“We regretted much not to have seen you at Bath, and I was on the moment to write to you, like Henry the Fourth did to the brave Crillon after the battle!
“‘Pends toi, brave Landor, nous avons été à Bath, et tu n’y étois pas—’
“You will be glad to hear that the second son of my sister has been received at the Ecole of St Cyr, after a ticklish examination. Hoping to see you soon, believe me, yours most affectionately,
“D’Orsay.”
There is not very much of distinction, perhaps, in these two letters, but they serve to show the familiar friendship of the two men and also that the dandy studied his English History, at any rate as far as concerns the disposal of wives.
With John Forster he kept up a fairly lively correspondence, some of the letters containing points of interest:—
“Gore House, 25th October 1844.
“It is really an age since you’ve been here. It’s a poor joke! Where have you been?… Macready has sent me a Boston paper, in which I have read with great interest of his success.… I have not seen ‘De la Roche’ Maclise. Give him a thousand good wishes.
“Eugene Sue gets better and better; he leads you to his moral by somewhat perilous roads, but once you get there you find it pure and beautiful. The fecundity of his imagination surpasses all previous works; the Jesuits are smashed up, the convents broken down and the workman raised upon their debris. Amen.—Yours ever,
“D’Orsay.”