The Idler in France Part 26

The shouts of a mob approaching along the Rue St.-Honore quickly decided me on the course to pursue; I clambered up as best I could, not without considerable risk; nor was the danger and difficulty of the descent on the other side of this rude pyramid less imminent. The evening was more sultry than I ever experienced an evening to be, even in Italy; the houses were all closed, the streets deserted, except when a few occasional stragglers rushed along, glancing at me with surprise, and uttering their comments on my courage. Now and then a dog ran by, with a terrified air and drooping tail, keeping close to the houses as if for protection. One might have fancied oneself in some city ravaged by the plague, and the burning heat of the atmosphere, and lurid red of the clouds, might have strengthened the notion.

It more than once occurred to me how singular it was for me, a woman and a stranger, to find myself with only one attendant in the streets, on foot, in a city declared to be in a state of siege, and with the noise of firing in the distance, and the shouts of the populace, continually breaking on my ears.

Having pa.s.sed the Rue de la Ville-l'eveque, and entered the Rue d'Anjou, I soon reached the _porte-cochere_ of my friend. My servant knocked, and very loudly, but before the Swiss porter would open the door, he reconnoitred from the window in the _entresol_ of his lodge.

He could hardly credit his eyes when he saw me; and while he unbolted and unchained the door, an operation which took him more time than I thought necessary, I could hear him muttering that, "_Les dames Anglaises n'ont peur de rien, positivement rien_." I was not sorry when I heard the ma.s.sive door closed after me, with its bolts and chains again secured; but, as I crossed the courtyard, the different aspect of the house, with its closed windows, reminded me so forcibly of the change that had occurred since my last visit, only three days previously, that I felt more agitated than while traversing the streets.

When I entered the drawing-room, in which a large circle were a.s.sembled, Madame Craufurd, though the servants announced my name, could hardly believe I was indeed come. She wept bitterly while embracing me, and observed on the hards.h.i.+p of a person so aged as herself being called on to witness two revolutions. All the horrors of the first are recalled vividly to her mind, and her terror of what may occur is proportioned to what she remembers to have formerly taken place. Nothing seemed to pacify her terror so much as the fact of my having been permitted to pa.s.s unmolested to her house, though she considered me little less than insane to have undertaken the task.

"For myself," said Madame C----, "I have little fear (though her blanched cheek and trembling hand told another story); but for those dearer to me than life, what have I not to dread? You who know the chivalrous sentiments of the Duc de Guiche, and the attachment entertained by him and my granddaughter for the royal family, will understand how much I have to dread for them from the vengeance which their devotion to their sovereign may draw on their heads. _They_ are not, as you are aware, time-servers, like so many others, who will desert their king in his hour of need. No; they will brave death, I am a.s.sured, rather than forsake in adversity those whose prosperity they shared."

The marquis d'Aligre, one of, it not the, richest landed proprietors in France, was among the circle at Madame Craufurd's, and evinced no little composure and courage in the circ.u.mstances in which we found ourselves. He joined me in endeavouring to soothe her fears; and probably the fact of his having so immense a stake to risk in the crisis now taking place, added not a little weight to the arguments he urged to quiet her alarms. When people have so much to lose, their calmness has an imposing effect; and the rhetoric of the most accomplished orator would have probably been less successful than was the composed manner of the marquis d'Aligre, in restoring the wonted courage of our amiable hostess.

When I rose to take leave, Madame C---- tried all her efforts to persuade me to remain to sleep at her house, and I had no little difficulty to escape from her importunity. She would fain send all her men servants to escort me home, and the Marquis d'Aligre also pressingly offered his services; but I was obstinate in my refusal to allow anyone to accompany me, being convinced that there was even less danger in proceeding with a single servant than more numerously attended. I tore myself from the embraces of Madame C----, whose tears flowed afresh, and bedewed my cheeks, and I once more pa.s.sed through the court-yard, followed to the porter's lodge by the _dames de compagnie, femmes de chambre_, and _valets de chambre_, wondering at my courage, offering up their prayers for my safety, and proclaiming that only an Englishwoman would have faced such danger. The old Swiss porter would not risk opening the gate until he had a.s.sured himself, from the window, that the coast was clear, and closed it so rapidly when I had pa.s.sed it as almost to have endangered my heels.

On returning, I found a cord drawn across the street in front of the barrack in the Rue Verte, and some forty or fifty ill-dressed and riotous men a.s.sembled, half-a-dozen of whom held the cord. Having approached close to it, I paused, and, looking calmly at those who held it, I appealed by looks to their politeness. Some of them laughed aloud, and asked me if I could not leap over the barrier that impeded my progress, drawing the rope still higher while they spoke. I answered, though I trembled at being exposed to their rude mirth, and still more rude gaze, "That I felt sure Frenchmen would not compel me to such an unfeminine exertion, or give me cause to tell my compatriots when I returned to England that deference to women no longer existed in France."

"Let her pa.s.s! let her pa.s.s!" exclaimed nearly all the voices of the group; "she is courageous, and she speaks rightly, _Vivent les Anglaises! Vivent les Anglaises!_" and the cord was instantly lowered to the ground, and I hastily stepped over it, glad to get out of hearing of the rough compliments bestowed on me.

My servant had attempted to address them before I spoke, but they one and all a.s.sailed him with a torrent of reproach, demanding if he was not ashamed to wear a livery, the badge of servitude, when all his countrymen were fighting for their liberty. I had again to clamber over the barricade, a.s.sisted by my servant, and, before I could cross the Rue St.-Honore, encountered various groups of men rus.h.i.+ng along, all of whom uttered such invectives against my footman that I determined not again to go out attended by this symbol of aristocracy.

On reaching my home, the porter observed, with a self-complacency his prudence could not conceal, that he "knew Madame la Comtesse had nothing to dread from the people, they were brave and _bons enfans_, and would not injure a lady;"--a commendation that clearly indicated the state of his feelings.

CHAPTER XXIV.

I have observed a striking change in the manners of the servants during the last three days. They are more familiar, without, however, evincing the least insolence; their spirits seem unusually exhilarated, and they betray an interest in the struggle in which the people are engaged that leaves no doubt as to the side that excites their sympathy. Every rumour of the success of the insurgents is repeated by them with ill-suppressed animation and pleasure, and the power of the people is exaggerated far beyond the bounds of truth. I confess this folly on their part annoys me, and the more especially as the cla.s.s to which they belong, are totally incapacitated by ignorance from being able to comprehend even the causes alleged for this popular outbreak.

Misguided men! can they hope that servitude will be lightened by their being employed by some _parvenus_, elevated from the dregs of the people by a revolution which sets floating to the top the worst ingredients of the reeking caldron from which it is formed, instead of owning the more gentle and infinitely less degrading sway of those born to, and accustomed to rule?

Comte ---- and ---- have just come in, and report that the last story current is, that fifty thousand men from Rouen are marching to Paris to espouse the cause of the _people_. They say there is no end to the desertions among the troops.

The people--the people! I hear of nothing but the people; but those who speak of them as all and every thing, seem to me to mistake the populace for the people, yet surely the words are not synonymous. The people, according to my acceptation of the word, are the sober and respectable portion of the community of all countries, including the husbandmen who till the earth, and the artisans who fabricate the objects applicable to our positive wants, and superfluous luxuries. How different are these from the populace who fill the streets shouting for liberty, by which they mean license; fighting for a charter of the real meaning of which they are ignorant; and rendering themselves the blind instruments by which a revolution is to be accomplished, that will leave them rather worse off than it found them; for when did those who profit by such events remember with grat.i.tude the tools by which it was effected?

_Thursday_.--Repeated knocking at the gate drew me to the window ten minutes ago. The intruder presented a strange mixture of the terrible and the ridiculous, the former predominating. Wearing only his s.h.i.+rt and trousers, both stained with gore, and the sleeves of the former turned up nearly to the shoulder, a crimson handkerchief was bound round his head, and another encircled his waist. He brandished a huge sword with a black leather string wound round his wrist, with one hand, while with the other he a.s.sailed the knocker. Hearing the window opened, he looked up, and exclaimed, "Ah! madame, order the gate to be opened, that I may lay at the feet of my generous master the trophies I have won with this trusty sword," waving the said sword over his head, and pointing to a pair of silver-mounted pistols and a sabre that he had placed on the ground while he knocked at the gate.

I recognised in this man a helper in the stables of Comte A. d'Orsay, of whom it had a short time previously been reported to us, that when a party of the populace had attempted to force the gate of the stable offices, which are situated in the Rue Verte, and the English grooms and coachman were in excessive alarm, this man presented himself at the window, sword in hand, declaring that he, though engaged in the same cause as themselves, would defend, to the last moment of his life, the horses of his master, and the Englishmen whom he considered to be under his protection. This speech elicited thunders of applause from the crowd who retreated, leaving the alarmed servants, whose protector he had avowed himself, impressed with the conviction that he is little short of a hero.

This man--these same servants, only a few days ago, looked on as the stable drudge, who was to perform all the dirty work, while they, attired in smart liveries, and receiving triple the wages given to him, were far more ornamental than useful in the establishment of their employer. They offered him money as a reward for his spirited conduct (the English of all cla.s.ses, but more especially of that to which they appertain, think that money pays all manner of debts), but he indignantly refused the proffered gift. This revolutionary hero had been fighting for several hours to-day, and is said to have evinced a courage and enthusiasm that remind one of all we read of the spirit of the old Imperial Guard, when animated by the presence of their mighty chief.

---- has just brought the intelligence, that the Tuileries and the Louvre are taken by the people! Comte A. d'O---- sent two of his servants (Brement, formerly drill-serjeant in the Guards, and now his porter, and Charles who was an hussar, and a brave soldier) to the Tuileries to endeavour to save the portrait of the Dauphin by Sir Thomas Lawrence--an admirable picture. His instructions as to its _emplacement_ were so correct, that the servants found it instantly, but torn in pieces, and the fragments strewed on the floor.

These men report that even in this feat a strange mixture of the terrible and the comic was exhibited, for _while_ a dead body was placed on the throne of Charles the Tenth, some men appeared in the windows of the palace attired in the gold and silver tissue dresses of the d.u.c.h.esse de Berri, with feathers and flowers in their heads, and fans in their hands, which they waved to the mult.i.tude beneath, with all the coquettish airs and graces of _would-be-fine_ ladies.

The busts of Charles the Tenth were broken and trampled upon; the wardrobes of the royal family were scattered, torn, and thrown among the people, who seemed to regard them only as trophies of the victory they had achieved, and not for their intrinsic value.

The palace of the Archbishop of Paris has been sacked, and every object in it demolished. ---- told me that the ribaldry and coa.r.s.e jests of the mob on this occasion were disgusting beyond measure; and that they ceased not to utter the most obscene falsehoods, while they wreaked their vengeance on the property of this venerable prelate, against whom they can bring no charge, except the suspicion of jesuitical principles, and of having encouraged the king to issue the ordonnances.

---- and ---- have just been here. They state that Charles the Tenth sent a deputation to the provisional government offering to withdraw the ordonnances, and to form a new ministry. The offer came too late, and was rejected. Concessions from the vanquished are seldom valued; and to offer terms to those who are now in the position to dictate them is as unavailing as it is undignified. ---- and ---- say that the general opinion is, that if the d.u.c.h.esse de Berri was now to present herself, with her son, to the people, her popularity, and his youth and innocence, would accomplish an event that would satisfy most parties; namely, the calling of the Duc de Bordeaux to the throne. The d.u.c.h.esse de Berri has courage enough to take this step; what a pity it is that she has not wisdom enough to adopt it!

While the fighting was going on in the streets, ---- and ---- met our amba.s.sador, Lord Stuart de Rothesay, walking along as usual. The secretaries and _attaches_, too, of the English emba.s.sy have been continually seen in places where their presence evinced more courage and curiosity than caution; but fear is, I firmly believe, an unknown guest in the breast of English gentlemen.

Comte ---- has just been here; he has been to the College of Ste.-Barbe to take charge of the sons of the Duc de Guiche, in order to conduct them to the country; a service of no little danger, as all connected with the court, and known to be faithful to the royal family are liable to be maltreated. How painful and trying a part is the Duc de Guiche now called on to act: compelled to leave his wife and family in a town in a state of siege, or to desert the monarch to whom he has sworn fealty! But he will perform it n.o.bly; and if Charles the Tenth had many such men to rally round him in the present hour, his throne might still be preserved.

The d.u.c.h.esse de Guiche, in the trying situation in which she finds herself, has displayed a courage worthy of olden times. The devotion of her husband and self to the royal family is so well known that their house has been a marked one during the last three days, the mob repeatedly stopping before the gate uttering cries and menaces. All her friends have urged her to leave Paris, and to remove with her children to the country, for she would not consent to seek an asylum with her grandmother or brother; urging, as a reason, that, in the absence of the Duc, she felt it her duty to remain, that her presence might induce the household to a more strict discharge of theirs, in protecting the property of the Dauphin.

---- and ---- have been here, and have told us that the provisional government were installed in the Hotel-de-Ville, General La Fayette at its head, and my old acquaintance Monsieur Alexandra de Laborde taking an active part. How all this is to end I cannot imagine; the cry for a republic, though strongly echoed, will, I think, be unavailing; and the reasonable part of the community cannot desire that it should be otherwise, inasmuch as the tyranny of the many must ever be more insupportable than that of one, admitting that even a despotic monarchy could in our day exercise a tyranny, which I am not disposed to admit.

The tri-coloured flag now floats on many of the churches, while that of the _Fleur-de-lis_ still waves from the column in the Place Vendome, on other public buildings, and the Tuileries. What a strange state of things! but every thing is strange in this eventful crisis.

---- has just been here, and reports that yesterday a meeting of the Deputies took place at the house of M. Casimir Perier, in order to consult on what measures they ought to pursue in the present state of affairs. He says, that pusillanimity, and want of decision consequent on it, marked the conduct of the a.s.sembly. They lost the time, so precious in a crisis like the actual one, in disputing about words, when deeds ought to have been had recourse to. They are accused of being influenced by a dread of offending the now tottering power, lest it should once more be solidly reinstated, and yet of being anxious to remain well with those opposed to it; and they are said to have temporised with both, allowing the time for serving either to have pa.s.sed away.

A bitter feeling towards the royal family seems to pervade the minds of the populace; and this has been fomented by the most gross and disgusting falsehoods dispensed around by the medium of obscene _brochures_, and songs which are sung and distributed through the streets. Even now beneath my window two men are offering, and crying aloud, the Amours of the d.u.c.h.esse d'Angouleme and the Archbishop of Paris. The most spotless woman in France and the most devout man! The same hand that would pull down the throne would raze the altar!

---- and ---- have been among the fighting, and report wonders of the bravery of the populace. They fight with an enthusiasm and courage worthy of a better cause, and have evinced a humanity to their wounded adversaries that elicits admiration even from those who are the most opposed to the cause they have espoused. The citizens, and the women too, have come forth from the sanctuaries of their dwellings to dress the wounds, and administer refreshment to the combatants, without distinction with regard to the side on which they were engaged.

This amalgamation of soldiers and people has been destructive to the cause of royalty, for the humanity experienced has induced the former to throw down their arms rather than use them against generous foes, and cries of "_Vive la Ligne_!" are often heard from those so lately opposed to it. All parties agree in stating that not a single example of pillage, except in the instances of the gunsmiths' shops, has occurred. Various houses have been entered by the people for the purpose of firing from the windows; and, having effected their object, they have retired without taking a single article of the many tempting ones scattered around in these dwellings.

This revolution, if indeed the result should prove it to be such, will offer a striking contrast to that fearful one that has ever since left so black a stain on France, and Frenchmen. Heroic courage, great humanity, and a perfect freedom from cupidity, are the peculiar attributes that mark those who are now subverting the throne of the Bourbons; what a pity it is that such qualities should not have found a better cause for developing themselves!

_29th_.--The subject now circulated and believed is, that Lafayette and his followers have placed themselves at the head of the people. This rumour has quieted the fears of many, for his name exercises a great influence. The fighting is still going on, and the report of the guns comes booming on the ear continually.

Hearing a noise in the street, ten minutes ago, I looked forth, and beheld some four or five men covered with stains of blood, their faces blackened by gunpowder, and streaming with perspiration, endeavouring to draw away a piece of cannon, of which they had taken possession in the Champs-elysees. Hearing the opening of my window, they entreated me, if there were any men in the house, to send them to their a.s.sistance, in order to draw away the gun from the reach of the enemy.

"And if there are no men," continued the speaker, "let the women come out and help us in the good cause." While they yet spoke, a party of soldiers were seen rus.h.i.+ng to the rescue of the gun, and its temporary conquerors were compelled to make a rapid retreat towards the Rue St.-Honore.

The name of M. Laffitte is now mixed with that of Lafayette among the crowds in the streets, and has a great effect on them. His vast wealth, and the frequent and extensive aid it has afforded to the working cla.s.ses, have rendered him one of, if not the most popular man in Paris: so that those most conversant with the actual state of affairs, p.r.o.nounce that with Lafayette and Laffitte now rest the destiny of France. How strange is the alteration which has occurred within so short a s.p.a.ce of time! Five days ago, Charles the Tenth reigned in the Tuileries; at present, on Lafayette and Laffitte it depends whether he ever enters his palace again! The tocsin is now sounding! How strangely, how awfully it strikes on the ear! All this appears like a dream.

The formation of a provisional government is to-day spoken of. The cry of "_Vive Napoleon!_" has been heard repeatedly shouted from one ma.s.s of people, while "_Vive la republique!_" has been as loudly vociferated by another. Various persons connected with both the royalist and popular party, have been here to-day, so that I hear the opinions entertained by the adherents of both sides of the question. Which to credit I know not: there is but one point on which both agree, and that is in praising the bravery and forbearance of the people.

When I look around on the precious objects that cover the tables, consoles, and cabinets in the salon where I am now writing, and reflect that these same people are not only in arms, but I may say masters of the town, I cannot help wondering at their total avoidance of pillage when such rich booties might be so easily acquired. Perhaps there is no European city in which so many and such splendid collections of rare and precious articles are to be found, as at Paris. In England, our n.o.bility possess equal treasures, but they are contained in their country seats; whereas it is in the Parisian dwellings of the French n.o.blesse, that their valuable possessions of rare objects are to be found, and at the present crisis, how soon could an armed ma.s.s seize them!

_28th_.--The d.u.c.h.esse de Guiche was exposed to considerable danger to day, and evinced a courage nearly allied to temerity in speaking her sentiments on the occasion. Alarmed for the safety of her eldest son, she was proceeding to his college in search of him, when she was stopped by a vast crowd of people a.s.sembled around the house of one of the tradespeople of the royal family, over whose door were the arms of France.

The frightened tradesman was in the act of removing this badge, of which only a few days previously he had been so proud, when the d.u.c.h.esse, seeing him so employed, remarked aloud, that "after having so often solicited permission to place the royal arms over his door, he ought to have had the courage to defend them." The populace, enraged at this reproof, hissed and yelled; but seeing that she remained unmoved, the greater number cheered her, exclaiming "that young woman is as courageous as she is beautiful; let us shew her that we know how lo value courage, and protect her to her home," They placed themselves around her, and with every mark of respect, escorted her, to the gate of her dwelling.

A person among the crowd who witnessed this incident, told me that never had he seen the d.u.c.h.esse de Guiche look so dazzlingly beautiful, as when she was reproving the tradesman--her tall and majestic figure elevated even above its usual height by the indignation she experienced at the insult offered to the royal family, to whom in these their days of trial, she is even more chivalrously devoted than when they reigned with undisputed sway, and thousands of those who now desert, professed to wors.h.i.+p them.

Before the d.u.c.h.esse regained her abode, she encountered several skirmis.h.i.+ng parlies in the streets who were absolutely fighting, and probably owed her safety lo the protection afforded her by those whom her courage had won to be her champions.

The intelligence reached us two hours ago, that the populace had attacked the hotel of the Duc de Guiche, and placed two pieces of cannon before the gate. My terror may more easily be imagined than described, for the d.u.c.h.esse and her youngest children are in the house, and the duc is with the royal family. I hardly knew whether to be thankful or sorry, that her brother Count Alfred d'Orsay was not at home when this news reached us, for he would certainly have proceeded to her house, and would probably have, by his presence and interference, rendered her danger still greater.

Fearful of compromising the safety of her children, the d.u.c.h.esse left the hotel by another gate, opening into the Rue de Montaigne, and is, I trust, ere this, safe on her route to St.-Germain, where her father-in-law, the Duc de Gramont, has a residence.

How like a troubled dream all this appears! Would that it were but a dream, and that those whom I so much love, were not exposed to pay dearly for their fidelity to a sovereign, whose measures their enlightened minds are the last to approve, but whose misfortunes, if they cannot ameliorate, they will at least share!

I know not a more painful position than that of the Duc and d.u.c.h.esse de Guiche, at the present moment. With highly cultivated minds and liberal opinions, possessing a knowledge of the world, and of the actual state of public opinion in France, they must be aware of the utter hopelessness of the cause in which they find themselves embarked, yet such is their chivalrous sentiments of honour, that they will sacrifice every thing rather than abandon those whose prosperity they have partaken, and thus incur all the penalty of the acts of a government whose policy they did not approve. Had Charles the Tenth many such devoted adherents, he would not find himself deserted in his hour of need.