Dino Dorothée - Memoirs of the Duchesse De Dino (Afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan), 1841-1850

"There has been a monster ball at the Tuileries. There will be no others: no select ball, but one concert and nothing else; only on the Monday festival there will be a small masked ball confined to the family and the households; the young people alone will be masked and ladies who are not dancing will wear white to distinguish them from the rest."

Rochecotte, February 7, 1841. – The Chamber of Peers seems far from favourably impressed by the proposal for fortifications and wishes to oppose it. I doubt if it has the energy to do so. Mdlle. de Cossé is to marry the Duc de Rivière. She will be very rich and wishes to be a duchess; he has very little money. Old Madame de la Briche is quite in her dotage. This does not prevent her from following her social inclinations and saying and doing extraordinary things.

Rochecotte, February 9, 1841. – My son-in-law hears that the disagreements about the fortifications and the manner in which the whole business has been conducted is likely to place every one in a false position; the Council, the Chamber and every one are at cross purposes; the Chamber of Peers is excited and exasperated and wishes to propose an amendment, in which direction it is urged by Marshal Soult, Villemain and Teste, but is held in check by Guizot and Duchâtel.

Amid all these disturbances the vote for the Secret Service Fund will pass without difficulty. Then there is no other serious question during this session and M. Thiers is said not to be in a position to give battle on the latter point.

The situation in general, according to the statement of M. Guizot is good, for the Left, he adds, is reduced to impotence for a long time. He seems to be more and more pleased with the state of foreign policy, with the advances which are made to us, and of which he boasts a great deal. He goes so far as to say that the union with the four Powers has been broken, though this statement seems to me a trifle premature.

Rochecotte, February 11, 1841. – I find the following in a letter from the Duc de Noailles: "I have been studying the question of the fortifications, since this ridiculous law is thrust upon us. I cannot stomach it, and will not let it pass without raising my voice against it. The Duc d'Orléans shows great energy in the matter: he goes every day to the Chamber of Peers, even when we have nothing before us but petitions; he makes notes and observations with our grand referendary, M. Decazes, who hangs about the Chamber with a pocket-book, upon all the peers who are for or against and adds up the votes beforehand. Yesterday he sent some one during the session to M. de Vérac who rarely appears in the Chamber, to learn his opinion. He said that if there was any want of water to make mortar for the buildings, he would rather give his blood than that they should be interrupted. He told M. de Mornay who spoke on the opposition side of the Chamber of Deputies, that he had spoken as a marquis and not as a patriot. In short, he is canvassing all the peers, sending them invitations, asking them to dinner and using every possible means. It is true that almost all the Chamber will vote for the law, to such an extent have they been crushed by the revolutions which have harrowed our country. As you are deeply attached to the Duc d'Orléans, you will be sorry to hear of the unseemly and revolutionary remarks which this law has evoked from him and which are in circulation everywhere. M. Molé is working his hardest to oppose the proposal, but he will probably not be bold enough to speak against it openly; M. Pasquier is no less furious and will probably be equally silent.

"We have had a charming evening's entertainment at the house of Madame Récamier, 3 3 Madame Récamier, at the outset of the Restoration and after her husband's ruin, settled at the Abbaye au Bois. All the famous men of the age struggled to secure admission to her salon, which apart from politics was a sort of nineteenth-century Hotel de Rambouillet, with Madame Récamier as Julie. on behalf of the sufferers from the conflagration at Lyons. I was in charge of the arrangements and the platform at the back of the room was most suitable for the music and the recitals. The professional musicians performed admirably; the little Rachel came late because the committee of the Théâtre Français had forced her, with their usual inconsiderateness, to play Mithridate the same day. She arrived at eleven o'clock with a grace, an eagerness to help and a simplicity which charmed every one. She gave the Dream of Athalie and the scene with Joas with excellent effect; it will be even better on the stage, as stage effects are lost in a drawing-room. Her conversation and manner caused equal satisfaction. The result was excellent – five thousand francs. Two hundred tickets were sent out at twenty francs a ticket, but nearly every one paid forty, fifty or even a hundred francs a ticket. It is a very pleasant way of collecting money. M. de Chateaubriand, who usually goes to bed at nine, stayed until midnight. M. de Lamartine was also there and two abbés to represent the convent; the Abbé Genoude and the Abbé Deguerry."

The Duc is devoting himself to art no less than to politics.

Rochecotte, February 12, 1841. – Several Legitimist newspapers have published so-called letters written during the period of exile by King Louis-Philippe to the Marquis d'Entraigues, and a long letter written to the late M. de Talleyrand by the King, while M. de Talleyrand was ambassador at London. The Cabinet considers that the newspapers should be seized, the editors arrested and a charge of forgery brought against them before the courts. I sent for the newspaper containing the letter which was supposed to have been written to M. de Talleyrand. I am convinced that it is an absolute forgery. M. Delessert, prefect of police, has asked my son, M. de Valençay, to write to me and inquire whether I knew if any papers had been stolen from M. de Talleyrand at London; whether it was possible for any one to have abstracted them at Paris during his illness and at the time of his death; and finally, whether I knew a woman who was concerned in the whole business 4 4 This woman, Eselina Vanayl de Yongh, under the name of Ida de Saint-Elme, was a famous adventuress. The supposed letters of Louis-Philippe had been entirely invented by her. who says that she had lived at Valençay and even in the château; in short, he wishes to know my recollections and my opinion of the whole story. I talked over the matter with my son-in-law, and we concluded that we would be bound to reply. I therefore gave M. de Valençay a reply, telling him to read my letter to M. Delessert but not to leave the letter in his hands. In it I said that I had never known this woman or heard of her, which is exactly true; that all M. de Talleyrand's important papers had been deposited by him in foreign countries in sure hands and in places which would render theft quite impossible, and that no papers could have been found at his house in Paris, if any attempt had been made to abstract them, of which I had no recollection; that, in short, all my recollections and impressions contributed to convince me that the letter in question was a forgery. As a matter of fact, it is a very long letter upon European affairs which was never written by the King; moreover, neither the King nor Madame Adélaide in their letters to M. de Talleyrand ever expressed the thoughts, the opinions, or the projects expounded in this letter. It appears that the Abbé Genoude and M. de la Rochejaquelein, in the course of a journey to England, bought the King's so-called letters from this woman and came to publish them in France under the deception of animosity and party spirit. However, the whole business is very unpleasant for the King and the trial very wearisome to follow; these men assert that they have originals in the King's handwriting, which are no doubt forgeries, though proving them to be so is a hateful business.