Part 14 (1/2)
”I am at the gates of Italy, and I fear to give way to the temptation of pa.s.sing through them. The journey would not be costly; I could make it with the Fitz-James family, who would be exceedingly agreeable; they are all perfect to me. . . . I travel as fourth pa.s.senger in Mme. de Castries' _vetturino_ and the bargain--which includes everything, food, carriages, hotels--is a thousand francs for all of us to go from Geneva to Rome; making my share two hundred and fifty francs. . . . I shall make this splendid journey with the Duke, who will treat me as if I were his son. I also shall be in relation with the best society; I am not likely to meet with such an opportunity again. M. de Fitz-James has been in Italy before, he knows the country, and will spare me all loss of time. Besides this, his name will throw open many doors to me. The d.u.c.h.ess and he are both more than kind to me, in every way, and the advantages of their society are great.”
From Aix they went to Geneva. Just what happened here, we shall probably never know. Suddenly abandoning the proposed trip, Balzac writes his mother:
”It is advisable I should return to France for three months. . . .
Besides, my traveling companions will not be at Naples till February. I shall, therefore, come back, but not to Paris; my return will not be known to any one; and I shall start again for Naples in February, via Ma.r.s.eilles and the steamer. I shall be more at rest on the subjects of money and literary obligations.”
Later he alludes thus to his sudden departure from Geneva:
”_Mon Dieu, Mon Dieu!_ G.o.d, in whom I believe, owed me some sweet emotions at the sight of Geneva, for I left it disconsolate, cursing everything, abhorring womankind! With what joy shall I return to it, my celestial love, my Eva!”
Thus was ended an ardent friends.h.i.+p of about eight months' duration, for instead of rejoining the d.u.c.h.esse de Castries in Italy Balzac's first visit to that country was made many years later, and then in the delightful company of his ”Polar Star.”
In speaking of this sudden breach, Miss M. F. Sandars says:
”We can only conjecture the cause of the final rupture, as no satisfactory explanation is forthcoming. The original 'Confession'
in the _Medecin de Campagne_, which is the history of Balzac's relations and parting with Madame de Castries, is in the possession of the Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul. The present 'Confession' was subst.i.tuted for it, because the first revealed too much of Balzac's private life. However, even in the original 'Confession,' we learn no reason for Madame de Castries' sudden resolve to dismiss her adorer, as Balzac declares with indignant despair that he can give no explanation of it. Apparently she parted from him one evening with her usual warmth of affection, and next morning everything was changed, and she treated him with the utmost coldness.”
Fully to appreciate what this friends.h.i.+p meant to both, one must consider the private life of each. As has been seen, it was in the summer of 1832 that Balzac and his _Dilecta_ decided to sever their intimate connection, and since his _Chatelaine_ of Wierzchownia had not yet become the dominating force in his life, his heart was doubtless yearning for some one to adore.
There was also an aching void in the heart of Madame de Castries. She, too, was recovering from an amorous attachment, more serious than was his, for death had recently claimed the young Count Metternich.
Perhaps then, each was seeking consolation in the other's society.
There was nothing more astonis.h.i.+ng or charming than to see in the evening, in one of the most simple little drawing-rooms, antiquely furnished with tables, cus.h.i.+ons of old velvet and screens of the eighteenth century, this woman, her spine injured, reclining in her invalid's chair, languid, but without affectation. This woman--with her profile more Roman than Greek, her hair falling over her high, white brow--was the d.u.c.h.esse de Castries, nee de Maille, related to the best families of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. Accompanying the young Comte de Metternich on the hunt, she was caught in the branch of a tree, and fell, injuring her spine. But a shadow of her former brilliant self--such had become this beauty, once so dazzling that the moment she entered the drawing-room, her gorgeous robe falling over shoulders worthy of a t.i.tian, the brilliancy of the candles was literally effaced.[*]
[*] Philarete Chasles was a frequent visitor of her salon. When Balzac visited Madame Hanska at Vienna in the summer of 1835, he did a favor for the d.u.c.h.esse de Castries while there. He wrote _La Filandiere_, 1835, one of his _Contes drolatiques_, for Madame de Castries' son, M. le baron d'Aldenburg.
Balzac refers frequently to Count Metternich in writing to Madame Hanska of his a.s.sociation with Madame de Castries:
”There is still a Metternich in this adventure; but this time it is the son, who died in Florence. I have already told you of this cruel affair, and I had no right to tell you. Though separated from that person out of delicacy, all is not over yet. I suffer through her; but I do not judge her. . . . Madame de C---- insists that she has never loved any one except M. de M---- and that she loves him still, that Artemisia of Ephesus. . . . You asked me, I believe, about Madame de C---- She has taken the thing, as I told you, tragically, and now distrusts the M---- family. Beneath all this, on both sides there is something inexplicable, and I have no desire to look for the key of mysteries which do not concern me. I am with Madame de C---- on the proper terms of politeness, and as you yourself would wish me to be.”
After their abrupt separation at Geneva, their relations continued to be estranged:
”For the moment I will tell you that Madame de C---- has written me that we are not to see each other again; she has taken offense at a letter, and I at many other things. Be a.s.sured that there is no love in all this! . . . I meant to speak to you of Madame de C----, but I have not the time. Twenty-five days hence I will tell you by word of mouth. In two words, your Honore, my Eva, grew angry at the coldness which simulated friends.h.i.+p. I said what I thought; the reply was that I ought not to see again a woman to whom I could say such cruel things. I asked a thousand pardons for the 'great liberty,' and we continue on a very cold footing.”
Balzac was deeply wounded through his pa.s.sionate love for Madame de Castries, and resented her leaving him in the depths of an abyss of coldness after having inflamed him with the fire of her soul; he began to think of revenge:
”I abhor Madame de C----, for she blighted my life without giving me another,--I do not say a comparable one, but without giving me what she promised. There is not the shadow of wounded vanity, oh!
but disgust and contempt . . . If Madame de C----'s letter displeases you, say so frankly, my love. I will write to her that my affections are placed in a heart too jealous for me to be permitted to correspond with a woman who has her reputation for beauty, for charm, and that I act frankly in telling her so. . . .”
Indeed, his experience with Madame de Castries at Geneva had made him so unhappy that on his return to that city to visit his _Predilecta_, he had moments of joy mingled with sorrow, as the scenery recalled how, on his previous visit, he had wept over his _illusions perdues_.
While other writers suggest different causes, one might surmise that this serious disappointment was the beginning of Balzac's heart trouble, for in speaking of it, he says: ”It is necessary for my life to be bright and pleasant. The cruelties of the woman whom you know have been the cause of the trouble; then the disasters of 1848. . . .”
He tried to overcome his dejection by intense work, but he could not forget the tragic suffering he had undergone. The experience he had recently pa.s.sed through he disclosed in one of his most noted stories, _La d.u.c.h.esse de Langeais_, which he wrote largely in 1834 at the same fatal city of Geneva, but this time, while enjoying the society of the beautiful Madame Hanska. In this story, under the name of the heroine, the d.u.c.h.esse de Langeais, he describes the d.u.c.h.esse de Castries:
”This was a woman artificially educated, but in reality ignorant; a woman whose instincts and feelings were lofty, while the thought which should have controlled them was wanting. She squandered the wealth of her nature in obedience to social conventions; she was ready to brave society, yet she hesitated till her scruples degenerated into artifice. With more wilfulness than force of character, impressionable rather than enthusiastic, gifted with more brain than heart; she was supremely a woman, supremely a coquette, and above all things a _Parisienne_, loving a brilliant life and gaiety, reflecting never, or too late; imprudent to the verge of poetry, and humble in the depths of her heart, in spite of her charming insolence. Like some straight-growing reed, she made a show of independence; yet, like the reed, she was ready to bend to a strong hand. She talked much of religion, and had it not at heart, though she was prepared to find in it a solution of her life.”
In the same story under the name of the Marquis de Montriveau, Balzac is doubtless portraying himself. It was probably in the home of the d.u.c.h.esse de Castries that Balzac conceived some of his ideas of the aristocracy of the exclusive Faubourg Saint-Germain, a picture of which he has drawn in this story of which she is the heroine. Her influence is seen also in the characters so minutely drawn of the heartless _Parisienne_, no longer young, but seductive, refined and aristocratic, though deceptive and perfidious.
Before publis.h.i.+ng _La d.u.c.h.esse de Langeais_, the novelist was either tactful or vindictive enough to call on Madame de Castries and read to her his new book. He says of this visit: ”I have just returned from Madame de C----, whom I do not want for an enemy when my book comes out and the best means of obtaining a defender against the Faubourg Saint-Germain is to make her approve of the work in advance; and she greatly approved of it.” But a few weeks later, he writes: ”Here I am, on bad terms with Madame de C---- on account of the _d.u.c.h.esse de Langeais_--so much the better.” If Balzac refers to Madame de Castries in the following except, one may even say that he had her correct his work.