Part 25 (1/2)

[Footnote 74: Of course, David meant the spot where the remains had been interred at first.--EDITOR.]

I firmly believe that the injury done to the statue hastened David's death. His work has since been restored by M. Armand Toussaint, his favourite pupil, who gave his promise to that effect a few days before the great sculptor breathed his last. The monument was, however, not brought to Paris until 1861, and when M. Toussaint had finished his task, he invited the press and the friends of his famous master to judge of the results. It was at the door of his studio that I saw the woman, whose adventures I have told in the preceding notes, for the first time. A fortnight later, she died at the hospital of La Charite, at peace, I trust, with her Maker. ”Fate, Providence, call it what you will,” as David himself would have said, had brought me to the spot just in time to alleviate the last sufferings of one who, though not altogether irresponsible for her own errors, was to a still greater extent the victim of a system so iniquitous as to make the least serious-minded--provided he be endowed with the faintest spark of humanity--shudder. I allude to the system pursued by the Paris detective force in their hunt after criminals--a system not altogether abandoned yet, and the successful carrying out of which is paid for by the excruciating tortures inflicted upon defenceless though fallen women--but women still--by the _souteneur_. I refrain from Anglicizing the word; it will suggest itself after the perusal of the following facts, albeit that, fortunately with us, the creature itself does not exist as a cla.s.s, and, what is worse, as a cla.s.s recognized by those whose first and foremost duty it should be to destroy him root and branch.

The morning after Clementine's arrest, David and I repaired to the prison of l'Abbaye Saint-German. When the sculptor sent in his name, the governor himself came out to receive us. But the woman was gone; she had been transferred, the previous night, to the depot of the prefecture de police, ”where,” he said, ”if you make haste, you will still find her.”

He gave us a letter of introduction for the official charged to deal with refractory ”filles soumises,” or offending insoumises, because, then as now, these unfortunates were not tried by an ordinary police magistrate in open court, but summarily punished by said official, the sentences being subject, however, to revision or confirmation by his superior, the chief of the munic.i.p.al police. Nay, the decisions were not even communicated to these women until they were safely lodged in Saint-Lazare, lest there should be a disturbance; for they were not examined one by one; and, as may be imagined, the contagion of revolt spread easily among those hysterical and benighted creatures.

When we reached the prefecture de police the judging was over, but, on our sending in our letter, we were admitted at once to the official's room. After David's description, he remembered the woman, and told us at once that she had not been sent to Saint-Lazare, but liberated. Some one had interceded for her--no less a personage than Canler, who, though at the time but a superintendent, was already fast springing into notice as a detective of no mean skill. ”What had he done with her?” was David's question. ”I could not tell you,” was the courteous reply; ”but I will give you his address, and he will no doubt give you all the information in his power and consistent with his duty.” With this we were bowed out of the room.

We did not succeed in seeing Canler until two days afterwards, or, rather, on the evening of the second day; for, at that period, he was entrusted with the surveillance of the theatres on the Boulevard du Temple. I may have occasion to speak of him again, so I need not give his portrait here. He was about fifty, and, unlike one of his successors, M. Claude, the type of the old soldier. Of his honesty there never was, there could have never been, a doubt, nor was his intelligence ever questioned. And yet, this very honest, intelligent man, in his all-absorbing pursuit, the detection and chasing of criminals, was sufficiently dishonest and unintelligent to foster, if not to inaugurate, a system subversive of all morality.

David's name was a pa.s.sport everywhere, and, no sooner had it been sent in, than Canler came out to him. The sculptor stated his business, and the police officer made a wry face. ”I am afraid, M. David, I cannot help you in this instance. To speak plainly, I have restored her to her souteneur.” We both opened our eyes very wide. ”Yes,” came the remark, ”I know what you are going to say. I can sum up all your objections before you utter them. But I could not help myself; the fellow rendered me a service, and this was the price of it. Without his aid, one of the most desperate burglars in Paris would still be at large. As it is, I have got him safe under lock and key. Very shocking, no doubt; mais, a la guerre comme a la guerre.” Then, seeing that we did not answer, he continued: ”As a rule, I do not explain my tactics to everybody; but you, M. David, are not everybody, and, if you like to meet me when the theatre is over, I shall be pleased to have a chat with you.”

At half-past twelve that night we were seated at a restaurant near the Porte Saint-Martin, and, after a few preliminary remarks, Canler explained.

However great an artist you may be, M. David, you could not produce a statue without the outlay for the marble, or for the casting of it in bronze. You, moreover, want to pay your _praticien_, who does the rough work for you. Our _praticiens_ are the informers, and they want to be paid like the most honest workmen. The detection of crime means, no doubt, intelligence, but it means also money. Now, money is the very thing I have not got, and yet, when I accepted the functions I am at present fulfilling, I gave my promise to M. Delessert not to neglect the detective part of the business. I wish to keep my word, first of all, because I pledged it; secondly, because detection of crime is food and drink to me; thirdly, because I hope to be the head of the Paris detective force one day. The Government allows a ridiculously small sum every year for distribution among informers, and rewards among their own agents; it is something over thirty thousand francs, but not a sou of which ever reached my hands when I accepted my present appointment, and scarcely a sou of which reaches me now. I was, therefore, obliged to look out for auxiliaries, sufficiently disinterested to a.s.sist me gratuitously, but, knowing that absolute disinterestedness is very rare indeed, I looked for my collaborateurs among the very ones I was charged to watch, but who, in exchange for my protection in the event of their offending, were ready to peach upon their companions in crime and in vice. I need not trouble you by enumerating the various categories of my allies, but the souteneur, the most abject of them all, is, perhaps, the most valuable.

”He is too lazy to work, and, as a rule, has not got the pluck of a mouse, consequently he rarely resorts to crime, requiring the smallest amount of energy or daring. He furthermore loves his Paris, where, according to his own lights, he enjoys himself and lives upon the fat of the land; all these reasons make him careful not to commit himself, albeit that at every minute of the day he comes in contact with everything that is vile. But he gets hold of their secrets, though the word is almost a misnomer, seeing that few of these desperadoes can hold their tongue about their own business, knowing all the while, as they must do, that their want of reticence virtually puts their heads into the halter. But if they have done 'a good stroke of business,' even if they do not brag about it in so many words, they must show their success by their sudden show of finery, by their treating of everybody all round, etc. The souteneur is, as it were, jealous of all this; for though he lives in comparative comfort from what his mistress gives him, he rarely makes a big haul. His mistress gone, the pot ceases to boil; in fact, he calls her his _marmite_. In a few days he is on his beams'

ends, unless he has one in every different quarter, which is not often the case, though it happens now and then. But, at any rate, the incarceration of one of them makes a difference, and, under the circ.u.mstance, he repairs, as far as he dares, to the prefecture, and obtains her liberation in exchange for the address of a burglar or even a murderer who is wanted. I have known one who had perfected his system of obtaining information to such a degree as to be able to sell his secrets to his fellow-souteneurs when they had none of their own wherewith to propitiate the detectives. He has had as much as three or four hundred francs for one revelation of that kind, which means twenty or thirty times the sum the police would have awarded him. Of course, three or four hundred francs is a big sum for the souteneur to sh.e.l.l out; but, when the marmite is a good one, he sooner does that than be deprived of his revenues for six months or so. I have diverted some of those secrets into my own channel, and Clementine's souteneur is one of my clients; that is why I gave her up. Very shocking, gentlemen, but a la guerre comme a la guerre.”

M. Canler furthermore counselled us to leave Clementine alone. He positively refused to give us any information as to her whereabouts; that is why I did not meet with her until five years after David's death, too late to be of any use to her in this world.

CHAPTER XVII.

Queen Victoria in Paris -- The beginning of the era of middle-cla.s.s excursions -- English visitors before that -- The British tourist of 1855 -- The real revenge of Waterloo -- The Englishman's French and the Frenchman's English -- The opening of the Exhibition -- The lord mayor and aldermen in Paris -- The King of Portugal -- All these considered so much ”small fry” -- Napoleon III. goes to Boulogne to welcome the Queen -- The royal yacht is delayed -- The French hotel proprietor the greatest artist in fleecing -- The Italian, the Swiss, the German, mere bunglers in comparison -- Napoleon III. before the arrival of the Queen -- Pondering the past -- Arrival of the Queen -- The Queen lands, followed by Prince Albert and the royal children -- The Emperor rides by the side of her carriage -- Comments of the population -- An old salt on the situation -- An old soldier's retort -- The general feeling -- Arrival in Paris -- The Parisians' reception of the Queen -- A description of the route -- The apartments of the Queen at St. Cloud -- How the Queen spent Sunday -- Visits the art section of the Exhibition on Monday -- Ingres and Horace Vernet presented to her -- Frenchmen's ignorance of English art in those days -- English and French art critics -- The Queen takes a carriage drive through Paris -- Not a single cry of ”Vive l'Angleterre!” a great many of ”Vive la Reine” -- England making a cats-paw of France -- Deception at the elysee-Bourbon -- ”Les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr”

at St. Cloud -- Alexandre Dumas would have liked to see the Queen -- Visit to Versailles -- State-performances at the Opera -- Ball at the Hotel de Ville -- The Queen's dancing -- Canrobert on ”the Queen's dancing and her soldiers' fighting” -- Another visit to the Exhibition -- Beranger misses seeing the Queen -- ”I am not going to see the Queen, but the woman” -- A review in the Champ-de-Mars -- A visit to Napoleon's tomb -- Jerome's absence on the plea of illness -- Marshal Vaillant's reply to the Emperor when the latter invites him to take Jerome's place -- His comments on the receptions given by the Emperor to foreign sovereigns -- Fetes at Versailles -- Homeward.

Magnificent as were the quasi-private entertainments at Compiegne, and the more public ones at the Tuileries, they were as nothing to the series of fetes on the occasion of Queen Victoria's visit to Paris, in 1855. For nearly three months before, the capital had a.s.sumed the aspect of a fair. The Exposition Universelle of '55 virtually inaugurated the era of ”middle-cla.s.s excursions,” which since then have a.s.sumed such colossal proportions, especially with regard to the English. Previous to this the development of railways had naturally brought many of our countrymen to Paris, but they were of a different cla.s.s from those who now invaded the French metropolis. They were either men of business bent on business, though not averse to enjoying themselves in the intervals, or else belonging or pretending to belong to ”the upper ten,”

and travelling more or less _en grand seigneurs_. They came singly, and left their cards at the Emba.s.sy, etc. The new visitors came in groups, though not necessarily acquainted or travelling with one another; they knew nothing of the Hotel Meurice and the Hotel Bristol or their traditions; they crowded the Palais-Royal and its cheap restaurants, and had, so to speak, no French at their command. Notwithstanding the exclamation of the Frenchman when he saw the statue of Wellington opposite Apsley House, it was then, and then only, that the _revanche_ of Waterloo began. It has lasted ever since. It was '55 that marked the appearance in the shop-windows of small cards bearing the words, ”English spoken here.” Hitherto the English visitor to Paris was commonly supposed to have had a French tutor or governess, and though the French he or she did speak was somewhat trying to the ear, it was heavenly music compared to the English the Parisian shopkeeper now held it inc.u.mbent upon himself to ”trot out” for the benefit of his customers, or that of the guide or valet de place, legions of whom infested the streets.

The Exhibition was opened on the 15th of May, but Queen Victoria was not expected until the middle of August. Meanwhile, the Parisians were treated to a sight of the Lord Mayor--Sir F. Moon, I believe--and the aldermen, who came in the beginning of June, and who were magnificently entertained by the Paris munic.i.p.ality, a deputation of which went as far as Boulogne to welcome them. Still, it was very evident that neither their visit nor that of the King of Portugal and his brother was to tax the ingenuity of upholsterers, carpenters, and caterers, or of the Parisians themselves in the matter of decoration; the watchword had apparently been given from the highest quarters to reserve their greatest efforts for what Napoleon up till then considered ”the most glorious event of his reign.” The Emperor, though he had gone to join the Empress, who was by this time known to be enceinte, at Eaux-Bonnes and Biarritz, returned to Paris at the end of July, and for more than a fortnight occupied himself personally and incessantly with the smallest details of the Queen's visit, the whole of the programme of which was settled by him.

I was one of the few privileged persons who travelled down to Boulogne with Louis-Napoleon, on Friday, the 17th of August, 1855. When we got to our destination, the yacht was not in sight, but we were already informed that, owing to its heavy tonnage, it would not be able to enter the harbour except at high tide, which would not be until 1 p.m., on Sat.u.r.day. Shortly after that hour the vessel, accompanied by its flotilla, appeared in the offing; but the Queen remained on board, and we had to enjoy ourselves as best we could, which was not difficult, seeing that the whole of the town was absolutely in the streets, and that the latter were decidedly preferable to the stuffy attics at the hotels, for which we were charged the moderate sum of forty francs each.

Uneventful as my life has been, it is only worth recording by reason of the celebrity of the persons with whom I have come in contact; nevertheless, I have travelled a good deal, and been present at a great many festive gatherings both in England and on the Continent. Commend me to the French hotel-proprietor for fleecing you in cold blood. The Swiss and the Italians, no mean masters of the art, are not in it with him; and as for the Germans, they are mere 'prentices compared with him. The Italian despoils you, like his countryman of operatic fame, Fra-Diavolo; the Swiss, like an English highwayman of the good old sort; the German, like a beggar who picks your pocket while you are looking in your purse for a coin to give him; the Frenchman, like the money-lender who is ”not working for himself, but for a hard-hearted, relentless princ.i.p.al.”

On the Sat.u.r.day, the Emperor was astir betimes, and went to the camp occupied by the troops under the command of Marshal Baraguey-d'Hilliers.

Louis-Napoleon's countenance was at all times difficult to read; I repeat, his eyes, like those of others, may have been ”the windows of his soul,” but their blinds were down most of the time. It was only at rare intervals that the impenetrable features were lighted up by a gleam from within, that the head, which generally inclined to the right, became erect. On that morning, the face was even a greater blank than usual. And yet that day, even to the fatalist he was, must have seemed a wonderful one; for the blind G.o.ddess of fortune, the ”lucky star” in which he trusted, had never rewarded a mortal as she had rewarded him. A few years previously, during one of his presidential journeys, he had been hailed with enthusiasm at Strasburg, the city in which the scene of one of his bitterest fiascos had been laid. The contrast between those two days was startling indeed: on the one, he was hurried into a post-chaise as a prisoner to be taken to Paris, with an almost certain terrible fate overhanging him; on the other, he was greeted as the saviour of France, the Imperial Crown was within his grasp. But, startling as was this contrast, it could but have been mild compared to that which must have presented itself to his mind that autumn morning at Boulogne, when, a few hours later, the legions--his legions--took up their positions from Wimereux on the right to Porsel on the left, to do homage to the sovereign of a country which had been the most irreconcilable foe of the founder of his house; on the very heights at the foot of which he himself had failed to rouse the French to enthusiasm; on the very spot where he had become the laughing-stock of the world by his performance with that unfortunate tame eagle.

And yet, I repeat, not a gleam of pride or joy lighted up the Sphinx-like mask. To see this man standing there unmoved amidst the highest honours the world had to bestow, one could not help thinking of Voltaire's condemnation of fatalism as the guiding princ.i.p.al of life: ”If perchance fatalism be the true doctrine, I would sooner be without such a cruel truth.”

A regiment of lancers and one of dragoons lined the route from the landing-stage to the railway station, for in those days the trains did not stop alongside the boats; while on the bridge crossing the Liane, three hundred sappers, bearded like the Pard, shouldering their axes, wearing their white leathern ap.r.o.ns, stood in serried ranks, three deep.

The Queen's yacht had been timed to enter the harbour at one, but it was within a minute or so of two before it was moored amidst the salutes from the forts. The Emperor, who had been on horseback the whole of the morning--who, in fact, preferred that means of locomotion on all important occasions, as it showed him off to greater advantage,--had been standing by the side of his charger. He crossed the gangway, beautifully upholstered in purple velvet and carpet to match, at once, and, after having kissed her hand, offered her his arm to a.s.sist her in landing, Prince Albert and the royal children coming immediately behind the Imperial host and his princ.i.p.al guest. A magnificent roomy barouche, capable of holding six persons and lined with white satin, but only drawn by two horses--such horses! for in that respect Napoleon had spent his time to advantage in England,--stood waiting to convey the Royal family. The Emperor himself, though, mounted his horse once more, and took his place by the right of the carriage, the left being taken by Marshal Baraguey-d'Hilliers. The head of the procession started amidst tremendous cheers from the crowd, but we who came on behind heard some curious comments upon this popular manifestation. Knowing that there would be a considerable delay in getting the train off, I walked instead of driving. I was accompanied by Lord ----, who was never averse to having his little joke. ”He bien, mon ami,” he said to an old weather-beaten sailor, who was short of his left leg--”he bien, mon ami, nous voila reconcilies.”

”Oui, oui, je t'en fiche,” was the answer; ”mais puisqu'ils en sont a se faire des m'amours, ils devaient bien me rendre ma jambe que j'ai perdue dans leurs querelles.”

”Imbecile,” remarked an old soldier-looking man, who, though old, was evidently younger than the first speaker, and who was short of an arm, ”ta jambe ne t'irait pas plus que mon bras; c'etait ta jambe de garcon.”

”C'est vrai,” nodded the other philosophically; ”tout de meme, c'est drole que nous nous soyons battus comme des chiens,” pointing across the Channel in the direction of England, ”pour en arriver a cela. Si le vieux (Napoleon I.) revenait, il serait rudement colere.” And I may say at once that, notwithstanding the friendly att.i.tude throughout of the rural as well as of the Parisian populations, that was the underlying sentiment. ”Waterloo est arrange, non pas venge,” said a Parisian; ”il parait qu'il y a des accommodements avec les rois, aussi bien qu'avec le ciel.”