My Memoirs, Vol. II, 1822 to 1825

The events of 1814 again--Marmont, Duc de Raguse, Maubreuil and Roux-Laborie at M. de Talleyrand's--The _Journal des Débats_ and the _Journal de Paris_--Lyrics of the Bonapartis...

The theatre ticket--The _Café du Roi_--Auguste Lafarge--Théaulon--Rochefort--Ferdinand Langlé--People who dine and people who don't--Canaris--First sight of Talma--Appreciation...

_Régulus_--Talma and the play--General Foy--The letter of recommendation and the interview--The Duc de Bellune's reply--I obtain a place as temporary clerk with M. le Duc d'Orlé...

I had been installed nearly a month at the office, to the great satisfaction of Oudard and of M. de Broval (who, thanks to my beautiful handwriting, thought that M. Deviolaine h...

The "year of trials"--The case of Potier and the director of the theatre of the Porte-Saint-Martin--Trial and condemnation of Magallon--The anonymous journalist--Beaumarchais se...

My beginning at the office--Ernest Basset--Lassagne--M. Oudard--I see M. Deviolaine--M. le Chevalier de Broval--His portrait--Folded letters and oblong letters--How I acquire a...

I will now (1821) give some details of the Carbonari movement--a subject on which Dermoncourt and I had held long conversations. Dermoncourt was an old aide-decamp of my father,...

Adolphe reads a play at the Gymnase--M. Dormeuil--_Kenilworth Castle_--M. Warez and Soulié--Mademoiselle Lévesque--The Arnault family--The _Feuille--Marius à Minturnes_--Danton'...

Adolphe's quatrain--The water-hen and King William--Lunch in the wood--The irritant powder, the frogs and the cock--The doctor's spectre--De Leuven, Hippolyte Leroy and I are ex...

The second drama which happened in Paris, and which was to have its denouement on the place de Grève, on the same day that the _École des Vieillards_ was played, was the poisoni...

Casimir Delavigne--An appreciation of the man and of the poet--The origin of the hatred of the old school of literature for the new--Some reflections upon _Marino Faliero_ and t...

Hope in Laffitte--A false hope--New projects--M. Lecornier--How and on what conditions I clothe myself anew--Bamps, tailor, 12 rue du Helder--Bamps at Villers-Cotterets--I visit...

Talma in the _École des Vieillards_--One of his letters--Origin of his name and of his family_--Tamerlan_ at the pension Verdier--Talma's début--Dugazon's advice--More advice fr...

The overture was intended to represent a storm. The scene opened in the cave of Staffa. Malvina slept on a tomb. Oscar sat on another. A third enclosed Lord Ruthven, who was to...

Still, like François I. after the battle of Pavia, I had not lost everything by my defeat. First there remained to me my boots and my tight-fitting trousers, those two dearly co...

I find lodgings--Hiraux's son--Journals and journalists in 1823--By being saved the expense of a dinner I am enabled to go to the play at the Porte-Saint-Martin--My entry into t...

A parenthesis_--Hariadan Barberousse_ at Villers-Cotterets--I play the rôle of Don Ramire as an amateur--My costume--The third act of the _Vampire_--My friend the bibliomaniac w...

Let us here insert a word or two about Bonaparte's little Court. We are writing memoirs now, and not novels; we must therefore replace fiction by truth, plot by digressions and...

About a fortnight after that wonderful night, during which I had experienced such new and unknown emotions, I was busy in Maître Mennesson's office,--as Niguet was absent seeing...

I leave Villers-Cotterets to be second or third clerk at Crespy--M. Lefèvre--His character--My journeys to Villers-Cotterets--The _Pélerinage à Ermenonville_--Athénaïs--New matt...

I got down at No. 9 rue du Bouloy, at five in the morning. This time, I did not make the same mistake that I did when I left the Théâtre Français. I took my bearings, and, by ce...

Second act of the _Vampire_--Analysis--My neighbour again objects--He has seen a vampire--Where and how--A statement which records the existence of vampires--Nero--Why he establ...

In this same year, 1802, Georges was engaged at the Théâtre-Français under Bonaparte's protection, and Duchesnois under Joséphine's, at a salary of four thousand francs each. Si...

Adolphe took me to Frédéric Soulié's house that evening. Frédéric Soulié had a gathering of friends to celebrate his refusal at the Gymnase; for he looked upon the acceptance on...

How I obtain a recommendation to General Foy--M. Danré of Vouty advises my mother to let me go to Paris--My good-byes--Laffitte and Perregaux--The three things which Maître Menn...

I first met Leuven at a fête in the beautiful village of Corey, a league's distance from Villers-Cotterets--a village buried in the centre of great woods, like a nest among high...

Amédée de la Ponce--He teaches me what work is--M. Arnault and his two sons--A journey by diligence--A gentleman fights me with cough lozenges and I fight him with my fists--I l...

Illustrious contemporaries--The sentence written on my foundation stone--My reply--I settle down in the place des Italiens--M. de Leuven's table--M. Louis-Bonaparte's witty sayi...

My mother is obliged to sell her land and her house--The residue--The Piranèses--An architect at twelve hundred francs salary--I discount my first bill--Gondon--How I was nearly...

Now the Royalist reaction of which we were speaking--before we interrupted ourselves to address the high public functionaries who had the honour of appearing before our readers...

The assassination of the Duc de Berry hastened the down-fall of M. Decazes. A singular anecdote was circulated at the time. I took it down in writing at the house of my lawyer,...

My hopes--Disappointment--M. Deviolaine is appointed forest-ranger to the Duc d'Orléans--His coldness towards me--Half promises--First cloud on my love-affairs--I go to spend th...

At this period of my life, being made up entirely of ignorance, optimism and faith, I did not know in the least what an Elzevir, or rather Elzevier, was. I learnt that evening,...

Six months passed by between my first love-makings and my first attempts at work. Besides our meetings at Louise Brézette's every night, Adèle and I used to see each other two o...

In the year III of the Second French Republic, on the evening of 2 June, M. Louis Bonaparte being president, M. Léon Faucher minister, M. Guizard director of the Fine Arts, the...

Account of the proceedings relative to the abstraction of the jewels of the Queen of Westphalia by the Sieur de Maubreuil--Chamber of the Court of Appeal--The sitting of 17 Apri...

Mademoiselle Georges left for Dresden the day after her arrival at Brunswick. The giant who had been confounded at Beresina had, Anteus-like, recovered his strength as he neared...

I return to my mother's--The excuse I give concerning my return--The calf's lights--Pyramus and Cartouche--The intelligence of the fox more developed than that of the dog--Death...

We have mentioned that the _École des Vieillards_ ought to have come after _Pierre de Portugal_, but between the comedy and tragedy two terrible dramas took place in Madrid and...

Return of Adolphe de Leuven--He shows me a corner of the artistic and literary world--The death of Holbein and the death of Orcagna--Entrance into the green-rooms--Bürger's _Lén...

The last shot of Waterloo--Temper of the provinces in 1817, 1818 and 1819--The _Messéniennes_--The _Vêpres siciliennes--Louis IX._--Appreciation of these two tragedies--A phrase...

The drawbacks to theatres which have the monopoly of a great actor--Lafond takes the rôle of Pierre de Portugal upon Talma declining it--Lafond--His school--His sayings--Mademoi...

Among the pleasures we had promised ourselves in the second capital of the department of Aisne we had put the theatre in the first rank. A company of pupils from the Conservatoi...

I had naïvely told de Leuven of my failure to translate Bürger's beautiful ballad; but as he had made up his mind to make me a dramatic author, he consoled me by telling me it w...

The "year of trials"--The case of Potier and the director of the theatre of the Porte-Saint-Martin--Trial and condemnation of Magallon--The anonymous journalist--Beaumarchais se...

The theatre ticket--The _Café du Roi_--Auguste Lafarge--Théaulon--Rochefort--Ferdinand Langlé--People who dine and people who don't--Canaris--First sight of Talma--Appreciation...

I find lodgings--Hiraux's son--Journals and journalists in 1823--By being saved the expense of a dinner I am enabled to go to the play at the Porte-Saint-Martin--My entry into t...

Hope in Laffitte--A false hope--New projects--M. Lecomier--How and on what conditions I clothe myself anew--Bamps, tailor, 12 rue du Helder--Bamps at Villers-Cotterets--I visit...

The events of 1814 again--Marmont, Duc de Raguse, Maubreuil and Roux-Laborie at M. de Talleyrand's--The _Journal des Débats_ and the _Journal de Paris_--Lyrics of the Bonapartis...

Casimir Delavigne--An appreciation of the man and of the poet-- The origin of the hatred of the old school of literature for the new--Some reflections upon _Marino Faliero_ and...

My hopes--Disappointment--M. Deviolaine is appointed forest-ranger to the Duc d'Orléans--His coldness towards me--Half promises--First cloud on my love-affairs--I go to spend th...

My mother is obliged to sell her land and her house--The residu-- The Piranèses--An architect at twelve hundred francs salary--I discount my first bill--Gondon--How I was nearly...

How I obtain a recommendation to General Foy--M. Danré of Vouty advises my mother to let me go to Paris--My good-byes--Laffitte and Perregaux--The three things which Maître Menn...

_Régulus_--Talma and the play--General Foy--The letter of recommendation and the interview--The Duc de Bellune's reply--I obtain a place as temporary clerk with M. le Duc d'Orlé...

Talma in the _École des Vieillards_--One of his letters--Origin of his name and of his family--_Tamerlan_ at the pension Verdier--Talma's début--Dugazon's advice--More advice fr...

A parenthesis_--Hariadan Barberousse_ at Villers-Cotterets--I play the rôle of Don Ramire as an amateur--My costume--The third act of the _Vampire_--My friend the bibliomaniac w...

I leave Villers-Cotterets to be second or third clerk at Crespy--M. Lefèvre--His character--My journeys to Villers-Cotterets-- The _Pélerinage d'Ermenonville_--Athénaïs--New mat...

The last shot of Waterloo--Temper of the provinces in 1817, 1818 and 1819--The _Messéniennes_--The _Vêpres siciliennes--Louis IX._--Appreciation of these two tragedies--A phrase...

Amédée de la Ponce--He teaches me what work is--M. Arnault and his two sons--A journey by diligence--A gentleman fights me with cough lozenges and I fight him with my fists--I l...

My beginning at the office--Ernest Basset--Lassagne--M. Oudard--I see M. Deviolaine--M. le Chevalier de Broval--His portrait--Folded letters and oblong letters--How I acquire a...

Adolphe's quatrain--The water-hen and King William--Lunch in the wood--The irritant powder, the frogs and the cock--The doctor's spectre--De Leuven, Hippolyte Leroy and I are ex...

Adolphe reads a play at the Gymnase--M. Dormeuil--_Kenilworth Castle_--M. Warez and Soulié--Mademoiselle Lévesque--The Arnault family--The _Feuille--Marius à Minturnes_--Danton'...

Return of Adolphe de Leuven--He shows me a corner of the artistic and literary world--The death of Holbein and the death of Orcagna--Entrance into the green-rooms--Bürger's _Lén...

I return to my mother's--The excuse I give concerning my return-- The calfs lights--Pyramus and Cartouche--The intelligence of the fox more developed than that of the dog--Death...

Second act of the _Vampire_--Analysis--My neighbour again objects--He has seen a vampire--Where and how--A statement which records the existence of vampires--Nero--Why he establ...

Illustrious contemporaries--The sentence written on my foundation stone--My reply--I settle down in the place des Italiens-- M. de Leuven's table--M. Louis-Bonaparte's witty say...

The drawbacks to theatres which have the monopoly of a great actor--Lafond takes the rôle of Pierre de Portugal upon Talma declining it--Lafond--His school--His sayings--Mademoi...

Account of the proceedings relative to the abstraction of the jewels of the Queen of Westphalia by the Sieur de Maubreuil--Chamber of the Court of Appeal--The sitting of 17 Apri...