3137. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 246–249.
Hotel de la Ville l’eveque
Rue Ville l’eveque. [Paris]
Wednesday morng. [Postmark: 13 October 1852]
My dearest precious Arabel, I dont know how I feel without you. My soul seems to have been dragged through a quickset hedge & to have left some torn shreds of itself on the thorns. God bless you my darling sister who are so more than a sister to me. I love you from the depths of my being–
Except for you, it is excellent for me to be out of England—now that all the painful goodbyes to dearest George (who has been so kind) and the rest, are said & done with– I feel better in myself & above the ills which your climate is undeniable, uncontroverted heir to. I coughed a good deal on the way to the railroad of course, & terribly on the way to the steamboat, for a most cruel wind met us at Folkestone & gave us a farewell for England– Then we all went down to the Lady’s cabin which was so full of shes that the floor was strewn all over. I told you in the pencilled post[s]cript to Robert’s letter to you (written in the railroad & not sent through want of time & opportunity) that the sea was smooth. It looked so at a distance, but we had actually a good deal of swell & motion. Four & twenty basins being called for simultaneously by our companions in the cabin, there was a tremendous prospect .. Sarianna, Wilson[,] Wiedeman & I extended ourselves on the ground & lay without word or gesture scarcely till we reached Boulogne .. & wonderful to relate, none of us were actually sick though Peninni grew pale & Wilson looked ghastly. At Boulogne there was not a moment for breakfast, but I was comforted by the extraordinary warmth of the weather which lasted through the whole journey afterwards. I not only threw off my respirator, but my shawl though both the windows were up—and Peninni observed with more expressiveness than refinement that he was “molto molto ot,” and “tutto wet” [1] in consequence. This was delightful & made some amends for having to wait till three oclock in the day before we could touch breakfast. If it had not however been for your provisions, I dont know how we should have borne the starvation. At Amiens we had coffee, roll & butter &c .. & Robert on calling for some meat, was supplied by the production of immense slices of bright red & raw roast beef, which a French lady assured us was intended as a delicate compliment to our English tastes. On our arrival in Paris we found that aunt Jane had been so unexpectedly & unnecessarily kind as to send her Brougham & servants to take us to our hotel, so that we came off & left Robert to bring the luggage by fiacre, after passing the customs. We are not at our old hotel [2] (there is some fatality) but we have very nice & pretty rooms notwithstanding, & found a warm fire, & an illumination of six wax candles, four of which (as we did’nt expect the President) I immediately blew out– We are very comfortable, and Wilson freely confesses that she likes foreign lodginghouses much better than the English, as being more convenient and (hear it!!) more clean. “To live in a house of her own, she would choose England”——that, for patriotism, of course! Oh—dont let me forget our misfortunes! My prevision about the linen was realized– We were made to pay thirty three francs duty on our two boxes of linen—fifteen per cent– Robert represented vainly that it was the linen of two families– They would’nt listen. Only, “as the government wished to give every facility to Englishmen settling in France,” they let us off everything else & did not even uncord a single other box .. so I might have taken heaps of unmade gowns with impunity. Also Peninni “passed,” unpaid for the whole way. You know they made us pay for him last year, so I suppose he looks younger instead of older. Wilson carried him in her arms. Never was such a good child. He talked & sang the whole way, & learnt to make ss, and wrote his name in the rail carriage. A horrible fright he was in at Amiens lest we should be too late for the train. He is a born traveller certainly.
I wore my respirator till I got on board the steamer, & we had a carriage on the rail all to ourselves so that we had both windows drawn up—so that I coughed very little on that journey– It was the getting in & out that tried so. But now I really seem better—though the air is sharper this morning than I expected to find it– There is no sun in our rooms, except in the dining room where we breakfasted, & where to my horror the attentive waiter (who recommended “lait de poule” [3] for my cough last night) had thrown the window wide open– He says it is warm enough, & I dare say I may feel so towards the middle of the day, but I did not dare go out with Robert & Sarianna who have gone to see their father. Robert says I did not cough nearly as much last night, and certainly the air is like chrystals– The sky strikes me, as it always does after England, with the blue height of it– While he is away I talk politics with the waiter & pass the time. He is a great Buonapartist & tells me that the feeling in Paris, & the provinces too, is very favorable to Louis Napoleon who walks on the boulevards quite unattended, & is doing everything to encourage by immense public works, the industry of the people– He has brought me the newspaper, to read a “discours magnifique” [4] pronounced at Bordeaux– [5] Everybody is delighted with it, he says, & the entrance into Paris next sunday is to be “sublime”. So much of my political news from the waiter. I heard nothing, tell George, of the annexation of Belgium. [6] Quite the contrary– “Il veut la paix, Madame—il ne veut pas la guerre.” [7]
When Robert comes back from his father he means to go to aunt Jane to thank her & I shall go too if it is at all warm enough.
Think of Robert leaving his desk– It is full of everything we have that is valuable– Do take care and let us have it as soon as you can safely. If Mr Reynolds does’nt come, Mr Reuben Browning will have opportunities– And did you find the two collars? They were in a paper.
Even my pens are in Robert’s desk—and if Wilson had not found me this paper I should have had none to write to you on, without buying it. Lose no time in writing to me, I entreat you– I want to hear directly– Peninni is crying out at the top of his voice “Desirée, Desirée.” He is very disappointed at not finding Desirée & the Champs Elysées.
Write, & tell me everything .. & how Henrietta is—and remember your promise about yourself– I hold it as a sacred promise– [8] Keep it, by your love for me & by mine for you.
Did you tell dear Minny how very pained I was to have to go without seeing her? Say how she is exactly.
I write with a horrible steel pen, as you may see. Sarianna’s especial love to you. Robert holds you in his heart as I do—he comprehends you, being a part of me.
God bless you, my beloved– Love to dearest George & all of them. Sette did’nt come to see me—at last. In uttermost haste
Your own Ba.
Seal this & send it with a stamp—will you? The pencil note was written on the railroad.
Address: Angleterre. / Miss Barrett / 50. Wimpole Street / London.
Publication: EBB-AB, I, 501–503.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. “Very very hot” and “all wet.”
2. In July 1851 the Brownings stayed at the Hôtel aux Armes de la Ville de Paris. But EBB may have in mind the Hôtel de la Ville de Paris, where the Brownings stayed in September 1846.
3. “Eggnog.”
4. “Magnificent speech.”
5. Louis Napoleon delivered a speech at a dinner in Bordeaux on 11 October 1852, the main subject of which was the re-establishment of the empire. A translation ran in The Daily News of 13 October (p. 4). In addressing fears that a French empire would necessarily be warlike, the president declared: “The empire is peace. It is peace, for France desires it, and when France is contented, the world is tranquil.” The empire had more pressing concerns than war: “We have immense uncultivated territories to clear, roads to make, ports to deepen, rivers to render navigable, canals to finish, our network of railways to complete.”
6. France and Belgium were currently in a trade dispute involving import tariffs. Belgium had recently raised import duties on French goods and manufactures. France responded by raising duties on Belgium coal. In reviewing this situation, The Examiner of 2 October 1852, while conceding that France was justified in its retaliation, wondered whether “the French Government has been actuated by sinister motives. … At present the people on both sides of the frontier are satisfied with matters as they are. The one do not desire conquest, nor the other annexation. But the French Government is probably not sorry to have an opportunity of demonstrating to both that the advantages they have hitherto possessed cannot be permanently secured without a closer union. It may thus hope to revive that desire for the amalgamation of the countries which has been for some years lost in indifference, not to say aversion” (p. 627).
7. “He wants peace, Madam—he does not want war.”
8. As indicated in letter 3151, the “promise” was to seek medical advice if the swelling in her feet did not improve.
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