CHAPTER IV.
PARIS.--A FEMALE POLITICIAN AND AN ECCLESIASTICAL ONE.--SUNDRY OTHERMATTERS.
THE ex-minister was received both at Calais and at Paris with themost gratifying honours: he was then entirely the man to captivatethe French. The beauty of his person, the grace of his manner, hisconsummate taste in all things, the exceeding variety and sparklingvivacity of his conversation, enchanted them. In later life he has grownmore reserved and profound, even in habitual intercourse; and attentionis now fixed to the solidity of the diamond, as at that time one was toodazzled to think of anything but its brilliancy.
While Bolingbroke was receiving visits of state, I busied myself ininquiring after a certain Madame de Balzac. The reader will rememberthat the envelope of that letter which Oswald had brought to me atDevereux Court was signed by the letters C. de B. Now, when Oswalddisappeared, after that dreadful night to which even now I can scarcelybring myself to allude, these initials occurred to my remembrance, andOswald having said they belonged to a lady formerly intimate with myfather, I inquired of my mother if she could guess to what Frenchlady such initials would apply. She, with an evident pang of jealousy,mentioned a Madame de Balzac; and to this lady I now resolved to addressmyself, with the faint hope of learning from her some intelligencerespecting Oswald. It was not difficult to find out the abode of onewho in her day had played no inconsiderable role in that 'Comedyof Errors,'--the Great World. She was still living at Paris: whatFrenchwoman would, if she could help it, live anywhere else? "There area hundred gates," said the witty Madame de Choisi to me, "which leadinto Paris, but only two roads out of it,--the convent, or (odiousword!) the grave."
I hastened to Madame Balzac's hotel. I was ushered through threemagnificent apartments into one which to my eyes seemed to contain athrone: upon a nearer inspection I discovered it was a bed. Upon a largechair, by a very bad fire--it was in the month of March--sat a tall,handsome woman, excessively painted, and dressed in a manner which to mytaste, accustomed to English finery, seemed singularly plain. I had sentin the morning to request permission to wait on her, so that she wasprepared for my visit. She rose, offered me her cheek, kissed mine, shedseveral tears, and in short testified a great deal of kindness towardsme. Old ladies who have flirted with our fathers always seem to claim asort of property in the sons!
Before she resumed her seat she held me out at arm's length.
"You have a family likeness to your brave father," said she, with alittle disappointment; "but--"
"Madame de Balzac would add," interrupted I, filling up the sentencewhich I saw her _bienveillance_ had made her break off, "Madame deBalzac would add that I am not so good-looking. It is true: the likenessis transmitted to me within rather than without; and if I have not myfather's privilege to be admired, I have at least his capacities toadmire," and I bowed.
Madame de Balzac took three large pinches of snuff. "That is verywell said," said she, gravely: "very well indeed! not at all like yourfather, though, who never paid a compliment in his life. Your clothes,by the by, are in exquisite taste: I had no idea that English people hadarrived at such perfection in the fine arts. Your face is a little toolong! You admire Racine, of course? How do you like Paris?"
All this was not said gayly or quickly: Madame de Balzac was by nomeans a gay or a quick person. She belonged to a peculiar school ofFrenchwomen, who affected a little languor, a great deal of stiffness,an indifference to forms when forms were to be used by themselves, andan unrelaxing demand of forms when forms were to be observed to themby others. Added to this, they talked plainly upon all matters, withoutever entering upon sentiment. This was the school she belonged to; butshe possessed the traits of the individual as well as of the species.She was keen, ambitious, worldly, not unaffectionate nor unkind; veryproud, a little of the devotee,--because it was the fashion to beso,--an enthusiastic admirer of military glory, and a most prying,searching, intriguing schemer of politics without the slightest talentfor the science.
"Like Paris!" said I, answering only the last question, and that notwith the most scrupulous regard to truth. "Can Madame de Balzac thinkof Paris, and not conceive the transport which must inspire a personentering it for the first time? But I had something more endearing thana stranger's interest to attach me to it: I longed to express to myfather's friend my gratitude for the interest which I venture to believeshe on one occasion manifested towards me."
"Ah! you mean my caution to you against that terrible De Montreuil. Yes,I trust I was of service to you _there_."
And Madame de Balzac then proceeded to favour me with the whole historyof the manner in which she had obtained the letter she had sent me,accompanied by a thousand anathemas against those _atroces Jesuites_ anda thousand eulogies on her own genius and virtues. I brought her fromthis subject so interesting to herself, as soon as decorum would allowme; and I then made inquiry if she knew aught of Oswald or could suggestany mode of obtaining intelligence respecting him. Madame de Balzachated plain, blunt, blank questions, and she always travelled througha wilderness of parentheses before she answered them. But at last I didascertain her answer, and found it utterly unsatisfactory. She had neverseen nor heard anything of Oswald since he had left her charged with hercommission to me. I then questioned her respecting the character of theman, and found Mr. Marie Oswald had little to plume himself upon in thatrespect. He seemed, however, from her account of him, to be more a roguethan a villain; and from two or three stories of his cowardice, whichMadame de Balzac related, he appeared to me utterly incapable of adesign so daring and systematic as that of which it pleased all personswho troubled themselves about my affairs to suspect him.
Finding at last that no further information was to be gained on thispoint, I turned the conversation to Montreuil. I found, from Madame deBalzac's very abuse of him, that he enjoyed a great reputation in thecountry and a great favour at court. He had been early befriended byFather la Chaise, and he was now especially trusted and esteemed by thesuccessor of that Jesuit Le Tellier,--Le Tellier, that rigid and bigotedservant of Loyola, the sovereign of the king himself, the destroyer ofthe Port Royal, and the mock and terror of the bedevilled and persecutedJansenists. Besides this, I learned what has been before pretty clearlyevident; namely, that Montreuil was greatly in the confidence of theChevalier, and that he was supposed already to have rendered essentialservice to the Stuart cause. His reputation had increased with everyyear, and was as great for private sanctity as for political talent.
When this information, given in a very different spirit from that inwhich I retail it, was over, Madame de Balzac observed, "Doubtless youwill obtain a private audience with the king?"
"Is it possible, in his present age and infirmities?"
"It ought to be, to the son of the brave Marshal Devereux."
"I shall be happy to receive Madame's instructions how to obtain thehonour: her name would, I feel, be a greater passport to the royalpresence than that of a deceased soldier; and Venus's cestus may obtainthat grace which would never be accorded to the truncheon of Mars!"
Was there ever so natural and so easy a compliment? My Venus of fiftysmiled.
"You are mistaken, Count," said she; "I have no interest at court: theJesuits forbid that to a Jansenist, but I will speak this very day tothe Bishop of Frejus; he is related to me, and will obtain so slight aboon for you with ease. He has just left his bishopric; you know howhe hated it. Nothing could be pleasanter than his signing himself, in aletter to Cardinal Quirini, 'Fleuri, Eveque de Frejus par l'indignationdivine.' The King does not like him much; but he is a good man on thewhole, though jesuitical; he shall introduce you."
I expressed my gratitude for the favour, and hinted that possibly therelations of my father's first wife, the haughty and ancient house ofLa Tremouille, might save the Bishop of Frejus from the pain of exertinghimself on my behalf.
"You are very much mistaken," answered Madame de Balzac: "priests pointthe road to court as well as to Heaven; and warriors and nobles have aslittle t
o do with the former as they have with the latter, the unluckyDuc de Villars only excepted,--a man whose ill fortune is enough todestroy all the laurels of France. _Ma foi_! I believe the poor Dukemight rival in luck that Italian poet who said, in a fit of despair,that if he had been bred a hatter, men would have been born withoutheads."
And Madame de Balzac chuckled over this joke, till, seeing thatno further news was to be gleaned from her, I made my adieu and mydeparture.
Nothing could exceed the kindness manifested towards me by my father'searly connections. The circumstance of my accompanying Bolingbroke,joined to my age, and an address which, if not animated nor gay, had notbeen acquired without some youthful cultivation of the graces, gave me asort of _eclat_ as well as consideration. And Bolingbroke, who was onlyjealous of superiors in power, and who had no equals in anything else,added greatly to my reputation by his panegyrics.
Every one sought me; and the attention of society at Paris would, tomost, be worth a little trouble to repay. Perhaps, if I had liked it, Imight have been the rage; but that vanity was over. I contented myselfwith being admitted into society as an observer, without a single wishto become the observed. When one has once outlived the ambition offashion I know not a greater affliction than an over-attention; and theSpectator did just what I should have done in a similar case, when heleft his lodgings "because he was asked every morning how he had slept."In the immediate vicinity of the court, the King's devotion, age,and misfortunes threw a damp over society; but there were still somesparkling circles, who put the King out of the mode, and declared thatthe defeats of his generals made capital subjects for epigrams. What adelicate and subtle air did hang over those _soirees_, where all thatwere bright and lovely, and noble and gay, and witty and wise, wereassembled in one brilliant cluster! Imperfect as my rehearsals mustbe, I think the few pages I shall devote to a description of theseglittering conversations must still retain something of that originalpiquancy which the _soirees_ of no other capital could rival orappreciate.
One morning, about a week after my interview with Madame de Balzac,I received a note from her requesting me to visit her that day, andappointing the hour.
Accordingly I repaired to the house of the fair politician. I found herwith a man in a clerical garb, and of a benevolent and prepossessingcountenance. She introduced him to me as the Bishop of Frejus; and hereceived me with an air very uncommon to his countrymen, namely, with anease that seemed to result from real good-nature, rather than artificialgrace.
"I shall feel," said he, quietly, and without the least appearance ofpaying a compliment, "very glad to mention your wish to his Majesty; andI have not the least doubt but that he will admit to his presence onewho has such hereditary claims on his notice. Madame de Maintenon, bythe way, has charged me to present you to her whenever you will give methe opportunity. She knew your admirable mother well, and for her sakewishes once to see you. You know perhaps, Monsieur, that the extremeretirement of her life renders this message from Madame de Maintenon anunusual and rare honour."
I expressed my thanks; the Bishop received them with a paternal ratherthan a courtier-like air, and appointed a day for me to attend him tothe palace. We then conversed a short time upon indifferent matters,which I observed the good Bishop took especial pains to preserve clearfrom French politics. He asked me, however, two or three questions aboutthe state of parties in England,--about finance and the national debt,about Ormond and Oxford; and appeared to give the most close attentionto my replies. He smiled once or twice, when his relation, Madame deBalzac, broke out into sarcasms against the Jesuits, which had nothingto do with the subjects in question.
"Ah, _ma chere cousine_," said he: "you flatter me by showing that youlike me not as the politician, but the private relation,--not as theBishop of Frejus, but as Andre de Fleuri."
Madame de Balzac smiled, and answered by a compliment. She was apolitician for the kingdom, it is true, but she was also a politicianfor herself. She was far from exclaiming, with Pindar, "Thy business, Omy city, I prefer willingly to my own." Ah, there is a nice distinctionbetween politics and policy, and Madame de Balzac knew it. Thedistinction is this. Politics is the art of being wise for others:policy is the art of being wise for one's self.
From Madame de Balzac's I went to Bolingbroke. "I have just been offeredthe place of Secretary of State by the English king on this side of thewater," said he; "I do not, however, yet like to commit myself so fully.And, indeed, I am not unwilling to have a little relaxation of pleasure,after all these dull and dusty travails of state. What say you toBoulainvilliers to-night? you are asked?"
"Yes! all the wits are to be there,--Anthony Hamilton, and Fontenelle,young Arouet, Chaulieu, that charming old man. Let us go, and polishaway the wrinkles of our hearts. What cosmetics are to the face witis to the temper; and, after all, there is no wisdom like that whichteaches us to forget."
"Come then," said Bolingbroke, rising, "we will lock up these papers,and take a melancholy drive, in order that we may enjoy mirth the betterby and by."