the general was wont to say, " If you have anything to talk about, let us go down to my room and talk." Such invitations w r ere the more welcome because I could not accept them as often as I wished, and I had avoided them, as far as the resting-points of the trip were concerned. As the dwellers on the banks of the Mississippi had expected the arrival and voyage of the general, wherever the steamer that carried the nation's guest was recognized, by the numerous decorative flags, they hastened, so soon as it was seen in the distance, to assemble in some house, and to make the welkin ring with their shouts of welcome. Where the houses were numerous, or in the immediate neighborhood of a village—like Baton Rouge, for instance—the boat would stop, and the general would receive the deputations that came on board to greet him, or the single personages who desired to be presented to him. The deputations usually came with their speaker at the head. Of course, in most instances, the speaker was more occupied in exhibiting his cleverness and oratorical talent, than with the object of his mission, or a desire to give pleasure to the hearer. And the good general had no remedy for this evil, but was compelled to listen attentively to the longest, stupidest, wordiest discourses possible. I never saw a mark of impatience upon his countenance. So soon as the infliction was brought to an end, he always had ready a few suitable and flattering words. The ease with which he performed this task greatly astonished me. I could not refrain one day from asking him how he man-aged always to reply to the most silly and idealess speeches, " My friend," he answered, " it is not hard. I listen with great attention until the speaker drops something that pleases me, or that gives opportunity for a repartee, and then I think about my reply, and arrange it; but of all the rest I do not hear a syllable —it all blows over me."

But on other less important occasions his readiness and power in answering was really remarkable. At Baton Rouge, two young men were presented to him. The inevitable hand-shaking was the usual prelude to a short dialogue; but the young men stood mute before the general and gazed at him silently. At length he

asked one of them, " Are you married f' " Yes. sir," was the

14 *

REMINISCENCES OF FRANCE.

answer. "Happy man," quoth the general. He then put the same question to the other, " and you, sir, are you married V 9 " No, sir,"' was the answer ; " I am a bachelor." " Lucky dog !" said the general. In these words which fell from the general, and which I cannot render happily into German, both received, married man and bachelor, a witty compliment on his social position.

On my first visit to the general's room, I begged permission to be allowed to address any questions that might come into my head, to him who had a world-full of experience. The occurrences which took place in the first days of the French Revolution, the scenes at Versailles, the leading out of the unfortunate queen, Marie Antoinette, upon the balcony of the palace, where he had kissed her hand, as a proof of peace and good understanding between them, before the thousands who were gathered in the palace court and in the Avenue de Versailles, and many of whom had come there with ill-intent; the joy that followed his assurance to the people that the royal family would go to Paris. To hear all these circumstances described by his own lips, and with the greatest modesty and simpleness, was a genuine treat to me. Great as was his modesty, however, he could not conceal the pleasure caused by these recollections of his earlier popularity and influence. Popularity was the god that ruled him, and to which on no occasion of his life had he ever refused his service. I had already seen this during his stay in New Orleans, and on our trip up the Mississippi, and some years later during the July revolution in Paris, these convictions increased. To be the idol of the people was the deepest desire of his heart, and the fulfillment of this desire he could only attain to in a republic. That he knew—but I would do him injustice were I to ascribe his republicanism to this source alone. He was a republican by conviction, and from the centre of his soul out. The lessons that he had received at the side of Washington, and under the victorious banners of the Union, he faithfully followed throughout his life, and the idea that this form of government and none other could make his country happy was guarded in his breast as a holy thing. In this he found the only panacea for the cure of the many evils

under which France was suffering. On one of our morning conversations he spoke about the Bourbons, on whose political and moral unimportance he looked with pity, and from whom he wished that France were freed so soon as possible. The well-known remark of Talleyrand, that they had forgotten nothing, and learned nothing, he thought described them better than all that other men had said about them. " France," said Lafayette, " cannot be happy under the Bourbons, and we must send them adrift. It would have been done ere now but for Lafitte." " Indeed," I said ; " how so V " It is not too long ago," said the general, "for you to remember that two regiments of guards, ( ordered to Spain, under the Due d'Angouleme, stopped at ' Toulouse, and began to show symptoms of revolt. The matter was quieted however, and kept as still as possible. But all was ready, as I know by my private correspondence with some of the officers—all that was wanting to make a revolution succeed was money. I went to Lafitte; but he was full of doubts, and dillydallied with the matter. Then I offered to do it without his help ; said I, ' On the first interview that you and I have without witnesses, just put a million of francs in bank notes on the mantelpiece, which I will pocket, unseen by you. Then leave the rest with me.' Lafitte still fought shy of it, deliberated, hesitated, and at last declared that he would have nothing at all to do with it."

I could not conceal my surprise, and said, " Had I heard this story from any lips but yours, general, I could not have believed a word of it." Lafayette merely answered, " Cetait pourtant ainsi" This may serve as a testimony how hotly the revolutionary fire still burned in the old man, in spite of all his exterior coolness and repose.

After our arrival at Natchez, where we took part in the general festivities held for a couple of days in honor of Lafayette, we took our leave of him, and returned to New Orleans. There I found the speculation fever still raging. I had instructed my two partners not to buy during my absence one single pound of cotton, and had received their promise to that effect. I was therefore, the more indignant that my good but feeble friend Hollander, had allowed himself to be talked over by my youngest

partner, an Englishman, named Parker, into buying at seventeen cents, 800 bales, the pick of the crop, which was all in the hands of Reynolds, Byrne & Co. The vertigo of speculation still endured, and had attacked no man more fiercely than the seller, Byrne. He mourned that he had sold so much, and especially bewailed their sale to us. News from Liverpool gave still a greater rise in prices,—and in New Orleans, they mounted to twenty-one and twenty-two cents. I met my hot-headed Byrne in the street, who again began to lament over his 600 bales ; that they were all of the best sort of which there was, and promised to be very little. " You can have them back again for twenty-two cents," said I. "Done," cried Byrne, hastily. The trade* was regularly closed, and the sum of $16,000 gained by the operation.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE CRISIS OF 1825-26.

Extensive purchase of cotton for the house of Crowder, Clough & Co., in Liverpool—Failure of that house, and the establishments connected with it in New York and Charleston—Influence of the failure on the position of my house—Unavoidable suspension of payments—The creditors unanimously appoint me Syndic of the Mass —Transferral of my power of attorney to my junior partners—My voyage to England—Reception at Barings'—The true position of affairs, in respect to the Crowder assets—First success in the suit brought against the administrators of the Crowder assets—Rencontre in the Birmingham post-coach, on my way back to London—A letter from Mr. Alexander Baring—Consequences of the rencontre in the post-coach—Favorable issue of my heavy suit in the Court of Chancery—Lord Eldon ; the last decision but one rendered by him before leaving the Miu istry.

I fancied now that I might calmly wait for the next cotton crop, and leave trade for awhile alone; but as the reader will soon see, Heaven willed it otherwise. I wished to send to Europe my eldest partner, Mr. Parker, who did not know my correspondents, in order to give him a chance of seeing matters on the other side; above all, that he might turn into money any stock of cotton oe-longing to us there and still unsold. He arrived" happily, and in the idle month of May, found the cotton market unfluctuating, and the views of our friends unchanged. It was not easy to take the step which the Denistouns had taken soon after his arrival. For in the first place, the question was not simply about the stock belonging to us in Liverpool, but of the rest which we owned in connection with the house of Cropper, and with Thompson, who rendered a sale impossible, for they had the upper hand, and their politics, that is, their views of the future of the cotton market, as also of the judiciousness of the measures which were to aid the

accomplishment of those views, were directly opposed to a forced sale of our share—so then nothing happened.

In the meanwhile, the state of affairs in New Orleans had taken another aspect. A certain Mr. Lazarus came in a schooner, dispatched from Charleston to New Orleans; he had made purchases there for the Croppers, Thompsons, and others, and he brought me the newest and most important news from Liverpool, as well as a letter from Mr. Clough, partner of the Liverpool house of Crowder, Clough & Co. This house, which I knew very well, was not of the first class, but was at the head of the second class, and possessed very good credit. Mr. Lazarus proved to me that this firm had deserved well in the course of the current year, by the compared lists of shipments made from Charleston for their own account, and of the sales which had taken place, and which had more or less to do with the results of our shipment by the brig Ocean. The object of Mr. Clough, and, with the house of Wey-man, of Charleston, and in New York, connected with him, was to lay hands firmly and early upon a large amount of cotton, in expectation of an endurance of the high prices, in order to turn it into money again, and win a large profit by the operation, so as to ship the purchase to Liverpool, if matters there should remain as they then were. This information was accompanied by a letter of credit upon us for $50,000, from Leroy, Bayard & Co., of New York, whose credit stood very high with us, and another for the same sum from the Weymans. The first of these letters of credit was positive; the other was not to be regarded as unqualified, but was to be governed by the particular circumstances of the cotton market, and also by the condition that all purchases should remain in our hands, and be under our direction ; and that, until all the liabilities of the Liverpool house should be settled, a positive value could not be given to it. I turned the affair over, and found that a purchase of 6,000 bales, at the current price of 21 cents, would need a capital of half a million dollars; and that a commission of 5 per cent., according to the New Orleans tariff, would bring in $25,000. This, with the two credits, each of $50,000, gave $125,000: so that a quarter of the whole commissions on the cotton to be purchased, and also 25 per cent, of the

HEAVY PURCHASE OF COTTON. S27

total purchases to remain in our possession, might be lost, before a single dollar of our own capital should be risked. A fluctuation in prices must take place before the enormous rise could take any definite character, and before the real state of things could be determined ; but a sudden fall of prices was not to be expected, and, least of all, could the possibility of a fall of 25 per cent, enter the mind of any man. After these considerations had been well weighed, the importance of the capital to be laid out must be next thought of. Half the commission would be at once paid by the wholesale purchase on our part; and for the other half, and according to circumstances, their acceptances would be given for two and three months from date. These acceptances were punctually redeemed as they fell due, and the bank was never requested to renew them, as was usual in all other houses established in New Orleans, which in this way procure credit from the bank, from the beginning to the end of the year, and thus make their own credit permanent. Never had one of our acceptances been refused at the bank; the directors knew too well the source from which they came, and that our motive was to gain time for our not always negotiable paper, and not the concealment of a weakness, nor a want of capital. I said above, that a quarter of the commissions would be paid by the above-named purchase, and that as for the other three-quarters, time must be given for the negotiation of our paper. The commission was quite too important for me to trust to hazard. I therefore felt the pulse of the directors of the three principal banks, and came to an understanding with them, that they should furnish the money, and discount our acceptances in the cotton market at the usual rate, and besides that they might be taken up when they fell due, by the payers, with new acceptances at two months. All this was arranged in one day. And now, if the purchases were to be made, no time was to be lost. Lazarus, who was introduced to me by the Croppers as an exceedingly honest, worthy man, had assured me that the next report from Charleston would infallibly bring me, from Clough and Weyman, further remittances or credits to lessen our outlay. So, perfectly satisfied, I went to work, and in the course of one morning purchased 6,000 bales of cotton. Lazarus swam in a

sea of delight until the first mail arrived from Charleston, without bringing us our promised remittances or letters. The second, the third, the fourth came in, all without letters. Then I began to feel a misgiving that I had fallen into a trap, and that Lazarus had calculated beforehand how he might best lead me, and get into my confidence. He stood before me utterly helpless, and seemed very much at a loss what to do with his unpromising speculation. A well-considered regular plan did not appear to have been settled upon between him and his confederates. At last I determined to send him to New York. " There is nothing left for you," I said, " but to reach New York as soon as possible, and thence to help us with remittances."

I did not now delay to send the whole quantity of cotton purchased to Liverpool, to Baring, Brothers & Co., who had attended to the insurance with our drafts on the Liverpool house of Clough, Crowder & Co., with the instructions, that so soon as these drafts were accepted and paid, or if the assurance, which the acceptation offered, were satisfactory to them, to deliver the bills of lading. The greater part of the amount of the drafts were taken again from the Barings, and negotiated at the Branch Bank of the United States.

Soon after, my good friend Hill, head of the Denistoun firm in New Orleans, received the news of the sale of the six thousand bales of which I have spoken. He showed me the original letter of his chief, old Mr. Denistoun, of Glasgow, which brought me to the conclusion that this time the Liverpool spirit of speculation was at an end, and that the article itself was on a slope, down which it must roll, like an avalanche, until it met with an obstacle that could arrest it. After the sale of Messrs. Denistoun, the price fell in July to 11, towards the end of the month to 9£ pence. In the beginning of August, the house of Crowder, Clough & Co., of Liverpool, declared itself insolvent; the Weymans, in New York and Charleston, followed, and towards the end of September the news of these sad events reached me, and caused me to foresee how, by the blow of an inexorable fate, the irremediable fall of my own house—for fourteen years so successfully conducted, that it was regarded as the first, not only in New Orleans but in

all the Southern States. It was a heartrending destruction of all that had made my life happy and gratified my ambition. I will not allow myself to say more than these few words about it. For those who feel in head and heart like me these lines will be enough; for the superficial reader, they are already too much.

To comprehend the results of this state of affairs, and to arrange our payments, was my next resolve; yet I held it my duty to notify those who had negotiated my acceptances, in consequence of my understanding with the bank, and those whose names were upon such as were negotiated with the Bank of the United States. These various houses would soon be informed by the bank that they must at once replace our now worthless signature by another ; and they were so entirely unprepared, that they could find no other means than taking up the paper with ready money. They were thus placed in the mournful necessity to suspend their own payments, although perfectly solvent. They took counsel with each other, however, and determined very wisely to induce me to renew, from time to time, our acceptances, under the agreement I had made with the bank, until they should be in a condition to take up their notes and pay their liabilities. It was my duty to my hard-pressed friends and neighbors to give my assent to this plan, although these renewals would cost something like $4000 for interest every sixty days; so I made the condition, that this money, which the mass could not use, but which for the present must injure their effects, must come from themselves and not from the mass. So, then, I remained from the end of August, for four and a half months, in the sad position of a man playing before the world the part of the man who has but hope to enable him to strive with the difficulties which besiege him, while in heart I had the conviction that all must be in vain. At last, in the middle of January, of the following year, 1826, my friends announced to me that they had completed their preparations, and had paid in their own paper to the bank. I then delayed no longer our declaration of insolvency, and handed our balance-sheet into court. This was done January 18, 1826. At the head of our foreign creditors were Cropper, Benson & Co., Liverpool, and Hottinguer & Co., in Paris. I had already informed them in October of the proba-

bly inevitable failure of our house. Both firms wrote comforting and trusting letters to me, saying that they desired me to manage their affairs, and sending me their full powers as creditors. All the creditors in New Orleans also, with the exception of one merciful lawyer, to whom a small sum was owed, named me syndic of the mass, who claimed $1,200,000, with the right to associate both my partners with me, should the circumstances of the liquidation require it. This was naturally soon the case. The buyers of cotton, the endorsers of our paper, and finally Le Roy, Bayard & Co., had sent full powers to their English correspondents to seize the cotton sent to the Barings; and the misunderstandings which arose out of this had thrown the matter into the court of chancery—of which it was proverbially said, that if a man had a cause there, he must expect it to remain there at least half his life. The Messrs. Barings, who, by Mr. Holland's advice, kept themselves perfectly passive in the matter, would take no step without a positive order of the court, and to obtain this a perfect mass of points had first to be clearly settled, among parties who did not appear able to come to an understanding. It was a perfect labyrinth of difficulties, of which the clue, according to all appearance, would never be found. The issue of the affair depended entirely upon the result of the suit in chancery. It was not only a matter of the greatest importance, but even of positive necessity, to get a decision, which, according to English law, should give to every man his rights. The local liquidation of the debts was quite a simple affair. I came to the resolution of going to Europe, in order to bring my wits to bear upon the solution cf the Gordian knot, into which the various embarrassments had tied themselves. My two partners were to take my place in New Orleans, and after having explained matters to them, I hastened to Europe. Above all, I instructed my partners not to sell, even for the most impatient creditors, our houses, stores, cotton-presses, etc., hastily, since they composed a very important portion of our effects. They were all situated in the finest part of the suburbs, and offered the apparent certainty, that, so soon as the approaching end of this crisis, which occupied all attention and made money very scarce, should arrive, their value, now a

mere nominal one, would be greatly increased. The absolute outlay for the grounds and buildings was over $155,000, and figured for this amount on the balance-sheet. Their prospective value could not be calculated at the moment, but was indubitably greater than the sum named. The first and most important matter that I had at heart was, in all my directions to my partners, the interest of my creditors; and here I indulged a hope that Mr. Alexander Baring might be induced to come in among the buyers, and purchase this costly establishment at a fair price, in order to give me the management of it; and so secure to himself an important property, and to me a sufficiency for the rest of my life.

So soon as I had reached London, by the way of Havre, I called on the Barings, and was there received by Mr. Holland, an honest right-spirited man, but somewhat brusque and unpolished. " Mr. Nolte," said he ; " your business is in chancery, and there it will stick. I'll give you ten years time to get it out of it." Dull comfort, that. They sent me then to their solicitor, Mr. Edward Lawford, who was also solicitor to the Havre East India Company, and one of the first in London, and he dismissed me to Mr. Low, the first chancery solicitor, for the Court of Chancery,— then under the Presidency of Lord Eldon,—furnishing a peculiar study of London legal science and customs. From neither of these gentlemen could I get any light. Under these circumstances I thought it advisable to go to Liverpool, there to learn, if possible, from the lips of the solicitor of the Crowder creditors, for what reasons, and on what grounds he had come to the absurd resolution to refuse the whole claim of my house, which was for no less a sum than £123,000, and to assert that it was a mere private claim upon Mr. Clough, whom we could bring to a reckoning, but that the firm had nothing to do with it. On my arrival in Liverpool, I made my intentions known to my friends there. They laughed, and told me that the solicitor would neither receive me nor hold any conversation with me. " Ah ! why not VI I cried. " Because," was the answer ; " legal etiquette forbids it. It is the custom here for an advocate never to see the opposer of his client, and to have nothing to do with any one but the latter." Now this was precisely against me. I wanted to hear with my ow r n

ears and see with my own eyes, and not take the second-hand impressions of my solicitor. He, I said to my friends, would advance his views, while I wished to have my own, and to act for myself. At last I asked the name of the Crowder solicitor, and what manner of man he was. I learned that his name was Lace, that he was a very learned, well-informed man, and besides that, lawyer of my best friends in Liverpool, Thomas and Wm. Earle & Co., who had known me from childhood; of Cropper, Benson & Co., of Rathbone, Hodgson & Co., and others. Then, I begged these gentlemen, w r ho knew me and my character so well, to pay a formal visit to Mr. Lace, and to give him the assurance of my name, that I would not misuse any information that he might deign to give me, and that I had no idea of sneaking into his confidence, in order so to undermine the position he had taken. Mr. Benson in particular, and Mr. Leathorne from the Earle house, were good enough to visit Mr. Lace for me, and procured for me permission to call on him. The interview took place. Lace was, as all my friends had said, a clever man; but his nature was certainly irritable and peevish. So, at least, I found him. After half an hour's debate, he declared to me that his views oh the whole matter were settled, and not to be changed. I then proposed to him, to shorten the long course of the chancery process, to give the affair into the hands of three merchants, who should settle it by arbitration; and to show how thoroughly convinced I was of the excellence of our claim, I proposed to him to name all three. Only, I said, they must all be merchants of the first rank, and of the greatest respectability,—and from London, because in Liverpool everybody had more or less interest in the matter. "Mr. Nolte," answered Mr. Lace, "if it come to an arbitration by merchants, there is not one in England who would not accept your views, and give the decision in your favor." " And in spite of this conviction," said I; " how can you justify your determination to let this drag on in chancery, and thus endeavor to take from me what every honest merchant in England would, according to your own conviction, give me." " If you desire to know my grounds," answered Mr. Lace ; " I will tell you. I am the representative and counsellor of all the English creditors of the house.

Your claim alone, amounts to as much as those of all the others put together, and they will get a double dividend if I succeed in sending you back upon Clough, and getting your claim upon the house denied. That claim I never can admit unless compelled to do so by a decree from the Court of Chancery." " Mr. Lace," I said, " if these are your grounds you cannot be helped by delay, still less can delay be your object. Give me your word then, to bring the matter as soon as possible to an end, you and your London solicitor." He did as I requested, and ga\e me a line to his solicitors in London, Messrs. Roscoe, instructing them to aid me in all things that I desired, for the rapid progress of the affair, and which would not interfere with their own good rights. With this I went back to London.

I must not here omit a circumstance which was the source of some unpleasantness to me.

I took a place at 5 o'clock in the morning, in the Birmingham coach, the best conveyance then between Liverpool and London. It was a troubled, misty, unpleasant morning. In the corner of the coach opposite me, wrapped in his cloak, sat a gloomy looking person, besides myself, the only passenger. More than two hours elapsed before the spirit moved us to any conversation. At length my companion roused himself and brought forward the subject which always opens a conversation in England,—the weather,—" We have a very nasty disagreeable day before us, I fear," he remarked. Whereupon I asked him if he were going all the way to London. " No, no," he answered, " I will get out at a pottery near Wolverhampton, where I have to buy some hundred baskets of crockery for my ship, the Peter Ellis." " In order to send it to New Orleans, I suppose," said I. " Certainly," he said ; " but I beg your pardon, how did you know that I" " I did not know it," I replied ; " I only guessed it. I have seen the ship several times in New Orleans. She was consigned to my friends, Denistoun, Hill & Co." " Oh, ho," said he, " so you have been in New Orleans." " Very often," said I. " How is the credit of the firm," was his next question. " Admirable," said I; " Mr. Hill is a man much esteemed and beloved.' "So I have always thought," said he. "Those gentleman," I

continued, " very often have ships to their address : for instance, the Liverpool brig 'The Brothers,' the ship 'Mary Wood,' and others. The Liverpool ship ' Ottowa' was in other hands (namely, in ours), as well as many others." " You appear to know our vessels well," said he, " and also most of the English houses in New Orleans." " Oh, yes," I said; " I know nearly all the houses of any position there pretty well. " I am glad to hear it," said my companion, and then our dialogue continued. " Do you know Munro, Milne & Co V " Very well. They are the 'established correspondents of James Finlay & Co., of Glasgow." " Do you know P. L. & Co. 1 How do they stand I* " So, so, no general credit." " Do you know G. F. & Co. ?" " G. is a clever business man and F. is a windbag, who, however, has thrown into the firm a large capital, inherited from his aunt." " The devil," quoth my interlocutor ; u you appear to know them all. You must have lived some years in New Orleans." " Yes, several." " Do you know Vincent Nolte V " As well as he knows himself." " What sort of a man is he V ' " Well," said I; " he has many friends, and perhaps, quite as many foes: take him all in all, however, I believe he is a good sort of a fellow, and with whom folks like to deal." " Yes," he said, " our captains like him very much. He was prompt and expeditious, and when he had freighted a vessel, the goods came down as fast as they could be received on board." " I believe," said I, " that this praise is not undeserved. It was always his custom to do quickly, whatever he undertook." Thereupon our conversation ended; and in half an hour the coach stopped before a large pottery belonging to Baker, Bourne & Baker. As he got out my companion gave me his card, " John McNeil, Liverpool," saying, " I have found so much pleasure in your conversation that you must promise to pay me a visit when you return to Liverpool. I will present you to my two daughters, and we will all receive you with pleasure." I of course was obliged to give him. my card in exchange. He glanced at it twice, and in a doubtful sort of way read it over, " Vincent Noble !" " No, sir," I said; " Vincent Nolte, the very gentleman you were inquiring about." " Ah! so, so," he said. " Well sir, glad to have had a sight of you. Do

not fail to call when you come to Liverpool again. Farewell, sir !" And so the coach rolled on.

So soon as I arrived in London I went to my chancery solicitor, Mr. Low, showed him the letter that Mr. Lace had given me to Mr. Roscoe,,and said to him, "Now, Mr. Low, if there is any delay, I will know where to look for the cause of it: let us gain time."

I had not failed to inform Mr. Baring, then at his country-seat, " the Grange," of my arrival, and somewhat of my projects ; especially I spoke of his purchasing our property at New Orleans. After a delay of two weeks the mail brought me the following answer:—

"The Grange, Sept. 11, 1826.

" My Dear Sir :—I had heard of your arrival, and at the same time of your having gone to Liverpool, and partly indolence, but more uncertainty where my letter would find you, prevented my writing to you. I shall be in town this day week for a few days, when I may perhaps catch you. My house here is just now full of friends, who take up most of my time, or I would propose to you to come and talk over your affairs here. ] shall be happy to see you get on your legs fairly again, my dear Sir, and with courage and care I have no doubt of it; and although I am every day more and more retiring from active life, I shall be ready to give what support circumstances will permit. The Havre scheme seems by no means bad, if there should be any opening to attach yourself to any existing house in good business, but, generally speaking, you will find European places desperately shaken by the late storms that wrecked so cruelly all your hopes.

" I am not disposed, nor would it be convenient to me, to advance on or purchase the New Orleans property—it strikes me, that by such a move you rather fix yourself again in the same spot, a measure that may be doubtful. Your creditors have acted most wisely in giving you their full power. No other plan could possibly save thern from the endless intricacies of law and equity. You must take care that the hostile creditor, who refused his assent, does not lay his hands on you. When I see you I will talk over the business c f your liquidation with you. The settle

ment with Crowder's assignees is most judicious. Of the various scrapes I have seen you in, that which at last brought you down was certainly the one in which you had the least of blame to lay to your charge, and I see with pleasure that resolution does not fail you. It should fail no man whose mind is independent and well regulated. I believe I once before told you, that in my opinion you stand adversity better than prosperity, and this is the case with most people. Keep up your courage, my dear Sir, and I dare say all will do well again. Nobody will see this realized with more pleasure than Yours, sincerely,

A. BARING."

A few days after my return from Liverpool, one Saturday, about exchange hours, I was honored w T ith an unexpected visit. It was a sheriff officer, with a writ against me, at the suit of Baker, Bourne & Baker, for the sum of £1,000. Now I remembered, that among the exchange paper used by our house was a draft for £1,000, payable to this firm, and accepted by the Denistouns, and that this was one of the first notes which the Barings had allowed to be protested. The reader will remember that my compagnon du voyage, Mr. McNiel, had left the coach to call upon this firm. Our odd rencontre would naturally be the first topic of conversation, and the Messrs. Baker & Bourne had taken advantage of Mr. McNiel's information to lay hands upon me. My arrest took place on Saturday, at exchange hours, and my London friends were early in shutting their counting-rooms on Saturday, that they might go into the country. This was the case with the Barings, Sillem, Rucker, and others, to whom I could have gone. So I had to let myself be carried off to one of the so-called " sponging houses" in Chancery lane. The London Sundays are never too agreeable; and to look at one through the grated window of a house in Chancery lane was anything but delightful. On Sunday I wrote to Baring, and to my friend Mr. Sillem, and sent the letters early on Monday morning. Surety was required that I would not leave the country until the question of the debt should be settled. Mr. Sillem gave the required bonds, and drew me out of my prison about two o'clock; a vile hole it was, w T here

even a bed or a dinner could only be procured at a most exorbi tant price. The Messrs. Baring undertook to settle with Baker, Bourne & Baker, and bought the draft, on behalf of ray creditors, for £333.

My process went on its regular course. It was my only occupation—and no wonder—to see that nothing delayed. The first decision, that of the Vice-Chancellor, went against us. The judgment was superfluously pronounced, and without proper motives. I at once appealed to the upper court, and to the Lord Chancellor, a$.d chose, as barrister, the celebrated Basil Montagu, and, by his advice, the not less renowned Mr. Heald,«as special pleader. After many postponements and pleadings, which I never missed, the matter was finally decided. One half the delay was caused by the special pleader employed by my antagonists. This, one of the most learned advocates in England, was then called Sir Edward Sugden, and was, by the last Derby ministry, made Lord High-Chancellor of England, under the title of Lord St. Leonards. When the day, previously appointed by Lord Eldon, arrived to hear the argument, on some point or other of the matter debated between plaintiff and defendant, it was Sir Edward's usual remark, that he had not yet had time to examine the thing carefully, and must therefore beg for a further postponement. The second cause of the delay was a cir cumstance that it took me some time to understand. During my regular, uninterrupted visits to the Court of Chancery, where he saw me take a seat among the advocates, instead of behind Basil Montagu, Lord Eldon became so familiarized with my face that he knew very well who I was, and what brought me there. Several times, when I urged Mr. Montagu to get a day positively appointed on which my case should be heard, he would say, pointing at me, " On Saturday I'll hear the case of that American gentleman there." Then turning towards the clerk, he would say, " Let it be the first." That meant, that among the many petitions which were placed before him on that day, the papers relating to me should be on top. Saturday is the day oh which all proceedings connected with bankruptcy are brought up and discussed. The list of the order in which they are to come up is

15

printed, and stuck up on the door of the court-room. Every morning, as I made my way there, I found at the head of this list " Nolte vs. the Assignees of Crowder, Clough & Co." As an entire day was frequently occupied in the discussion of a single point, I fancied my cause secure. The list remained unaltered the whole week until Friday. Then, and on the following day, Saturday, I remarked that the words above quoted were no longer on the upper part, but on the fourth line ; so that my cause was not to be heard until all the preceding ones had been dealt with. This was incomprehensible to me. I asked a variety of subaltern functionaries the meaning of it, but could get no other answer than "We do not know, sir," or " By direction of his lordship." This was all the information that I could get. Several times had Lord Eldon noted me and my petition, and yet there it remained fixed, at its old place, during four days of the week at the head, on Friday and Saturday third or fourth. Finally, I inquired about the individual who prepared the list, and I learned that that excellent man had an agreeable custom of altering the order of cases upon the roll, when urged to do so, by a bribe from one of the solicitors in chancery. The case for which a solicitor required delay very seldom came to a hearing. Delay, endless delay, was the watchword in the Court of Chancery. The solicitors, whose dealings with their clients were usually in writing, in my time, charged 3s. 4d. for every letter that they received and had to read ; then Gs. 8d. for every consultation that grew out of the correspondence, and finally, 13s. 6d. for every written instruction that they gave to a barrister. Thus every conference in the course of a suit cost .£1 2s. The longer they could carry on this amusement the better ">f course for their pockets. Herein lay one of the manifold causes of the year-long delays of suits in the Court of Chancery. The discovery was important, and there was no way to end the matter but by bringing it to the notice of the Lord Chancellor. That however could not be done by writing. The Lord Chancellor, president of the Cabinet, and speaker of the House of Lords, has entirely too much upon his shoulders to remember his directions to an unknown clerk. I must, then, speak to him, but how, was the hard point. One portion of the great hall of the Court of

Chancery was separated from the rest by a single balustrade. At the right hand of the Lord Chancellor's seat was a small door, leading into his own room, in which he robed and unrobed, and the custody of which was confided to a door-keeper. I went to him, and told him that I must at once speak to the Chancellor, on business of great importance. The answer was, " You can't see him. His lordship is robing himself." I, however, pressed my desire very hard, and supported it by slipping a sovereign into the hand of the official. Then he said, " I'll let you speak to his secretary," and so opened the door. I reiterated my request to the secretary, and showed him, with the greatest politeness, that I could only enlighten his lordship upon the object of my visit; that I had information of very great importance to give him, which would convince him at once of the pressing nature of the whole affair. " Well sir," he answered, " on your own responsibility." He then opened the door of the Chancellor's private chamber. Lord Eldon, all ready rigged and robed, was sitting by a small writing-table. I stepped forward, and said, " My lord." He look up, gazed at me earnestly, but as though he knew me, and asked " What do you want, sir ?" I related as rapidly as possible the object of my visit. " Shameful! shameful!" he said. " I'll see to it." Whereupon I made my bow, and left the room; saying only, " I thank you, my lord." The evil condition of the matter which had amazed me so much was then ameliorated, and an important gain of time made possible for the future. Lord Eldon, as I have before remarked, seldom found my opponent, Sir Edward Sugden, ready to give an answer to any part of the pleading. " I am not just now prepared to answer that question, my lord; but I shall be so at the next meeting," were the words which the lawyer usually returned for answer. I had remarked that, from time to time, Lord Eldon took his pencil, and made notes upon the margin of the petition. "These," Mr. Montagu, my lawyer, said, " are notes for questions which my lord proposes to bring forward at the next hearing of the case." On my further question, as to whether it was possible to get a sight of these notes, Mr. Montague replied that it was impossible; but he added, laughingly, that they would be of the utmost value to any

pleader who could get possession of them. Now I gave myself up to the procuring of an abstract of these notes for our pleader, Mr. Heald. I succeeded, by using the golden key; which, as Wieland says, in his Oberon, will open every lock. Scarcely could he trust his eyes, when he saw this proof of my cleverness in his hands. By these he gained important knowledge, so as always to be ready to answer any of these questions, for which Sir E. Swgden required time and postponement. I remember one time in particular where a new " hearing of the case" was appointed by the Lord Chancellor for the next Saturday, and my antagonist begged for a postponement. Lord Eldon, however, answered with visible decision, " No, no ! Sir Edward, that will not do. I will hear the case on Saturday."

At last the day of decision so important to me and to my creditors drew nigh. During the pleadings, Mr. Montagu had said to me at every question of the Chancellor's, " His lordship goes all the way with us," and prophecied a positive success. I had employed a stenographer especially for the purpose, and was therefore in condition to send a copy of the very words of the Lord Chancellor to New Orleans. It went entirely in our favor, upset the decision of the Vice-Chancellor, and established as law, what had never before been so settled in England, that the whole firm must answer for the act of a single partner doing foreign business on account of the house, and that such act could not be construed to bind only the partner who acted, as had been attempted in this case. This was the more important, that, in the contrary case, the dividend on our whole advance would hardly have surpassed three per cent. I cannot quit the subject of this decision without recording my astonishment at the quiet, self-possessed manner and clearness of explanation with which it was given. Among the hundreds and hundreds of cases awaiting decision ; among the thousand upon thousand of affairs which Lord Eldon had to occupy his attention, yet the whole mass of circumstances, complications, and queries were so systematically arranged in his brain, and their connection was so logical, that he was able to give his decision in so clear and distinct a manner, that you would have thought he was reading it, word for word

And yet this case had been surrounded with questions enough to make it drag along for two years.

The next step to be taken was to submit myself to an exami nation by the commissioners of the creditors in Liverpool, and to determine for what amount I, as creditor, should be inscribed So clear a decision had not been expected. It was the last that Lord Eldon gave before quitting the ministry—for he held his place from a tory ministry, and was now obliged to give it up to the new Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst. Mr. Lace spoke of a " rehearing of the case," which would have kept me, probably, a whole year longer in England. At last I understood what was the obstacle to my admission as creditor. All protested paper returned from abroad is, according to American law, subject to a loss of 20 per cent.; and as we were in the position to exact this from the Crowder creditors, and as that would have increased our claim £25,000, it is no wonder that Mr. Lace did all he could to oppose us. By the arrangement of our endorsers in New Orleans with the bank, our creditors were plainly informed, that although bound, by the letter of the law, yet they'would not be obliged to pay. There remained to me, then, the choice between a new, wearisome process, the result of which could not be foretold, or an immediate paying into bank the first dividend, which of course all our creditors must desire. Finally, I determined upon the latter course.

When I returned to London, and informed the Barings of my determination to go at once to New Orleans, Mr. Holland told me that Mr. A. Baring would be in town the next week, and wished to ask me some questions about the suit I had just won —he himself had a suit which had been in chancery for fourteen years, and neither knew nor could guess to what end it would come; while mine, for a sum eight times as large, had been terminated in ten months. I waited for the arrival of my old, esteemed friend, and told him all that the reader knows already. Then I advised him to get one of his intelligent clerks, and to give him, as chief employment, attendance upon the case, with instructions to be vigilant until the decision. When, eighteen months afterwards, I saw Mr. Baring, I had the consolation of hearing that

he had followed my advice, and had gotten a decision four months before.

Then I started for New Orleans, by New York, and reached my former home in December, 1827. Then, for the first time, I learned what had been done with our property in New Orleans. Soon after my departure in May, 1826, my partner Hollander became very ill, and had left the place for the sugar plantation of his wife's parents. The liquidation remained, therefore, in the hands of Mr. Parker, who, at first a clerk with William Nott & Co., had been by their recommendation taken by us as a partner. At present he had found means to ingratiate himself again with this firm—no difficult matter, as Mr. Nott was always ill, and Parker very plausible. After getting a promise that he would be taken into this firm, he brought about a coalition of the two largest local creditors of my house, W. and J. Montgomery, and Mr. Millaudon, with the firm of Nott & Co., in consequence of which he, as syndic, resolved, without any further notice in the papers than one which appeared that morning, to sell the entire property of my firm in a single lot, for ready money, at the putting up price of $50,000, and bidding not to be waited for. This was done in September, a period of the year when half the white population was absent. Of course the purchasers were the three abovenamed firms. When I visited New Orleans, in 1838, this property had been sold shortly before for the sum of $800,000, and since that it has greatly increased in value. This careless measure, so injurious to the great mass of our creditors, could not be helped. The whole of the next year I was employed in the further liquidation o * our debts.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN THE UNITED STATES.

John Quiucy Adams and Andrew Jackson, the two candidates—Jackson's lack of qualifications for the office—Edward Livingston the first projector and leader of Jackson's election—Intrigues in his favor—Unworthy means to ensure his success—Jackson revisits New Orleans, in 182*7, as a candidate—■ Electioneering manoeuvres—The article in The American, a New York paper —I am set upon, in my dwelling-house, by a couple of his followers—Final departure from New Orleans—Havre—Paris—Fruitless attempts to found a concern at Havre—Acquaintance with an English banking-house, Daly & Co., in Paris—It leads to the establishment of a concern at Marseilles, as branch of the house ; Pierre Maillet & Co., at Martinique, together with Maillet, Cage & Co., at Havre, and Daly & Co., at Paris, as sleeping partners—Before the opening of my new establishment, I visit England and Hamburgh, the latter place only for five days—Return by way of England and Paris—Arrival in the French capital, on the morning of July 27th, 1830—The July Revolution—Departure for Marseilles—The failure of Daly & Co. follows close at my heels, and obliges me to return in haste to Paris—Journey to Havre, in behalf of Daly's creditors—The holding back of the Havre house, and the consequent impossibility of ferreting out the true state of affairs—The sudden crippling of the machinery and uprooting of the foundation of the new house in Marseilles renders its entire dissolution necessary—A fresh journey in search of subsistence stares me in the face.

The time for choosing a new president was at hand. The election was to take place in a year, and General Jackson was the favorite candidate. Probably throughout the whole Union there was no man who had more thoroughly disregarded the Constitution than this man; and all who had lived in his immediate neighborhood, who had known and observed him, could not repress the positive conviction, that of all the candidates he was the least fitted for president; since his greatest gifts were only physical courage,

intense fieryness, and indomitable will. Respect for law, or the ideas of others, or command over his inborn passionateness of character, had he never felt. He was the first candidate for the presidency who was brought forward and elected by bribery, under the advice of the most corrupt man in the United States, a man already mentioned in these memoirs, Edward Livingston. It was an easy matter for the creatures who obeyed his nod to find out the most popular democrats of the various States, who were not always sought for among the most respectable inhabitants ; to win them, and to keep them by promises of certain fat and honorable offices; to open their zeal, and, in a word, to make them satellites, prepared to strain every nerve, to silence every suggestion of conscience that stood in their way, and in the way of electing their candidate. A couple of examples will be enough. A certain militia colonel by the name of Swartwout—■ the same who, as the reader will remember, was attached by Gen. Wilkinson for high treason—who, in all his life, had never attempted anything great, nor been of the slightest use to his country; but who was always ready to talk politics Tn every rum-hole and pot-house, until he grew to be quite an orator, or at least to be taken for one; this man lorded it in New Jersey, to which state he belonged, as a beloved and popular man, and had it in his power to muster a very heavy collection of presidential votes. He was promised, if he would procure a majority for Jackson in his State, the most remunerative office in the United States; to wit, the collectorship of the port of New York. New Jersey gave her vote for Jackson, and Swartwout got his price. One day, a couple of years after this, he disappeared. He had gone to France, and now lives in Paris; but in going he left a slight deficit in his treasury of $600,000. Part of this money was laid out in Texas lands; the rest he took with him in cash.

I will mention two other examples. The marshal of the United States for the District of New York, William Price, who had been able to procure for Jackson a majority in New York, had received his office and other things as rew r ards. At the defalcation of Swartwout he appeared very active in his preparations t:. go in pursuit of that gentleman. Accordingly, in about fourteen

days he also disappeared, leaving a deficit of $200,000, and he is now with his friend in Paris.

The third example of this bribery system is the former printer and publisher of the New Orleans Gazette, the notorious drunkard Peter K. Wagner, from Baltimore, appointed by Jackson " naval officer" at New Orleans, where immense sums, the tonnage tax of foreign vessels, passed into his hands. This one did not run away, but was obliged to give up his place, in consequence of a deficit in his cash-box of $70,000.

On his candi Jate voyage Jackson had visited several of the Western States j his own, in which he dwelt as cotton planter, included; and he determined to go to the cradle of his renown, New Orleans, but as simple citizen, sending there also his cotton crop, about eighty bales. The same steamboat that brought the cotton bore also the American hero. A Frenchman would have called that steamboat " the bark that carried Caesar and his fortunes." He was received with joy ; a mob of the more youthful niggers, carefully drilled by Sheriff Morgan, stood at the corners of the streets, and cried " Hurrah for Jackson;" and the general, in simple citizen's guise, surrounded by the electoral committee, stepped on shore. On every occasion, he endeavored to give proof of amiability of character, of esteem for the laws, etc.; hiding carefully from all military display.

To me, who during the defence of the city, had had the general daily and immediately under my eye, and whom no shade of his character could or did escape, all this comedy seemed so mean, and at the same time so absurd, that I, who had little to do, could not withstand the desire to send to my friend Charles King, editor of the New York American, a droll description of the visit, which showed a perfect acquaintance with the city. Mr. King published it. It delighted ordinary readers, but Jackson's partisans in New Orleans, particularly the members of his election committee, were rendered furious. The publisher of the American was written to, and the name of the author demanded—he refused to give it.' For the first few weeks no one thought of me, who had so recently returned from Europe; but after a while it was concluded that nobody but I could have written it; and Mr. Slide.ll, secretary of

15*

the committee, was sent to demand a formal explanation. The reader can guess that this had no result, as I only expressed wonder at the presumption, and expressed it mockingly; which I ventured to do, because I lived on the friendliest footing with Mr. Slidell, and at one time, before he sought to still his conscience for this political role, had received him as a most intimate friend at my house. So -won, however, as I observed, that he was allowing himself to be used as the tool of a political faction, all intimacy, and finally all intercourse, ceased. I had seen too many examples of the extremities to which American party spirit will go, not to keep myself clear of any mingling in politics—not to choose my companions with prudence. Also, I felt no interest in the success of this or that party; yet, although I felt no particular esteem for the other candidate, John Quincy Adams, I would very unwillingly have seen him defeated by the filthy intrigues of a most unprincipled man—I mean, of General Jackson. My good friend Counsellor Custis, now Chief Justice of the supreme court in New Orleans, was at the head of Jackson's opponents, and was one of the most important members of the Adams election committee. We had many a confidential talk about men and things, and mourned over the part which a man of such undeniably extraordinary talents as Edward Livingston, was forced to play, in order to keep himself on the surface merely of society. The whole combination to make Jackson president was his work. From this only could he expect the restoration of his crushed financial position—from this alone could he draw a possibility of regaining the esteem of his countrymen. The consequences proved that he had reckoned rightly, so far at least as he was personally concerned ; but a pure patriot Jackson was not, and could not be, and the results showed that a far better man might have been chosen. The parallel between Jackson and others, who were better fitted for the lofty position at which he was aiming, had taken such possession of me, by reason of my opportunities for observation, and the great attention I had given to it, that I determined, as much for my own pleasure as from any other motive, to write a letter to him, wherein the whole position of affairs at the time was set forth, and Jackson's merits and demerits, as

well as his own, were contrasted. My friend Custis and others urged me to print this letter, and I did not refuse. It was certainly the best I had ever written in English. But few copies were circulated in New Orleans, but many were sent to the election committees in the north. From the printers the name of the author was discovered, and I need not say that what I had written purely for my own amusement procured for me many enemies, and the deadly hate of most of Jackson's followers. In New Orleans I was a fallen, but not dishonored man. People wondered that I did not follow the American custom of comforting myself in the bar-rooms, and seeking for consolation in brandy, but that I still attended to business, and still held my head high. Most of them could not understand why the loss of my lofty mercantile position did not induce me to descend the social ladder also, and that my self-respect was not in the slightest degree lessened. I was blameless. This steeled me during that last mournful year in New Orleans, while I was bringing about the liquidation there. The year was one of the most painful in my life. Of my two most intimate friends, one, William Hill, of the Denistoun firm, had died of yellow fever; the other, William B. Milligan, had lost by a frightful accident his newly married wife, and remained at the North.

Early the next year, 1829, my long-desired return to Europe was rendered possible; I could embark for Havre—but not until one more trial had been passed through. The partisans of Jackson could not let me go without first revenging themselves upon me. One of the most ferocious, F. B. Ogden, to whom Jackson had promised, for his election services, the Liverpool consulate, had determined to attack me in my own house. He had brought a witness with him, in order to lay his misdeed before the public. The twain entered my room lightly, while I was seated at my dinner with my back to the door; but so soon as I caught a glimpse of them, I made one spring behind my writing-desk, on which lay two loaded pistols, which I seized. It was comical to beholl how the two good-for-nothings retired, cursing in disappointment The whole city was informed of the affair by a placard

that same evening, and the larger portion of the citizens, to theii honor be it said, were exceedingly incensed.

Day and hour were appointed for my departure. All my former clerks and several friends had assembled to accompany me on board ; for the news had gone through the city, that the Jack-sonians would make one more attack before my embarkation. I rescinded my resolution to go on board either early in the morning or late at night; and chose to go through the high street, by the clear sunshine of 3 o'clock p. m. The Levee was thronged with a cheering crowd as I went on board and the vessel moved out to sea.

Thus, then, two-and-twenty years after my first visit, and sixteen since the establishment of my firm, I bade farewell to the city wherein I had hoped to gain the reward of so many struggles, peace and independence for my old age. But, tossed by a hurricane—for the crisis which I have described was more than an ordinary storm—I had nothing now left but my full physical and mental strength; health and elasticity of spirits that promised me happier days in the future.

Mr. Alexander Baring had cared for my immediate support in Paris, whither I went from Havre, by a more than sufficient remittance. I saw myself in a new sphere, where I could hope from my ability and services for a connection with some already established house. But the only two chances for this in Havre remained unattainable by me. Both of these were houses of some years' standing, which had risen gradually to a certain eminence, and had attained influential positions. They both seemed inclined to accept my proposals, made to them through a business friend; but, after some days' consideration, they declined them. That they were frightened by the knowledge of the readiness with which I undertook and carried out the most extensive schemes, and that I might compromise the safety of their young establishments, I could not conceal from myself. Neither could I consider them quite in the wrong. My business tendencies were for large speculations, and could be none other, if the rare and extraordinary sphere in which I had commenced be regarded. I had been early intrusted with the management of very large sums, and had

been accustomed to form, carry forward, and conclude great combinations. To descend from this to the elementary rules of our mercantile fathers, to accumulate and keep together small gains, and to form this habit, was almost impossible for me. Not that the progress was too slow, but that small gains closed the door upon all great combinations ; not that I wanted " to make a fortune as one gains a battle,"* but because the pygmy advance of a daily small trade furnished no employment for my spirit of business. Great affairs exercised a magic power over me, and therein lay their charms for me, even while their object, the material gain, was greatly less interesting to me. Such an organization is not good for a merchant, but, on the contrary, is likely to produce sad results, as my own experience has taught me. Mercantile necessity is usually opposed to most intellectual designs. It yields no part, but requires a man's whole moral strength, and monopolizes it for the use of its great object, which is gain, gain of all kinds, gain at every hour. Gain is the soul of the mercantile strife, the goal of its desires. In fixed, unremitting attention to his means consists the first and greatest virtue of the merchant—all others take rank after this. That such an absorption of all the energies usually leaves the head empty and dry, and prevents any play of the imagination, is easily conceivable , and for this reason I could not but despise the tricks of the trade, and be unwilling to confine myself to those close calculations which a merchant dares not neglect, if he remain true to his principle, and wishes to ensure and keep fast the results.

1 could not easily remove the obstacles which kept me out of the above-mentioned Havre establishments. I foresaw this, and so stood up upon my watch-towers, and looked towards the east. Accident was against me. The Irish banking-house of Daly & Co., in Paris, wherein nearly all the Irish Catholics in that city had credit, and in many instances their whole capital invested, possessed a generally good reputation. They had a good deal of interest in French colonial sugars, through Maillet, Cage & Co., a house established in Havre, but originally of Martinique. As the

* Napoleon's words at Antwerp, when, with Maria Louise, he received the deputation o? merchants there.

most of this sugar was subject to great variability in Havre, and to a very slight one in Marseilles, the house of Daly & Co. resolved to establish a partner in Marseilles, to look after Martinique cargoes. It came to my ears that they were looking for a good man of business. Daly, who was very much beloved by the Irish and by the principal legitimist nobles residing in Paris, was treasurer of the Union Club, to which most of the notable aristocrats, as well as the financial great folks, Rothschild, Hottin-guer, Mallet, and others, belonged. Mr. Francis Baring was a visitor at this club, and did me the honor to introduce me to Mr. Daly. I expected to see a man of business—he was nothing of the kind—but I withheld my scruples because of his popularity. I pleased him. Mr. Cage was called from Havre to Paris ; and after many discussions, it was determined to found a branch at Havre, under the name of Nolte, Kenney & Co., with a nominal capital of 500,000 francs, of which Daly was to furnish for himself and Mr. Kenney 150,000, besides 100,000 for another friend; Maillet, Cage & Co., 125,000, and the remaining 125,000 by me, who had a prospect of getting it chiefly by the aid of Messrs. Barings. Mr. Kenney was a protege of Mr. Daly's, employed in the counting-room, and not yet of age. For this reason he could not be intrusted with the firm. Messrs. Baring came voluntarily to my help; and I got 20,000 francs also from Mr. Jerome Sillem. Thus then the house was established. Circulars were printed, and I ran over to England, to see Mr. Alexander Baring and my other friends in London and Liverpool. I was heartily received everywhere. Then I spent five days in Hamburg. Thence, through Holland, I returned to England, with a view to go by Southampton and Havre back to Paris. The steamer was to sail from Southampton at 8 P. M. on the 24th, and in the forenoon I started in one of the best post-coaches for Southampton. We had made about twenty miles, when a new axletree took fire from the rapid friction. This produced a delay of two hours and a half, and we did not arrive until 10 P. M. The steamer had been gone for two hours, and there would be none other until Monday, 26th, at 8 o'clock. It was a beautiful clear night; the wind light and fair. In company with another passenger, I deter-

mined to cross in an open boat, whose master promised, for £10, to land us in Havre by Sunday morning. The matter appeared so certain, that, without thinking even of provision, we started at 11 o'clock. We had only made about four leagues when it fell calm, and we lay still in the middle of the channel until 6 P. M. on Sunday. Our impatience can be better understood when it is remembered that we had nothing to eat. A few small potatoes and a bit of ship-biscuit, which the crew shared with us, was all we could get. At last we saw floating near us the still bleeding head of a codfish, which a shark may just have bitten off, and we were fortunate enough to get hold of it. Never to me or to my companion had fish tasted so deliciously. The light wind that arose at sunset blew fair all night, and carried us into Havre on the morning of the 26th, where the notorious ordinances of that date had not yet been learned. I got a post-chaise and started instantly for Paris. At Rouen there were symptoms of disquie tude. The regiment of guards there had been got into marching order, but the reason and the object were unknown. After a late dinner, I started, and rode all night. I was very anxious, although without knowing why. As, early in the morning, we drove from the post station at Courbevoie into the main street, we saw a whole regiment drawn up before the barracks of the royal body-guard. The postmaster at Courbevoie told me first of the ordinances, and intimated that a revolution was expected in Paris. On the great avenue of the Champs Elysee near the Arch of Triumph, a crowd surrounded my vehicle, tore out the white cockade from the postilion's head, and dismissed him with

" Vas ie /aire f ." To the question of some officers at the

barriere, as to where I was going, I answered, " To my house, Rue Chantereine, by Rue Royale and the Boulevards." I was told that I could not go that way, for that the Tuileries was surrounded, and the Rue Royale and Boulevards filled with the royal troops. I turned, therefore, to the left, and by Rue de la Pepin-iere and St. Lazare reached home. Before every house in the Rue de la Pepiniere, particularly before the great hotels and factories, were crowds of citizens and laborers, who seemed to be waiting for the result of all this. The guard barracks were closed.

and a strong guard set over the doors. Scarce had I reached home, when a pair of friends, who were waiting my return, came in, and informed me of Polignac's ordinances, of the first insurrection of the people, of the barricades, and of the probable strife about to break out in the streets of Paris. In about two hours it did break out. I soon learned that early in the morning General Lafayette had come to the city, from his country-seat, Lagrange. I hastened to the Boulevards des Italiens ; circulation was already partially stopped; barricades everywhere begun, but an earnest opposition not yet visible. Detachments of the royal guards rode about. After a two hours' walk I went home. In the evening and through the night an occasional distant platoon fire reached my ears. On the morning of July 29, I learned that the people had attacked the Hotel de Ville, and after seven repulses, and fighting all night, had succeeded in taking it. Again I sought the Boulevards. Before I reached the Rue d' Artois, now called Lafitte, I met a crowd of officers streaming into the residence of Lafitte. The whole court was filled, and matters began to be comprehensible. The Bourbons had had the folly to garrison Paris with the regiments composed of natives of the city, enfans de Paris ; two of the colonels were Lafitte's countrymen, from Bayonne. He had written to them, and as soon as they found that their regiments would on no account fire upon their brothers, they had gone to Lafitte's, and swore allegiance to the provisional government. When I reached the end of the Rue d'Artois, near the Cafe Hardy, now the Maison Doree, I saw some detachments of the Swiss guards marching up the Rue Grammont, and an occasional shot was fired on the Boulevards. The trees on both sides of the Boulevards were felled. The first important barricade that I saw was in the Rue Grange Bateluze, from whence it extended across the Boulevards to the Rue Richelieu. I went on, and with some trouble reached the Porte St. Martin, but went no further : indeed, progress was impossible, because of the numberless barricades and the masses of people. Single royal artillerymen riding along the Boulevards were followed with shots from the windows and cellars. I saw several officers fall dead from theiv horses. During my walk, which had no other object tha>

the satisfaction of my curiosity, a barricade was thrown up at the corner of the Rue d'Artois, where Lafitte lived, as if by magic, and I had to clamber over it to get home.

I do not feel called upon to say any more about the "three da\s of July," except that the behavior of the people, principally ouv riers, in their fighting with the royal guards, amazed me. It is well known that when the Tuileries was stormed, a casket containing 2000 pieces of gold was found by a day-laborer in the rooms of the Duchesse de Berry, and was given up to the government. But what must have been seen to be believed, was the quiet and order with which hundreds and hundreds of ouvriers, in single processions, betook themselves from the field of conflict back to their work, as if nothing out of the way had occurred. Repose was soon restored to all Paris, not slowly but all of a sudden; and but for the felled trees upon the Boulevards, and the barricades still standing in every quarter, particularly in the quartiers St. Denis and St. Martin, there would scarcely a trace have been recognized of a revolution which had dethroned a king and set another ruler in his place.

So soon as I learned of General Lafayette's arrival in Paris, I proposed to Commodore Nicholson and other American friends, to form a body-guard for the old general, and to accompany him everywhere. The idea pleased him. An assemblage of American citizens convened at the Restaurant Lointier; and here the well-known Fenimore Cooper opposed my idea, and suggested in the place of it a dinner. This trivial notion had no object but to place Mr. Cooper at the head of the affair, and to give him an opportunity of making a speech, which would be printed in Galig-nani's Messenger, and show to the American people his participation in the revolution of July. However, his proposal was accepted, and the general was obliged to content himself with this honor. So began and ended my acquaintance with Mr. Cooper, who, in his whole demeanor, in his speech, and his demand for public esteem, possessed none of the amiable modesty of Washington Irving, and never could conceal his pretentious claims.

One more reminiscence of those days. It is of the Prince Talleyrand, and is not, I btlieve, generally known. After the altera-

tion of the Charte, he sought the Chamber of Deputies, to swear to the new constitution. As he got out of his carriage he caught the eye of a friend, who asked him confidentially the object of his visit. Talleyrand replied, to swear to the new constitution. " But, Monseigneur," said the friend, " you have done the same thing to fourteen others." " My friend," said Talleyrand, " let us hope that this will be the last." The prince knew the value of an oath in his country, and the history of our days, since the revolution of February, 1848, has proved the perfect correctness of his judgment.

The news that two vessels laden with sugar were on their way from Martinique to Marseilles, made a journey thither necessary. When I went to the Messrs. Daly for their quota of the capital for the new house in Marseilles, I could only get a quarter of it, but was told that I might draw on them from that city for the rest. This did not please me, but the "possibility of their being embarrassed did not enter my head. They enjoyed universal esteem, and, as far as could be judged, a well-deserved credit. Thereupon I went to Marseilles, made my domestic arrangements, and received both cargoes of sugar. The market was empty, and a sale, with good profit, consequently easy. The profit was scarcely in my hands when drafts for their share came from Messrs. Daly & Co., with the request to send them back accepted. I did so, although I began to distrust, and proposed to ask at the banking house of Luke Callaghan, in Paris, and only to send my letter if I found the credit of the Daly's unshaken. A few days after I heard that they had suspended payment, and that Maillet, Cage & Co. had followed their example. The object of the Marseilles firm and the prospect of a regular and productive business vanished. An immediate prospect of support for a costly trade, with this lessened capital, and the difficulties resulting from the July revolution, was of course out of the question. It was my duty to look out for my future, and, to do so, I must return to Paris.

On my ai rival I was told a bit of city news, that the house of J. Lafitte & Co. was in the greatest embarrassment. They, as well as Daly & Co., had been shaken by the same causes. Both

had committed the same fault, with the difference, that Lafitte had a large capital of his own, while Daly's book showed how very poor and unreliable was the basis of his business. The ancient and close connection between Lafitte and Coutts & Co., of London, who were intrusted with the wealth of the highest and richest nobles in England, had brought into their hands an immense capital, belonging to English travellers in France and Italy. Many of these travellers had settled in those countries, leaving their money in Lafitte's hands. It was the common calculation, that 50,000 Englishmen were living in France; and that if each were to spend but ten francs a day, 15,000,000 francs a month, and 180,000,000 a year of English gold would be spent in France. It is evident, that if one-third of these people, or even fewer, were to leave their funds in Lafitte's hands, it would make up a capital far beyond the need of his banking business, and so his own capi tal might be untouched. But, in order to make it lucrative, Lafitte had loaned it on mortgages of every sort, had invested it in factories, had bought real estate, forests, etc., so that it was no longer of use in his business, but the foreign capital served for his operations. The July revolution alarmed most of the English in France ; they departed, and drew their money from the banker. This emigration became stronger every day, and emptied the portfolios and the chests of the house. For the first time, the credit of this mightiest French banking-house was shaken, and their embarrassment was notorious. Then the new king, Louis Philippe, came to the help of his friend Lafitte, who had greatly contributed to his elevation, and bought of him the part of the forest of St. Germain which he owned, for the sum of 9,000,000 francs. Even this help, however, was not needed, and the storm blew over.

What Lafitte had felt so heavily Daly also in his measure suffered. The original capital of this firm was scarcely worth naming, but the money of the Irish Catholics, and the capital left in Daly's hands, by the just fallen London house of Wright & Co., was important; Daly himself, a former paymaster in the army, was a nullity. His only business-man, the bookkeeper, was a Creole, from Martinique. By him he was connected with Maillet, Cage

& Co., moie closely than anybody knew. But it was decided, in the end, by a lawsuit, that Maillet, Cage & Co. were recognized as partners in Daly's house, and that their creditors might come upon the effects of Daly, and so get more than they expected, when they expected only to be paid from the effects of the Mar tinique firm. »

Precisely on my return to Paris, there took place a meeting ol Daly's creditors, to which I was invited. Most of them were utterly ignorant of business—they were gentlemen. It was of the utmost importance to understand the relationship between Daly and Maillet, Cage & Co. Daly himself had vanished, and his remaining partner, Plowden, not in condition, or not inclined to throw any light upon the subject. On motion of Mr. Luke Cal-laghan, who possessed the confidence of all the Irish creditors, I was invited to go- to Havre, and examine into the whole affair. Here I soon discovered, what I had already surmised, that as Daly had used the capital of his friends in his transactions with Maillet, Cage & Co., so had these latter used the money that they procured so easily for their house in Martinique ; that they had given enormous acceptances ; and that, as guaranty for all this, they had only the prospective sugar crop, upon which they had made great advances. M. Cage did not think it necessary to inform me of their partnership with Daly. Deceived in like measure by Daly and the Havre house, and in no way bound by their relation with each other, I resolved to take no further steps in the matter. The basis of my establishment in Marseilles was shaken. The promised credit with Daly's house was rendered impracticable by his failure, and the originally contemplated capital had never been made up. All these circumstances compelled me quietly to close the just opened establishment in Marseil]es, to return to Paris, and to look about me for something else to do.

CHAPTER XX.

THE SUPPLYING OF ARMS.

Visit to General Lafayette, who had been appointed comniander-in-chief of all the National Guard of the realm—The arming of that force—A couple of lines from the General procures me admission to General Gerard, the Minister of War—First contract for 50,000 old French muskets from the Prussian fortresses—Appointment of Marshal Soult as minister of. war—The rival authority of Lafayette, as head of the National Guard, is in the way of M. Casimir Perier, the new president of Louis Philippe's Council—The general commandancy of the National Guard is abolished by a vote of the Chambers—Lafayette drops the honorary title, and altogether retires—The extension of my contract for arms with the war ministry—Daly's bequest— I make the acquaintance of two blacklegs and cheats, G. and O.—5000 stand of the arms purchased at Hamburgh arrive in Havre, and are rejected at the arsenal, as unfit for use—The same fate befals 5000 more at Strasbourg —I succeed, however, in extricating myself from the bad bargain, not only without loss, but even with advantage—Delivery of sabres for the army— Colonel Lefrancois, director of the arsenal at Havre—Contrast between him and another officer of rank—Remarks upon the contractor business in general.

The provision of arms for the National Guard, at the desire of Louis Philippe's minister of war, General Gerard, gave me the first opportunity here of exhibiting my cleverness, Math profit to myself. I knew of the friendship between the generals Lafayette and Gerard. Lafayette, who had been named commandant general of all the National Guard in the department of the Seine, soon received the command of the whole National Guard throughout France. He had his head-quarters in the former palace of Count Perigaux, in the Rue de la Chausse d'Antin. Here he received numberless deputations from every portion of the kingdom. From morning till evening the house was besieged by National Guards, and on appointed reception days it was impossible to see

the general without obtaining a written ticket of admission. I did not know this when I presented myself in the crowded rooms. There I saw the aides-de-camp excessively busy in going hither and thither, introducing people, among whom were several ladies, to the general. I went to the first who came near me, and learned that a ticket was necessary. There was no time to lose; so 1 gave the aide-de-camp my card, with a request that he would show it to the general, and tell him that 1 was waiting for him in the reception chamber. In a moment he returned, with a poftfce request from the general that I would wait for a few moments ; there were some ladies with him at the moment, of whom he would rid himself as soon as possible, and then I should be at once introduced. In a moment the aide-de-camp came to tell me that the general was ready, and to open for me the door of his private room. The moment he saw me he rose, came towards me with open arms, embraced me very kindly, and instructed the adjutant, who took me for an Englishman, to let no one in until he should ring.

Alone with the general, I wished him joy of the altered state of affairs in his country, of the apparently general recognition of those principles to which he was devoted, of the post which he now held as guardian of the public peace, and of the new step taken by his nation towards freedom. He took it all as I intended it, and thanked me by a hearty pressure of the hand. Yet it did not escape me that he was 'ar from being satisfied, and my idea that the course of affairs did not please, became certainty, as he said, " We have not yet gone so far as the Americans, but the day will perhaps come." What he wanted was to imitate Washington in France. As commandant-general of all the National Guards he was next in dignity to the king, but in the public opinion he was higher; for the Bourbons had never been loved, and the Duke of Orleans was placed upon the throne, not because he was a Bourbon, but in spite of it. Lafayette's friend, Lafitte, when premier, found this improper, and his successor, M. Cassi-mir Perier, still more so. It is well known how the powerful will and inflexible character of this gentleman governed even Louis Philippe himself. On the 20th February Perier sue-

ceeded his friend Lafitte, and one month afterwards he got passed through the Chamber of Deputies an act to destroy the office of Commandant-General of the National Guards, as being useless, since the restoration of public tranquillity. The honorary title was offered to Lafayette, but he refused this gilding of a bitter pill. So soon as he heard of it on December 24, he resigned all his commands, even that of the department of the Seine, and stated as reason for refusing the title, that simply honorary titles were unrepublican. The whole affair wounded him deeply. He saw, however painful it might be, that once withdrawn from the eyes of the people and the National Guard, he must take leave of that popularity so dear to him, and descend to a lower position in the world. This I particularly saw in his features, at the great ball given for the benefit of the poor, in the opera house, on the 8th of January, 1831. Although the whole royal family was present, he came in, clad as a simple citizen, leaning upon the arm of his friend Odillon Barrot, noticing nothing, and not even glancing at the balcony, where the king sate, surrounded by his family and ministers. His face had lost its natural, happy expression.

As our first interview was drawing to a close, an adjutant entered, and informed him that General Pernetti and the artillery officers of the National Guard were assembled in the ante-room, and desired to wait on him. I rose to leave, but the general took my arm, with the words "You must go with me," and then asked what he could do for me. I asked him for an introduction to the Minister of War, General Gerard. He said he would send it to me; but on my remark, that one stroke of his pen would suffice, and that I feared to take up his invaluable time, he observed, " it is true, my friend, two words will suffice, and I will give them to you immediately." He then sate down, and wrote an exceedingly kind letter, which contained the remark, that if Gerard had any business to employ me in, he would find me not only capable but an honest man, whom he might trust. This over, we passed into the room where the officers were waiting, drawn up in a semicircle, and some ninety in number. After a short speech, Pernetti proposed to'present each officer in turn, but Lafayette declared that he would make the round, and that General Per

netti could follow him, and mention to what corps each officer belonged. He accordingly did so, shaking hands with each officer in the American way. When this was over, Lafayette asked me, " What do you say to that, my friend V I said, that I thought it no small labor to shake hands with ninety men ; and that, in his place, I should have deputed one or more of my adjutants to help me, or contented myself simply with making an address. " No, no," said the general, " this matter is too serious. A touch of the hand is often more effectual than a discourse," He thus made use of an American custom, which he had learned forty years before, an'd proved that a simple shake of the hand was worth all the flourishes of eloquence. This is very visible among the negro slaves, who catch hold of each other's hands, hold on for a quarter of an hour, give a rapid shake occasionally, and burst out into great peals of laughter, without uttering a syllable. This is certainly heartiness in the fullest sense of the word.

My desire for an introduction to General Gerard had its origin in the report of an intention to make a provision of arms for the whole National Guard. I learned by the papers, and by private advices, that the Prussian government was about to sell at public auction a quantity of old or unneeded muskets, which had been thrown away by the French, in the retreat of 1813, and left upon the field ; or which had been abandoned in the various depots, and which were now in Magdeburg and some of the Silesian fortresses. I wrote to the Hamburgh house of Sillem, Brothers & Co., and received assurances of the contemplated sale, and of their readiness to purchase on my account. I thereupon contracted with General Gerard for 50,000 old muskets, in good condition, in the French form, and for the price of 28 francs a piece. In this contract the government was bound for one year; I, not at all. A couple of specimens accompanied this contract, of which I sent one to Messrs. Sillem, who at once busied themselves in the purchase of a certain quantity of muskets, at the price of 12 marks 8 schillings to 13 marks. I issued other contracts of trie same kind and on the same terms, to certain places upon the Rhine. The arms purchased in Hamburgh were shipped to Havre; those from the Rhine were sent to Strasbourg; and both we^g deposited

A BRACE OF ROGUES «;G1

in the royal Arsenals. The Strasbourg arrival was the first. Thither I sent a man, who had been recommended to me as clever

and honorable, whom I shall only mention as M , and to

whom I shall refer by-and-by.

There were no difficulties about the liquidation, so soon as the closing of my new establishment in Marseilles had been resolved upon. I had sent a couple of cargoes of wine to New Orleans, which were to be returned in cotton. Had the capital promised by Daly Co. and Maillet, Cage & Co. been paid in, a lucrative business would at once have been founded. The preparations, however, had been too extensive. Clerks had been engaged at large salaries, some by me, in view of the guarantied important sugar-trade, and some by Daly—among whom a Parisian bookkeeper at a salary of 6000 francs, whom I could have hired in Paris for 2000. A compromise must be made with these clerks, with my young partner, and with Daly's creditors. I must bring back my little family from Marseilles, give up my house there, throw up my leases, etc. Besides this burden, Daly had intro duced to me two men, for the business of arming the French troops who were destined for Algiers, and sent from Marseilles. As these men are both dead, and are expiating probably the guilt of their influence upon my fate, in another world, I will speak of

them as " O " and " Gldstr—." The former was represented

as a clever and honest man, perfectly trustworthy ; the other as being proper to " do all sorts of dirty work," something inseparable from supply contracts. The sphere to which these men belonged was quite unknown to me ; and to learn it by experience was impossible for me, who had belonged for so many years to the first mercantile circle of the capital, haute finance, and had therefore never become acquainted with inferior matters. Such

at least was the report of Daly and his book-keeper, B .. But,

before it was too late, I discovered that O was no better than

G ; that they were closely bound together, and prompt for

any roguery, and long since agreed to share the profits of their

tricks. O was a native of Marseilles ; G , a Polish Jew.

at one time a commissaire in the Prussian army, under the Duke of Brunswick, ani who had gone over to the French host after

the battle of Jena; and was the same person who, in Napoleon's bulletin from Melodertschino, after the retreat from Moscow, is designated as the man who had caused the loss of 20,000 horses in a few weeks, which he asserted to have been lost in a single night. After this retreat, he fell into the hands of the Prussians, was sentenced to death, but commuted to perpetual imprisonment in Spandau; after a few years, he escaped to Paris, where he finally settled, and adopted the profession of moneylender. In a provision-contract for the French troops stationed in the Morea, under Marshal Maison, which had been procured for these two scoundrels, by Daly, money was wanting; which was the only reason for making me acquainted with these worth-loss fellows, in the belief that they could get employment in the contract for the troops in Algiers, and so make profit out of me. The ground of their connection with Daly was at first incomprehensible to me; but I had afterwards reason to surmise that Daly's profits existed only in figures on the books; that these two men were de facto his debtors for a very important sum, and that he had hoped that they would bring him new business out of this new organization in Marseilles.

Meanwhile the first provision of muskets arrived from Hamburg in Havre, and were received on my account by Delaroche A. Delessert & Co. My agent in Strasbourg informed me, that ,the inspector of artillery there, after opening the boxes and examining the muskets, had declared that, out of twenty opened boxes, scarcely one fit musket could be found, and those few of irregular model. A few days later, I heard the same news of the 1000 muskets in the arsenal at Havre. The receivers wisely determined to close the chests again, and to wait for instructions from me. My Strasbourg agent, M , who thoroughly

understood the art of carousing with the under officers and controllers, without advancing one step beyond this, had convinced himself that nothing could be done with the arms but to send them back—as they were not what I had ordered, and were unsaleable in France. Judge of the effect upon me, of the discovery that I had put a capital of 200,000 francs in useless muskets. To get at the.bottom of the affair, I went to Havre, where the

arsenal was in charge of a meritorious and clever officer, of the Napoleon school, colonel of artillery, Lefrancois. He was called a stern, unamiable man, but he received my visit politely, and returned it the nex£ day. He noticed on my table a " Keepsake," fresh from London. He took it up, turned over the leaves, and by his remarks upon the plates, showed me that he was not deficient in education or artistic cleverness. He also spoke of the German language, and said that he preferred Schiller, as a dramatist, to his great countrymen, Corneille, Eacine, and Voltaire; to all, indeed, but Shakespeare. He seemed astonished to find an ordinary commissary utter his views on art and belles lettres, and would have talked I know not how long, if I had not recalled him to the muskets, with a revenons a nos moutons. We agreed next morning to go with the controller and examine 10 cases, containing 500 muskets. A friendly line preceded me to the arsenal, requesting the director to accept the Keepsake that had so much pleased him. When the muskets were unpacked before four controllers, I saw that not one was of the proper model. Indeed, seldom were six or seven successively like each other. All that was French about them was the barrels; the stocks were German. My Hamburgh correspondents knew as much about muskets as I did, namely, nothing at all. And as I had trusted that they would purchase after the model that I sent them, so had they

trusted to an armorer named R , whose conscience w r as of

gutta-percha. At each musket came the question, "How can it be V the only answer being " because of total disregard to the models." Then, for the first time, I learned, that according to the rules of the French artillery department, every musket must consist of 34 distinct parts, every one of which must be perfect and conformable to the model, before it could be approved of. The nature of my contract protected me from loss for non-fulfilment, but what was I to do with the muskets. My contract was for old but yet useful muskets on the French model, and it was frightful to see one after another set aside by the controllers, with the words ''''fusil de rebut" I asked and learned the cause of this rebut for every musket. I then inquired whether refused muskets could not be altered so as to conform to the model, and when told

yes, asked the cost. I was informed that each would cost 2 francs 50. Then I inquired if the government would not take them as they were, on my abating so much from my contract price, 28 francs. The director said he would take the matter in hand, and asked me to visit him often, and listen to his translation of Schiller's Wallenstein. I listened and wondered. After some days, he was informed by the Minister of War, Marshal Soult, who had succeeded General Gerard, that the muskets would all be taken at 25 50, and could be soon made to serve for the arming of the National Guard. He gave me this information that I might state it to the Minister. Chief of Division in the Artillery Department, Colonel T. de L , who possessed the full confidence of the marshal, and who had his reasons for being partial to me, took the affair in hand, and as it had the marshal's approval, 1 got rid of the muskets, and made a very fair profit. This whole procedure showed me how to deal with the others, and enabled me to send those at Strasbourg to the arsenal at Metz. The shipment of the muskets from Hamburgh now went forward regularly. Importation of arms from Belgium was still forbidden, but I learned that the ministry was about to lift the prohibition. Muskets made in Luttich are perfectly like the best French; and as I could buy a certain quantity for 28 francs, while the war ministry in Paris were willing to pay 32, I ordered 100,000 muskets, and doubled the order so soon as importation from Belgium Avas permitted. For the last half of this large contract I succeeded in putting my provision of arms upon a very sure basis, and was enabled to offer the Luttich manufacturers 281 0 r 29 francs, if they would take the risk of delivering the muskets at the arsenals of Lille, Metz, and Charleville, and be content to wait for payment until they had been received. Finally, by the interest I had obtained with the war ministry, I got a contract for 150,000 sabres, at 6 francs 50 cents. Contracts made by me with some German manufacturers on the Rhine, and even in Paris, at 5 fr. 50 to 5 75, would have made a brilliant affair of this, had not all my swords, as they arrived by the 10,000 or 15,000, been, by the influence of the war controller in the Rue Luxembourg, refused, because the back of the hilt was a quarter of a line narrower than

the regimental regulations. All my arguments on the absurdity of such strictness were of no avail, and as the controller was too strictly watched by the officers about him, for me to attempt any other means of convincing him, I took my swords and went to Havre. Colonel Lefrancois acknowledged the absurdity, and the first 20,000 were at once taken. I, of course, sent no more to the depot at Havre, but imported all by the way of Havre. The English Keepsake remained unforgotten. The Colonel, who frequently came to Paris, to visit his sick wife, became a constant visitor at my house, although he could not always get me to listen to his translations of Schiller. He had made the Russian campaign, as one of the Imperial Artillery Guard; had lived a good while in Berlin and Konigsberg, where he had learned German, and had for Napoleon (the first and only) a veneration that was almost adoration; and, spite of his feeble body, and countless and still painful wounds, he would have outbursts of enthusiasm rare in any but hot-blooded youth. With the exception of this constantly outbreaking exaltation, he was an amiable and agreeable man. It is well known that most of the chiefs in the imperial army had not objected to a present, in reward for service rendered or to be rendered. This was particularly the case in supplies of arms. It cost me a struggle to persuade myself that Colonel Lefrancois belonged to the same category as his comrades of like rank, because his assistance to me had been not a matter of business, in influencing the controllers, but a pure matter of the heart; still I thought that my recognition of his services ought to be of use to him. The purchase of 150,000 swords demanded a capital of some 800,000 francs, and brought a profit of more than 20 per cent. I put some bank notes of 1000 francs in an envelope, addressed to him, and laid it upon my chimney-piece, or where he could see it. He saw it, observed its contents, and put it back, saying, " My dear sir, I cannot accept that." For a while I took his reply as final; but half an hour after, my servant took the same sum, in a new envelope, to his old, trusty servant, from whom it found its way into the colonel's hand. The end of it was, that two years later, during my absence from Paris, he heard that my wife was in some embarrassment for money. He called

upon her, and said, " My dear Madame Nolle, I have received a great deal of money from vour husband, and have spent most of it as lightly as I came by it. What is left, however, I have brought back to you. Be good enough to take it. Your husband and your family will never be forgotten by me." Eighteen months afterwards, this worthy gentleman died.

Let me tell a story on the other side, of a person high in place in the military department. He had not the slightest objection to receive a present, if delicately offered; and I puzzled myself in vain to find a proper means, until my wife, who was acquainted with the whole matter, suggested a snuff-box. I bought a tasteful box, laid a 1000 franc note in it, folded with the cypher displayed, and at the proper time attracted his attention. " Ah, that is really a box in exquisite taste," he said. " General," I replied, " if it please you, accept it from me as a souvenir." He said, "Thank you," took the box, and opened it immediately. I waited with impatience, but not long. " Aha!" said he ; " but you might as well understand that I am a great snuffer; another pinch would do no harm, my dear sir." He put the box in his pocket, and I, on reaching home, put my card and 1000 francs in a simple envelope, and sent it him.

This arms providing has its good and bad sides. The good is that one can, with proper prudence, be assured of profit on them. The bad is the uncertainty of their reception by the contractors. They must be literally conformable to contract, and precisely like the model, or the place-holders will take advantage of their position, to refuse them. There is but one way of dealing with these men, namely, to bribe them. Ever since my childhood, an epigram has run in my head, written upon an army contractor, who had gone to Carlsbad. - " Stax, by command of his doctor, is now taking a bath ; confound him, he's always taking something." The thought of becoming a contractor was always unpleasant to me. For the idea of procuring the acceptance of imperfect arms, simply by bribery, was repulsive to me, as to every honest man ; and I could make no moral distinction between the briber and the bribed The morality of the great world, however, is much easier. Horace Walpole's remark, that every man had his

price, is too often true. General Jackson's partition of places, in case of his election for president—what was that but bribery !

My providing now went on well—furnishing the old muskets at 25 francs, and the new ones at 32—and when Belgian imports were permitted, it was still better. The provision was so easily and regularly managed, that it aroused the attention of the other furnishers—as for instance, Cassimir Perier's own iron factory, which had a contract for 100,000 muskets, at 32 francs. These gentlemen did me the honor, and Marshal Soult the injustice, to suppose that we two had a private understanding. But never did one word pass between the marshal and myself about the price, etc. Our entire conversation consisted of a short interrogatory, as to the possibility of procuring a certain quantity of muskets, and delivering them in a certain place, on an appointed day—as 15,000 muskets for the arsenal at Metz. If I said yes, I received a regular order. The marshal knew that he could trust me, and he showed his confidence in a matter that occurred after the close of our contract, and which was altogether uncalculated upon.

The whole cost of the arms brought into France by me, in the course of two or three years, was about 8,000,000 francs, to which the capital saved from the wreck of the Marseilles house, 200,000 francs, would not suffice. I, however, had had the good fortune to meet the bankers Andre and Cottier, to please them, to obtain their confidence, and their support, in my operations. The first venture succeeded so well that their confidence was much increased, and they placed very large sums at my disposal. These ventures were often 200,000 to 300,000 francs, for which they had no other security than my word and Marshal Soult's order. I remember once bringing M. Cottier an order for 500,000 francs. He looked at it, and cried out in astonishment, " My God, where do you get all this money V Marshal Soult, it will be remembered, was much disliked in the Chamber of Deputies, a feeling which could not be satisfied except by his retirement from the ministry, and the recalling of General Gerard. My whole machinery, especially the organized method of payment for the supplies, was for a moment upset, and I could not get the orders as regularly as before; whereby I bad to allow the weight

of my important advances to fall upon Messrs. Andre and Cottier. I needed, to get matters straight again, 400,000 francs. As soon as I laid the whole matter before M. Cottier, and showed the receipts for arms at various arsenals, he replied that the sum was at my disposal. I was very much flattered at the trust displayed by this excellent man, who was esteemed by the whole Paris Exchange in a very different way from Fould or the Rothschilds. Sometimes, in going away, he would cry over the counter, " Don't speak of it. In spite of our reputation for great prudence, it might injure us, if it were known that we had made such large advances to a man whose fortune is not yet made." Or again, " The fact is, all goes on well, and to our satisfaction, when you are there. But if anything should happen to you, where would we be ! Everybody can't stand in your shoes." I trust to be pardoned for this exhibition of vanity. Had I not the intimate conviction that, despite many errors and faults, I have never had cause to blush for myself, and that I have never betrayed a trust, my present existence would be a heavy burden to me. So that retrospection still brings me some consolation.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE CONSPIRACY OF THE RUE DES PROUVAIRES—

My contracts and deliveries of arms lead to its discovery—The sub-contractor and intermediary, Darmenon—Disclosure of the plot to the Police Prefect, Gisquet—Arrest of the conspirators in the Rue des Prouvaires, in the evening of Feb. 2d, by Carlier, the last Prefect of the Police under the Republic—The trial in the assizes for the department of the Seine—My testimony —Opposition of the Prefect—The decision—Ambiguous conduct of the Pre feet—The disclosure of his venality leads to his dismissal.

The traffic in old worn-out muskets, that had found their way into the ware-rooms and shop-shelves of the Parisian frippery dealers, rendered it necessary to get spies, from the worthless frequenters of such places, in order to get possession of the arms. The under functionaries of the artillery department had certain proteges whom I could use for this purpose. In December, 1831, I was accosted on the first staircase of the artillery dep6t, Rue Luxembourg, by a man, whose evasive manner and unsteady eye did not prepossess me in his favor, and who offered me his services in the purchase of arms. I merely answered, that if he could point out the spot where any old arms were to be found, he might tell me of it. I would send some one to see them, and if they were good for anything, we could soon strike a bargain. This took place, and the purchase of several small lots of muskets brought me to frequent speech with the man, whose name was Darmenon. His unsteady manner had convinced me that he must have done something which would not bear daylight. I inquired' at the police, and learned that he was an ex-galley slave, who, for the last four years since the expiration of his term, had been living honestly. In his youth he had been in a counting-house, in Lyons,

where he had forged a draft, for which he was sent, under the Code Napoleon to the galleys. It is generally known that these slaves are cut off from all communication with the world; and that they live chained together in couples; a man, not very evil may thus be forcibly joined for years to the greatest scoundrel on earth; so that the usual result is, that a fellow comes out of the galleys much worse than when he went in. Even when one comes out with some honesty left in him, it is difficult, or even impossible, to find, after so long absence from the world, an honest way of making a living or even a lodging. For what host is willing to receive as guest a man whose passport bears the words " freed galley-slave," which will oblige him to notify the police ? Or who will sit at table with a " freed galley-slave V As I have always felt an involuntary pity for these outcasts, and knew how hard it was for them to get employment, I could not but feel for Darme-non's wretchedness, nor could I close my door upon him. He had made himself useful to me, also, and kept me informed of all that was said politically in those troublous times, in the shops of the faubourg St. Antoine. From him and other spies I learned what old arms had passed the various barriers at daybreak—whither they had been carried, etc. The quantity seldom surpassed 100 to 150 muskets at a time. One morning, however, Darmenon informed me that 2600 muskets had passed the barriere St. Denis, and were taken to the faubourg of the same name, where so much illegal business goes on. I went immediately to the

chief of division, T. de L , and he procured an order from the

marshal to purchase the muskets at any price. I bought them, but not without rivalry, nor was I without a suspicion that this was no mere second-hand dealer's affair. I inquired, and found that my rivals were the agents of the legitimists, who were then very.busy in the faubourg St. Denis. During other small purchases in this way, I heard that the legitimists were in the field, and that scmething unusual was going on. That these gentlemen really had a hope, of overthrowing the government appeared to me impossible. However, I did not trust to appearances, but instructed Darmenon to keep his eyes open, and to bring me all the news he could collect. Everything remained in this condition

all the month of January, 1832. I kept my own counsel—for looking upon the scheme as absurd, I saw no use in talking about it. On the first of February, however, Darmenon came to tell me that several legitimists were gathered in the faubourg St. Antoine, in expectation of a mass of workmen, about 12 o'clock, to plant the standard of Henri V., and that the plot w r as to be organized at 1 o'clock, in a house in the Rue de Saussayes. He further told me that conspirators would leave the house, 18 Rue de Prouvaires at 10 P. M., with a view to go to the Tuileries, where a ball was to take place, and there suddenly to surround and carry off Louis Philippe, trusting that the confusion caused by their entrance would render the exploit an easy one. I was amazed, and asked Darmenon how he had learned so much in so short a time. He said that he had been dealing with these gentlemen for some time, but had not told me, because I would have taken it as a hoax. Now, however, that the matter was earnest, he had thought it his duty to inform me. I asked him for the leaders' names. He read, from his pocket-book, Poncelot, Gech-ter, Montholon, and others. Finally, he said that he had been offered 6000 francs for 200 muskets, and that this would be a good opportunity for me to get rid of some worthless and unsaleable arms in my possession. I sent him away, with directions to return so soon as he had touched the 6000 francs. I lived then at 48 Rue Basse des Ramparts, and as soon as he had gone, I went to Rue de Saussayes, and examined from the other side of the street the house No. 23. The window-shutters were all closed. From time to time, four or five suspicious looking fellows would appear, and slip into the house, amounting to about 20, in the course of half an hour. I now saw that Darmenon's representations were correct, and went home. He soon came in, with 2000 francs, as earnest money. I now determined to lay the whole matter before the prefect of police, Gisquet, whom I knew personally, and with whose former firm, Gisquet and Brunet, in Havre, I had once been closely connected. I took Darmenon with me. On my way, as it was exchange hour, I determined to cross Exchange Place, to learn what influence the various reports had upon State paper. I heard of a sudden fall of 1 franc 50 cts., in

the 3 per cents, which was attributed to the heavy sales made by the legitimists, particularly those of the faubourg St. Germain. I found M. Gisquet, and told him all. He listened carelessly, and said that he had heard exactly such information two or three times, and yet there had been no result—he believed, then, there would be none this time. I then asked whether the 2000 francs in Darmenon's pocket-book went for nothing. He said yes, but not for much. When I mentioned the sudden fall in State stock, he laughed, and said he knew the cause of the fall—that Ouvrard, from La Hague, was attempting to dupe the people again. I rose to go, when he called back Darmenon, took down the numbers of the two houses, and the names of eighteen conspirators. He then left us, after politely thanking me for what he called my perfectly useless information.

About 7 o'clock, P. M., Darmenon came to my counting-room, and showed me 6000 francs, in notes of 1000 each, asking if I would give him 200 muskets for that sum, and deliver them about 10 o'clock. I promised him an answer at 9 o'clock. I sent him off, and went at once to the prefect, to whom I said that Darmenon had now the 6000 francs, and I asked whether I should deliver the arms, if they were called for at 10 o'clock, P. M. The answer was "Deliver, but in small quantities—I will have them followed." I went to the house No. 32 Rue Basse des Ramparts, where I had a small warehouse for the reception of the daily arriving muskets, and instructed the guardian to deliver to Darmenon, on my written order, 30 or 40 muskets, in small lots. He told me the next morning that Darmenon had carried off 17 muskets, and had been arrested on his return for more. The morning papers, Feb. 2, contained the news that M. Carlier, chief of municipal police, had, about 11 o'clock, surrounded the house No. 18 Rue de Provaires, and had succeeded in capturing the whole band, after a strong resistance, in which he had been wounded in the head, and a municipal guard killed.

The affair came before the first section of the Assize Court of the Seine, by which I was subpoenaed, together with a motley collection of 329 others. On this occasion the true character of two persons came to light, Darmenon and Gisquet himself. Both lied

hard, and both suffered by it. That Darmenon appeared as a common intriguer of the lowest class of Paris is not wonderful, but the Prefect Gisquet, soon after lost all credit at court and in the city, was stricken from the list of State Councillors, and expelled from his prefecture. The democrats alleged that he himself had arranged the whole matter, and had provoked the conspiracy by his agents, simply in order to win for himself credit for great vigilance; and he had great difficulty in disproving the charge. The prosecutor laid great weight upon the circumstance that the prefect had allowed me to deliver some muskets. The advocate of the accused questioned me about it, and I said what is already told above. Whereupon the Prefect was sent for, and appeared in full uniform, and was requested to take a seat. The Chief Justice then said that the Prefect had already appeared as witness for M. Poncelot, but that he must now again submit to examination, and must tell the truth, although an oath would not be exacted from him. The Prefect expressed great respect for the Court, but he must beg his lordship to remark, that he was not establishing, by his obedience, a precedent by which prosecutor or accused might annoy and derange the Prefect of Police at their pleasure. This impertinent answer caused a long murmur among the advocates. The Prefect had fancied himself powerful enough to insult the whole Parisian bar. After his general testimony came what had passed between us, and he denied that he had authorized the delivery of arms. "I swear," he said, stretching out his hand— " I swear by my honor, that I gave no such permission." This was so exactly in opposition to my sworn testimony, that the Judge called me back for re-examination. I confessed that I might have misunderstood the Prefect, but that, to the best of my knowledge and recollection, my testimony was precisely true. I could do nothing further, and so went home, convinced that Gisquet, who had given his honor to a lie, was like most other Frenchmen, and held the word of honor very lightly. How hard it was for the Prefect to clear himself of suspicion the end will show. Only a portion of the accused were tried here; the rest were sent before the Court of the Seine and Oise, then sitting at Versailles, to be judged where they were born. I was subpce-

naed there, but before the court opened, Carlier—the same who had arrested the men in the Hue defi Prouvaires, and who was Prefect of Police for a while under Louis Napoleon—Carlier came to me, and begged me to free the Prefect, who liked me very much, from his " embarrassment," by saying nothing about the permission to deliver the arms. As I had modified my statement as much as my conscience would permit me; I said to M. Carlier that I would say nothing if I were not asked; but that, if questioned, I could conceal nothing. Fortunately for M. le Prefect the question was not asked.

The whole number of accused amounted to 66, of whom only 56 were arrested. These were accused of a complot to overthrow the government, and of arming the citizens and exciting them to civil war. The court sate daily from the 4th to the 12th of July, and charged the jury to give their attention to two points; first, to the plot itself, and second to the part taken in it by each of the accused. The jury acquitted 28, and found 28 more or less guilty. The sentenced were as follows :

6, among whom was Poncelet, transportation for life.

13, five years imprisonment, and to be watched by the police for life.

4, two years imprisonment, and to be watched for two years.

5, one year in prison, one year under eye of police.

The plot was conceived by the advocate Gechter, and led by a ranger of Marshal Bourmont. These two received the second punishment.

After the process was over, M. Gisquet thanked me for my retention, and declared that, in fact, he had thought lightly of the matter, until I had taken Darmenon to him, at 8 o'clock, P. M. Later he said, after he had given me permission to deliver the arms, he was in great doubt what course to take. His words were, " To arrest those men will be to make all to-morrow's newspapers cry out." Carlier put an end to his indecision, by saying, " They are armed, but we are superior in numbers—we must enter the house and kill." In an hour this was done, and Carlier, as before said, wounded.

The miristry of the interior was then in the hands of M. Thiers,

Marshal Soult being president of the cabinet. These two were jealous of, and unfriendly towards each other; the marshal often declared that he hated all quill-drivers; and Thiers had never renounced the pleasure of saying in society something about the marshal's orthography. As Minister of the Interior, it fell to him, on the discovery of this complot, to exercise a peculiar vigilance over the person of the king; and when Marshal Soult learned that one of his providers had discovered the plot, he was displeased that I had not come to him instead of going to the Prefect.

I learned this the next day from T. de L , who said to me,

" You will see that the entire merit of the discovery will be for M. Gisquet." In fact, Gisquet soon after received the cross of officer, and Carlier the cross of member of the Legion of Honoi.

Two years after losing his prefecture, Gisquet published his memoirs, in which he gives the history of the plot, describes his own vigilance and its happy results, and does me the honor not to say a word about me. The object of these memoirs was to apologize for his administration as prefect; but the true cause of his fall was his gross venality, and a scandalous intrigue with the wife of an intimate friend, by name of Foucault. Gisquet's correspondence with the lady fell into the hands of the husband, who bravely published it in Le Messager. This step of Foucault brought less dishonor upon Gisquet than upon himself, through his publication of his wife's shame.

CHAPTER XXII.

REMINISCENCES OP THE ARTIST WORLD OF PARIS.—PAUL DELAROCHE—

His complete establishment in his profession, by his picture, " The Beheading of Lady Jane Grey"—Universal impression produced by the picture—The cholera in Paris in the summer of 1832—Delaroche's contract with M. Thiers, then Minister of the Interior, for the decoration of the walls of the Madeleine—He goes to Rome, to complete the preparatory studies—Thiers breaks his word, and thus occasions the abandonment of the contract and Delaroche's return to Paris—His enviers and deprecators, and his demeanor towards them—The painter Charlet—An anecdote concerning him—A piece of experience and information *rom the monde galant of Paris enables me to give him a hint that I had got a peep at his cards, and had made out his game—Some sketchy remarks concerning the Coryphaei of the Paris school, such as Horace Vernet, Ingres, Delacroix, Decamps, Ary SchefFer, and others.

The regular course of my business in 1832, and most of 1833, gave me leisure to cultivate the acquaintance of some of the best artists. First of all was Paul Delaroche, who has won for himself the title of the greatest historical painter of the age. His real Christian name is Jean Baptiste, but his school-fellows used to call him, from his size, " little Paul," and he took the name, and gave it to his first pictures. I visited him often, talked with him for hours, and envied his quiet, self-contained life, when I contrasted it with my troublous existence, and looked back to the time when my own taste called me to become a painter, and promised me greater plenty of happiness and usefulness than my pen-strifes and accountings had ever won. Born in the second fatherland of art, accustomed from childhood to the works of the noblest masters, I seldom erred in my appreciation of a picture,

PAUL DELAROCHE. §77

and Delaroche listened to my remarks with pleasure. To please me, he had made a water-color drawing of his celebrated " Sons of Edward," in the Luxembourg gallery, and had presented me with a picture called " The beheading of Lady Jane Grey." It was a sketch, but so moving, that all who saw it at my house experienced the same feeling. I wanted Delaroche to paint it in life size, and at last he consented. Madame de Montaut was one of the usual visitors at his studio. She was born Duchesse de la Rochefoucauld, and was the intimate friend of the Prince Paul Demidoff, who afterwards married the Princesse Mathilde Bonaparte, daughter of the King of Westphalia. * She possessed influence enough with this gentleman to induce him to buy the picture for 8000 francs, which was 2000 more than Horace Vernet had received for his greatest pictures, even for " The Pope carried to St. Peter's by the Swiss Guard," and "The Pope, Michael Angelo, and Raphael, on the porch of the Vatican." As the picture drew near its completion, the wild enthusiasm of all who saw it awakened a sort of sorrow in Delaroche, that he had sold it for 8000 francs ; but the bargain was made. Madame de Montaut undertook to influence Demidoff, who was prudent in his extravagance, to a higher offer; and it was determined that I should get from the art dealers, Rittner & Goupil, Rue Montmartre, a letter, as if from an English capitalist, offering 15,000 francs, and requesting me to lay the offer before my friend. The letter came to my hands, from which it passed through Delaroche's, to those of Madame de Moutant, and thus to DemidofFs, who at once sent to Delaroche 12,000 francs, because the picture so much surpassed his expectation ; and in this way it was paid for, at 50 per cent, above the original price.

From this moment Delaroche's pictures rose in price. Lord Francis Egerton, now Earl of Ellesmere, brother of the Duke of Sutherland, declared himself ready to pay Delaroche 35,000 francs for a picture of the arrest of Charles I. by the soldiery of Cromwell, which is now in the Bridgewater gallery. In 1832, while the cholera was raging so awfully in Paris, that for weeks the daily li^t of deaths was 900, and on one day 1000, everybody who could, left the capital; and Delaroche's elder brother, who

was a director of the Mont de Piete, wrote to me that he was in the greatest danger ; all his art friends had quitted Paris, and he needed 8000 francs to get him out of the greatest embarrassment. I was repaid at the end of the year : again, as in Lafayette's case, without requiring a receipt. Why did I need it. Had he died, his acknowledgment would have done me no good ; if he lived, it was useless. Say the French, " An honest man's word is better than a scoundrel's money." I was glad to be able to help not only my friend Delaroche, but other artists, with whom I lived on intimate terms. Only one, to whom I had advanced the sum of 200 francs for a water-color picture, failed in his engagement. He sold the picture, and four years after paid back the 200 francs.

Paul Delaroche is a noble man, who perfectly understands his worth as an artist, and keeps his word as a man ; and never at any time, or for any reason, would he trifle with his promise. The raising of the price of his " Lady Jane Grey," through Madame de Montaut, cannot be cited here against him, for he had nothing to do with it; and although he knew the manner in which it was done, he did not help, but only tolerate. Who could blame him, especially with a man like Demidoff, who never knew shame, who was ready for the foulest tricks, and who never listened to the voice of justice. What a frightful picture of moral depravity would the secret history of this favorite of fortune exhibit. His veins were full of Cossack blood; and he respected even the sex of women so little, as to have used the knout, both to Madame de Montaut and to his wife the princess Mathilde. Madame de Montaut knew him thoroughly, and was sure that his purse-pride was almost beyond hearing any reason. The following will show Delaroche in his true light. M. Thiers, Minister of the Interior, determined to have the church of la Madeleine completed, and the side walls covered by six grand pictures, representing scenes in the life of St. Mary Magdalen. He wisely sought Delaroche, stipulated to pay him 25,000 francs for each picture, and 25,000 francs more for a voyage to Italy, there to make studies, and procure models, which were not to be found amid the Savoyard physiognomies, or the forms of the Parisians. In this agreement one point remained unsettled, the finishing of

the Hemicycle which should connect the two walls, and about which the minister could not decide, whether it should be painted or sculptured in wood. Delaroche very properly held, that if painted it must be by the same hand that should paint the side walls, since another artist would have quite another idea of the Magdalen. On the minister asking, what would be the price of this last picture, he replied, " Nothing." He had nothing further in view than to get the preference as painter, and he left the price to the minister's own sense of propriety. M. Thiers agreed. Delaroche received the first 25,000 francs, and went to Rome, where I saw him again early in 1835. During a visit to his studio, where I saw rows of exquisite sketches, studies, and drawings for the painting of the Madeleine, he received a letter from a protectress and friend of his, Madame Dosne, mother-in-law of M. Thiers, informing him that the minister had determined to have the hemicycle painted, and to give it to the painter Flandin. She had done what she could against this, but in vain. Delaroche at once wrote to Thiers, that he would return the 25,000 francs received as soon as he arrived in Paris, whither he determined to go at once, and that their contract was at an end. The Marquis of Montemart, who was present, another friend, and myself endeavored to dissuade him from this course, but in vain. He left us for a quarter of an hour, and then brought in his answer, worded with all the bitterness of a wounded artist spirit. Nor would he change or soften one expression. " M. Thiers," said he, " must learn with whom he is dealing; that I am a man of honor, and not a mountebank like himself."

The envy of his brother artists rose to its height during the exhibition of his " Beheading of Lady Jane Grey." Delacroix, the two Boulangers, Champmartin, and others, formed a clique, who devoted themselves to his overthrow from the height which he had won so lightly. These gentlemen, who had themselves praised the picture to Delaroche, usually met at the Sunday receptions of Madame de Mirbel, the celebrated miniature painter of the faubourg St. Germain, where the bitterest criticism was allowed, and where gall flowed freely. Madame de Mirbel's rule was to be on friendly terms with all the notable historic painters,

that these might suggest her name to all their friends who might be in want of miniatures. She had invited Delaroche, but he had hitherto neglected the invitation. One morning I told him of the gossip which went on about him in the drawing-rooms of this lady, and told him he should go there himself, and see and hear what was going on with reference to himself. " Not bad advice," he said, " I think I will go next Sunday." Accordingly, to the great astonishment of all, he made his appearance. Madame de Mirbel almost fell upon her knees, and seemed utterly confounded at the honor. After half an hour's stay he took leave of the lady, who, surrounded by her satellites, accompanied him to the door, saying, "Ah! M. Delaroche, why go so soon ?'? His answer was, " Pardon me, Madame, I have accomplished a double object in coming here this evening. First, I came to pay my respects to you; then, as I am busied with a picture, in which Hypocrisy and Dissimulation are to appear, I needed some studies of heads, and—(looking round upon the painters)—I have succeeded perfectly ; I have found them : Madame, I have the honor to wish you good night!"

Super-eminent talent is, unfortunately, hated and envied. Delaroche was almost isolated in the world of art. He had but two friends among the painters, his old master, the celebrated Ingres, and Eugene Lami, painter of horses, battle-pieces, and hunts. I had taken his red and black crayon sketches of the murder of the Due de Guise, with me to Rome, where I showed them to several illustrious artists, who almost unanimously attributed their origin to the days of Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and others. No one in France approaches the correctness of his drawings, not even Ingres. A peculiarity of my friend is his extraordinary resemblance, in head and features, to Napoleon—of course I mean Napoleon I. Since the early death of his wife, only daughter of the world-famous Horace Vernet, he has lived much retired, and only for his two children. The great painting in the Paris Academy of Fine Arts, in which he has brought together all known schools, is the most perfect work of his pencil, or of our time.

Of the other painters of the capital whom I saw about me, I liked the genial Charlet best, although I had little taste for his

associations and habits. He had no manners at all, and painted almost exclusively scenes from the pot-houses and barracks, in which he spent his time. He knew very well how to catch the spirit, and embody in his aquarelles the humor, of the lower classes, ouvriers, invalides, and other frequenters of the wine-shops at the Barriers. He had seen Napoleon several times in his youth, and the image of the Emperor was so strongly impressed upon his mind, that he could draw him with his eyes closed. He has frequently done this for me, once asking where he should begin. "At the heel of the right boot," I said. He did so, and drew the whole figure perfectly well.

Charlet was always determined to get the highest prioe for his productions, and adopted the method that we had taken to elevate the price of the " Lady Jane Grey;" only in Delaroche's case it was the exception, while it was Charlet's rule. One day, at the door of a court in the rue Vaugirad, in the Faubourg St. Germain, where Charlet's studio was, one of his young scholars saw me getting out of my cabriolet, and, guessing that I was come to see about an aquarelle, ran in before me to announce my arrival. I found Charlet just in the act of finishing a drawing, and near him, on a green-baize-covered desk, was a 500 francs bank-note, stuck fast with a pin. " What are you doing there T* said I, as I came in. " You see," said Charlet, " and you see what Durand (an art dealer) has offered me for it." " And you did not accept it!" " No ; I perceive that my designs are the rage just now, and I expect to get more for it." " Well," I said, " I think it well paid for at 500 francs." Our conversation ended here, and Charlet's face fell somewhat. I went from his studio to Durand's place, rue neuve des Petits Champs. " What is the news V was my first question. " Nothing." " Have you seen Charlet lately f " No, not for a week." I then told him that I had seen a drawing at Charlet's, which I had made no offer for, as the artist held it rather too high. " But," said I, " if you can get it for 200 or 250 francs, you may get it for me." About two hours afterwards he brought me the aquarelle. " What did you pay for it ?" I asked. " 200 francs," he answered, " but its price to you is 250." I was annoyed at this ; for I had done Charlet certain services, and had no

idea that he would attempt such a trick on me. I thought of some little punishment for him, and found the way in my reminiscences of 1819-20. Here I must interrupt the chronological course of my narrative, and take the reader back some thirteen years.

In the winter of 1819-20, that part of the Parisian female world, then known as "femmes galantes" and now as Lorettes, had reached its zenith. After the example of the Duke de Berry, all the notabilities, foreign and native, formed liaisons with these ladies. The example spread, and I was not exempt from its influence. Very lofty intellectuality was not expected from these ladies, but they possessed a very agreeable society intelligence, and good enough manners acquired from their association with people of haut-ton; they conversed well, and had plenty of frivolous amiability, and offered to the stranger a sort of society which was agreeable when one had nothing better. At this time the great opera dancer, Coulon, was giving his Sunday evening soriees dansantes. tickets to which had to be earnestly begged for, besides costing 40 francs. The men of these soirees consisted of the foreign and domestic diplomats, the great financiers, as Baron James Rothschild, and illustrious strangers of all sorts. The ladies had all the greatest dancers of the opera, Fanny Bias, Bigottini, Noblet, La Gallois and others, in elegant but very simple toilette, and the better class of femmes galantes, who usually came in domino to intrigue the better. The opera dancers commenced a quadrille, in which they exhibited all the propriety of ladies du grand monde ; then followed occasional other quadrilles ; waltzes and hop-waltzes were scarcely thought of, and polkas did not exist.

At one of the soirees, a tender mask took my arm, and walked about the room with me, chattering gaily with French frivolity. She would not allow me to lift her mask, but promised to do so, if I would visit her the next day at 2 o'clock, at her own apartments, of which she gave me the address. Of course I went, and was al lowed to wait for sometime in an elegant ante-chamber, but was at length introduced by a pert, freely dressed waiting maid into the boudoir of the lady. She rose from the sofa, and addressing me as an old acquaintance, offered her hand. I recognized her as a

Parisian beauty whom I had often seen in an elegant equipage, and who was known for her remarkable beauty as the Perle de Paris. She told me that her liaison with the Russian Prince

R , was broken by his recall, and that she was now free as

air. Of course I offered to play the Prince's part in the comedy, and we lived very amicably, although at considerable expense, for three months together. One day the queen of my heart came to me and begged for five hundred francs, or as she phrased it, " a little billet." " There is some contrast, said I, " between the little billet and the great want that you express. It is a good deal of

money for " I stopped, and she continued. " For a fidelity

like mine, eh ! It is not enough, sir." " Oh," I replied, " I know the song in the Caliph of Bagdad,

1 Jc vous serais fidele comme on Test a Paris.'

Parisian fidelity! we all know what that is worth a yard." Meantime, Madame got the bank note, and the same evening we went to the opera. Two ranges from us, I observed a large, well-formed man of ripe age, fixing his opera-glass steadily on my companion. " It is the Due de Vauguyon," (a court favorite), said she to me. " He has been madly in love with me for two years, but I will have nothing to do with him." After the opera we went home. The next moment, shortly after reaching my lodgings, the waiting-maid brought me the following note,

Mon Cher Ami :—Last night you seemed to doubt my fidelity. I am now going to prove it by asking you to read the enclosed note. I trust that it will convince you, for I intend to send it and its enclosure back to the Duke. Meanwhile, I embrace you, as I love you, NINA.

The enclosed letter was from the Duke, and told her that she had appeared so deliciously handsome at the opera, that he begged leave to offer two notes of 500 francs each, for a single night with her. In one of these notes I recognized the one I had given her the day before. My ideas upon this discovery can be guessed at. Of course I was convinced of the value of Parisian fidelity.

S84 HORACE VERNET.

I now return to my starting point, the picture of Charlet, which Durand had bought me. Some days after, I went back to Charlet's, but did not ask about the picture that he had shown me. We talked of things in general. After I had gradually turned the conversation upon the monde galant, I told him the above written anecdote. During its close he became suddenly serious, and looked at me with a look that I can never forget; tnere was a sort of malicious, cat-like repentance in it; he saw that he had been discovered, and that I was telling him a case parallel with his own.

All this was twenty years ago. The position and progress of the French schools of Art were very little known in Germany. Here and there people had heard generally of Horace Vernet, but he was first remarked and esteemed by the German world of art when he became Director of the French Academy, in Rome, where the young German art students first became acquainted with him, and with the vividness and grandeur of his varied creations. The most amazing peculiarity of this rare genius was the fidelity to nature, and the extraordinary truth of whatsoever came from his pencil. In all his works, even in the most unimportant, one is convinced that the subject is perfectly reproduced; even the least details seizable by the eye of the common observer, are faithfully re-given. This is the case with all his pictures, but his pure creative powers are not so frequently displayed. Only one of his works now in the Luxembourg Gallery would belong to this last category, were it not that we know its source. I mean Judith beheading Holofernes. Both heads are portraits. Judith was a Jewess, named Pelissier, then Vernet's mistress, and who served him long as a model; she then became Rossini's mistress, in Bologna, and after Madame Colbran's death, his wife. The drunken head of Holofernes, sunk amid the pillows, is a portrait of Colonel La Boulaye, Vernet's table friend, and a terrible drinker. Vernet, it is said, placed him in the position given in the picture; also placed his mistress with an Asiatic sabre in her hand, in her relative position, and so sketched them. The picture was placed in the following exposition, and La Boulaye was universally recognized. The artist and the Colonel

had been great friends, but this severed them. I, who had become acquainted with la Boulaye, as with many others, at the Cercle Franfais, on the Boulevard Montmartre, never saw him in the neighborhood of the picture without noticing his furious look, and I agreed with others who thought that which had been intended as a painter's license was in reality falsehood towards a friend, and too serious for a jest. The vulgarest brutality of a drunken bandit is the expression of this open-mouthed Holofernes.

Horace Vernet, introduced by the Bourbons, advanced by Louis Philippe and his princes, especially loved and immensely paid by Charles Albert of Sardinia, the emperor Nicholas, and other potentates, was a very eccentric fellow. I saw him in Rome in 1835. And it was thought odd, that he, no longer a young man, and director of so serious a school of art as the Trench Academy at Rome, should so far forget his age and position as to dance mazurkas at the balls of the English gentry then in the Eternal City. This was more remarked because his predecessor Ingres had erred a little on the side of pedantry, and had a certain still solemnity of manner, on which very account, perhaps, he was esteemed a greater artist than him whom the English called " a capering Frenchman."

An anecdote of Vernet may illustrate his eccentricity. He was in Marshal Bugeaud's camp just before the battle of Isly, the picture of which won him so much reputation, and here his presence was generally known among the common soldiers. One of these warriors wanted to send his portrait to his mother, and asked Vernet if he would undertake the job, and at what price. Vernet accepted, but declared his inability to paint it for less than twenty francs. The soldier thought it rather high, but accepted on condition that the resemblance should be perfect. When finished, it was exposed to the man's comrades, and as their approval was unanimous, he paid the price, which Vernet pocketed, saying, " the artist must live by his pay." A couple of days afterward, on leaving the camp, he sent twenty Napoleons to the captain of the company, to be given to the soldier and his comrades.

Immediately next to Vernet, or, as many think, far above him

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