Chapitre XVII. Success of Le Conservateur-The colleagues-Villèle and Corbière

Assassination of the Duc de Berry-Fall of the Decazes Ministry-Villèle Prime Minister-Chateaubriand Minister to the Court of Prussia-His life at Berlin-The Duchess of Cumberland s friendship for him-His political ambitions-The Duchesse de Duras pulls wires for him-He succeeds Decazes as Ambassador to England.

CHATEAUBRIAND'S first thought was to retire to London and publish his paper there in order to avoid the censorship; "but fortunately," says Madame de Boigne, " the objections of Madame de Chateaubriand on the one hand and the entreaties of the madames on the other caused him to abandon the project." One may doubt whether he ever entertained it very seriously. At all events, he decided to stay in Paris, and his Conservateur, though it only lasted twenty months, became a property and a power. " The journal," he writes, " accomplished an incredible revolution. In France it altered the character of the majority in the Chamber of Deputies. Abroad it transformed the spirit of cabinets." He exaggerates, as usual, but hardly as much as usual.

The paper, according to M. de Vitrolles, who helped him to found it, was " a veritable gold mine." Every three months, he says, there was a profit of about f200 to be divided, and Chateaubriand took most of it. His colleagues also subscribed to his " charities," which, M. de Vitrolles insists, began at home. "Under the pretext," he declares, " of establishing an institution for the benefit of the aged and infirm, he built at the expense of his collaborators a charming villa, in which he lived for many years."¹ He also, according to the same authority, put into his own pocket the twenty-four thousand francs provided by the Comte d'Artois as working capital, starting the paper on credit and making it pay its way. In one way or another, in fact, M. de Vitrolles assures us, he drew at least £4,00o before the paper ceased to appear. " His insatiable cupidity," M. de Vitrolles concludes, "was the more shocking because it was in such flagrant contrast with the munificent generosity of his language »

The main purpose of the publication, however, was not pecuniary, but political. It was the receptacle, says Madame de Boigne, of " the bilious eloquence of the ultras," and " did the throne a vast amount of harm"; and she adds-what, as the intimate friend of Madame de Duras, she may be presumed to have known-that Chateaubriand "had nothing in common with " his collaborators.

" He did not share their prejudices or their feelings, their regrets or their hopes, their follies or even their probity. At no moment of his life was there a broader line of demarcation between the exigencies of his position and his opinions, tastes, and personal predilections. Most of the propositions which the others supported were repugnant to his judgment, and he would have been delighted to refute them if he had been in power and called upon to fight on the other side. In fact, he was at this time in a very bad temper indeed »

1 The Infirmerie Marie-Thérèse. 22I ↩

The truth is, perhaps, that he was exploiting the ultras, but that his own colleagues were at the same time exploiting him. Notably he was exploited by Villele and Corbiere, who were shrewder than he was, though neither so brilliant nor so well known. Villele, in particular, needed his help because, according to Madame de Boigne, "his low birth, his vulgar manners, his eccentric appearance, and his nasal intonation excluded him from the salons." Chateaubriand, therefore, acted as Villèle's drawing-room representative, while Villele represented Chateaubriand in the Chamber of Deputies; and between them they built up a party which had to be reckoned with when the next ministerial crisis occurred.

The King himself saw what they were doing, and warned Decazes. " Beware of Chateaubriand," he said. "He has a sharp and vicious tooth." He had ; and he used it with deadly effect, aided by the more cunning Villele, on the tragic occasion of the murder of the Duc de Berry by Louvel outside the Opera House, in 1820.

There was no reason in the nature of things why the assassination should involve the retirement of Decazes. Louvel was probably a madman, and it was conclusively proved that he had no accomplices. There was no conspiracy in which the Government could be implicated, or which it could be said that the Government ought to have detected. But there was general consternation, and a general desire to hold somebody to blame; and Decazes was attacked accordingly. Chateaubriand's friend, Clausel de Coussergues, rose in the Chamber and spluttered charges of actual complicity in the crime. Villele, perceiving the absurdity of that extravagance, whispered in his ear that " vaguer" accusations would be more effective. Vaguer charges of " treason" and the like were therefore substituted, and burst like a hailstorm about Decazes' head. He was obliged to offer his resignation, and the King was obliged to accept it. " His feet," wrote Chateaubriand, " slipped in the blood, and he fell."

That, of course, was nonsense. It was no more true to say that Decazes slipped in the victim's blood than it would have been to say that Chateaubriand and his friends hung on to the assassin's coat tails. He realized that in the course of time, and expunged the sentence from his writings. What actually happened, metaphor apart, was that Decazes was made French Ambassador to the Court of Saint James's, and that when the Duc de Richelieu undertook to form a fresh administration, he found Chateaubriand and his friends strong enough to dictate terms to him.

They were in the position, in short, which the Irish Parliamentary party has so long sought to attain in the English House of Commons-in a minority strong enough, that is to say, to enable the right to defeat the left or the left to defeat the right. Any Government that wished to stand firm must pacify them with office; so it was arranged, after negotiations which were in fact a trial of strength, that Corbière should be Minister of Education, that Villele should enter the Cabinet without a portfolio, and that Chateaubriand should go as Minıstér Plenıpotentiary to Berlin. "He was in no great hurry to start,' writes Pasquier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs-the same Pasquier who, when invited to dinner, searched under the sofa for manuscripts-"but he managed to get there at last »

Which means, of course, that the Legation was not quite a big enough prize to content him, and that he found it hard and painful to tear himself away from Paris-and from Madame de Duras-and also from Madame Récamier. For their sakes-or for the sake of one or other of them-he would have preferred to stay ; but he needed the salary, and therefore he accepted the office.

He left Paris on January 1, 1821 ; and his narrative now that he has left the stress of political strife behind, is once more like the pictorial chronicle of a shadowplay, or of some grave political procession. He might have seen Goethe at Weimar, but he did not : "here is a void in the pageant of illustrious personages who have defiled before my eyes." He might have visited Luther's grave at Wittenberg, but he passed by on the other side : " Protestantism, in religion, is only an illogical heresy, and, in politics, it is only a revolution that has failed." And so to the mansion Unter den Linden in Berlin, where he met Prince Augustus of Prussia, whom Madame de Récamier had refused to marry, and Chamisso, the traveller, who had found Madame Récamier's portrait on porcelain in Kamschatka, and Wilhelm von Humboldt, and other celebrities of the hour-where he was a flattered guest at fêtes and carnivals, and the Morgenblatt described his personal appearance in a fashion which shows that what we are accustomed to call the " new journalism" is really very old, speaking of " the burning passion and profound melancholy of his works," and going on- " M. de Chateaubriand is of slight build, but slim. Melancholy and piety are expressed upon his oval countenance. His hair and his eyes are black. The latter shine with the fire of the genius which animates all his features."

He quotes the paragraph, and proceeds to compliment himself on his fitness for the enterprises of high politics. " Dante, Ariosto, and Milton, « he remembers, "were no less successful as politicians than as poets." As for himself: " The Congress of Verona has enabled Europe and France to judge of my capacities."

No doubt it has ; and we will speak of the Congress of Verona presently. There is more of society, however, than of politics in the chapter of the Mémoires under review; and not the least interesting section of it is the correspondence with the Duchess of Cumberland, afterwards Queen of Hanover.

One would have to guess a good deal to make a consecutive story out of them. Probably there are some supplementary documents which would complete the story still buried in some archives somewhere. All that one can say with the evidence available is that the letters are too affectionate and too frequent to be accounted for by any ordinary friendship. For a time, while Chateaubriand was absent from his post, the Duchess wrote to him every day, assuring him that she went every day to look up at the windows of his house, and that she prayed for him. She also tried to attach him to her service as the tutor of her son, and to take him to England with her. " What a continual romance my life has been !" is his comment on thatso that, perhaps, and indeed probably, her name would have to be included in a full list of those to whom Chateaubriand "lent " himself. But no details are known, and the story has no sequel; and, in fact, whatever note the Mémoires strike, it is clear enough from other sources that at this date Chateaubriand's political ambitions were more interesting to him than any romance.

There had already been a beginning, in 1821, of sporadic revolts against the oppressions of the Holy Alliance. Its members had their hands full, and held Conference after Conference to reconsider their position as the police of Europe, and decide who should put down this, that, or the other popular uprising. Such rising's occurred in Naples, Piedmont, and Spain. Such Congresses were held at Aix-la-Chapelle, at Laibach, at Troppau, and at Verona. Chateaubriand, while at Berlin, wanted to be sent with the King of Prussia to Laibach; but France had already three representatives there, so that was not to be. He was kept in the Prussian capital, and sulked, pressing his policy in his dispatches, and nursing his personal ambition with the help of Madame de Duras.

His policy, broadly speaking, was to support the programme of the Holy Alliance, but, while supporting it, to exploit it in the interest of French prestige. The tendency of the time was for France and England, as the two Liberal Powers, gradually to have less and less to do with Austrian, Russian and Prussian machinations, and to leave the discontented subjects of other sovereigns to work out their own salvation if they could. England, in fact, had already made overtures to France in that sense. France had not yet received them favourably, but might be induced to do so. Chateaubriand opposed that programme. Every republic, in his view, was a source of possible danger to every monarchy. He took that tone even towards the republics set up by the revolted Spanish colonies in America; and he actually wrote in a dispatch that "if ever the New World is wholly republican, the monarchies of the Old World are doomed to perish." It followed that popular uprisings everywhere must by all means be suppressed; and Chateaubriand's dominating idea was that France should play a prominent part in their suppression. That was the road, he considered, to the recovery of French prestige.

The pursuit of this policy abroad, however, implied intrigues at home. It was the policy of the right, rather than of the left or centre; and the ministry of the moment was a ministry of the centre leaning on the right, represented by Villele and Corbière in the Cabinet, by the Comte d'Artois in Court circles, and by Chateaubriand himself in the diplomatic service. It was a question of pushing and pushing until the centre yielded and Chateaubriand got his chance of demonstrating that he was indeed as great a statesman as " Dante, Milton, and Ariosto"-a belief in which, he assures Madame de Duras, he was encouraged by the Berlin princesses, who were all acquainted with his writings.

"No one here,' he wrote to her, "is dense enough to suppose that because I have written books which people like to read I am unfit for the conduct of affairs. This ridiculous prejudice-or perhaps 1 should say this lack of good faith-only exists in France."

So the pushing proceeded steadily; Madame de Duras writing Chateaubriand many letters to warn him not to be precipitate, and not to offer his resignation prematurely in a huff. At last the crisis occurred, and the Cabinet had to be reconstructed. Chateaubriand and his friends presented their ultimatum. Either they must have three seats in the Cabinet, or they would resign their offices and join the opposition. The Comte d'Artois, at the same time, withdrew his promise of support. "He has broken his word of honour," said the Duc de Richelieu to Pasquier; and he resigned, having no choice but to do so, and was succeeded by Villele.

Chateaubriand had hoped for the Foreign Office; but it was given to Montmorency instead. That was the harder because Mathieu de Montmorency was his rival in the affections of Madame de Récamier-a branch of the story awaiting our attention. Meanwhile, however, he was consoled with the office of Ambassador to the Court of Saint James's ; and then of course-

"My appointment revived my dormant recollections, and Charlotte returned to my thoughts."

That was in December 1821.