2979. EBB to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 17, 179–185.
[Paris]
[4–5 December 1851] [1]
So it has come at last my dearest George .. I dont mean my letter to you but the coup d’etat. [2] We all “felt in the air” as Robert said, that something was coming, but how & when, nobody guessed, except it might be poor little Thiers, who knew it as the snails do rain, & is selfjustified at Ham now for being frightened out of his wits at Paris a week ago. [3] Things could not go on as they were—the assembly fighting like rats while the house was falling,—(which the real rats, by the way, would’nt have done)– A most prodigious state of things it must be allowed to have been! Yes, and to be.
We have had magnificent advantages of situation here, & I have scarcely left the window these two days, watching the pouring in of the troops, to music, trumpets, & shouting, with splendid military maneuvres of every kind. The president himself rode immediately past our windows through the great thunder of a shout which reached from the Barrière de l’etoile to the Place du Carrousel .. “vive Napoleon.” People tell us it was “Vive l’empereur,” but I tell you what I heard myself. Very grand it was! I would not have missed it, .. not for the sight of the Alps, scarcely!——
He’s a bold man, to say the least of him. He may be shot dead from a window at any moment. “A madman,” some people call him, but certainly a bold man. We hear of a league of young men who have sworn to “shoot him like a dog” at the first opportunity. There’s a rumour too, which I cant believe in, about a distribution of manuscript cards in the street, signed Victor Hugo, declaring him “hors de la loi” [4] .. a mark for assassination. A bold man, really!
Bad, I do not say. I confess myself to be carried away into sympathy by the bravery & promptitude of his last act. Call it perjury, usurpation of rights, what you will .. call it treason against the constitution which it assuredly is. The fact is that out of 85 ‘conseils generaux’, [5] 79 had declared in favor of a revision of this said constitution, and that the assembly had rejected their prayer. De facto, the assembly opposed the wishes of the people instead of representing the people. Now the form of a thing is not to be respected beyond the spirit of a thing .. and the question being only between divers parties, tearing the country to pieces as to which should first dash out its claw into the vital places, .. why the lion is justified in coming to the rescue on his own account though he shatter the barriers of the law in coming– There’s a higher right than legal right, we all feel instinctively—the living people are above the paper constitution. Therefore if Napoleon is loyal & true in his appeal to the will of the people & in his intention of abiding by the issue of the approaching election, “je fais acte d’adhésion,” [6] I, for one, & hold him justified to the full extent of his revolutionary act. But I wait to see. One cant quite trust a man in his position, & with the Napoleon blood in him, which he evidently has to the ends of his finger-nails– My sympathy with his audacity & dexterity, is rather artistical sympathy than anything else .. just as one cries ‘Bravo’ at a ‘tour de force’. Who could “think the young man had so much blood in him,” [7] when he was taken at Boulogne with the live eagle? [8] The live people is worth more .. if indeed he holds it on his fist.
Some fighting took place yesterday in the fighting quarters, from the faubourg St Antoine to the rue St Denis, but nothing persistent, & whatever was, was mostly in consequence of certain excitements of ex-representatives. Everything was quiet this morning– Now they are again fighting .. and as near as the Rue de Richelieu,—& Robert, at the end of our avenue, was turned back by our landlord, who cried out “For God’s sake, dont go any farther– A ball whizzed by my head.” So Robert remembered his faithful promise to me not to go into danger, & returned at once .. I suspect, notwithstanding all, that the people of Paris, as a mass, acquiesce in the position & admire the coup d’etat. Accounts from the provinces were favorable this morning. And the authorities on the Bourse (always worth listening to) are of opinion, or were this morning, that the movement will succeed. Of course, nothing except popular sympathy, will justify Napoleon. There is not the least cause for apprehension about us, so none of you fancy it. Even Wilson, who was in a panic, a fortnight ago, begins to think, now that the peril has broken on us, that “we are as safe as in England.”
As to Wiedeman he is in ecstasies at the sight of the soldiers, & the sound of the music. If you ask Wiedeman if he likes the revolution, he says .. “Less–” (yes!) “buono, buono!” [9] Desiree, our french servant, a small, headlong, vehemently joyous creature, an immense Napoleonist herself, teaches him to say, “Vive Napoleon” .. to which, he adds out of his own head, “Bwavo, bwavo!” (bravo)– He has taken to be very noisy these two days in his mimicry of the “revolution”—and out of doors he shouts in the face of the soldiers, Wilson says, till they cant help laughing. That he should go out at all, will prove to you that we are safe in our part of the town. Still, Wilson was turned back today, by a man as pale as death, who begged her to take care of “le petit” [10] and carry him home. The danger is, from the sudden sweep of the cannons, from which there would be no escape– While talking of Wiedeman, I must tell you one thing of him. The other day, Robin Hedley came to see us, & the child was in the room. He ran directly out to Wilson & told her that he had seen “zio [11] George” .. & when she hesitated to understand him, not believing that he could remember the little he had seen of you, he took hold of his pelisse, the blue pelisse, & made signs with voice & hand, that he meant the same ‘zio George’ who had given him that pelisse. He took Robin for you: not a very accurate remembrance you will say, but still a remembrance in some sort or other.
Friday morning– I stopped in my letter yesterday, the accounts beginning to be very threatening. The cannons were taken past this house at full gallop—as the trumpets gave signal from the place du carrousel. There were dreadful rumours, & it turned me sick to hear the rounds of firing which reached us from the distant boulevards. Poor mad people! poor Paris. The president went out himself, at great personal risk of course– He may be shot at any moment, & the consequences would be tremendous. There were dreadful rumours, as I say—and we heard within five minutes that the troops of the line had refused to act,—& that General Castellane [12] was marching against Paris from Lyons. Not true at all, as it proved afterwards. The army is devoted to the president, & Castellane has given in his adhesion. Our landlord, an Irishman, [13] who has not distinguished himself by personal courage through the whole business, removed with his family, from the pavillion in our garden which he generally occupies, into one room at the top of our house—frightened out of all sense of comfort. The only possible danger is from pillage, &c, if the insurgents should triumph—such triumph being scarcely possible, I think, for it seems to be only the socialist party which has risen. On the other hand, if the people rose en masse (which would be the condition of any insurgent victory) there would be no pillage to dread. But I continue to think that as a majority the people uphold the president.
After all it was terrible last night. Robert had some writing to do,—& I would not go to bed: so when I was undressed, I put on my dressinggown & a shawl, & sate with him by the fireside, till nearly one in the morning. Not from the least personal apprehension, observe, but simply, that one shrank from going quietly to sleep while human beings were dying in heaps, perhaps within ear-shot. It was quiet however after eleven oclock as far as we could hear—yet the fighting was not over till three in the morning, .. and I fear that much blood was shed, particularly in the great barricade of the porte St Denis– [14]
I shall send this letter today, lest you should be uneasy. I dont write to Arabel because I hear of her being expected in Wimpole street on friday .. today—so much the better. When she is in London, I shall feel nearer to her a great deal, & she may rely on having another account from me in another post or two, for I flatter myself we are in rather an interesting position just now upon the whole, & that she will care to know that we are neither carried to prisons of state nor “à la lanterne”– [15] All was quiet this morning, but they have recommenced fighting, it appears. Pure madness surely, when the resource of universal suffrage is open to everybody!
Lady Elgin is the widow of the marble man .. “fixed statue on the pedestal of shame” [16] as Lord Byron called him without reason—& mother, of course, to the present Earl– [17] She is a cultivated, sympathetical woman, having still fire enough under the snow of her white hair—oh, and she is rather elderly than old, in spite of it. She has lived for years in Paris, occupying a noble apartment in the Faubourg St Germain, & knowing the best of everybody, for the most part– A great deal of attention she shows to us—and I make Robert go, though I cant, occasionally to her mondays. Once she proposed coming here to have tea with us,—she & Madame Mohl together .. & we had such a pleasant evening talking of Shelley &c, .. that they both mean to come again .. & fixed on next saturday– Only, in the present state of affairs, such engagements fall of course. People cant get at one & another in the evening without running risks. Last night we in vain expected the M. Milsand who wrote the review on Robert in the Revue des deux mondes of the 15th of august– (Did you see it?) He found us out [18] & asked to be received, .. & we were glad to make his acquaintance, & said so, & he was to come yesterday evening. I hope he was’nt shot on the road– There’s a Miss Fitton, [19] unmarried, & rich, & by no means young, who has called on us—& there seems to be a good deal in her– She knows Mr Kenyon, & has lived for years in Paris– And, through her, we are to know Major & Mrs Carmichael Smith [20] (Thackeray’s mother) as they are good enough to desire it particularly. Are these relations of Sir James Carmichael? [21] I think they must be. We mean to try to keep out of uninteresting acquaintances, but really it will be difficult. People are very kind & flattering in all sorts of ways to us. As to the Madme Mohl, you ask of, she is the wife of the oriental professor at the Institute, & is a delightful person. I am inclined to love her already. Full of cleverness & character, & interpenetrated with womanly goodness. Paris is a very agreeable place, I assure you, in spite of the cannonading! Poor Paris–
It has been cold—but the weather has been much milder for the last week or more. They had a lovely soft air & glittering moon last night for cutting one another’s throats– Oh, that moon was like a pathetic protest in Heaven, as it seemed to me!
In the worst cold, though I had a good deal of cough & uncomfortableness, I was not as unwell as I was in England last August– Also, the weather has been exceptional everywhere. Even at Rome there was snow, and at Florence, fogs. Robert thinks that by general accounts, we were better off here when at worst, than people have been at most other places. Still, one must wait deeper into the winter, to know about the climate. We have very warm & comfortable rooms—and the air is decidedly light, which is a great point with me. I write this in answer to your kind solicitude.
I was delighted, dearest George, to have your letter, & shall be still more delighted if you will conquer your repugnance to writing, so as to let me hear from you sometimes. I meant to have answered your letter instantly, but I waited, because Robert has been saying ever since we were in the railroad carriage travelling from London, “I shall write to George as soon as ever we are settled,” & I wanted to put our letters under the same envelope. He has been absorbed between his father & sister (whom he had to carry about Paris from morning till night when they were here), & the Shelley edition, .. which is off his hands today. But I wont wait another post for him, so as to lose this. He shall write by himself, & it will be better. His best love, however, I will send you now.
Dearest George, it’s a bad season to ask you to come to Paris—but you are a bold man & might venture it,—& if you have a holiday-time to spare about Christmas, besides, everything will probably be quiet by that time,—& you can have a room in this house & be our visitor without expence to yourself, & to my great delight, & to Robert’s true gratification– Do turn it over in your mind. Paris is worth looking at just now, I assure you, & I think we might amuse you in various ways. Henry promised me to come,—&, whenever he is able, we are more than willing, let him also understand–
Mr Phillimore used your name, in introducing himself to me, & no worse thing. He spoke of you as highly & even as affectionately, as man could speak of man. It was a great success with me, of course.
How glad you will be to have Arabel back! By the way, she is to send to Mrs Thompson’s for the Daguer[r]eotype of Wiedeman which is Sarianna Browning’s gift to her. The picture is very like, but makes the child look much older than he is. Aunt Jane says it will be more like him in some four years, than now.
I am gabbling on with this letter, till the hour of the post strikes– My impression continues to be that the Napoleon movement will succeed. Probably it will secure to France as much of a republic, as she can bear, or aspires to–
God bless you– Love to everyone of you. Believe me, ever
dearest George, your most affectionate Ba–
I cant read over what is written.
Address: Angleterre / George M Barrett Esqre / 50. Wimpole Street / London.
Publication: B-GB, pp. 154–162.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. This letter is postmarked 5 December 1851, a Friday. As EBB indicates, she began it the day before.
2. On the night of 1–2 December 1851, Louis Napoleon dissolved the National Assembly, declared universal suffrage, and arrested all the leaders of the opposition parties (EB).
3. It is unclear where Thiers was incarcerated; various sources give Ham and Mazas. His imprisonment was brief, however, as he was soon escorted out of the country. He was allowed to return the following summer.
4. “Outlaw.” After news of the coup reached Victor Hugo on the morning of 2 December, he gathered with fellow assembly members from the left and began writing proclamations that were “crudely run off on secret presses” (Graham Robb, Victor Hugo, New York, 1997, p. 298). One of these contained the following lines: “Louis Napoléon est un traître! / Il a violé la Constitution! / Il s’est mis hors la loi!” (Hippolyte Magen, Histoire de la Terreur Bonapartiste, 14th ed., Paris, 1872). According to Robb, “thousands” of this particular proclamation “were pasted up and immediately torn down by soldiers” (Victor Hugo, p. 298).
5. “General councils”; i.e., of the various Departments of France.
6. “I perform an act of adherence.” A plebiscite was held on 20 December 1851 to validate the coup d’état.
7. Cf. Macbeth, V, 1, 39–40.
8. An allusion to Louis Napoleon’s failed coup at Boulogne in 1841. He and a band of supporters used the Edinburgh Castle, a pleasure steamer bound for Hamburg with a group of tourists, to secretly transport weapons and men from England to Boulogne. Although the expedition was ill-fated from the beginning, “they pressed on with the unlikely, if not slightly ridiculous, ‘mascot’ of a tame eagle tied to the masthead” (Fenton Bresler, Napoleon III: A Life, 1999, p. 158).
9. “Good, good!”
10. “The little one.”
11. “Uncle.”
12. Esprit Victor Élisabeth Boniface, comte de Castellane (1788–1862), served with distinction in the Napoleonic wars, including the Russian campaign. At the time of the coup d’état he commanded the army of Lyon and maintained order in that city. For Castellane’s loyalty, Louis Napoleon named him Marshal of France on the first anniversary of the coup.
13. A Mr. Byrne, as identified by EBB in a letter to Mrs. Jameson dated [?27 March] [1852] (ms at Wellesley).
14. According to a report on the events of 4 December, filed by the Paris correspondent for The Times, “the ‘monster’ barricade of the rue St. Denis, constructed of omnibuses and other heavy vehicles, and masses of stone, was taken with great intrepidity and quickness. At the other side of it was found a heap of dead bodies of the insurgents who defended it, and those who tried to escape rushed to the Porte St. Martin, where they were caught between two fires, and all killed, to the amount of some hundreds” (6 December 1851, p. 4).
15. “Lynched,” or “hanged.”
16. Cf. The Curse of Minerva (1812), line 208.
17. James Bruce (1811–63), 8th Earl of Elgin, served as governor of Jamaica from 1842 to 1846. At the time of this letter, he was governor-general of Canada.
18. Through the Corkrans. According to their daughter Alice, they not only introduced Joseph Milsand to the Brownings, they had earlier introduced him to RB’s poetry (see Alice Corkran, “Mr. Browning,” The Queen, 21 December 1889, p. 893).
19. Sarah Mary Fitton (d. 1874, aged 78), writer of children’s books, had been living in Paris for many years. Her Conversations on Botany, an elementary science book, was published anonymously in 1817 and went through several editions. Miss Fitton is listed in the Brownings’ address book of this period; see Appendix IV.
20. Anne Carmichael-Smyth (née Becher, formerly Thackeray, 1792–1864), had married Richmond Thackeray (1781–1815) in 1810 in India. Two years after his death she married secondly, again in India, Henry Carmichael-Smyth (1780–1861).
21. James Carmichael (né Carmichael-Smyth, 1817–83), 2nd Baronet, was the son of Major-General James Carmichael-Smyth, the older brother of William Makepeace Thackeray’s stepfather. James Carmichael had married EBB’s cousin, Louisa Charlotte Butler, in 1841.
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