"In the case of any one who knew him as well as I did, attempts to urge him too rapidly along this path would have been tactless. It was, indeed, necessary to give these various impressions time to develop, and with him nothing was done quickly; his trust in time was infinite, and it was faithful to him unto death.
"Whenever I spoke to my uncle of his marriage, as I often did, I was not afraid so show him my surprise at a mistake as inexplicable as it was fatal in the eyes of God. He then replied: 'The truth is that I cannot give you a satisfactory explanation of it; it was done at a time of general disturbance, when people attached no great importance to anything, to themselves, or to others; there was no society and no family, and every one acted with complete carelessness in the midst of wars and the fall of empires. You do not know how far astray men may wander in periods of great social upheaval.' The same idea may be found in his proposed declaration to the Pope, the original of which is in my hands, when he wrote: 'This revolution which has swept everything away and has continued for the last fifty years.'
"Thus you may see that not only did he make no attempt to justify his marriage, but that he did not even try to explain it. His domestic life had been very unhappy under the Empire and the Restoration, and since that time I have always seen him embarrassed and ashamed of this strange bond which he no longer wished to bear, but the painful chain of which he could not entirely break; and when death broke it for him he realised his deliverance to the full.
"Some time afterwards, in March 1836, one of his servants was attacked by an illness which was soon declared mortal. My daughter induced the man to see a priest and to receive the sacraments. M. de Talleyrand knew of it, and expressed his satisfaction. On this occasion he said to me: 'Any other procedure in our house would have been a scandal which would certainly have caused unpleasant talk; I am delighted that Pauline should have prevented it.' The same evening he related the incident to Madame de Laval, and enlarged with satisfaction upon the influence which Pauline exerted upon the whole house by her firm and modest earnestness.
"In the spring of 1837 my uncle desired to leave Fontainebleau, whither he had come for the marriage of the Duc d'Orléans, before the Court had finished its stay. He told me to remain and to be present at the great festival which the King gave at Versailles a few days later. I rejoined him afterwards at Berry, where he had been anxious to go in time to meet the Archbishop of Bourges at Valençay, who was passing that way while making a tour of his diocese. I heard from Pauline that M. de Talleyrand had shown special attention to the prelate, even to the point of changing his personal customs. On Friday and Saturday he had declined to have meat upon his table, and all the meals were served as for a fast day.
"During the summer of the same year, 1837, the superior of the Sisters of Saint-André, who were established at Valençay by the care of M. de Talleyrand, came to inspect this community. He called at the Castle, where he was asked to dinner. As we left the table M. de Talleyrand said to me: 'I have an idea that the Abbé Taury is a member of the community of Saint-Sulpice; go and ask him.' I brought back a reply in the affirmative. 'I was sure of it,' he returned with satisfaction; 'there is a gentleness and reserve and a sense of propriety in the members of that community which is quite unmistakable.'
"On Sundays and great festivals M. de Talleyrand was always present at mass when he was at Valençay; on his two patron saints' days, St. Charles and St. Maurice, he was also present, and would have felt hurt if the vicar had not come to say mass at the Château. His behaviour in chapel was entirely proper, and notwithstanding his infirmity he would always kneel down at the right moment. If there was no mass, if people came late or made a noise, he noticed it as being improper. During mass he read attentively either the Funeral Orations of Bossuet or his Discourse upon Universal History. One Sunday, however, in November 1837 he had forgotten his book, and took one of the two which Pauline had brought for herself. It was the Imitation of Jesus Christ. As he gave it back to her he turned to me and asked me to give him a copy of this admirable book. I offered him mine, which he afterwards took to mass in preference to any other.
"He regarded it as important that the officiating priest should perform the service in full, and often quoted the Archbishop of Paris as the ecclesiastic whose conduct of the service was most to his taste and most dignified. One Sunday I ventured to tell him that during mass my thoughts had wandered in his direction. He wished to know them, and I ventured to tell him that I had been wondering what his thoughts could be when he remembered that he too had held the same distinction as the priest officiating before him. His reply seemed to me to be an obvious proof of the delusion under which he was concerning his true ecclesiastical position. He said: 'Why do you think it strange to see me at mass? I go there as you do, or any one else. You are constantly forgetting that I have resigned my orders, which fact makes my position very simple.' At that time he wished to show me the letters granting his resignation, but they were at Paris. After his death I found them, with all the papers relating to this business, and very curious they are. I examined them carefully; they showed me that his marriage alone had been the great obstacle to his reconciliation with the Church; his other offences had been pardoned and the ecclesiastical censure removed at Paris by Cardinal Caprara in the name of the Pope.
"I referred just now to the attention with which M. de Talleyrand used to read Bossuet's Discourse on Universal History; this fact recalls to my mind an incident which seemed to me remarkable. One day at Valençay, I think in the year 1835, he asked me to come into his room. I found him there reading. 'Come,' he said, 'I wish to show you how mysteries should be spoken of; read aloud and read slowly.' I read the following: "In the year 4000 of the world's history, Jesus Christ the son of Abraham in time, the Son of God in eternity, was born of a virgin.' 'Learn the passage by heart,' he said to me, 'and see with what authority and what simplicity all mysteries may be concentrated in these few lines. Thus and thus only it is proper to speak of holy things. They are imposed upon us, but not explained to us. That fact alone secures their acceptance; in other forms they are worthless, for doubt begins when authority ends, and authority, tradition, and dominion are only revealed sufficiently in a Catholic church.' He always had something unpleasant to say about Protestantism; he had seen it at close quarters in America, and had preserved a disagreeable memory of it.
"In the month of December 1837 I felt seriously ill. We were then at my house at Rochecotte, where, unfortunately, spiritual resources are few. However, as I felt in some danger I wished to send for the local clergyman. My uncle heard of it, and as I was getting well he showed some surprise. 'So you have reached that point,' he said to me; 'and how did you get there?' I told him as simply as I could, and he listened with much interest. In conclusion I added that, among many other serious considerations, I had not forgotten that of my social position, which I was the more bound to remember in view of its importance. He then interrupted me quickly and said: 'In truth there is nothing less aristocratic than unbelief.' Two days afterwards he re-opened a similar conversation of his own accord, made me go through the same details, then looked at me steadily and said: 'You believe, then?' 'Yes, sir,' I replied, 'firmly.'