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V. FEELING HIS WAY. - The Memoirs of Victor Hugo| Set Display | Please Turn On Your Virtual Bookmarks | Help Support This Site | Table of Contents | Victor Hugo |
Page 139 of 171
V. FEELING HIS WAY. - The Memoirs of Victor Hugo
January, 1849.
At Odilon Barrot's ball on January 28 M. Thiers went up to M. Leon Faucher and said: "Make So-and-So a prefect." M. Leon Faucher made a grimace, which is an easy thing for him to do, and said: "Monsieur Thiers, there are objections." "That's funny!" retorted Thiers, "it is precisely the answer the President of the Republic gave to me the day I said: 'Make M. Faucher a Minister!'"
At this ball it was remarked that Louis Bonaparte sought Berryer's company, attached himself to him and led him into quiet corners. The Prince looked as though he were following Berryer, and Berryer as though he were trying to avoid the Prince.
At 11 o'clock the President said to Berryer: "Come with me to the Opera."
Berryer excused himself. "Prince," said he, "it would give rise to gossip. People would believe I am engaged in a love affair!"
"Pish!" replied Louis Bonaparte laughingly, "Representatives are inviolable!"
The Prince went away alone, and the following quatrain was circulated:
~En vain l'empire met du fard,
On baisse ses yeux et sa robe.
Et Berryer-Joseph so derobe
A Napoléon-Putiphar~.
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February, 1849.
Although he is animated with the best intentions in the world and has a very visible quantity of intelligence and aptitude, I fear that Louis Bonaparte will find his task too much for him. To him, France, the century, the new spirit, the instincts peculiar to the soil and the period are so many closed books. He looks without understanding them at minds that are working, Paris, events, men, things and ideas. He belongs to that class of ignorant persons who are called princes and to that category of foreigners who are called ~êmigrês~. To those who examine him closely he has the air of a patient rather than of a governing man.
There is nothing of the Bonapartes about him, either in his face or manner. He probably is not a Bonaparte. The free and easy ways of Queen Hortense are remembered. "He is a memento of Holland!" said Alexis de Saint Priest to me yesterday. Louis Bonaparte certainly possesses the cold manner of the Dutch.
Louis Bonaparte knows so little about Paris that the first time I saw him he said to me:
"I have been hunting for you. I went to your former residence. What is this Place des Vosges?"
"It is the Place Royale," I said.
"Ah!" he continued, "is it an old place?"
He wanted to see Beranger. He went to Passy twice without being able to find him at home. His cousin Napoleon timed his visit more happily and found Béranger by his fireside. He asked him:
"What do you advise my cousin to do?"
"To observe the Constitution."
"And what ought he to avoid?"
"Violating the Constitution."
Béranger could not be induced to say anything else. 
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