"In the newspapers you will see the filial comedy that has been played by the Prince de la Moskowa. M. Pasquier is praised for not having allowed him to speak. I am told that the Duc d'Orléans induced the Prince de la Moskowa to enter the House of Peers in order that he might vote for these stupid fortifications. It is also the Duc d'Orléans who influences the Journal des Débats. Old Bertin and the chief editors are strongly opposed to the fortifications, but young Bertin, orderly officer to the Duc d'Orléans and M. Cuvillier Fleury, private secretary to the Duc d'Aumale, insert what they please in the newspaper, or rather what the Château pleases. I know that Bertin de Veaux said the other day to one of my friends, 'Pray do not think that I am inclined to support so fatal a measure.'"
Rochecotte, March 14, 1841.—It was so fine yesterday and I had owed a call so long to the wife of my sub-prefect,[ [13] that I resolved to go to Chinon with my son-in-law between lunch and dinner. The road from this house to Chinon is pretty and easy. At Chinon itself I visited the great and noble ruins of the castle which overlook the rich and smiling valley of the Vienne: the room where Joan of Arc offered her holy sword to Charles VII.; the tower where Jacques Molay, the grand master of the Templars was long confined; and the subterranean passage leading to the house of Agnes Sorel; all these things can still be seen and one regards them with the eye of faith, which is the most important element in archæology. If this ruin were restored as that of Heidelberg has been, the result would be most picturesque. I stayed for a quarter of an hour at the office of the charity organisation where the Sister Superior now is who spent fourteen years in the household of Valençay and who had several times expressed a desire to meet me. She is a thoroughly good person and liked everywhere, and her departure was much regretted at Valençay. When I rang the bell a sister came to tell me that the Mother Superior was at the point of death and had received the last sacraments a few hours before. However, I asked her to tell the invalid that I was there and she insisted upon seeing me. I was much saddened by the interview which cheered the failing life of this excellent person. She told me, as the late Mgr. de Quélen once told me, that from the first day when she had seen me to the day of her death which was now at hand she had never passed a day without praying for me. It is good to be loved by Christian souls and their loyalty is to be found nowhere else.
When I returned from Chinon I found two letters which will influence my movements during the summer; one was from the King of Prussia who had heard of my travelling proposals and asks me to go and see him at Sans Souci. This induces me to go to Berlin about May 12 and so one point is settled. The other letter is from my sisters who tell me that they will remain at Vienna until July 1, and that I ought to carry out the proposal I had formed to go and see Madame de Sagan there if she had lived. I am anxious that the tie between my sisters and myself should be maintained. This is only as it should be and it is also a comfort; we are now reduced to a very small group and the tie of blood has a strength which one is surprised to find persisting in spite of all that should naturally destroy it or at any rate weaken it.
Rochecotte, March 16, 1841.—Yesterday I had a letter from Madame de Lieven who says: "The Firman conferring heredity seems sheer humbug; such was the opinion of the Pasha and even more so the opinion of Napier, the English admiral. He has advised the Pasha to refuse it, which he has done very politely. While these events were in progress in the East, we here received a very polite invitation from London to rejoin the concert of Europe in order to settle the Eastern Question in general, and this invitation was preceded by a protocol announcing that the Egyptian question was entirely settled. As the terms of invitation seemed to be suitable, there was a disposition here to open negotiations. Your Government has proposed some verbal changes which were immediately accepted, and the matter was almost concluded when the news that I have just told you arrived. M. Guizot immediately brought the matter to a standstill, for the Egyptian affair, instead of being terminated, is beginning again, and the Sultan and the Pasha are as far from an understanding as ever. The Firman was dictated by Lord Ponsonby and the other three representatives opposed it. The English at Paris are ashamed of this despicable trick; every one regards it as an act of bad faith, and there is some small amusement at the embarrassment which will be caused to the northern Powers, as the document will have to be drawn up again unless the whole quarrel is to be reopened as if no Treaty of July 15 had ever been made. Meanwhile the Germans are yearning to see the isolation of France come to an end, as this position forces them to undertake great expense in the way of armaments, while France will not hear of any understanding as long as the difference with Egypt persists.
"And what of America? Lady Palmerston writes to me every week and says in her last letter, 'We are very pleased with the news from America, and everything will be settled.' This means that poor MacLeod will be hung and the English territory will be seized. If this will satisfy them, all well and good.[ [14] In China, English affairs are also going badly.
"Bresson will certainly return to Berlin. M. de Sainte-Aulaire has recently arrived. He will go to London, when, I cannot say, probably when you send an ambassador there. I do not know who will go to Vienna.
"Lord Beauvale had an attack of gout during the celebration of his marriage;[ [15] he told the priest to hurry up, and was taken home very ill. The next day he was in bed and his wife had dinner at a small table at his bedside. They will come to Paris on their way to England.
"Adèle de Flahaut is dying; her father is behaving like a madman, but her mother shows a man's courage.
"I have decided to send you Lady Palmerston's letter so that Pauline may read the details that interest her."
The following is Lady Palmerston's letter to the Princess: "I must tell you that my daughter Fanny is engaged to Lord Jocelyn. He is a charming young man of twenty-eight, handsome, cheerful, loyal, clever and pleasant, and he has travelled in every part of the world. He has just come back from China, of which he gives very interesting accounts. We are all very pleased with the marriage, which is quite romantic. He sent his proposal in writing from Calcutta a year and a half ago but could not wait for an answer as he was obliged to start for Chusan; so he has been nearly two years wavering between hope and fear and reached Liverpool without knowing whether he would not find her married to some one else, for in the English papers which he sometimes saw he occasionally found announcements of Fanny's marriage with some other person. Lord Jocelyn's father is Lord Roden, a great Tory, but that, you know, is a trifle which does not disturb us, as Fanny's happiness is our first object, and love and politics do not go together. Moreover, he is not a fanatic like his father, but very reasonable and steady in his ideas.