish and expectation, after the experience 
 of the evils of a divided executive, that a temporary dic- 
 tatorship should be established ; nor was there any doubt 
 that, in such case, Lamartine would be elected. But to 
 this he strongly opposed himself, throwing the whole of his 
 influence in favour of an Executive Commission of five 
 members, which was reluctantly voted. When the members 
 of this Commission came to be selected, a powerful political 
 group, inspired by M. Marrast, and called, from the news- 
 
332 LAMART1NE. [1848. 
 
 paper which was his organ, " Lc parti du National," 
 determined to exclude Ledru-Rollin, and with the support 
 of the provincial deputies, to whom the promulgator of 
 the Electoral Circulars was extremely obnoxious, they felt 
 sure of success. 
 
 Late in the debate Lamartine unexpectedly rose and 
 vehemently opposed the motion, giving it to be understood 
 that, if the Commission were formed on the principle of 
 excluding any of the members of the late Provisional 
 Government, he would not belong to it. Lamartine carried 
 his point, but at the cost of his own political future, the 
 Conservatives regarding him as a deserter. Their hostility 
 was shown in the division on the election of the Com- 
 mission, when his name came out fourth on the list. 
 
 " Causes of a very different character," writes Lord 
 Normanby, " combined to produce this result. Some of 
 the extreme party, who are opposed to the nomination of 
 a President in the future Republic, may have wished to 
 show there was no man whose pre-eminence pointed him 
 out peculiarly for the post ; but the principal cause of this 
 sudden fall was Lamartine's not having proved himself equal 
 to the occasion. . . . When, a few days ago, he volunteered 
 to speak confidentially to me of the course he meant to 
 pursue, though he did not then push the morbid sentiment 
 to the extent to which he subsequently put it in practice, 
 he talked of not making himself the instrument to undo his 
 colleagues. I told him frankly, as he mentioned this in 
 a manner to elicit an opinion, that whilst he must always 
 enjoy high favour from the varied exercise of his genius 
 which had made his name dear to all his contemporaries, 
 I could not but think at this moment that some portion of 
 
1848.] OPENING OF THE ASSEMBLY. 333 
 
 his popularity was owing to the conviction that he would 
 protect the country from those men whom all friends of 
 order dreaded, and that any apparent collusion with them 
 might shake the position which was so necessary to him in 
 facing the immense difficulties with which he had to con- 
 tend. M. de Lamartine seemed to feel, and to a certain 
 extent he admitted, the danger." 
 
 That Lamartine, never deficient in political sense, should 
 thus deliberately have laid out for himself, and despite all 
 warnings, persevered in a line of conduct by which he could 
 in no case have gained anything, and immediately lost so 
 much, has been treated by many historians as at once a 
 problem and a reproach. Yet his own explanation, of 
 which subsequent events proved both the accuracy and the 
 discernment, might well be deemed sufficient.* 
 
 The deputies returned by the provinces, mostly men of 
 the wealthier middle class, though nominally Republicans, 
 were avowedly anxious for the most Conservative form of 
 Government that could be established, and formed a strong 
 majority. But against them were arrayed the members for 
 Paris, and the other large towns, all holding extreme, even 
 violent Radical views, and these, if in a minority in the 
 Chamber, had with them the clubs, the hundred thousand 
 artisans in the Ateliers Nationaux, the Bonapartists, and 
 the Terrorists. The exclusion of Ledru-Rollin and Marie, 
 the only men they thoroughly trusted, would have driven 
 them to desperation, and brought on at once a sanguinary 
 struggle which the Party of Order was not yet prepared 
 
 * The suggestion, sometimes even now ignorantly repeated, that Ledru- 
 Rollin had in his hands a document proving that Lamartine had received from 
 Louis Philippe a considerable sum of money, is completely refuted in his 
 " Lettre aux dix departements." 
 
334 LAMART1NE. [1848. 
 
 to meet, and out of which, whatever the issue, would have 
 emerged a Republic either mutilated or disgraced — not 
 Lamartine's ideal Republic, free from the stain of blood 
 and the bar sinister of proscription. 
 
 But it was soon seen that the advanced section of the 
 Republicans were very far from considering the inclusion 
 of Ledru-Rollin and Marie in the Government a sufficient 
 concession. The leaders of the clubs, Blanqui, Raspail, and 
 Cabet, furious at not getting seats in the Assembly, turned 
 their energies to effecting a coalition with Louis Blanc and 
 Albert, who were known to be chagrined by their own 
 exclusion from the Executive Commission. It was not 
 easy to find ground on which two parties, so entirely 
 opposed in principles as the Communists and the Socialists, 
 could act openly in common. However, the happy ex- 
 pedient was hit on of a joint petition in favour of the 
 independence of Poland, coupled with a demand for the 
 immediate declaration of war with Germany, which, they 
 proclaimed, was to be presented by a hundred thousand 
 working men. The Assembly, feeling that a petition thus 
 presented was, as Lamartine phrased it, " not a petition, 
 but a menace," refused to receive it ; whereupon the clubs 
 and their allies resolved on a great demonstration for the 
 15th of May, with the avowed design of terrifying the 
 Assembly into submission. To meet it, the means of 
 resistance the Government now had at their disposal were 
 amply sufficient ; to secure the Palais Bourbon against 
 attack it only required, in the opinion of competent military 
 men, to station a moderate number of troops in the Place 
 and the streets leading to it. The General in command 
 of Paris and the Prefet de Police were accordingly sent for 
 
1848.] RISING OF MAY I $Tff. 335 
 
 and desired to mass, on the morning of the 15th of May, 
 twelve thousand troops round the palace, and place several 
 strong detachments of the National Guard along the 
 Boulevards. 
 
 Unfortunately, in order to keep the peace more easily, 
 the Provisional Government had resorted to the plan which 
 now figures as the last resource of civilization, but which 
 our ancestors used to describe by the homelier phrase of 
 " setting the wolves to guard the sheep." General Courtais 
 and M. Caussidiere's only claim to their respective posts 
 lay in their great popularity, and in moments of emergency 
 their chief care naturally was to avoid anything which 
 would impair it. When the morning of the 15th of May 
 came, Caussidiere sent word to the Executive Commission 
 that he was too ill to leave his house that day, but that 
 there was nothing in the state of Paris to justify the slightest 
 anxiety ; and General Courtais duly posted his troops as 
 directed round the Palais Bourbon, but, on receiving from 
 the leaders of the demonstration the assurance that their 
 intentions were purely pacific, he ordered the soldiers to 
 unfix their bayonets and let the insurgents pass, to the 
 number of fifteen thousand, through his lines. 
 
 When this became known in the Assembly, Lamartine 
 went out in the hope of once more dispelling physical force 
 by the power of his eloquence. But the spell no longer 
 worked, and he was hooted down with cries of, " Assez joue 
 de la lyre ! " " Mort a Lamartine ! " After some unsuccess- 
 ful efforts to obtain a hearing, he was forced back to the 
 second line of railings, where, with a group of friends, 
 among whom M. de Morny was the most resolute, he tried 
 to oppose a barrier to the rising flood. Seeing it was hope- 
 
336 LAMARTINE. [1848 
 
 less, they returned to the Chamber, where the word wa: 
 passed that all should keep their seats. 
 
 " The attitude of the members," writes an eye-witness 
 M. Maxime du Camp, " was admirable. They remainec 
 perfectly calm during a tumult which baffles descriptioi 
 and lasted nearly four hours." The President, M. Buchez 
 did not sustain his part so well. Surrounded by a furiou 
 crowd, which threatened him with instant death unless hi 
 signed an order forbidding the National Guard to act, h< 
 resisted for a long time, but yielded at last. On this th< 
 last vestige of order was lost. Barbes, forced into th< 
 tribune, was desired to state the demands of the people 
 He began by announcing a tax of forty millions on thi 
 rich. " You are wrong, Barbes," interrupted a chorus o 
 voices. " What we want is two hours' pillage." Weariec 
 at length with their own noise, the mob declared the 
 Assembly dissolved, and proceeded to nominate a nev 
 Provisional Government, of which Louis Blanc, Raspail 
 and Cabet were the principal members. 
 
 Meanwhile, Lamartine had found means to despatch, 
 messengers to those battalions of the National Guarc 
 which could be most securely relied on, and, at four o'clock 
 the welcome sound of their drums was heard. Before the} 
 reached the Palais Bourbon, its unwelcome occupants had 
 almost cleared out, and the Assembly resumed its sitting 
 Lamartine went to the tribune, and announced his intention 
 of going at once to the Hotel de Ville to rescue it from the 
 usurpation of the mob ; then, accompanied by Ledru- 
 Rollin, M. de Morny, and the Comte de Falloux (a 
 strangely assorted group), he rode down the quays, the 
 mob now cheering and shouting, " Vive Lamartine ! " " Vive 
 
1848.] RISING OF MAY I$TH. 337 
 
 l'Assemblee Nationale ! " They were escorted by a battalion 
 of the National Guard, which happened to number in its 
 ranks several well-known members of Parisian society. 
 Halting once for a moment, they were descried by a 
 secretary of the Russian Embassy, who, recognizing some 
 acquaintances, rushed up to them, pale and excited, with 
 difficulty gasping out, " What about Poland ? " It was not 
 for a moment that those he addressed recollected that the 
 independence of Poland had been the pretext for the events 
 of the day ; then they promptly replied, " Poland is dead. 
 Blanqui and Raspail have strangled her." 
 
 The military anarchy was complete. General Courtais 
 had been gagged and insulted by his own troops ; General 
 Tampor could not be found. But the insurgents had not 
 time to organize any defence. A few battalions of the 
 National Guard and a regiment of dragoons under General 
 Goyon were sufficient to liberate the Hotel de Ville, and 
 secure some of the principal ringleaders, who were at once 
 sent to Vincennes. 
 
 The events of the 15th of May, coming, as they did, 
 immediately after the opening of the Assembly chosen by 
 universal suffrage, and with great expectations, were, to all 
 patriotic Frenchmen, cruelly humiliating. Still they pro- 
 duced indirectly some salutary effects. Coupled with 
 similar incidents of the last three months, they fixed, in 
 the minds of the most absorbed men of business, as well 
 as of the idlest of Parisian flaneurs, the idea some very 
 clever people still find it difficult to grasp, that, once the 
 streets of a modern city are in possession of a mob less 
 afraid of the authorities than the authorities are of them, 
 the inhabitants are within a distance of pillage and arson 
 
338 LAMART1NE. [1848. 
 
 perhaps as measurable as used to be the dwellers on the 
 Celtic seaboard, when the Danish fleet was sighted in the 
 offing. But the Parisian mind, if slow in taking in new 
 and unpleasant ideas, is eminently practical. M. Maxime 
 du Camp, calling one morning on an uncle who had made 
 a large fortune by possessing the scent of an Iroquois for 
 coming events, found his relative busily occupied, not at 
 his desk, but in looking over his store of firearms, sub- 
 sisting for his ordinary poudre de chasseur a supply of 
 English powder, the best procurable. On M. du Camp 
 expressing his surprise, his uncle replied, "I am getting 
 ready for the battle, and I advise you to do the same ; ' : 
 and no doubt scores of old gentlemen were, at the same 
 day and hour, similarly occupied. 
 
 At the seat of Government the anxiety was not less 
 To leave Paris " with no garrison but the devotion and 
 patriotism of her citizens," was indeed a graceful anc 
 effective phrase ; but events showed that the Nationa 
 Guard, though, on the 18th of April, they supported the 
 Government with unexpected loyalty, had, by the 15th 01 
 May, got weary of doing what was properly the work ol 
 the regular army, for the maintenance of which they wen 
 heavily taxed. Still, as the last act of the Monarchy hac 
 been to withdraw, at the request of the people, the troop* 
 from Paris, it was not an easy task for a Republicar 
 Executive Commission to re-garrison the town adequate!) 
 without exciting a fresh insurrection. All that was possible 
 was being done. The number of regular troops in the cit> 
 exceeded twenty thousand, and, in place of Genera 
 Courtais, Cavaignac, the bravest and most reliable of the 
 Republican generals, had, at Lamartine's urgent request 
 
J848.] PUBLIC RELIEF WORKS. 339 
 
 leen recalled from Algeria, and given the command of the 
 tarrison. The corps d'armee in the surrounding provinces 
 vere being massed and strengthened, and to secure the 
 riumph of order time only was needed. Unfortunately, 
 ivents marched rapidly. The arrest of Barbes angered the 
 nob ; the supplementary elections which took place in 
 une caused fresh excitement, increased by the unexpected 
 lomination of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte by three depart - 
 nents, and by the return of Thiers, who (so quickly had 
 vents progressed) was now regarded as the chief of the 
 eactionary party. 
 
 But the question which finally brought about the 
 ;atastrophe was that of the National Workshops. In the 
 iarly days of the Revolution, when credit no longer existed, 
 md all industries had been paralyzed, the Government 
 lad been obliged to assume the duty of providing some 
 mstenance for the thousands of destitute artisans and 
 abourers who would otherwise constitute a serious danger 
 to the city, and a decree was passed appointing giant 
 orkshops, at which all who applied received two francs a 
 day. As it was always hoped that, when once the crisis 
 was over, industry would return to its natural channels, the 
 impossibility of providing profitable employment was not 
 at first recognized. The men, who were put to easy, 
 nominal tasks, practically spent most of their time in 
 lounging about in cafes, and, as the wages were above the 
 average, their number was increased by recruits from the 
 country, till the cost of their maintenance amounted to 
 £12,000 per day, at a time when the Minister of Finance 
 did not know how to meet the ordinary expenses of the 
 budget, and the country was weighed down by extra 
 
340 LAMARTINE. [18« 
 
 taxation. The Parisian botirgeoisie grumbled under th< 
 burden, abusing the Ateliers Nationaux freely. Still the; 
 felt that to suppress them would be dangerous, so the evi 
 day was adjourned. But the provincial deputies were no 
 so long-suffering, and, before the Assembly had sat thre 
 weeks, a decree, striking off the names of all who had no 
 been for six months domiciled in Paris, and requiring a] 
 between the ages *>{ eighteen to twenty-six to enlist a 
 once in the regular army, was passed. 
 
 Whatever hesitation there might have been on the par 
 of the Government about bringing matters to a crisis, ther 
 was none on the part of the workmen. During the tw< 
 nights following the 20th of June, all who were belated ii 
 the streets met patrols of two or three thousand men, quiei 
 noiseless, merely marching in military order, repeating th 
 monotonous refrain, " Bread or lead," " Bread or lead ; " anc 
 on the evening of the 22nd, began a conflict more desperat 
 and more sanguinary than any the streets of Paris ha< 
 hitherto known. The organization of the insurgents wa 
 admirable, corresponding exactly to that of the brigade 
 of the National Workshops ; the whole under the abl 
 direction of the " Societe des Droits de 1'Homme," whicr 
 in defiance of the Government, had reconstituted itself O] 
 the nth of June. All through the night, men, women, an< 
 children were working at the barricades with a degree c 
 rapidity, order, and consistency which revealed a long 
 matured plan. Before noon, that part of the city which lie 
 eastward of a line drawn from the Pantheon to the Chateai 
 d'Eau was an almost impregnable stronghold. Two grea 
 barricades had been erected, one at the Porte St. Denis 
 the other at the Porte St. Martin ; one of stupendou 
 
1848.] THE DAYS OF JUNE. 34 1 
 
 ■magnitude at the entry of the Faubourg St. Antoine ; thirty 
 in the He St. Denis — about 150 in all, defended by sharp- 
 hooters well provided with ammunition, — besides which 
 four large bodies of insurgents, supported by musketeers 
 and tirailleurs, were told off for the assault of the Hotel de 
 Ville. 
 
 The forces of which the Government could dispose were 
 very inadequate to cope with such a movement. The 
 regular troops under Cavaignac did not exceed twenty- 
 three thousand, a mere handful in comparison to the masses 
 opposed to them. Not fully realizing the extent of the 
 danger at first, he had lost time in summoning the troops 
 scattered round the environs of Paris ; and the camp of 
 twenty thousand men, so anxiously pressed for by Lamar- 
 tine, had not yet been formed. The National Guard, too, 
 had shown themselves unexpectedly slack in answering the 
 rappel ; and the Garde Mobile, recruited among the gamins 
 of Paris, who had taken active part in the days of February, 
 were hardly counted on seriously, — indeed, it was taken 
 almost for granted, though very mistakenly, that their 
 sympathies would be instinctively on the side of disorder. 
 It was not to be wondered at that Cavaignac, knowing the 
 hazard, from a military point of view, of risking an attack 
 with insufficient numbers in the narrow streets of a great 
 city, and sufficiently experienced in revolutions to fear the 
 result of exposing even an inconsiderable number of soldiers 
 to defeat and capture, refused to divide his forces or act on • 
 any extended scale till reinforced. On the other hand, it 
 seems difficult to understand that any risk of defeat or, 
 within certain bounds, that any not useless loss of life 
 could counterbalance the disadvantage of allowing the first 
 
342 LAMARTINE. [184 
 
 erection of barricades, which gave the populace such de< 
 perate strength both in attack and in resistance, and whic 
 would ultimately have to be carried with an amount c 
 bloodshed terrible to contemplate. The latter view pre 
 vailed among the party of resistance in Paris. On th 
 afternoon of Friday, Lamartine and Ledru-Rollin wer 
 insulted as traitors, because to them was attributed th 
 quiescence of the troops ; the fact being that the Executiv 
 Commission had been all through the day unanimous i 
 pressing on Cavaignac precisely the line of conduct the 
 were accused of neglecting. 
 
 M. Barthelemy thus describes what took place on th 
 morning of the 23rd : " Une derniere tentative fut fait 
 aupres du general. MM. Arago, Marie, Lamartine, Ledrt 
 Rollin, avec M. Barthelemy St. Hilaire le presserent d 
 commencer Tattaque. Le general fut inflexible; les instance 
 dont il etait l'objet irritant sa colere.   Groyez vous/ dit i 
 1 que je sois ici pour defendre vos Parisiens, votre Gard 
 Nationale ? qu'elle se defende elle-meme, sa ville et se 
 boutiques. Je ne veux pas disseminer mes troupes. J 
 me rappelle 1830 ; je me rappelle Fevrier. Si une seule d 
 mes compagnies est desarmee, si nous subissons encore un 
 fois cet affront, je me brule la cervelle, je ne survivrai pa 
 a ce d£shonneur.' On eut beau representer au general qu 
 son suicide ne remedierait a rien, qu'il s'agissait d'enleve 
 les barricades qu'il avait laisse former ; aucun argument n 
 put le decider a donner l'ordre d'attaque ; le moment d^cisi 
 ne lui parut pas encore venu. On ajouta que les insurge 
 gagnaient a tout instant du terrain. ' Que m'importe,' repon 
 dit le g<£ne>al, ' Eh bien, s'ils sont maitres de Paris, je m 
 retirerai avec mon armde dans les plaines de St. Denis e 
 
1848.] ' THE DA YS OF JUNE. 343 
 
 je leur Hvrerais bataille.' 'Oui/ dit M. Arago, 'mais ils ne 
 vous y suiveront pas.' " 
 
 Perhaps the fairest allocation of praise and blame 
 between the Executive Committee and General Cavaignac 
 is to be found in the second volume of Lord Normanby's 
 "Journal of a Year of Revolution," where, with full know- 
 ledge of the facts, he sums up the situation, and decides, 
 with some reservation, in favour of the Executive. Mean- 
 while, from the military point of view, General Cavaignac's 
 position was unassailable, and his tactics faultless. He 
 massed his troops in the Tuileries, the Champs Elysees, 
 the Place de la Concorde, and round the Palais du Luxem- 
 bourg. The Hotel de Ville was occupied by sixteen 
 battalions under General Duvivier. To General Dumesne 
 was given the command of the quarter of the Pantheon, 
 and to General Lamoriciere the charge of covering the 
 whole left bank of the Seine, from the Chateau d'Eau to 
 the Madeleine, which alone would have given sufficient 
 work to an army. The first attack on the insurgents' lines 
 was made on the afternoon of the 23rd. The barricades 
 of the Porte St. Martin and of the Port St. Denis were 
 carried, the latter only after a most desperate resistance. 
 The troops being so few in number, Cavaignac was then 
 disposed to let them rest ; but on Lamartine's imploring 
 him not to lose the hours of daylight yet remaining, it was 
 decided to liberate the Faubourg du Temple, Cavaignac 
 himself leading the attack. The first obstacle was a barri- 
 cade of tremendous strength, on which three hours of in- 
 cessant firing scarcely produced any effect. Four hundred 
 soldiers and two generals were killed. Lamartine then 
 brought up four more guns. At the end of another hour, 
 
344 LAMARTINE. [1848. 
 
 the barrier was broken down, and the enemy either driven 
 back or held at bay at all points, when nightfall brought a 
 cessation of hostilities, though only till they broke out 
 again with renewed desperation at early dawn. But by 
 this time the reinforcements so eagerly looked for came 
 pouring in ; a large train of ammunition arrived from 
 Vincennes, another from Bourges ; the trains were steadily 
 bringing up troops from Orleans and all the garrison towns 
 within a day's journey of Paris, making the ultimate issue 
 of the insurrection no longer doubtful. 
 
 But a fierce and deadly struggle was still inevitable, 
 and it was felt that at such a crisis there should be no 
 division of responsibility or of authority. By the almost 
 unanimous vote of the Assembly, General Cavaignac was 
 invested with absolute powers, under the title of Military 
 Dictator. The Executive Committee then resigned, and 
 Lamartine at once offered his services to Cavaignac, saying, 
 with loyal frankness, " I am not one of those who, when 
 they cease to hold office, join the Opposition. My earnest 
 wish will be to support my successors as if my cause and 
 theirs were one. You may count on me as fully to-morrow 
 as to-day." 
 
 During these months of stormy vicissitude the position 
 of Madame de Lamartine had been a very difficult one ; 
 but her unfailing tact and goodness enabled her to escape 
 the many pitfalls that beset her path, and to go through 
 " three months of power " without making an enemy or 
 losing a friend. All her personal predilections, all the 
 traditions of the society into which she had been so warmly 
 received in the early days of her married life, were anti- 
 republican. Madame d'Agoult describes rather sarcasti- 
 
1848.] THE DA YS OF JUNE. 345 
 
 cally how the great ladies of the Faubourg used to be 
 seen, half incognite, ascending and descending the staircase 
 leading to the private apartments of the Hotel des Affaires 
 Etrangeres, to pour out to Madame de Lamartine's sym- 
 pathetic ears their hopes and fears for the " lost cause and 
 impossible allegiance " to which they still devoutly clung. 
 But, on the other hand, we are told by the most ardent of 
 Republicans, M. Henri de Lacretelle, that the strange and 
 motley company which used in those days to invade Madame 
 de Lamartine's fireside, were always received with the 
 serene courtesy which was her unvarying attribute, and he 
 is at a loss for words to describe his admiration for the 
 courage and self-devotion shown by one so gentle and so 
 feminine in the terrible " last days of June." " Wrapt up 
 as she was in Lamartine, living only in his life, this 
 woman, this foreigner, never attempted to keep him back 
 from what, even after his personal responsibility had ceased, 
 he held to be the post of duty." Probably nothing would 
 have held him back, at any rate as long as the conflict 
 lasted. Lamartine, surrounded by a little band of friends 
 was night and day unsparing in his exertions and utterly 
 regardless of personal danger, sometimes leading up to the 
 attack a company of the Gardes Mobile so romantically 
 devoted to him ; sometimes within the lines of the insur- 
 gents, appealing to their patriotism, justice, and humanity 
 to put an end to this hopeless and fratricidal strife ; at 
 times apparently successful for the moment, but never 
 attaining any practical result. 
 
 One night scene he has described at some length in his 
 -- Portraits et Souvenirs." It was the evening of the second 
 day of the insurrection. Lamartine was returning from 
 
346 LAMART1NE. [1841 
 
 an attack on the barricades, accompanied by Prince Pierr 
 Bonaparte, then an ardent Eepublican, one of whose horse 
 had just been killed under him, and a young Nations 
 Guard named Lachaud, who, unknown to Lamartine, ha 
 attached himself to him as a body-guard. Full of anxiet 
 and grief at the desperate nature of the struggle, Lamartin 
 wished to judge for himself as to the disposition of th 
 masses thronging the Boulevards all along the line fror 
 the Faubourg du Temple to the Bastille. Passing throu'g 
 the line of troops employed in keeping off the multitud 
 at this latter point, he, with his three companions, rod 
 slowly down the carriage-way. The mob, pushed back o 
 the foot-way, was at first angry and astonished ; thei 
 recognizing Lamartine, surrounded him with almost franti 
 eagerness, so that their progress was seriously impedec 
 they could hardly advance ten paces in a minute. Th 
 crowd did not, Lamartine says, consist of the rough ur 
 washed idlers every revolutionary movement brings to th 
 surface ; it was composed of the inhabitants of the quarte 
 of honest, hard-working artisans whose features wore 
 gentle, almost patient expression, though their lips no 
 trembled with emotion. 
 
 A confused eager murmur rose up from their rank 
 gradually formulating itself into distinct sounds, wit 
 intervals of comparative silence, in which could be hear 
 questions and answers such as these : " Who is riding th 
 black horse ? " " Vive Lamartine ! " " Let me shake hi 
 hand ! " " Let me touch his horse ! " Other voices ar 
 swered, " Death to Lamartine ! Vive la Republique Demc 
 cratique et Sociale ! " — but these were quickly drowned b 
 angry hisses. Workmen in their blouses gathered in ii 
 
1848.] THE DAYS OF JUNE. 347 
 
 creasing myriads round Lamartine, all speaking at once. 
 " Do not fear. Do not you fear, Lamartine ; we are not 
 assassins. We want neither blood nor plunder. We are 
 honest workmen, hating as you do those who fire on their 
 brethren. All we want is order, work, bread. Look at 
 our wives, our children ; see how they tremble, how they 
 weep ! See how pale, how thin, how scantily clothed they 
 are ! Do we look like a pampered, overfed people ? For 
 three months we have lived on rations for the sake of 
 Liberty. We don't regret it, we don't repent it ; but Liberty 
 must feed the people. . . . Send away the Assemblee 
 Nationale ! Down with the Assemblee Nationale. It does 
 nothing for us. It does not know what to do. Do you 
 govern us ! You shall govern us. Govern us yourself, 
 Lamartine. We have always obeyed you, and we always 
 will. 
 
 Lamartine. " What you ask is a crime. The Assembly 
 is France. Give it time ; a Government cannot be founded 
 in one sitting." 
 
 A thousand voices. " No, no, no ! it is doing nothing ; 
 it does not know us, nor understand us. Govern us by 
 yourself. We will obey you ; we have always obeyed you." 
 
 Thousands of voices along the line. "We do not want 
 blood. We do not want this insurrection. But send away 
 this Assembly of chatterers. Make the combat to cease ; 
 silence the cannon." 
 
 Lamartine. " Do you want us, then, to allow the de- 
 struction of Paris, of France, without defending them 
 against a handful of criminals ? " 
 
 Thousands of voices. " That is true ; that is true. We 
 don't take their part. We know nothing of them. They 
 
348 LAMARTINE. [1848 
 
 are bad citizens. But make haste, or we cannot answer foi 
 ourselves. Send away the Assembly. Give us work 
 bread, peace ; but forgive the conquered. We have nc 
 enemies. Let there be no vengeance, no scaffold. Work 
 peace, bread, but spare the vanquished. We are al 
 Frenchmen ! " 
 
 In these words, taken down on the spot by the Nationa 
 Guard, Lachaud, Lamartine recognizes the voice, confused 
 piteous, but yet humane, of the true people of Paris. 
 
 But in reality the Boulevards were but the outskirts o 
 the movement. Within the terrible stronghold Seditior 
 had built for herself, the cry was one of vengeance, and o 
 blind, unreasoning hatred. In vain, when alike physicall) 
 and morally certain of the victory, did the Executiv< 
 Government, and afterwards General Cavaignac, send ou 
 messenger after messenger with flags of truce ; they wer< 
 first derided and insulted, then treacherously murdered 
 often, as in the case of General Brea, cruelly mutilated 
 And finally, when the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr. Affre 
 horror-struck at the hopeless and apparently never-ending 
 slaughter, went out " to give his life for his sheep," he, too 
 was ruthlessly struck down. 
 
 Only at the eleventh hour, when their cause was entirel) 
 lost, did the insurgents offer to lay down their arms, bu 
 on the condition of absolute and unconditional amnesty 
 It was refused, and for this refusal Lamartine, who might 
 far more truthfully than Hugo, have said of himself — 
 
 '■* Moi, qui pour tous les crimes veux tous les pardons," 
 
 never forgave Cavaignac. 
 
 On the following morning, June 26th, both sides preparec 
 
1848.] THE DAYS OF JUNE. 349 
 
 for a renewal of the conflict. At daybreak the combatants 
 stood to their arms ; barricades and windows were crowded 
 with sharpshooters, the gunners stood with lighted matches 
 beside their pieces, and, ere long, sounds were heard which 
 must have convinced the insurgents that further resist- 
 ance was hopeless. A loud cannonade announced that 
 Lamoriciere, having forced his way through the Faubourg, 
 was assailing them in the rear. Still they held out, and 
 ten o'clock, the period assigned for an unconditional sur- 
 render, having passed without any sign being made, the 
 combat recommenced. An immense shower of bombs 
 directed on the Faubourg, set it on fire in several places. 
 The troops then rushed on in three columns. All the 
 attacks were successful, and at last the insurgents capitu- 
 lated, thus ending a struggle in which " more generals were 
 slain than at Waterloo, more soldiers than in the bloodiest 
 of Napoleon's battles." * Of the wounded the number was 
 never known, but there was reason to fear that poisoned 
 missiles did among them the work hinted at in the mut- 
 tered sneers of the prisoners : " The dead are dead ; the 
 wounded will never recover." 
 
 * Alison, " History of Europe, 1815-1852." 
 
350 LAMARTINE. 11848- 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 1848-1853. 
 
 " They went out to battle, but they always fell," wrote 
 Caesar of the Gauls of his time, and, triumphant as are the 
 annals of mediaeval and modern France, there have been 
 periods when something of their ancestors' fatality has 
 seemed to follow Frenchmen. However, there are contests 
 in which the vanquished share the glory with the victors ; 
 where, as at Marignan and Waterloo and Gravelotte, much 
 is lost, but not honour. And thus it was in the long 
 struggle that had lasted from February to July; Lamartine 
 had not desired the fall of the monarchy, but when the 
 ship of the State was drifting swiftly to destruction, he 
 went to the helm and steered into smooth waters, if not 
 into port. In the three first days of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment he had been, to quote a not too partial judge, " un- 
 doubtedly the man demanded by the crisis. During those 
 sixty hours of ' fighting with the beasts ' he acted with a 
 courage worthy of Bayard." When the first lull came, he 
 was the only member of the Government who realized his 
 responsibilities. It was his energy, promptitude, and fore- 
 thought that saved Paris from famine. Afterwards it was 
 his determination and his influence that preserved the 
 
Il853.] AFTER THE BATTLE. 35 1 
 
 peace of Europe. Thirty years of aimless conscription and 
 the memory of Napoleon's victories had made Frenchmen 
 wild with restless ambition. Had Thiers been in Lamar- 
 tine's place, he would, as he told Mr. Senior in 1852, at 
 once have extended the frontier to Mayence. By his reso- 
 lution in bringing up troops round Paris, Lamartine had 
 mitigated and made abortive the insurrection of June. If 
 he did not succeed in averting it, nor in establishing 
 authority on a secure basis, it was because he shrank from 
 the only possible means, the assumption of absolute power. 
 For three months the Dictatorship lay within his hand. 
 He might have had his 18 Brumaire or his 2 Decembre 
 without striking a blow, perhaps without sacrificing a life. 
 If he abstained from respect for or faith in Republican in- 
 stitutions, those who hold such belief to be superstition will 
 be the last to condemn him. 
 
 During the weeks immediately following the events just 
 narrated Lamartine remained in Paris, but took little part 
 in politics. He saw plainly that the insurrection had 
 seriously weakened, if it had not altogether destroyed, what 
 remained in France of the Republican spirit. All the 
 same, his dislike to repressive measures remained. Not 
 even the rage and passion of actual conflict, so terribly 
 exciting to those unused to it, could change a temperament 
 still more abounding in mansuetude than in sympathy ; 
 his dominant feeling for the insurgents — would-be destroyers 
 of the Republic though they were — was one of pity. 
 There seems no reason to believe that the punishments 
 meted by General Cavaignac were in any way excessive ; 
 but Lamartine, without blaming him, suffered with and for 
 the vanquished, and did all that was in his power to shield 
 
352 LAM ^'INE. [1841 
 
 them, thankful that the sword and balance of justice we: 
 in other hands. The only real pleasure he seems to ha^ 
 found in that sorrowful time was in the strong affection 
 the friends who now gathered round him with increase 
 devotion. The narrative of his conduct in the days i 
 February was drawing towards him an electric currei 
 of sympathy from all parts of France. Another source 
 satisfaction was the re-knitting of some ties of person 
 friendship which the misunderstandings incident to co 
 flicting political opinions had strained to the utmo* 
 This had been the case with the Girardins, who had range 
 themselves in opposition, and, always susceptible in tl 
 extreme, were indignant that their criticisms remaine 
 unheeded. Lamartine, though the bitterness of M. c 
 Girardin's writings gave him sufficient cause for irritatio 
 would gladly have passed it over in silence, but when tl 
 kindly intervention of Madame de Lamartine was mi 
 interpreted, he had felt it due to himself to remonstrate 
 a letter addressed to Madame de Girardin. 
 
 " I am grieved that you should have misunderstoc 
 Madame de Lamartine, whose feeling for you is that of tl 
 tenderest interest. Neither you nor M. de Girardin * 
 things as they really are, nor do you know how hard yc 
 make it to save you from yourselves ; later, you will unde 
 stand better. The opposition M. de Girardin is carryii 
 on in such unsparing terms is wrong in point of dal 
 When the Republic is settled on a solid base, he will fir 
 nothing to complain of. Ask him to wait. At tfc 
 moment, opposition, whether at home or abroad, can ser 
 no useful purpose. Do not think that what I ask is tin 
 for the Government. I speak, not as one in authority, b 
 
1853.] RECOis K 353 
 
 as a friend, in the name of social peril and of special cir- 
 cumstances which you cannot know, but which are ser 
 
 The letter was apparently left unanswered, but 
 soon after Lamartine's resignation, M. de Girardin 
 arrested by Cavaignac's orders, the impracticable couj. 
 must have seen they had done him an injustice. Ai 
 article from Madame de Girardin's pen, which appeared 
 soon after, and was evidently intended as an amende, 
 touched and pleased Lamartine much. Nor did politics 
 ever again trouble the serenity of that long-lived and 
 sincere friendship. 
 
 To M. de Circourt, who feared that by the line of 
 conduct he had followed he might have given Lamartine 
 offence, the latter wrote about this time : " My opinions 
 never interfere with my friendships. And I take for 
 granted it is the same with you, so that there is no fear of 
 our present non-agreement disturbing our mutual relations. 
 You do not believe in the future of the Republic ; I do, 
 though there is danger in the coalition of Thiers and 
 Cavaignac ; and, being on the spot, I ought to be the best 
 judge. Read the English newspapers. You wish to uphold 
 social order ; its surest bulwark is a moderate and con- 
 ciliatory Republic. Your friends want to destroy it ; then 
 the choice will lie between the Convention and a dictator." 
 
 However, in M, de Circourt's case the breach widened, 
 and for some years he and Lamartine did not speak. 
 
 In August the question of the formation of the Con- 
 stitution brought Lamartine again to the front. On the 
 first point discussed — whether the Legislature should 
 consist of one or of two Chambers — he spoke with much 
 animation, laying down the axiom that an Upper Chamber, 
 
 2 A 
 
JNE. [1848- 
 
 354 
 
 formed on any basis but that of aristocracy, must always 
 ''merical. 
 
 have been a witness," he said, " of the misfortune 
 
 catastrophes which may befall nations governed b; 
 
 .e Legislature, but I have seen the same under a govern 
 
 .nent resting on two. Between the situation of th 
 
 countries in which the latter form is permanently establishe 
 
 and that of our country, I see no identity. Has France a 
 
 aristocracy like England ? And how are the elections c 
 
 the senators to be regulated ? Are they to be chosen o 
 
 account of their fortunes or their age ? In the first cas< 
 
 would they form an aristocracy in any sense of the word 
 
 Would they not rather be representatives of the bankei 
 
 and of the Chaussee cTAntin? They would be, nc 
 
 1 Chevaliers de l'epee/ but ' Chevaliers de la bours< 
 
 Would you even be justified in laying down a certain ag 
 
 as an indispensable preliminary to an election to tr 
 
 Upper Chamber ? Could you say to Franklin or to Roy< 
 
 Collard, * Your years do not admit of your sitting in tl 
 
 junior Chamber; go to the Chamber of the elders, to tl 
 
 Luxembourg.' " 
 
 To which M. Odillon-Barrot, who, it will be remembere 
 had been the leader of the extreme Democratic par 
 during the last ten years, replied,— not denying Lamartiiu 
 arguments, but on the ground of necessity, " All Democraci 
 have begun by establishing a single Legislature, but e 
 perience soon teaches them that a balance is indispensab 
 and that a power responsible to none must, if uncontrolk 
 fall from its own weight." 
 
 The Assembly having decided, by a sweeping majoril 
 in favour of a single Chamber, the next question was, 1 
 
853.] PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 355 
 
 vhom should the President of the Chamber be appointed, 
 md what were to be his powers as the recognized Chief 
 Magistrate of the Republic ? On these points opinion was 
 livided between an election by the Assembly and a direct 
 ippeal to the people, Lamartine was in favour of the 
 atter alternative. In his speech of the 5th of October, he 
 :ays, " If you desire a President of the Republic, he must 
 >e elected by the Republic. Appointed by the Chamber, 
 le would never be more than its delegate. Would he not 
 )f necessity be pledged to the majority which had elected 
 lim, a majority which might consist only of some twenty 
 >r thirty votes ? What a phantom of authority would a 
 ^resident thus elected prove ! What influence could he 
 lave, either in asserting externally the dignity of France, 
 >r in suppressing internal factions ? Even supposing the 
 >eople, impelled by a general and irresistible impulse, 
 .hould fix their choice on some dangerous character, my 
 lecision would be the same — alea jacta est ; let God and 
 he people declare the result. We must leave something 
 o Providence. Possibly we may perish in the undertaking ; 
 md I say this, not as menace, but as a title of glory. I 
 lope better things of France ; I hope for them firmly and 
 :onfidently. But if it prove otherwise, and the people are 
 leceived in their choice ; if they show themselves deter- 
 nined to disavow their past and ours ; if they are resolved 
 o renounce the immense hopes which may legitimately be 
 brmed as to the results of popular rule ; if they are deter- 
 nined to repudiate their safety, their future, their liberties ; 
 —on them the responsibility will rest, not on us whose glory 
 t is that we have restored their liberties to them, leaving 
 :hem only the easier task of guarding and protecting them. 
 
356 LA MAR TINE. [1848 
 
 But I repeat, if they are resolved to return to the conditio 
 of a monarchy, if to pursue some delusive meteor the 
 throw away the future which lies in their hands, they ai 
 their own masters ; they can do it, for they are sovereig: 
 It is not for us to say to them, ' You shall go thus far, bi 
 no further ; here you may go, but not there/ If they ai 
 bent on their own ruin, we will say with the vanquished < 
 Pharsalia, 'Victrix causa deis placuit, sed victa Catoni 
 and that protest, which will be the eternal reproach of 
 nation imprudent and abandoned enough to surrender i 
 liberties, will be in the eyes of posterity our sufficiei 
 vindication." 
 
 The view thus enunciated by Lamartine was that < 
 the majority of the Assembly, which, in the division th; 
 immediately followed, referred the choice of a President 1 
 the people. To us, who judge the matter after the even 
 the election of Louis Napoleon appears a foregone coi 
 elusion ; but it is certain that Cavaignac was sangirir 
 to the last. It has also been constantly asserted thi 
 Lamartine expected the choice of the people would fall o 
 him. His published correspondence does not, howeve 
 confirm that opinion. He wrote to M. Dargeau, the mo: 
 intimate of his surviving friends, " As for the election t 
 the Presidency, my dislike to the notion of its falling o 
 me increases daily. But I have no need for anxiety o 
 the subject ; it lies between Bonaparte and Cavaignac 
 And notwithstanding all the rumours, I do not believe i 
 Bonaparte. If human stupidity reaches so far, we sha 
 want another Moliere to write another ' Misanthrope.' Bl 
 I do believe in Cavaignac, and approve the choice, thoug 
 I regret the turn of fortune which has created the situatio 
 
L853.] PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 357 
 
 and brought him to the post. But there he is, and that is 
 enough for me. And I believe him to be a Republican. 
 I shall have in my turn the votes of some honest artisans, 
 not five hundred thousand in all." 
 
 That the number he actually got was only nineteen 
 thousand must have been a discomfiture, but all personal 
 feelings were swallowed up in indignation and anguish at 
 the fall of the Republic, which he felt to be the inevitable 
 result of Louis Napoleon's election. "France has gone 
 mad," he writes. "A Republic to end in a promenade de 
 Franco7ii ! A cocked hat, and not even a head in it. I 
 should have preferred that of Tell (of course he means 
 Gessler). There will be no alternative left for a Frenchman 
 but death or exile." 
 
 Thus ended, with its anxieties, its struggles, its meteoric 
 brilliancy, its terrible disappointments, the year 1848. 
 
 Soon after the newly elected President had entered on 
 his functions, Lamartine returned to Paris. His first speech 
 that session was in a debate on Foreign Affairs, in the 
 course of which M. Drouyn de Lhuys had alluded to the 
 foreign policy of the Executive Commission as one which 
 made loud professions of peace while endangering it every 
 moment. Lamartine rose to reply, taking on himself the 
 responsibility of every act of the administration. He 
 entirely denied having, as was hinted, encouraged insur- 
 rection in either Germany, Belgium, or Poland, and, 
 appealing to the testimony of the Envoys of all the foreign 
 powers, he defied his adversaries to show a single word 
 spoken, or letter written, either by a member of the 
 Executive or by any of their agents, which would support 
 such an accusation. He sat down amid applause. But 
 
353 LAMARTINE. [1848 
 
 though his eloquence still commanded attention, hi 
 prestige, in a country where nothing succeeds but succes: 
 was much diminished ; and he, who in the June election ha 
 been returned spontaneously by ten departments, was a 
 but excluded from the Chamber in the new Legislativ 
 Assembly. That this was not the case was owing to IV 
 Louis de Cormenin, a young man of considerable literar 
 talent, but at the time quite unknown to Lamartine. A 
 the general election, M. de Cormenin lost, by a few vote 
 only, his seat as member for the Departement du Loire 
 One of the members dying suddenly left a vacancy, an 
 his election was considered certain. He was possessed c 
 great ability, and had every reason to anticipate a brilliar 
 Parliamentary career, but such was his enthusiastic admirs 
 tion for Lamartine that, surrendering his own prospects, h 
 addressed to the editor of the Journal du Loiret the followini 
 letter :— 
 
 " I have just heard of the death of M. Roger. I conside 
 it the duty of every other candidate to make way for M. d 
 Lamartine, whom a disgraceful ostracism has rejected 
 Genius has claims far beyond any considerations of part} 
 The return of Lamartine will ennoble the Departement di 
 Loiret, and I trust, sir, that you will join your voice t< 
 mine to achieve this object. To name him is to honou 
 and to consecrate universal suffrage." 
 
 The appeal was fully responded to, and the D^partemen 
 du Loiret unanimously returned Lamartine. M. Maxim* 
 du Camp, who narrates the incident in his " Souvenirs, 
 adds, " M. de Cormenin, to whose generous initiative thi 
 was owing, never again had the chance of entering a caree 
 for which he showed exceptional aptitude. He doubtles: 
 
853.] LOUIS NAPOLEON. 359 
 
 •egretted not belonging to the Legislative Assembly of his 
 ountry, but he never repented having given his place up 
 :o Lamartine." 
 
 This occurred early in July, but some time elapsed 
 before Lamartine took his seat in the new Assembly. He 
 had found himself a much poorer man at the end than at 
 the beginning of his three months of power, and his only 
 hope of meeting overwhelming liabilities lay in hard 
 literary work, to which he devoted himself all through the 
 autumn and early winter. After which a sharp attack of 
 illness kept him at home till the beginning of January, 
 1850. 
 
 Even those who most mistrusted the sincerity of Louis 
 Napoleon's republicanism, could not deny that, in the 
 opening period of his presidency, his conduct was moderate 
 and conciliatory. There are many who still think that, 
 had his position been made agreeable, or even tolerable, 
 he would have been content to remain, for some years at 
 least, President of the Republic. But by one of those 
 unaccountable revulsions apparently inherent to the loose 
 and lurching cargo of universal suffrage, the electors who, 
 in December, 1848, had chosen him as President by a 
 majority of four million votes, returned in May, 1849, an 
 Assembly in which his opponents were far more numerous 
 than his supporters, and in which the Socialistic element 
 was very strong. This time, again, the electors had gone 
 further than they intended ; the funds fell considerably, 
 and a second reaction in favour of the President set in. 
 He was also able to. count on the support of the coalition 
 which called itself " the Party of Order," for such measures 
 as were obviously necessary to uphold the social fabric, 
 
360 LAMARTINE. [1848- 
 
 but it was always given grudgingly, and, in unimportant 
 matters, sometimes capriciously withheld. Still his chiel 
 dependence was necessarily on them, and his first Cabinet 
 included, not the chiefs of any party, but men trusted 
 by each ; Drouyn de Lhuys, Odillon-Barrot, and Pass); 
 had been ministers under Louis Philippe ; Falloux was a 
 Legitimist, and Bixio a strong Republican. They were 
 however, dismissed by the President in the following 
 October, on a question of foreign policy. Thiers calls thil 
 " an act of dishonesty, because they had served him con- 
 scientiously and well;" others say their conflicting opinion* 
 made the whole machinery of government unworkable. 
 
 Still the President continued on friendly terms with the 
 Party of Order, of whom the five heads, Mol<£, Broglie 
 Thiers, Berryer, and Montalembert, were called, in allusion 
 to a new play of Victor Hugo, " Les Burgraves." Thiers 
 especially says he was much consulted by the President at 
 this time, and gives himself the credit of having suggested 
 all the measures which ultimately proved successful, but is 
 careful to explain that he always avoided being seen in the 
 President's company in public. Lamartine, on the con- 
 trary, though not in any private communication with Louis 
 Napoleon, was an occasional guest at the Elys^e, and 
 certainly did not allow his personal dislike to influence his 
 conduct, for in the debate on the President's salary he was 
 indignant at the parsimony of the Assembly. " They are 
 disputing over a mess of pottage; I would give him supreme 
 de volaille every day." But a country which was paying 
 seven hundred deputies at the rate of a pound a day each, 
 could not afford to be very generous to the head of the 
 Executive, even though it was he who, in the eyes of 
 
1853.] EXCURSION TO SYRIA. 361 
 
 Europe, represented France. And the President was kept 
 in a state of pecuniary dependence, which may be reckoned 
 among the causes that drove him to the coup d\ ( tat. 
 
 In the debates on the army and navy budgets, the 
 subventions for the State railway lines, and of the "Theatre 
 des Italiens," Lamartine supported the Government ; in 
 those on the laws restricting the liberty of the press, and 
 the proposal to found a new penal colony in the Marquesas 
 Islands, he was with the Radical opposition ; and again 
 with the Government, against the Conservatives, on the 
 question of limitations of universal suffrage proposed and 
 carried by the Conservative coalition. 
 
 His speeches on the two last questions were very 
 powerful and of considerable length, delivered amid a 
 storm of interruptions and insults from the Conservative 
 benches, and especially from the Orleanists, who never 
 forgave him his abstention on the occasion of proclaiming 
 the Regency, after Louis Philippe's abdication. Yet the 
 event might surely have shown them that no course would 
 have been more fatal to their interests than that which 
 would have for ever linked their cause with the sanguinary 
 repression of the insurrection of June ; for the stain of 
 blood, though it only appears to add additional piquancy 
 to the charms of the lady of the Phrygian cap, would be 
 fatal to a Royalist banner. 
 
 In the summer of 1850 the Lamartines made a short 
 excursion to Syria. Ever since the time of his first 
 voyage in the East, the noble qualities of the Moslem, their 
 generous hospitality to strangers, perhaps also their calm 
 belief in destiny, had impressed Lamartine's vivid imagi- 
 nation. Both as a politician and as a writer, he had 
 
362 LA MAR TINE. [1848- 
 
 rendered considerable services to the Porte. That he 
 himself would ever derive any benefit from the line of 
 conduct he spontaneously followed, never crossed his mind. 
 It was with extreme surprise that he received, in the 
 autumn of 1849, an official communication to the effect 
 that the Sultan Abdul-Medjid had heard with regret that 
 reverses of fortune had overtaken the illustrious friend of 
 Turkey, and now placed at his disposal a large estate in 
 Asia Minor. It seemed to Lamartine like a page out of the 
 "Arabian Nights;" but, on practically ascertaining that the 
 domain of Burghaz-eva really existed and was his property, 
 he was not sorry to absent himself for a few months from 
 France, and judge of the capabilities of his new possession. 
 The expedition was rather a hazardous one for people 
 of the Lamartines' age, but they were accompanied by 
 two friends — MM. de Chamborand and de Champeaux. 
 Lamartine, in the diary which he afterwards published 
 under the title of " Second Voyage en Orient," describes 
 them as follows : " M. de Chamborand was a young man of 
 old family and chivalrous instincts. He had been brought 
 up in strict Legitimist principles, which, though tempered 
 by the moderate liberalism of the Charter, prevented him 
 from serving under the Government of Louis Philippe, 
 The Revolution of '48 found him weary of forced inaction, 
 very foreign to his nature, and he gladly joined the party 
 which, led by Lamartine, was striving to maintain peace 
 and order. On the 15th of April, his company of the 
 National Guard helped to defend the Assembly against 
 the mob. His attachment to Lamartine soon became 
 personal rather than political. His remarkable physical 
 strength and activity, and his practical knowledge of agri- 
 
1853.] HALT AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 363 
 
 culture, made him a first-rate colonist, with the fervour of 
 an Eastern pilgrim superadded. M. de Champeaux (who, 
 it will be remembered, had been for years Lamartine's 
 private secretary) represented the more prosaic element of 
 the party. In his eyes the beauty of a landscape lay in its 
 suitability for human requirements far more than in its 
 history or associations ; all the romance of his Breton 
 temperament was concentrated in attachment to his friends ; 
 rather than separate from them he was ready to make any 
 sacrifice." 
 
 Early in July the party left Marseilles in the Orontes, a 
 merchant vessel, the captain of which agreed to take no 
 other passengers, and convey the large amount of luggage 
 and impedimenta necessary for such an expedition. They 
 stayed a couple of days at Leghorn. As the quarantine 
 was strictly enforced against all vessels coming from France, 
 they could only view from a distance places with which, in 
 the happy years of their residence in Florence, they had 
 been pleasantly familiar. The next halt was at Con- 
 stantinople, where kind friends had made ready to receive 
 them. Lamartine was glad to give his wife a few days 
 rest after the long sea-voyage, but elected to remain himself 
 on board. A tent, intended for Eastern travel, was pitched 
 on deck, serving him at once as a cabinet de travail and as 
 a salon in which to receive his visitors. These were very 
 numerous. Besides the Pashas and other officials whose 
 acquaintance he had made at the time of his first visit to 
 Constantinople, many others, with whom he had been 
 thrown in contact during his diplomatic career, were there 
 to welcome him. 
 V As we know, Lamartine had, at a time when all the 
 
364 LA MAR TINE. [1848- 
 
 sentiment and poetry of Europe were strongly enlisted or 
 the side of the Greeks, expressed in his book of Easterr 
 travel sympathy for the Turks, to which he was later able 
 to give practical effect. In the debates on the Easterr 
 question, all through Louis Philippe's reign, he was then 
 constant champion, and it so happened that his own brie: 
 tenure of power supervened at a moment when the Turks 
 had reason to fear a rupture with France, and almost his 
 first act of external policy had been to replace the 
 relations between the two countries on a thoroughly cordia 
 footing. Such obligations are not habitually rememberec 
 when those who have conferred them experience greal 
 reverses ; but for what in the West is called misfortune 
 or disgrace, there is in the East no other name than fate 
 Had Lamartine come to Constantinople as the accreditee 
 envoy of a great Power, his reception could not have beer 
 more flattering or more cordial. 
 
 And what gave him, perhaps, still greater pleasure was 
 to find that he was even better known in Constantinople as 
 a poet than as a politician, his poems, as well as his travels 
 and speeches, having been repeatedly translated into botr 
 Greek and Turkish. When, by the kindness of Reschic 
 Pasha, he was invited to a private and informal audience 
 with the Sultan, his progress through the streets, in the 
 Imperial carriage sent for him, was a perfect ovation. His 
 name, somewhat strangely metamorphosed, was echoed ir 
 half a dozen dialects, and with especial enthusiasm b> 
 groups of beautiful women — Greeks, Franks, and Armenians 
 who, in attitudes recalling the figures of some antique 
 frieze, crowded all the balconies. The audience is describee 
 by Lamartine at considerable length, and in glowing 
 
1853.] AUDIENCE OF THE SULTAN. 365 
 
 colours ; for which his romantic sympathy for the East, his 
 very natural gratitude for the flattering reception accorded 
 to him, and a certain excitement of imagination roused by 
 an interview with the ruler of forty millions of men, fully 
 account. In the handsome, melancholy young prince of 
 six and twenty, who received him with almost timid 
 affability and kindness, he saw the promise of many 
 Imperial qualities which Abdul-Medjid never developed in 
 his long and disastrous reign. 
 
 Lamartine had been previously told by Reschid Pasha 
 that, although Oriental etiquette required that everything 
 said to the Sultan in a foreign tongue should be rendered 
 by an interpreter into Turkish, yet that His Majesty under- 
 stood French perfectly. Of this he received a pleasing 
 confirmation ; for before the interpreter had time to inter- 
 fere, a gesture of gracious approbation greeted each pause 
 in his carefully prepared oration. "Son visage prenait 
 toutes les impressions de mon discours ; ses yeux calquaient 
 mes paroles, fier quand j'etais fier, resigne quand j'etais 
 resigne ; triste quand j'etais triste ; homme enfin a, l'unison 
 d'un autre homme," Then followed a conversation, in 
 which the Sultan continued to show the same gracious 
 flexibility. An allusion made by him to the difficulty of 
 ruling with a single sceptre so many different races and 
 nationalities was happily turned to account by Lamartine. 
 " Other monarchs," he replied, " may not have sufficed for 
 the task. But your Imperial Majesty is crowned with a 
 double diadem : you rule first by power, and then by 
 goodness." The audience ended, Lamartine withdrew. 
 He was, however, at once followed by the Vizier, who 
 conveyed to him Abdul-Medjid's wish that he should be 
 
$66 LAMARTINE. [1848- 
 
 present at a distribution of prizes his Majesty was about tc 
 make to the pupils of the Ecole Polytechnique, accordingly 
 he attended it, and carried away the most favourable 
 impression of the rising generations of Turkey. 
 
 There was now nothing to detain the Lamartines al 
 Constantinople, and the Orontes resumed her journey 
 through the islands of the Greek Archipelago. Here, again 
 Lamartine was enthusiastically welcomed. To him were 
 applied the lines, written of one of their own poets, " Partout 
 ou a passe* un des vers de ta lyre, ton pied peut passer 
 La muse t'a ouvert la porte de chaque foyer." And the 
 description of a feast given in his honour by a Greek 
 merchant named Pinto reads like a page out of " Lothair." 
 
 A few days more brought the travellers to Smyrna, 
 where they provided themselves, with as little delay as 
 possible, with the necessaries of Eastern life. The weather 
 was oppressively hot, so it was at nightfall that the little 
 caravan left Smyrna. First came a file of camels laden 
 with tents, books, and household goods of various kinds ; 
 next the Minmandhar, in command of the escort sent by 
 the Pasha of Smyrna ; then M. and Madame de Lamartine, 
 with their friends and their servants, all on horseback ; the 
 procession being closed by a troop of fierce-looking horse- 
 men, the principal inhabitants of the estate, who had come 
 to do homage to their new lord, each carrying a yataghan 
 and a pair of silver-mounted pistols. Passing down the long 
 street of the Franks, they descended the slope of Mount 
 Pagas ; then, leaving to the right the Castle of the Crusaders, 
 they followed the valley road which leads to Tireh, reaching, 
 while it yet was early morning, Tryanda. After resting 
 there till the noonday heat had subsided, they started 
 
L853.] A SYRIAN HOME. 3 6 7 
 
 gain, and a couple of hours' march brought them to a 
 river, which proved to be one of the boundaries of the 
 estate. The village of Achmet-Sched, half hidden by trees, 
 lay before them, and the rising ground beyond was crowned 
 by a long line of buildings, about a century old, of which 
 Jacoub Pasha had been the last tenant ; a shady avenue 
 of trees led up to it. 
 
 There was not much time to lose in making preparation, 
 for already the fleeting Eastern twilight had set in ; the 
 kneeling camels were quickly relieved of their burdens, and 
 the great central hall soon resembled a Levantine bazaar, 
 from which every one carried off what was needed for his 
 or her room. After a few hours of hard labour, the Syrian 
 dwelling was transformed into a habitation, to which even 
 the Parisian fastidiousness of M. de Champeaux could not 
 deny comfort and elegance, the only unconcerned spec- 
 tators of the noise and bustle being a family of storks 
 perched on the housetop. To them the ways of Easterns 
 and those of Europeans were equally familiar. 
 
 There was, naturally, plenty of occupation for many 
 days following. The house, which remained just as Jacoub 
 Pasha had left it, was altogether Eastern in its arrange- 
 ments, the principal portion being divided into large and 
 lofty rooms. That which the Lamartines usually occupied 
 was an arcaded saloon, of which the lofty, unglazed windows 
 let in the sea-breezes, making it deliciously cool. But, 
 excepting the audience chamber of Jacoub Pasha, these 
 rooms had but little decoration ; while the secluded wing, 
 formerly occupied by the harem, was fitted up with 
 exquisite taste, both the rooms and the cloisters abound- 
 ing in graceful, delicate arabesques. 
 
368 LAMARTINE. [184$ 
 
 The garden, laid out solely with a view to utility, ha 
 neither flowerbeds nor borders, not even a secluded alle 
 for poetic musings. Yet the luxuriant growth of vegetatio 
 gave it the charm of picturesqueness. Instead of wall 
 dense hedges of prickly pear kept out all intruders ; neithe 
 cows nor camels, not even the wild buffaloes ranging i 
 will in the surrounding plains, could have forced a 
 entrance. In one portion the homely products of Europ 
 — beet-root, carrots, lettuce — were not unsuccessfully cult 
 vated ; but in the greater portion reigned a more attractiv 
 confusion — huge gourds and melons lay " like golde 
 nuggets on their giant leaves ; " cotton-plants, loaded wit 
 pods, scattered their snowy down on every passing breeze 
 tall stems of maize glittered like lighted torches in th 
 dazzling sunshine ; the mulberry trees were large as oal< 
 in Europe, and far more gnarled and rugged ; even th 
 vines, instead of clinging with the feminine tenderness s 
 often sung by poets to their wedded poplars, seemed as 
 they were striving to drag them down in their huge, rope 
 like coils. But even in this seemingly neglected medle 
 thin lines of trickling silver gave evidence of a careful an 
 ingenious system of irrigation. 
 
 The advent and installation at Achmet-Sched of 
 French owner, distinguished by the special favour an 
 protection of the Commander of the Faithful, causec 
 despite Mohammedan apathy, a considerable stir in th 
 neighbourhood. During many days deputations used t 
 arrive from the neighbouring villages, headed by th 
 Ayam, or mayor, with salutations of respectful greetini 
 and offers of service. Needless to say, they were receive! 
 with the strictest conformity possible to their own usages 
 
1853.] A SYRIAN HOME. 369 
 
 whose genuine, if somewhat ceremonious, hospitality was 
 thoroughly congenial to their host. One can easily picture 
 Lamartine seated on the divan of Jacoub Pasha, at once 
 awing and fascinating the guests, whom he, on his part, 
 describes in very pleasant colours; They were of all classes 
 and conditions, ranging from the humble villager to the 
 many-camelled sheikh. There was but little difference in 
 their dress. The poorest had richly chased mountings to 
 their pistols ; a courteous self-possession, common to them 
 all, testified to the antiquity of their civilization, which had, 
 in process of time, penetrated even to the lowest social 
 stratum. The intercourse between man and man in the 
 old subject land of Syria is governed by unwritten laws, 
 at least as old as the Seleucidae. The meanest peasant 
 addresses his superior with perfect freedom and polish, 
 but without a tinge of self-assertion. And what is more 
 surprising is that education was diffused with the same 
 impartial quality. Every village had its school, in which 
 reading and writing were taught by the Imaum, who, having 
 scarcely any other duty to perform, fulfilled that of teacher 
 most scrupulously. Grave and taciturn by nature, these 
 Asiatics spoke little, and never for the sake of talking ; 
 their words were well weighed and well chosen. The dark 
 side of the picture is that their severer labour was done by 
 women and slaves ; but, as Lamartine assures us, such was 
 the universal gentleness and kindliness, that the position 
 of the slaves, trusted as members of the household, differed 
 little from that of hired servants in Europe, 
 
 Social relations having been established on a satis- 
 factory footing, the next task was that of surveying the 
 limits and estimating the capabilities of the grant with 
 
 2 B 
 
370 LAMARTINE. [1848' 
 
 which view the party started before daybreak on a lovel; 
 August morning. Lamartine was accompanied by MM. d 
 Chamborand and Barraud — the latter a young Frenchmai 
 who studied at the Agricultural College of Grignan, an< 
 had since been employed for some years in developing th 
 resources of several large Syrian estates, M. de Champeaua 
 whose health had suffered a good deal from the fatigue 
 of the voyage, remaining with Madame de Lamartine 
 The leaders of the expedition were mounted on six Aral 
 horses purchased at Constantinople ; Lamartine on i 
 chestnut mare, " ardent and high spirited, but witha 
 sagacious and reflective, careful to husband her strengtl 
 so as to be fresh at the end of the longest day's march 
 contrasting agreeably in colour with the flea-bitten gre^ 
 barb which carried M. de Chamborand." For the rest o 
 the party and the baggage, some of the small wiry ponies 
 which wandered in large herds over the surrounding 
 steppes, had been provided. 
 
 Very soon after leaving Achmet-Sched all trace o 
 cultivation ceased. On the vast plain before them, th( 
 sparsely scattered trees were low and stunted, the grounc 
 producing little but grass or heather. Yet here and then 
 brilliant patches of wild flowers clothed the desert witl 
 beauty, the soil showed traces of moisture, and was pro 
 nounced to be good mould to the depth of eight or ter 
 feet. To turn the wilderness into a garden nothing wa< 
 needed but man's skill and labour. 
 
 The road they followed was a bridle-path, which, skirt 
 ing the mountain range that separates the valley o; 
 Burghaz-eva from those of Magnesia, led to the caravar 
 route of Bainder and Tireh. After reaching it, a few more 
 
853.] EXPLORATIONS. 37 1 
 
 tours of easy march brought them to the Khan of Gourgour, 
 " the. bubbling water ; " so the host (if an Eastern khan 
 irhich provides nothing but bare walls and an undying 
 lame of charcoal to light the narghile can be said to have 
 host), on being informed that he was in the presence of 
 lis landlord, the friend of Abdul-Medjid, was profuse in 
 ;alaams and civilities. 
 
 The party were conducted over the buildings and 
 djoining grounds, all in a state of dilapidation, which told 
 )f the evils of absenteeism ; and, as a substantial proof of 
 he advent of better times, M. Barraud was directed to 
 lote down the necessary expenditure for improvements to 
 he amount of a year's rent. After a well-earned break- 
 iast, laid, not in the caravansera, but under the shade 
 )f a group of willow-trees, they went a little way up the 
 stream to a mill of primitive arrangement, for the renewing 
 Df which a second advance of six hundred piastres was 
 promised. The stream, which even in the hottest seasons 
 fulfilled the promise of its name, would, in the opinion of 
 MM. Barraud and de Chamborand, have sufficed to irrigate 
 ;ight thousand acres. 
 
 Before resuming the march, Lamartine, charmed by the 
 beauty of the spot, fixed on the site of a new mansion 
 which was to supersede the castle of Achmet-Sched, while 
 his companions traced the outline of a scheme of irrigation 
 by which the waters of Gourgour were to work a factory 
 and turn into a garden at least four hundred hectares of 
 barren waste — a plan which, probably very fortunately, 
 never went beyond paper. But it is pleasant to know that 
 all the promises made to the proprietor of the khan were 
 scrupulously fulfilled. 
 
372 LAMARTINE. [184* 
 
 A march of nine hours brought them to Teni-chifflic 
 the largest and most flourishing village on the estate, i 
 time for the evening meal. As their coming had not bee 
 notified, they proceeded quietly to encamp under the Ian 
 sycamore-trees which shaded the village green. But hard 
 were the carpets spread, than the villagers, among who 
 the news had spread like wildfire, came to welcome the 
 new master, offering cordial and respectful hospitalit 
 This, however, was declined. They then brought little gif 
 of milk, butter, fruit, sherbets, and all they could think o 
 the Ayam insisting on being allowed to provide coffe 
 which his slaves brought in a vase of antique bronz 
 " which might have been in the treasury of Croesus, Kir 
 of Lydia." 
 
 The collation, followed by a few hours of sleep, refresh< 
 them completely, and they then spent some hours in admirir 
 the fertility of the gardens and fields surrounding Ter 
 chifflick, and in pleasant converse with the people. Mai 
 favours were asked, which Lamartine, who thorough 
 enjoyed the role de bon prince, graciously accorded ; 1 
 even promised to obtain from the Pasha of Smyrna tl 
 freedom of a young man said to be cruelly punished for 
 very trifling offence. On asking the use of a large at 
 lofty building standing a little way from the town, ] 
 received the agreeable intelligence that it was the store 
 which his share of the harvest would be placed until 
 pleased him to dispose of it. 
 
 Towards evening they started again, and, passing ov 
 some parallel lines of wooded hills, came to a clump 
 giant oaks, called the " Forty Thieves," which serve as 
 landmark for miles. They saw below them the beautif 
 
J53.] EXPLORATIONS. 373 
 
 alley of Syra and the town, where they decided to stay 
 
 r the night. Sending a horseman forward to give notice 
 
 f their arrival, they remained for some time in delighted 
 
 ontemplation of a landscape which combined something 
 
 >f the sublimity of Switzerland with the rich luxuriance of 
 
 ^taly, while below them gleamed the marble walls of Syra, 
 
 vith her thirty minarets, which, illuminated in honour of 
 
 ome Mohammedan festival, glittered like fountains of fire. 
 
 As they approached the city, a fresh surprise awaited 
 
 hem. A long line of horsemen, mounted on richly 
 
 caparisoned steeds, came out to meet them. These were 
 
 the Governor and principal inhabitants of Syra, who, 
 
 having heard of their arrival, would not suffer them to lodge 
 
 at the khan, and came to offer hospitality, which was 
 
 gratefully accepted. After many courteous and flowery 
 
 speeches had been exchanged, they entered Syra amid a 
 
 salvo of fire-arms and the acclamations of the inhabitants. 
 
 The next day brought them to Touloum, the most 
 picturesque spot on the estate. So delighted was Lamartine 
 by its beauty, that he sent a messenger, who, riding through 
 the night, reached Achmet-Sched before dawn, with an 
 invitation to Madame de Lamartine to join them, which, 
 accompanied by M. de Champeaux, she accordingly did. 
 A delightful day was spent in receiving the homage of the 
 inhabitants and in sketching the beautiful architectural 
 remains, gems worthy of their setting, ending by a moon- 
 light ride home. The excursion was the prelude to others 
 equally pleasant ; besides which there was enough interest 
 and occupation at Achmet-Sched to make time pass quickly 
 and confirm the intention they then seem really to have 
 entertained, of making it a permanent residence. Lamar- 
 
374 LA MAR TINE. [184 
 
 tine, always somewhat vague in his narratives, docs n 
 make it plain what was the nature of his proprietorship 
 the tract of country, larger than the Duchy of Lucca, whi< 
 had been conceded to him. In one place he mentioi 
 that a third of the produce of the soil belongs to the Ian 
 lord ; over the countless herd of wild cattle and hors 
 ranging the plains, he also had seigniorial rights. But su< 
 was, he tells us, the admirable fertility of the soil, the 
 colonized by sturdy Burgundian peasants, it would speedi 
 surpass in productiveness the finest districts of Euroc 
 and his project was to start a company to undertake i 
 cultivation. 
 
 The time fixed for their return to France came on 
 too quickly. After a fortnight spent with the lively ar 
 hospitable foreign colony at Smyrna, they embarked in 
 French steamer which lay out in the offing. By Kha 
 Pasha's orders a Turkish sloop was at their dispose 
 Many friends, both old and new, accompanied them c 
 board, and, with promises of a speedy return, they startc 
 amid auspices on their homeward journey. 
 
 "But to no one," writes Goethe, "is it given to wand 
 with impunity under palm-trees ; " and for the second tin 
 in the East an unexpected sorrow overtook the Lamartine 
 The season was unhealthy ; the black flag of cholera fo 
 bade their landing at Athens, and an almost equally fat 
 epidemic of fever pervaded the air. Madame de Lamartir 
 was the first to succumb. M. de Champeaux, an elder 
 man, already suffering from heart disease, was still le: 
 able to resist the contagion. Nothing could exceed tl 
 kindness of all on board ; the first lieutenant at on( 
 gave him up his more airy cabin, two French missionar 
 
853.] DEATH OF M. DE CHAMPEAUX. 375 
 
 )riests who were on board tended him night and day, and 
 
 Dr. Crawford, an English passenger, of whose skill and 
 
 ndness Lamartine writes enthusiastically, volunteered his 
 
 ervices to help the rather inexperienced ship's doctor. 
 
 VI. de Champeaux bore his sufferings with such fortitude 
 
 is almost to deceive his friends ; but one evening, with his 
 
 isual cheerful composure, he gave Lamartine his last wishes 
 
 md messages for his family, and three days before France 
 
 was reached he passed quietly away. Lamartine has done 
 
 his best to pay a fitting tribute to his friend's talent and 
 
 virtues, in a passage of much eloquence and pathos, which 
 
 oncludes the otherwise cheerful record of the " Nouveau 
 
 voyage en Orient." 
 
 Leaving his wife at Monceau, Lamartine started for 
 London, with the object of organizing a company for the 
 cultivation of the territory of Burghaz-eva. The moment 
 was not well chosen. " All the world is out of town," he 
 writes ; " gone to hunt the fox." But he was received 
 everywhere with tokens of respect and even of enthusiasm, 
 deeply gratifying to one who in his own country was no 
 longer a prophet. A banquet offered to him by the City 
 of London he declined, but at a dinner given in his honour 
 by " fifty friends of peace, moderate politicians and philo- 
 sophers," Lamartine spoke amid much applause. 
 
 Lamartine's tenure of his Eastern possessions proved 
 very brief. Unexpected difficulties arose in the manage- 
 ment, and ultimately he resigned them, receiving a sum of 
 money in compensation. 
 
 On his return to France he found that in his absence the 
 march of political events had been rapid. The hostility of 
 the Parliamentary party to Louis Napoleon was becoming 
 
$?6 LAMAR TINE. [1848 
 
 daily more undisguised. They rejected a proposal for r< 
 placing the nomination of mayors in the hands of tb 
 Executive, although all the industries of the country wei 
 being paralyzed by the election of Socialists ; and the 
 went so far as to appoint a commission, of men avowedl 
 opposed to the President, to watch over his conduct durin 
 the recess. On this, Louis Napoleon threw himself on th 
 support of the provinces, where his popularity was rapidl 
 increasing. He made a progress through Lyons, Stra; 
 bourg, Rheims, and Cherbourg, which was at every stag 
 an increasing triumph. The cries of " Vive le President ! 
 were only drowned by those of " Vive l'Empereur ! " 
 
 The next move of the Assembly was one which showe 
 at once their irritation and their weakness. On the 2nd c 
 January, 185 1, a journal known as the organ of the majorit 
 reported certain instructions to the troops, requiring ther 
 to obey no orders but such as had been issued by the Corr 
 mander of the Army of Paris. On the day following, Loui 
 Napoleon went down to the Assembly, and demanded tha 
 they should declare the instruction apocryphal, or suspen 
 General Changarnier, who had issued it. The Assembl 
 hoped to gain time by passing to the order of the day 
 whereupon the President divided the military command i 
 such a way that Changarnier was superseded, without hi 
 name being mentioned. The Assembly were furious, an< 
 threatened to raise an army of fifty thousand men, and plac 
 it under Changarnier. Finding this impossible, they wishe 
 to establish a " Commission d'Enquete," with the power 
 of a Star-chamber. Lamartine adjured them not to stultif 
 themselves by an illegal and unconstitutional course, whicl 
 could only end in their defeat. 
 
853.] THE MEETING OF FIVE. Z77 
 
 After five days of tumult and uproar, a vote of want of 
 :onfidence in the Ministry was passed. The President at 
 once dismissed them, but replaced them as quickly by 
 others equally serviceable to him. The proper course for 
 the Assembly would have been to refuse supplies and' run 
 the risk of a dissolution. But, aware that the verdict of 
 the country would be against them, they were afraid to do 
 this, and continued an undignified and hopeless struggle, 
 showing their anger against the President by reducing his 
 income, and other paltry measures, and finally took to 
 quarrelling among themselves. 
 
 Lamartine, seeing with all the world that it was not in 
 an impotent and discredited Assembly, but in the force of 
 public opinion, that the last hope of maintaining the Re- 
 public lay, took no further part in the debates, but devoted 
 his energies to upholding Republican principles in political 
 pamphlets and through the press. About this time he 
 joined M. de Laguerronniere in founding a new journal, Le 
 Pays, which nowadays, having changed its politics, is the 
 accredited organ of the Bonapartists. But it was a forlorn 
 hope, for it was evident that the advent of Imperialism was 
 only a question of time ; nor to such foreigners as visited 
 him at this period did the President make any secret of his 
 intentions, or of the means he relied on to carry them out. 
 Whether there really was, as he seemed to think, a con- 
 spiracy formed with the object of sending him to Vincennes, 
 is open to question, but no one could deny that the situa- 
 tion was untenable. All through the spring and summer 
 of 185 1 a catastrophe was almost daily expected, but, as 
 we now know, it was not till an evening in August that 
 the famous meeting of five — Morny, Persigny, Carlier, 
 
378 LAMARTINE. [1846 
 
 Rouher, and the President — was held in an arbour at S 
 Cloud, with coffee and liqueurs on the table, and the coii 
 ddtat planned ; Rouher, who, as the only lawyer presen 
 was employed to draft an imperial constitution, quietl 
 lining away in his pocket-book the liberties of Franc 
 Even then the President was disinclined to immediat 
 action ; it was only in November, when the Assembly pn 
 posed, by a flagrant violation of the existing law, to usur 
 the control of the army, which had been expressly conferre 
 by the Constitution on him alone, that the anniversary ( 
 Austerlitz was fixed on as the date of his 18 Brumaire. 
 
 Lamartine, who resolved not to identify himself eithc 
 with the undignified and illegal conduct of the Assembb 
 or, on the other hand,, to have any share in establishing th 
 form of government which above all others he deteste< 
 had not, since the beginning of May, taken part in an 
 debate. The autumn found him at St. Point, and i 
 October he was stricken down by a severe attack c 
 articular rheumatism, which kept him for more than tw 
 months confined, to bed. An invalid's company is n( 
 generally very cheerful, but M. de Lacretelle, who, wit 
 Charles Alexandre, was seldom absent from Lamartine 
 sick couch, tells us that, painful as it was to his friends t 
 see him suffer, Lamartine's unfailing sweetness of dispositio 
 and his brilliant talk made his sick room the most delightfi 
 of salons. He bore his sufferings with the patience < 
 a Mussulman. If extreme pain sometimes drew from hii 
 " quelques exclamations soldatesques," he quickly made u 
 for them by increased gentleness and affability. He ofte 
 asked to be read to, but his friends were never afraid of h: 
 imposing any heavy tax on them in that way, for ever 
 
1853.] THE COUP D'ETAT. 379 
 
 page suggested a reminiscence, every argument a discussion. 
 As soon as the swelling in his hands had diminished, he 
 took up his pen and wrote off " Le Present, le Passe, et 
 l'Avenir de la Republique," of which Lacretelle says : " Le 
 prophete s'y versa tout entier. Les ev^nements y furent 
 predits presque a leur date. Le livre n'est pas fait de 
 pages mais de rayons." But as it did not appear in print 
 till Republics were out of fashion, the book only had a 
 succes ctestime. 
 
 One morning, in the first week of December, a flood of 
 visitors rushed in from Macon to announce the events of 
 the 2nd — the Assembly dissolved, half the deputies in 
 prison, the electors ordered to the poll by a discharge of 
 musketry. Lamartine's explosion of wrath was, according 
 to Lacretelle, Titanesque. He inveighed against Napoleon 
 as " one of those wild beasts which from time to time come 
 out from their lair with the semblance of men, and are 
 called Tiberius, Nero, Cara.calla. They told you there had 
 been no massacre ? and I tell you that men have been walk- 
 ing the Boulevards with blood up to their knees ; that 
 women and children have been slaughtered by thousands. 
 No matter what the appearance of civic virtue may be, 
 there is always somewhere a woman carrying in her arms 
 a child that will one day be called Caesar. And this 
 Caesar will reign by corruption. You will see the despotism 
 of beadledom. He will make war in order to hide under 
 flags and trophies the corpse of Liberty. And he will last 
 long ; and he will wear many masks, till at last he will 
 bring on France an invasion ! " 
 
 But after having poured out his soul in this torrent of 
 mingled commination and prophecy for a considerable 
 
380 LAMAR TINE. [1848 
 
 time, Lamartine kept his head better than any of hi 
 friends. They wanted to rush out into the streets an 
 highways and raise the people in defence of their libertie: 
 " You will do nothing of the sort," was his reply. " You 
 bounden duty is, on the contrary, to go back each to you 
 own home. Everything will be accepted ; as you knov 
 the peasantry have been fanaticized by the name c 
 Napoleon. And even if it were otherwise, how could w 
 deliberately drive them up to the bayonets of an army tha 
 remembers nothing but Austerlitz ? " 
 
 But some letters written about this time show best hi 
 feelings and his own position with regard to the events c 
 the day. 
 
 To the Marquis de la Grange. 
 
 "December 15th. 
 " What has happened grieves but does not surprise mi 
 I deplore the coup d'etat of the Bonapartists. With 
 little patience the Constitution might have been legall 
 revised and improved. The great misfortune of France i 
 that she now rests on a single bayonet, and if one man' 
 pulse ceases to beat, hers too will stop. I have been doin 
 my best, as far as I could from the bed on which I hav 
 been two months a prisoner, to prevent the people roun 
 me from taking part in any wild or foolish acts of violeno 
 A few hundred mountaineers came down from Griseu^ 
 passing within about twelve leagues of us, to attack Macoi 
 it was said, but nothing came of it. Far from my havin 
 been abused or threatened, as they say in Paris of me, th 
 villagers came up to ask if they could be of any service t 
 us : they are excellent people. I shall publish my reason 
 
1853.] THE COUP D'ETAT. 38 1 
 
 for not voting, couching them in moderate terms ; then I 
 shall take up my pen and keep to literary work. But the 
 generous friendship of your letter will never be forgotten 
 by me. It is by adversity hearts are tested." 
 
 To another friend, a few weeks later : — > 
 
 " Your letter is one of those cries of eloquent indignation 
 which pierce the heart. It is well when one is young to be 
 indignant ; as one grows old, one learns to be compas- 
 sionate. Those who remember 181 5 understand 185 1. 
 Always Gauls, never men ! Do not let us speak of it. 
 Time is the instrument by which Providence works, and it 
 will bring back, though I know not when, dignity to the 
 people. We must pity them and console them, even in 
 their weakness. They loved Liberty for the sake of her 
 name, and now, for the sake of another name, they have 
 given themselves up to despotism. Still the world goes 
 on, and you, who are young, will yet see many changes 
 come to pass. But I look elsewhere for other and better 
 things." 
 
 To M. DE LAPRADE. 
 
 "July 4th, 1852. 
 
 " Your letter has given me almost more pleasure than 
 your speech, because it is more directly personal to me. It 
 has been a consoling balm after much bitterness. But do 
 not let us be sorrowful beyond measure; God wills to 
 humble the pride of nations as He does that of individuals. 
 But He will not utterly crush the spirit of man. That such 
 as you are weeping at the sepulchre, is a token that soon 
 the stone will be rolled back. We have sinned by excess 
 of liberty, and of this sin despotism is the unfailing chastise- 
 ment. But this despotism, which has begun by a great 
 
382 LA MART J NE. [1848-1853 
 
 crime, will only last long enough to bring France back tc 
 reason, and then we shall have that perfect balance ol 
 authority and liberty which is the glory and the morality 
 of government. I am much better in health. In a few days 
 I shall go to Paris to roll up our tent, and then I returr 
 here to live, like you, in solitude, — to think, write, pray 
 hope, and act — if ever Providence brings us back to honest 
 and moderate action." 
 
 A few months later, it was reported, in some of the 
 Parisian journals, that Lamartine had accepted a seat ir 
 the Senate ; whereupon he wrote as follows to the editoi 
 of the Slide : — 
 
 "M. LE Redacteur, 
 
 "You quote from the Indepejidance Beige a lisi 
 of the political men whom the present Government is aboul 
 to call to the Senate, in which list my name occurs. In the 
 interests of truth, which should always be respected, wil; 
 you allow me to contradict a report which has not, anc 
 which never could have, any foundation." 
 
 Lamartine persevered to the last in his resolution o 
 entire abstention from political life during the Imperia 
 regime, and, as it lasted longer than his life, all the remain- 
 ing records of his biography are literary or personal. 
 
( 383 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1853-1870. 
 
 LAMARTINE'S early years, once the morning mists had 
 lifted, were, as we have seen, illuminated by a considerable 
 share of literary and social success. During his manhood, 
 he played a leading part in the political history of his 
 country ; an amount of personal popularity such as falls 
 to the lot of few had come to him, almost without an 
 effort ; and, finally, a career of more than ordinary brilliancy 
 had culminated in a moment of the highest, if not of sus- 
 tained, achievement. But the crowning blessing of a 
 serene old age was not vouchsafed to him. Besides the 
 very bitter trial of seeing his most cherished aspirations for 
 the future of France hopelessly blighted, he was himself all 
 but crushed beneath an overwhelming burden of debts and 
 difficulties. To those who knew the simplicity of Lamar- 
 tine's habits and tastes, and the utter absence of luxury or 
 ostentation which characterized both him and his wife, the 
 amount of his liabilities was an insoluble enigma. M. de 
 Lacretelle, speaking with thorough knowledge, says that 
 Lamartine's household expenses in Paris never exceeded 
 £2000 a year ; in the country, where his hospitality was 
 unceasing, his table was simple, supplied chiefly, he used to 
 
384 LAMART1NE. [181; 
 
 say, by presents from his humbler neighbours, — but omitti; 
 to add that they ultimately received back far more th: 
 they gave. 
 
 In the management of his estates he was hard-workin 
 intelligent, and to outward appearance successful. H 
 crops were more luxuriant, his labourers better off, th; 
 those of the surrounding estates. But, apparently < 
 account of the difficulty winegrowers on a small scale foul 
 in disposing of their produce, it was the custom in t 
 Maconnais for the large proprietors to buy up their tenan 
 and those of the smaller owners' crops on foot for reac 
 money, reselling them at leisure. This Lamartine, alwa 
 speculative and sanguine, unfortunately did, on a very larj 
 scale, usually giving a price far beyond the value, and r 
 selling at a loss. That the peasants round Milly, Moncea 
 and St. Point were becoming capitalists at his expen 
 rather pleased him ; the idea of his difficulties ever becon 
 ing serious never occurring to him. " I shall always arrange 
 he used to say, " so as to . have a good balance of ou 
 standing debts. For individuals, as for nations, debt is 
 stimulus necessary for production." 
 
 The rental of his estates was considerable, and for e: 
 traordinary expenses he knew he could at any time reali; 
 a considerable sum in a few weeks of literary labour. Bi 
 though his gross income was large, it was subject to mar 
 reductions. His uncles and aunts had followed cla; 
 traditions by making the whole of the landed estates of tr 
 family revert to him, but so encumbered with legacies 1 
 their five nieces and innumerable great-nieces and nephew 
 as to be a burden rather than a possession. Already, i 
 1846, Lamartine's embarrassments were becoming seriou 
 
L870] FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. 385 
 
 and it was a matter of consideration whether he should 
 not resign his seat in the Chamber, which made a winter 
 residence in Paris obligatory, and, selling a portion of his 
 estate, live modestly on the remainder. However, an 
 opportune legacy from his last surviving aunt, together 
 with the large sum he received for "Les Girondins," averted 
 this necessity, and in 1847 he was able to look forward 
 confidently to the speedy payment of all his debts. But in 
 February, 1848, came the Revolution, of which the most 
 abiding result was Lamartine's ruin. Besides suffering, 
 in common with the rest of the world, from the depreciation 
 of every kind of property, he was driven, by his intense 
 patriotism and almost morbid horror of bloodshed, to 
 spend every shilling he could command in averting fresh 
 disturbances. What he actually disbursed was never 
 known, but it was said that, to postpone a single rising 
 till . troops sufficient to overawe the insurgents could be 
 brought into the field, had cost him seventy-five thousand 
 francs. Most of the men who have since occupied similar 
 positions found means of at least recouping themselves, but 
 Lamartine, at the end of his three months of power, owed 
 more than three millions of francs. Still he could not 
 realize his situation, and when some leading financiers, 
 MM. Mires, Pereira, and others offered, with rare but real 
 disinterestedness, through Lamartine's friends, MM. Roland 
 and Chamborre, to advance money sufficient to meet his 
 most pressing liabilities, and secure him an income till all 
 was paid off, provided he agreed to the immediate sale 
 of a portion of his estates, and undertook to refrain for 
 the future from buying up his tenants' wine, Lamartine 
 dismissed the offer with a smile. He who spoke so diffi- 
 
 2 C 
 
3 8 <5 LAMARTINE. [181 
 
 dently of himself as a statesman and as a poet, had, b) 
 not uncommon infatuation, implicit faith in his talents 
 a financier. Blinded, by the enormous sums that had be 
 realized from his works by publishers, to the real difficult 
 of his situation, he was firmly convinced that, if only 1 
 health and strength lasted, he could save by degrees a si 
 sufficient to liberate all his estates, and thus be enabled 
 bequeath to his representatives an undiminished inheritan< 
 Hence came the enormous productiveness of Lama 
 tine's last years, which at one time reached the almc 
 appalling amount of fifteen volumes in a single yea 
 besides which he undertook, singlehanded, three volumino 
 periodicals, " Le Conseiller du People," " Le Civilisateui 
 and " Cours familier de Litterature," the last of which w 
 continued for several months after his death, from mam 
 scripts he had left. And if it be true, as is sometimes sai 
 that original literary composition is the hardest and mo 
 exhausting of all work— what days and nights of cm 
 unintermitting labour does not this catalogue represen 
 The pen, once a toy in his hand, was changed into a wor 
 man's tool, nay, into the oar of the galley-slave. Jul 
 Janin, himself no idler, tells how, one summer day, wh< 
 he was in villeggiatura near Macon, he went over to pa 
 his respects to the owner of Monceau. " A winding pal 
 leads up to a great and illustrious house. There, in h 
 study, stretched on a simple camp bed, lay M. de Lama 
 tine. He was ill, but he was writing, whether prose ( 
 poetry I know not ; but piles of manuscript scattered aboi 
 betrayed the secret of many sleepless nights. Not a da] 
 nay, not an hour of rest does he allow himself. Yet it wa 
 a time of overpowering heat ; the birds were singing in th 
 

 tie 
 
 0.] FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. 387 
 
 shes, dogs were barking cheerfully in the courtyard ; in 
 cool, dark stall an Arab mare was neighing for her 
 ister; feathered fowl were taking their food without 
 >our ; in the valley the vine-dressers were resting in the 
 asant shade, for their work was light, and they knew 
 y could trust to their master's indulgence. In that 
 ppy secluded spot all but he were singing, resting, or 
 oicing. Yet you were worth labouring for, valleys, 
 ountains, St. Point, Monceau ! You were worth being 
 nsomed, even at the price of a poet's genius ! But no 
 her man living could with impunity have imperilled his 
 putation by undertaking such a task." 
 
 During many long years the odds were terribly against 
 
 amartine. All that was of value — books, heirlooms, 
 
 rniture- £ — he gradually parted with, and at last a day came 
 
 hen Monceau, Milly, and St. Point were put up to auction. 
 
 amartine's friends then exerted themselves to the utmost. 
 
 n appeal was made to the public in the form of a com- 
 
 lete edition of his works for the author's benefit. But 
 
 lost readers had them already in detail, and the result 
 
 as hardly what had been hoped. The Emperor, with 
 
 laracteristic generosity, offered more than once to pay 
 
 .amartine's debts out of his private purse, at first under 
 
 le condition that he would accept a seat in the Senate, 
 
 len without any condition. The offer was renewed re- 
 
 eatedly with the greatest possible delicacy, M. de Laguer- 
 
 onniere being 'the negotiator. But even in his darkest 
 
 ays, sick in body, worn out by the strife with his 
 
 reditors, Lamartine's only answer was a courteous refusal.* 
 
 * In 1868, Lamartine's relatives accepted for him an annuity of 25,000 . 
 •ancs, voted by the Legislative Chamber. 
 
388 LAMARTINE. [185M 
 
 At last, however, the long struggle, which recalls Hugo'! 1 
 terrible picture of the duel between the man and thf 
 octopus, ended like it in victory, chiefly through the success 
 of the " Cours d'Entretiens littiraires," which kept up th« 
 number of thirty thousand subscribers ; and before Lamar* 
 tine's lofty intellect became darkened by the shadows 01 
 approaching death, an arrangement was made by which al! 
 just claims against him were satisfied. 
 
 As the last volume of Lamartine's published corre-^ 
 spondence closes with a letter dated March, 1853, and his 1 
 life from that time forward was devoted to literary worki 
 there is not much record of his closing years, save ani 
 occasional notice, in memoirs of the time, of evenings spent 
 in the little salon of the Rue Ville l'Eveque, when Madame 
 de Lamartine' nightly received her friends. Mr. Senior's 
 volume of " Recollections of the Second Empire " records 
 some interesting conversations. In the earlier ones, politics 
 and history past and passing are discussed, especially during; 
 the Crimean war. The alliance between France and Eng- 
 land pleased Lamartine, though he blames the irresolution! 
 and dilatoriness of the Imperial Government, "qui pirouette: 
 sur l'Autriche," and predicts the disastrous consequences. 
 
 Another evening Lamartine had been speaking at a; 
 hall lately opened for the delivery of lectures on social 
 science. M. Pelletan, another of the guests, related how, 
 when Lamartine had left the hall, the audience, composed 
 chiefly of working-men, stood talking eagerly of him and 
 of 1848, and of the scenes before the Hotel de Ville. " We 
 came," they said, " determined to overthrow the Provisional 
 Government, and Lamartine as its head. But we were 
 children in his hands. We were cowed when he reproved 
 
|70.] CONVERSATIONS. 389 
 
 proud when he praised us, and obedient when he 
 mmanded us." 
 
 On this, Lamartine turned the conversation on public 
 
 peaking generally, saying — " I have addressed different 
 
 udiences, but the only one worth speaking to c'est la foide. 
 
 n an assembly your friends, or rather your party, treat the 
 
 ebate as a game, yourself as a piece or as a pawn, your 
 
 peech as a move ; your adversaries think of you only as 
 
 n enemy, and of your speech only as a thing to be refuted. 
 
 The rest, the impartial part of the audience, go to a debate 
 
 s they go to an opera, consider your speech as a work of 
 
 rt offered them to criticize, and praise or blame you 
 
 Jaccordingly as they have been bored or amused. # No one 
 
 changes his opinion ; no one is convinced ; no one is even 
 
 moved. The best speech does not alter a vote. It merely 
 
 renders the vote, which every hearer had premeditated to 
 
 give, more or less pleasant to him. No one cares whether 
 
 the speaker is or is not sincere. Indeed, it is well known 
 
 that he must often be insincere, since he speaks not his 
 
 own opinions, but those of his party, or rather those which 
 
 it suits his party to profess for the time being. No one 
 
 cares for their truth. What is wanted is that they be 
 
 plausible, and offer a good excuse for the vote. La foule is 
 
 sincere. It comes to you for information and for counsel. 
 
 The first, almost the only quality it demands from you is 
 
 sincerity. You may reproach it, you may laugh at it, you 
 
 may run counter to its prejudices, — it will bear anything 
 
 from you while it believes you to be honestly anxious to 
 
 give it good advice. But beware how you are found out in 
 
 flattering it ! Beware how you are found out in saying 
 
 anything which it believes to be insincere ! That instant 
 
390 LAMARTINE. [18£H 
 
 your influence is gone. Inferior men may be powerful 
 mob-orators, if they have the same prejudices and feelings 
 as their hearers. They reveal to every man that he is I 
 sympathized with by them, and sympathized with by hisl 
 neighbours. They render every folly contagious. Thcyj 
 strengthen every opinion, and excite passions already tool 
 violent. The real triumph and the real usefulness is not to 
 stimulate, but to moderate, to control, to alter, often to 
 reverse. So far as I effected these things, or any of these | 
 things, at the Hotel de Ville, I was useful." 
 
 Other conversations turned on literature, which, as time 
 passed on, grew more and more the one engrossing and 
 all-absorbing interest of Lamartine's life, till all that re- 
 mained to him of the years of troubled strife in the forum 
 and the market-place was a rapidity of thought and phrase 
 which could never have been acquired in study. His mind 
 was not suited for analytic or scientific methods. In his 
 historic and biographical sketches he does not attempt to 
 go below the surface of things ; nor does he in his classic 
 studies often go further afield or nearer home than Plutarch 
 and Rollin, — writing of the Tarquins and the Brutuses as 
 if Niebuhr and Mommsen had never existed, but fulfilling 
 admirably the object he had in view — to stimulate the 
 thoughts and recreate the jaded minds of the limitless 
 audiences he addressed. And, despite the overwhelming 
 stress of work to which he subjected himself, the traces of 
 weariness in his style are wonderfully few ; he is often 
 diffuse, repeats himself frequently, but keeps to the last the 
 " luminous and sustained phrase " of his earlier manner. 
 His judgments are wonderfully clear and discerning ; it is 
 remarkable how many passages of Lamartine's least-known 
 
 
)70.] "ZA VIGNE ET LA MAISON? 39 1 
 
 >ooks have become current coin of thought and expression. 
 I And though he did not often in latter days exercise his 
 poetic power, it remained undiminished to the end, as is 
 shown by the lines headed " La Vigne et la Maison," which, 
 in almost his seventieth year, he improvised to supply 
 some copy which had gone astray of his 15th " Entretien " 
 — lines which, despite some obvious negligences, show the 
 touch of the master's hand, ** the power of sweet and 
 constraining suasion, the tender elegiac grace," of the 
 Lamartine of old. The poet is gazing once more on the 
 home of his childhood, as it lies faintly illumined by 
 the feeble rays of a November sun. 
 
 ' ' La nuit tombe, 6 mon ame ! un peu de veille encore ! 
 Le coucher d'un soleil est d'un autre l'aurore. 
 Vois comme avec tes sens s'ecroule ta prison ! 
 Vois comme aux premiers vents de la precoce automne 
 S'envole brin a brin le duvet du chardon. 
 
 ****** 
 Le soir qui tombe a des languers sereines 
 Que la fin donne a tout, aux bonheurs comme aux peines, 
 Le linceul meme est tiede au cceur enseveli, 
 Cette heure a pour nos coeurs des impressions douces 
 Comme les pas muets qui marchent sur les mousses. . . . 
 Je ne sais quel lointain y baigne toute chose, 
 Ainsi que le regard l'oreille s'y repose ; 
 On entend dans Tether glisser le moindre vol. 
 
 ****** 
 Viens, reconnais la place oil ta vie etait neuve. 
 N'as-tu point de douceur, dis-moi, pauve ame veuve, 
 A remuer ici la cendre des jours morts ? 
 
 " N'y trouves-tu pas le delice 
 Du brasier tiede et rechauffant 
 Qu'allume une vieille nourrice 
 Au foyer qui nous vit enfant ? 
 
 " Ou 1'impression qui console 
 L'agneau tondu hors de saison 
 Quand il sent sur sa laine folle 
 Repousser sa chaude toison ? " 
 
392 LAMART1NE. [1853- 
 
 But how all has changed ! How silent and deserted is 
 now the house which, in bygone days, used to be from 
 earliest dawn full of life and joy ! 
 
 " Tous les bruits du foyer que l'aube fait renaitre 
 Les pas des serviteurs sur les degres de bois. 
 Les aboiments du chien qui voit sortir son maitre 
 Le mendiant plaintif qui fait pleurer sa voix, 
 
 " Montaient avec le jour; et dans les intervalles, 
 Sous des doigts de quinze ans repetant leur lecon 
 Les claviers resonnaient ainsi que des cigales 
 Qui font tinter l'oreille au temps de la moisson." 
 
 And now only pale ghosts of the past flit through the 
 deserted rooms, in which spiders weave their nets ; nettles 
 choke up the pavement once echoing such joyous footsteps — 
 
 " De la solitaire demeure 
 
 Une ombre lourde d'heure en heure 
 
 Se detache sur le gazon : 
 Et cette ombre, couchee et morte, 
 Est la seule chose qui sorte 
 Tout le jour de cette maison ! 
 
 Then, with one of the swift lyric changes in which 
 Lamartine excelled, another chord is struck — what has 
 been so loved, so cherished, cannot perish wholly. 
 
 " N'as tu pas, dans un des pans de tes globes sans nombre, 
 Une pente au soleil, une vallee a l'ombre 
 
 Pour y rebatir ce doux seuil ? 
 Nonplus grand, non plus beau, mais pareil, mais le meme." 
 
 Reading these lines, one can understand what M. E. de 
 Montegut, who, when a very young man, frequented the 
 salon of the Rue Ville l'Eveque, tells of the unfailing charm 
 of a mind which never wholly lost its youth, clothed in the 
 dignity of gracious, serene old age. " Mais ce qui dominait 
 
I 1870.] DEATH OF MADAME DE LAMARTINE. 393 
 
 1 sur tout etait une expression ineffacable de mansuetude 
 
 j et de douceur." 
 
 Madame de Lamartine aged more quickly than her 
 husband, though she was energetic and active, and, as long 
 as her strength lasted, an early riser, giving much time to 
 works of active benevolence. But of late years her one 
 engrossing occupation was assisting her husband in his 
 literary work ; at this she laboured night and day. There 
 had been a time when, by wise counsels, and by the 
 sacrifice of the greater part of her own fortune, she had 
 striven hard to avert his impending ruin ; but she now r , 
 with rare discretion, refrained even from giving advice, 
 wearing her poverty with the same graceful simplicity that 
 had characterized her as the hostess of one of the most 
 brilliant salons of Paris. Still she retained to the last a 
 certain degree of elegance in her own person. It used to 
 be remarked that, even at the Rue Ville l'Eveque, and in 
 the days when the Republican element most predominated, 
 she retained her English habit of dressing for the evening, 
 though she no longer exacted it of her guests. At last a 
 day came when, feeling herself beaten in the long struggle 
 against increasing years and failing health, she devolved 
 her duties as hostess on her nieces, and reclined quietly on 
 her sofa, always sympathetic, but conversing little. What 
 strength she had she reserved for writing and corre- 
 spondence ; numerous letters show how bright was the now 
 flickering flame of that noble soul. 
 
 In the spring of 1867 ner sufferings increased, yet was 
 she so calm and cheerful that those around her did not 
 observe how quickly her life was drawing to its close. 
 But in May a sudden and severe attack of erysipelas com- 
 
394 LAMARTINE. [1853- 
 
 pletely prostrated her. For many days M. Gavel, the 
 family physician and friend, with two other doctors, watched 
 her unceasingly. Most of the time she seemed unconscious, 
 just able from time to time to inquire anxiously for her 
 husband, who lay in the adjoining room, stricken with 
 rheumatic fever, unable to move, listening in mute anguish 
 to her last painful struggles, which ended on Thursday, 
 May 2 1 st. Her obsequies were, according to her wishes, 
 simple in the extreme. It might have been otherwise, for 
 M. Ulbach says that the Government offered to have her 
 remains conveyed to St. Point at the public cost, and with 
 much ceremonial. But the offer was declined, and, after 
 a short religious service at the church of St. Augustin, 
 M. Louis de Ronchaud and the Comte d'Esgrigny accom- 
 panied the coffin to Macon. Here they were met by several 
 members of the Lamartine family, the principal inhabitants 
 and functionaries, and a large concourse of people, who 
 had come unbidden to follow the cortege to St. Point, to 
 do honour to one who, though a stranger to them by birth, 
 was for her own sake, as well as for the name she bore, 
 loved, and revered. A recumbent statue in marble, with 
 the inscription, Speravit anima mea, marks her resting-place. 
 
 Lamartine's sorrow was shared by his friends. " I 
 venerated her whom you mourn," wrote Victor Hugo to 
 him two days later, " and feel the need to tell you so. But 
 far beyond these horizons you already discern a brighter 
 future. Not to you need we say, ' Wait and hope.' You 
 are of those to whom life is already but an expectation. 
 She whom you loved is invisible, but present to you. Dear 
 friend, let us live in our dead." 
 
 The years during which Lamartine survived his wife 
 
1870.] LAST YEARS. 395 
 
 were few and sorrowful, but not altogether without solace ; 
 his niece and daughter by adoption, Madame Valentine de 
 Cessia de Lamartine, watching over him with unflagging 
 devotion. He still continued to labour with his pen. His 
 last and posthumous work, "Vingt cinq ans de ma vie," 
 which he left unfinished, though unequal in style, has many 
 interesting, charmingly written pages. But, clear and un- 
 clouded as was his intellect, the oil was visibly failing. A 
 few laboriously, slowly written paragraphs were now the 
 limit of his daily task. In the evenings, always carefully 
 dressed, seated in his arm-chair, he welcomed his friends 
 with his accustomed gracious urbanity ; his features, clear 
 cut and noble to the last, lighting up as he listened to or 
 took part in the discussions going on around him. But he 
 could not keep up the strain for long, becoming gradually 
 silent and abstracted, till his thoughts wandered visibly to 
 other and brighter scenes. 
 
 The last occasion on which he was quite himself was at 
 a dinner he gave to the elder Dumas, Stendhal, Lacretelle, 
 and a couple of other guests, one of whom was a country 
 neighbour. Dumas talked with more than his usual bril- 
 liancy, though the presence of Madame Valentine imposed 
 a restraint on the conversation to which he was not accus- 
 tomed, but which he scrupulously observed. 
 
 " If we had only known," Lamartine afterwards ob- 
 served, " we might have invited all the clergy of the parish ! " 
 
 Dumas' sonorous laugh had the effect of an elixir on 
 Lamartine ; his spirits rising with the occasion, he over- 
 flowed with sallies and epigrams recalling the best days of 
 Gallic wit. The other guests were too amused to do any- 
 thing but listen and laugh. M. de Lacretelle maliciously 
 
396 LAMARTINE. [1853- 
 
 adds, " As they talked French, not Parisian, even the 
 country neighbour was able to enjoy every point." 
 
 A few months later there came a visible change. M. 
 Vaucorbeil was bringing out his opera of " Mahomet," for 
 which he had borrowed the motif horn Lamartine's " His- 
 toire de la Turquie," in which the prophet, whom Voltaire 
 had accustomed the French people to look on as a fanatical 
 impostor, stands out a glowing type of ardent humani- 
 tarianism. M. Vaucorbeil asked leave, before the opera was 
 produced on the stage, to express his thanks in person for 
 the permission accorded him of making use of the work, 
 and to explain his own interpretation of it in the language 
 of harmony. Lamartine was gratified by the attention, 
 and touched by the enthusiasm of his visitor, but he who 
 was once almost unsurpassed in his command of thought 
 and language, had now considerable difficulty in keeping 
 up a few minutes' conversation, and an expression of relief 
 passed over his face when M. Vaucorbeil rose to depart. 
 
 After this, conscious of his failing powers, he saw none 
 but very intimate friends. During the few remaining 
 months, Madame Valentine redoubled her loving care and 
 watchfulness. At last, in the latter days of February, on 
 an anniversary recalling one of his noblest triumphs, the 
 physician, who in the morning had found nothing amiss, 
 told Lamartine in the evening that his end was near. He 
 received the summons with quiet cheerfulness, sent for his 
 kind and frequent visitor, the Abbe Duguerry, Cure of the 
 Madeleine (who before another year closed laid down his 
 life in the cause of faith and justice), and received from him 
 the last Sacraments. For another day and night Lamar- 
 tine's nieces, Mesdames de Pierreclos and Belleroche, with 
 
[870.] - "IN PACE." 297 
 
   
 
 I their children and Madame Valentine, watched by his bed- 
 I side. MM. Texier, Chamborand, Desplaces, and many 
 I others came to receive a parting glance and smile, till 
 I gradually, almost imperceptibly, the end came. 
 
 Notwithstanding the seclusion of Lamartine's latter 
 years, Paris did not hear of his death without emotion. 
 During the days which followed, hundreds passed up and 
 down the staircase leading to the chamber where death 
 wore an aspect of singular peace and majesty. In M. 
 Wastyns' words — " Le poete grandissait tout ce que 
 touchait son genie, et la mort meme sur ses traits rayon- 
 nants se montrait dans une indefinissable splendeur." 
 Genuine and widespread as were the regrets for his loss, 
 there was nothing in the simple rite of Lamartine's burial 
 resembling the splendid tribute of spectacular grief since 
 lavished on the remains of Victor Hugo. The offer of a 
 public funeral made by the Emperor was respectfully but 
 firmly refused, and the coffin privately conveyed to the 
 Cathedral of Macon, where, in the early morning, the 
 requiem was sung ; after which the funeral procession, 
 followed by more than two thousand silent and sorrowful 
 mourners, started for St. Point. The distance was -more 
 than eight miles. From time to time a halt was made as 
 the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages fell in. Those 
 Parisians among the following who had known Lamartine 
 only as a literary man or as a politician wondered at this 
 spontaneous tribute of grief from a whole country side. 
 Not so they who had seen him living among his own 
 people, respected, honoured, almost adored. The " Academie 
 francaise " was represented by MM. Emile Augier and Jules 
 Sandeau, who, in accordance with usage, should have 
 
398 LAMARTINE. [1853-1870. 
 
 delivered orations over the grave. But this Lamartine's 
 will strictly forbade. When the last words of prayer were 
 said and the final blessing given, no sound broke the silence 
 save a sweet and solemn peal from the village belfry, re- 
 calling to many the lines written by Lamartine more than 
 thirty years before — 
 
 " Moi, quand des laboureurs porteront dans ma biere 
 Le peu qui doit rester ici de ma poussiere, 
 Apres tant de soupirs que mon sein lance ailleurs ; 
 Quand des pleureurs gages, froide et banale escorte, 
 Deposeront mon corps endormi sous la porte 
 
 Qui mene a des soleils meilleurs ; 
 Si quelque main pieuse en mon honneur te sonne, 
 Des sanglots d'airain, oh ! n'attriste personne ; 
 Ne vas pas mendier des pleurs a l'horizon ! 
 Mais prends ta voix de fete et sonne sur ma tombe 
 Avec le bruit joyeux d'une chaine qui toiribe 
 
 Au seuil libre d'une prison ! " 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. 
 
BERKELEY 
 
 
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