Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord de Caulaincourt

“ However, all evil, as well as good, must cease in time, and Providence has granted for our consolation that, as the one must have an end, so shall the other not endure for ever; and thus, about three years after the arrival in the village of the little Archambault, his brother Charles Maurice did at length behold the countenance of one of his own kith and kin. The youngest brother of his father, the Bailli de Talleyrand, capitaine des galères, and knight of Malta, had just returned174 from a cruise. ”

“ 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 170 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. ”

“ He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour after building the railway station at Tours in 1849. He was the grandson of a painter, several of whose works are in the Louvre. Largely supported by the Duchesse de Talleyrand, he built numerous residences at Paris and several country houses in the valley of the Loire. VICENCE, the Duc de (1815-1896) . Armand Alexandre Joseph Adrien de Caulaincourt first entered upon a diplomatic career, which he abandoned in 1837. Under the July monarchy he was a deputy, under the Second Empire a Senator, and was made Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1868. ”

“ De Caulaincourt smiled at my surprise.
'You know she married Beauharnais when she was very young—in fact she was hardly sixteen. She has been sitting in her boudoir while her son has been baking in Egypt and Syria, so that they have pretty well bridged over the gap between them. Do you see the tall, handsome, clean-shaven man who has just kissed Josephine's hand. That is Talma the famous actor. He once helped Napoleon at a critical moment of his career, and the Emperor has never forgotten the debt which the Consul contracted. That is really the secret of Talleyrand's power. ”

“ He declared war against all privileges, and ended his letter by observing that “at last the people must count for something.” In 1788, the year before the Revolution, Talleyrand was made Bishop of Autun, with an income of 80,000 francs. A member of the Assembly of Notables in the month of November in this year, he showed himself one of the warmest advocates of the new ideas, and became at this time the friend of Necker. The clergy of his diocese sent Talleyrand as deputy to the States-General of 1789. ”

“ The king did not reply, but walked before the line of courtiers, biting his lip, as was his wont when vexed. Presently he returned, and again stood before the recreant wit, who alone looked all unmoved and unconscious amidst the general hilarity.
“Prince de Talleyrand,” said he, in a severe tone, “is it not time for you to seek the country? Paris is growing hot. I have been told that the shades of Valençay are the coolest and most delightful in all France.” ”

“ I have a similar permission to demand for one of the most distinguished members of the Constituent Assembly—M. de Talleyrand-Périgord, the famous Bishop of Autun. Our different ministers of Paris bear witness to his services. I have in my hands a memoir of which the duplicate exists in the papers of Danton; the date of this memoir is 25th of November, 1792, and it proves that M. de Talleyrand was actually occupied in the affairs of the Republic when he was proscribed by it. Thus, persecuted by Marat and Robespierre, he was also banished by Pitt from England ”

“ The costume in this picture is of about the year 1775, when Talleyrand was in the prime of youth, and when he had not long emerged from St. Sulpice; and yet the portrait is rather that of a young man of fashion of the time than of a youth vowed to a life of penance and austerity. The hair, of which he was always proud, hangs loose and unshorn over his embroidered coat; no sign of monkish scissors or of priestly tonsure is there. There does not exist a picture of the prince either as Abbé de Perigord or as Bishop of Autun. ”

“ Yesterday's newspapers were not equally satisfactory concerning his speech, but he was not disturbed on that account, for the intelligent and right-minded members of his audience have been really pleased. The house is constantly full of people coming to congratulate him. M. Royer-Collard said to me yesterday: "M. de Talleyrand has solemnly disavowed the unpleasant incidents of his life and publicly glorified the good and really useful parts of it."
Paris, March 7, 1838.—M. de Talleyrand had no further attacks of faintness yesterday, but he does not look well, and I think him much changed. ”

“ He is the Curé of Saint Thomas, one of the most simple-hearted and virtuous of men, and one whom, I think, it would much surprise were he to be told that the Prince de Talleyrand, in spite of his apostasy, had ever been taxed with foul falsehood and black treason, and all the other crimes which have been laid to his charge by the hackneyed writers of the day. ”

“ Prince Talleyrand has left a name in Europe perhaps the greatest ever achieved by any man in France who has devoted himself exclusively to the civil offices of the state. In the present century, he has become as great a diplomatic authority as was Machiavelli in the sixteenth; and hence the Hôtel Talleyrand, in the Rue St. Florentin, has been regarded by every disciple of state-craft who has visited the French capital, with perhaps as much veneration as the literary devotee accords to the more humble abode at Stratford of the great master of English poetry. ”

“ In the eyes of the good man (and if ever there was281 a saint upon earth, it is he) , M. de Talleyrand has never been guilty but of one fault, which he qualifies by naming it a tort, when, in a misguided moment, he left the Church for the allurements of the world; but nothing, however, can persuade the worthy curé that the prince would not have returned, had he not been prevented by his marriage. ”

“ By early dawn on the 30th, the people were, however, masters of Paris—of all the military posts—of all the barricades of the Tuileries—of the Louvre, and of the hotels of the ministers. The royalist troops had withdrawn, and were encamped round St. Cloud, where still lingered, in faint hope, in inert expectation, Charles X. and his court.
“Suddenly a report arose, and spread like wild-fire through Paris! The old king, alarmed at the consequences of a civil war, had decided on immediate flight! M. de Talleyrand, at first, would give no credence to the rumours. ”

“ No man was ever made the object of so much unjust vituperation as the Prince de Talleyrand, of calumnies which have been accepted by the credulous with as much good faith as proofs of holy writ; while not one single proof of perfidy or baseness has ever been brought against him—nothing but supposition, for the most part ill-sustained, and sometimes even completely belied by his subsequent conduct. Notwithstanding the apparent freedom with which he admitted all his entourage to his intimates, how little is really known of his private life! ”

“ The antechamber was deserted, for the anxious domestics had crowded one and all to the apartment nearest to that occupied by their beloved master, in order to obtain the earliest information respecting the progress of his malady. There perhaps never existed a person who, with so little apparent effort, possessed in so great a degree the power of conciliating the affections of his dependents234 as the Prince de Talleyrand. ”

“ He was prominent in the Revolution, without the stain of a regicide; he was a fugitive with the loyal crowd, without being stigmatized as a royalist. No amount of human foresight could have served him as a safe guide to shun the dangers which beset his fame and security on either side. His success was altogether fortuitous; but his friends attribute all to his superior sagacity and wisdom, while his enemies ascribe it to his remarkable cunning and prudence. When the days of danger and of blood passed by, Talleyrand returned to Paris with prestige, and was immediately employed by the Directory. ”

“ We are alone, and scarcely likely to be interrupted; and, while we wander across the park, I can listen with as much attention as though we were closeted together in the most silent chamber of the château.”
C. took my arm and moved forward.
49 “I can but give you my own impressions concerning the opinions of Prince Talleyrand during the eventful struggle of the three days,” said he ”

“ Talleyrand gives himself all the advantage to be got by depreciating others. He speaks warmly of Hamilton, and respectfully of Lansdowne and Fox in England, of Mollien and Caulaincourt in P" ranee ; and he is above the vulgar and inefficacious error of reviling enemies. Friends enjoy no immunity from his satiric temper ”

“ Sir,—M. Talleyrand-Périgord, late Bishop of Autun in France, does me a great deal of honour in supposing that a letter from me may be of use to him with you. I am too much flattered by the supposition to decline taking that liberty; but I have a more powerful motive, which is, to do justice to a most respectable individual, suffering under a great deal of combined persecution. M. Talleyrand is the eldest of one of the first families of France. ”

“ It is the charlatans alone whose numbers fail, dupes are never wanting.’
“Had I not been already convinced of the utter impossibility which must ever exist of any individual of our day being able to do justice to the268 ‘Life of Prince Talleyrand,’ that evening’s conversation, in the old Perrault-looking drawing-room of Valençay, would have amply proved it. A volume might be filled with the anecdotes he told me merely relating to the first years of his youth—just at his début in the fashionable world, before the revolution. ”

“ With a look that Talleyrand never forgot, he retreated to the door of the next chamber,—his eyes looking still from beneath his darkened brow. He spoke as he retreated backward,—his voice was full of meaning. "I am the only man born in the New World, who can raise his hand to God and say, I have not a friend, not one, in all America!" ”

“ An active, artful, popular man of the world, amidst such a confused assemblage of all orders, bent on being amused, had full play for his social and political qualities. But this was not all; with the taste for gaiety had also returned the taste for letters. Here, again, M. de Talleyrand found means to excite attention. I have said that, during his [101] absence from France he had been elected a member of the National Institute, which owed its origin, as I have noticed, to the propositions he had laid before the National Assembly just previous to its dissolution. ”

“ The houses of twenty noble dames were the centre for as many parties—of the King, of the Queen, of d’Artois, of the Duc d’Orléans, of Turgot, and Choiseul, and Necker, and de Rohan, and de Brienne, and so on. Talleyrand overlooked their political differences, except for a tactical opposition to Necker, and enjoyed their graceful33 friendship and influence. ”

“ Vienna, June 17, 1841.—Charles de Talleyrand came yesterday to tell me the latest news from Paris. Marshal Soult's quarrel has been settled: he will remain in office, and his son-in-law will go to Rome as ambassador; the Marshal is to receive 600,000 francs in payment of some loan which he professes to have made to the State. The Turko-Egyptian business is settled: the act will be ratified and sent to Alexandria, and the five Courts will meet at London if they have not already come to an agreement. ”

“ Very curious particulars and scenes in Prince Talleyrand’s own career are combined with extraordinary anecdotes of his contemporaries, and details are given of private adventure and domestic habits, which, in a truly remarkable and novel manner, illustrate the events of that great drama in which he acted so conspicuous a part. ”

“ His views for France were limited to the procuring it a representative government; and his views for himself were those which frequently lead ambitious men under such a government to adopt opposition as a road to power. “Tribun par calcul,” as was justly said of him by a contemporary, [19] “aristocrat par goût.” He aimed at obtaining for his country a constitution, and being minister of the crown under that constitution.
M. de Talleyrand had the same wish, and probably the same ambition. ”

“ The political career of Prince Talleyrand may be said to have begun at his very entrance into life. I have given you a sketch of his childhood—to detail the events of his youth would be to give the history of the close of the eighteenth century. I have heard him say often that few men could boast of having passed through life as he had done—always in a crowd, having to elbow his way through the thickest ranks. ”

“ The talking bird is called “the little green bird” in “The Princess Fairstar,” one of the Fairy Tales of the Comtesse D’Aunoy (1682) .
Tallboy (Old) , forester of St. Mary’s Convent.--Sir W. Scott, Monastery (time, Elizabeth) .
Talleyrand. This name, anciently written “Taileran,” was originally a sobriquet 74derived from the words tailler les rangs (“cut through the ranks”) .
Talleyrand is generally credited with the mot: “La parole a été donnée à l’homme pour l’aider à cacher sa pensée [or déguiser la pensée] ;” ”