Read Ebook: Diary And Notes Of Horace Templeton Esq. Volume I (of II) by Lever Charles James

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Ebook has 664 lines and 68544 words, and 14 pages

"I have outlived resentment," said I, in a low whisper: "would that I could add, other feelings were as easily forgotten."

Not at once catching my meaning, she turned her full and lustrous eyes upon me, and then suddenly aware of my words, or reading the explanation in my own looks, she blushed deeply, and after a pause said,

"And what are your plans now? do you remain here some time?"

"No, I am trying to reach Italy. It has become as classic to die there nowadays, as once it was to live in that fair land."

"Italy!" interrupted she, blushing still deeper. "Favancourt is now asking for a mission there--Naples is vacant."

This time I succeeded in catching her eyes, but she hastily withdrew them, and we were both silent.

"Have you been to the Opera yet?" said she, with a voice full of all its habitual softness.

"You forget," said I, smiling, "that I am an invalid: besides, I only arrived here last night."

"The saddest is to be told: he was killed in the Punjaub, and she is now coming home a widow."

"How very sad!--was she as pretty as they said?--handsomer than Lucy Fox I have heard!"

"I almost think so."

"Me!"

"Nay, don't affect surprise: we heard the story at Florence, and a very funny story it was: that Lucy insisted upon it, if you didn't propose for her, that she would for you, since she was determined to be mistress of a certain black Arabian that you had; and that you, fearing consequences, sent her the horse, and so compromised the affair."

"How very absurd!"

"But is it not true? Can you deny having made a present of the steed?"

"She did me the honour to accept of a pony, but the attenuating circumstances are all purely imaginary."

"Well, finish, I pray you."

"I was only about to add, what would become of ourselves?"

"Meaning you and me, for instance?"

I bowed an assent.

"It was you that sighed!"

"I am a quarter past; but I think we must both be fast. You are going out?"

"A mere drive in the Champs Elys?es, where I shall pay a few visits and be back to dinner. Will you dine with us?"

"I pray you to excuse me--don't forget I am a sick man."

"Well, then, we shall see you at the Opera?"

"I fear not. If I might ask a favour, it would be to take the volume of Balzac away with me."

"Oh, to be sure! But we have some others, much newer. You know 'Le Recherche de l'Absolu', already?"

"Yes; but I like 'Eug?nie' still better. It was an old taste of mine, and as you quoted a proverb a few moments ago, let me give you another as trite and as true,--

'On revient toujours.'"

"'A ses premi?res amours,'"

said she, finishing; while with a smile, half playful, half sad, she turned toward the window, and I retired noiselessly, and without an adieu.

The former is sure to include a certain number of distinguished and remarkable men, who, even under the chill and restraint of a royal entertainment, venture now and then on some few words that supply the void where conversation should be. At Neuilly it is strictly a family party, where, whatever ease may be felt by the illustrious hosts, the guests have none of it. Juvenal quaintly asks, If that can be a battle where you strike and I am beaten? so one is tempted to inquire, If that can be called society where a royal personage talks rapidly for hours, and the listener must not even look dissent? The King of the French is unquestionably a great man, but not greater in any thing than in the complete mystification in which he has succeeded in enveloping his real character, mingling up together elements so strange, so incongruous, and seemingly inconsistent, that the actual direction or object of any political move he has ever made, will always bear a double appreciation. The haughty monarch is the citizen king; the wily and secret politician, the most free-spoken and candid of men: the most cautious in an intrigue, the very rashest in action. How is it possible to divine the meaning, or guess the wishes, of one whose nature seems so Protean?

His foreign policy is, however, the master-stroke of his genius,--the cunning game by which he has conciliated the party of popular institutions and beguiled the friends of absolutism, delighting Tom Buncombe and winning praise from Nicholas. Like all clever men who are vain of their cleverness, he has always been fond of employing agents of inferior capacity, but of unquestionable devotion to his interests. What small intelligences--to use a phrase more French than English--were the greater number of the French ministers and secretaries I have met accredited to foreign courts! I remember Talleyrand's observation, on the remark being made, was, "His Majesty always keeps the trumps in his own hand." Though, to be sure, he himself was an evidence to the contrary--a "trump" led boldly out, the first card played!

We have seen something of this kind in Belgium within a few years back--on a small scale, it is true. What strange ingredients did the Revolution throw up to the surface! what a mass of noisy, turbulent, self-opinionated incapables, who, because they had led a rabble at the Porte de Flandre, thought they could conduct the march of an army! And the statesmen!--good lack! the miserable penny-a-liners of the "Ind?pendant" and the "Lion Beige," that admirable symbol of the land, who carries his tail between his legs. The really able, and, I believe, honest men, were soon overwhelmed by the influence of the priest party--the vultures who watched the fight from afar, and at last descended to take all the spoils of the victory.

Wandeweyer and Nothomb are both men of ability, the latter a kind of Brummagen Thiers, with the same taste for intrigue, the same subtle subserviency to the head of the state, and, in his heart, the same cordial antipathy to England. But why dwell on these people? they will scarce occupy a foot-note in the old "Almanach."

The diplomatic history of our day, if it ever be written, will present no very striking displays of high-reaching intellect or devoted patriotism; the men who were even greatest before the world were really smallest behind "the fact." We deemed that Lord Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston, and Messrs. Guizot and Thiers, and a few more, were either hurrying us on to war or maintaining an admirable peace. But the whole thing resolves itself into the work of one man and one mind; neither very conspicuous, but so intently occupied, so devotedly persevering, that persistance has actually elevated itself to genius; and falling happily upon times when mediocrity is sublime, he has contrived to make his influence felt in every state of Europe. I speak not of Louis Philippe, but of his son-in-law, King Leopold.

"Let me make the ballads of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws," said the great statesman; and in something of the same spirit his Majesty of Belgium may have said, "Let me make the royal marriages of Europe, and any one who pleases may choose the ministry."

"Admirably spoken, Marquis!" said the King; "the sentiment is quite worthy of one who has the best blood of Sicily in his veins. But remember what an artificial state of society we live in; think of our conventional usages, and what a shock it gives to public opinion when one, placed in so exalted a position as you are, so palpably affronts universal and admitted custom; recollect that your reserve involves a censure on others, less suspicious, and, we would hope, not less rigidly honourable men, than yourself."

"But what would your Majesty counsel?"

"Nay, Marquis, I but advise."

"Your Majesty's wish is always a command. I feel proud to obey."

"Then, I am very happy to say I wish it," said the King, who turned away, dying to tell the court-party how miserable he had made the old Marquis.

"Ha, Beauclerc! the Marquesa is rising--she is about to leave the theatre."

"Impossible!" said he; "it is only the second act."

"It is quite true, though," rejoined another; "she is putting on her mantle."

"Never mind our party, then," cried Beauclerc's antagonist; "I will hold myself ready to play the match out whenever you please."

"I please it now, then!" said he, with a degree of energy that heavy losses had, in spite of him, rendered uncontrollable.

"Il Signor Beauclerc!" said a servant, approaching, "the Marquis d'Espagna desires to see you."

"Tell him I am engaged--I can't come," said Beauclerc, turning up the trump-card, which he held out triumphantly before his adversary, saying, "The king!"

At the same instant the old Marquis entered, and, approaching the table, whispered a few words in his ear. If an adder had pierced him with its sting, Beauclerc could not have started with a more agonised expression; and he sprang from the chair and rushed out of the theatre, not by the door, however, where the Marquesa's carriage was yet standing, but by a private passage, which led more easily towards his lodgings.

"What is this piece of news, that all are so amused by?" said the King, the next morning, as he was rising.

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