Julie de Lespinasse
Ségur, Pierre Marie Maurice Henri, marquis de, 1853-1916 | Lee-Warner, P. H. (Philip Henry), 1877-1925, tr
\ ., V. I « . ^-> ^./. * O K 0 ^ ,^- .> ■^ " 0 r > \ * •kV .v^' ^/>. "- ."-^JIj •^\ -n^ v^ ,0- '^^ ■e, /* :^ ^^^^^^'-%./ .^^^ /' -.^ - "i. >A'- o 0' ,H -7-, V ,s ^ . 0 -i::>X ° <-r/:':- .o'- .\^ JULIE DE LESPINASSE •7'ul/e - J/ea/nie -Oico-no/^e oe Ae<j/.>t^nrt.j<je. / ?-> :^ - / 7 /Y/ Julie de Lespinasse By the Marquis de Segur Translated from the French by P. H. Lee Warner New York Henry Holt and Company 1907 Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson 5s= Co. Edinburgh ^y/S INTRODUCTION One summer afternoon in the year 1811 Madame de Stael was returning from an excursion down the Chambery valley, when the failing conversation of her party drifted to a recent book of which the reputation was already in the ascendant. Talk suddenly became animated. Madame de Stael was the first to take fire, and her brilliant words held all hearers by their charm. A storm broke over the carriage, but neither for wind, hail, nor lightning had any of its occupants attention to spare. One subject possessed every sense — the volume of Letters of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse which the widow of Count Guibert had given to the world a few months earlier. The anecdote may serve in some degree to indicate the profound interest excited in the literary world, almost from the moment of their first publication, by pages that revived, as it were gave a second life to, the soul of a woman dead these thirty years and whose name was scarcely known to the new generation. Little less than a complete century has since passed, but the accents of this voice from the grave are still to be heard. vi INTRODUCTION Like Madame de Stael and her fellow-travellers, we feel our hearts beat in response to the tumults of this heart ; we experience the sad charm of these burning lines, the very disorder and contradictions in which so convincingly reflect their passionate origin that one may apply to them the words of Lamartine, well used of the letters of another Julie, where, in his " Raphael," he says : Her very breath was in the words, her eyes glanced tip from the lines; one felt through the phrases the living warmth of the lips from which they had just fallen} By these artless letters, with their unstudied style, — frequently, indeed, lacking any style in the grammatical sense of that term,— the spontaneous overflow from the deeps of her soul, and so little in- tended for alien eyes that she particularly enjoined their destruction, Julie de Lespinasse has found her unexpected place in the history of literature. Suc- cessive editions confirm the lasting interest of this correspondence, yet all follow the text as origin- ally printed by Madame de Guibert, incomplete, abridged, and full of suppressions as it is, if only because of the reticence natural in a woman to whose husband the originals were addressed. The personality of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse has excited a similar curiosity in the wider public, and various biographers have described her appear- ance, outlined her character, and traced the prin- cipal events of her romantic career. Their works ^ Julie des Herettes, immortalised by the poet as Elvira. INTRODUCTION vii have, in a word, popularised a portrait of which, if it be possible, the attractions are enhanced, in that it may be taken as representative of an epoch, a symbol of the revolution accomplished in contemporary thought during the period of Julie's life — the change of the age of reason into the age of passion and sentimental licence. But notwithstanding the undoubted interest of some of these volumes, no single one has failed to impress me by the extensive intermissions and the numerous obscurities to be encountered by all who would study the history of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse. Her birth, youth, and education ; that first passion, which, as she herself testifies, exercised so decisive an influence on her life, — all remain vague, enveloped in mists, frequently buried in impenetrable obscurity. The very episode of her passion for Guibert and the connection between the pair — the essential subject of the published Letters — can be followed only in the most imperfect and summary manner. We can see her blind adora- tion for "the great man," the adored of contem- porary society ; learn how cruelly she suffered from his coldness and infidelities ; watch her fall a prey to disillusionment and despair after but a few years. But the real lights to be gained upon the circum- stances of this love-story, or its successive phases, are rare, and it does not need much study to per- ceive that the several accounts of the few indubit- able landmarks frequently differ in detail. viii INTRODUCTION A happy accident first afforded me most pre- cious light upon this last crisis in the history of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse, when I learned that the rich family archives of Guibert's descendants contained the originals of the famous letters. Count de Villeneuve-Guibert opened this door to me with a courtesy which I can never sufficiently acknow- ledge. Himself appreciating the value of his in- heritance as well as any one, the Count allowed me to read the very sheets penned by Julie, without alteration or suppression. Here, also, are nume- rous other letters, pages of a livelier or more inti- mate tone, withheld from publication when the rest were printed for reasons then of sufficient weight, although now without a claim to consideration. The sheets overflow with nervous life and gain additional interest from the considerable packet of Guibert's replies which accompanies them. They afford us an almost uninterrupted view of the most secret motions of a sincere and exalted soul. These priceless documents, the first as the most substantial reward of my curiosity, encouraged me to further research. I am happy to be able to announce their imminent publication under the supervision of their enlightened owner. My next effort was to elucidate the remaining obscurities in this story of many troubles, and evidence was not long in arising from the dust of ancient archives with a lavishness exceeding my most ardent hopes. The birth, education, and INTRODUCTION ix intimate existence of Julie were displayed in letters exchanged with one of her brothers, no less than in notes, letters, and the manuscript journals of certain of her relatives — hitherto unprinted docu- ments which I consulted in the library of the town of Roanne, or among the family papers of the Marquis de Vichy and the Marquis d'Albon, virgin riches put at my disposal with a liberality and kindliness beyond measure. Other side-lights on the sam.e early period I have gained from the memoirs and intimate papers of Madame de la Ferte Imbault, for permission to draw on which I am once again indebted to the Marquis d'Estampes. A like good fortune followed my efforts to un- ravel the mystery hitherto veiling Julie's first love and her relations with the Marquis de Mora. Thanks to the kindly offices of the Marquis d'Alcedo, I obtained communication of documents from the muniment-room of the house of Villa- Hermosa, which define the hitherto shadowy per- sonality of the man who played his part in this touching episode. Finally, in respect of the friends and familiars of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse, her salon, and the public and more worldly side of her character, Mademoiselle Valentine Stapfer hospitably made me free of the rich archives preserved in her chateau at Talcy ; while I owe similar acknowledg- ments to Monsieur Charles Henry, discoverer and printer of the " Unpublished Letters." Numerous X INTRODUCTION works, especially on David Hume, consulted in the Library of the British Museum, complete the list of original sources on which I have drawn to any great extent. Before, now, proceeding to my work, I would only thank the many friends who have aided me with their encouragement and advice. To all of these I hereby tender sincere thanks, particularly to Monsieur Gaston Boissier, Count de Rocham- beau, and Monsieur Joseph Dechelette. CONTENTS 1 PAGE iNTRODUCTfQN V CHAPTER I Master Basiliac's client — Birth of Julie de Lespinasse — Her father — Early years at the Chateau d'Avauges — Maternal distress of the Countess d'Albon — Her death — Julie at the Chateau de Champrond — Her younger brother, Abel de Vichy — Family scenes and quarrels — Julie desires to take the veil — Madame du Deffand CHAPTER H The Marquise du Deffand — Three periods in her life— State of her mind on arrival at Champrond — Rapid intimacy with Mademoiselle de Lespinasse — Spiritual and physical portrait of Julie in her twentieth year — First project of living with Madame du Deffand — Julie leaves the Vichys — Period of her stay at Lyons — Complicated negotiations with Madame du Deffand — Opposition of Count d'Albon — Julie decides to live in Paris 33 CHAPTER HI The Convent of Saint Joseph — Intimate life of the Marquise du Deffand — Influence of the new life on Julie — Her first friends — The Marechale de Luxembourg — Prepon- derant influence of Madame du Deffand on the intellectual formation of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse — Similarity in character and spirit — The honeymoon of their alliance — Good feelings endangered by instinctive coquetry of Julie — Her first conquests : the Chevaher d'Aydie and President Henault — Her first romance: Viscount de Taafe — Prudent intervention of Madame du Deffand — Her moderation throughout 66 xii CONTENTS CHAPTER IV ■ PAGE Youth of d'Alembert — His daily intimacy with Madame du Defifand — His character, and relations with women — First meeting of d'Alembert and Mademoiselle de Lespinasse — His tender feeling for her— Madame du Deffand feels injured — Her changed attitude towards Julie — Similar resentment against d'Alembert — Comedy of 77/^? Philo- sophers and consequent quarrel — Journey of d'Alembert to Prussia — His letters to Julie— Last episodes in his friendship with Madame du Deffand — Clandestine "first receptions" in Julie's apartment — Discovery by the Marquise — Violent scene between the two — Their definite separation — d'Alembert bids farewell to the salon at Saint Joseph's — Despair and constant hatred of Madame du Deffand 93 CHAPTER V Mademoiselle de Lespinasse opens house in the Rue Saint Domi- nique— Her lodging — Her financial resources — Attacked by small-pox — d'Alembert contracts the disease — He enters Julie's house — Their common life — Period of calm and happiness — Their intimacy with Madame Geoffrin — Con- sequent gain to Julie — Mademoiselle de Lespinasse forms the project of a salon — Her immediate success, and mar- vellous tact in the part — Special character of the salon of Rue Saint Dominique — Her influence with her friends — Influence of the new circle on the literary world and the Academy I2{ CHAPTER VI Friendships of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse — Condorcet — His entire devotion to Julie — He defei's to her advice— ^She plays the part of reason against love in his regard — Suard — Julie secures his election to the Academy — Her affection for, and testimonial to her confidence in him — The Chevalier de Chastellux — Dissimilarity between his char- acter and that of Julie — Her vexation at this, but her just appreciation of his merits — Her great services to him — Women in the salon of Rue Saint Dominique — Countess de Boufiflers — Madame de Marchais — Jealousy of Julie on their account— The Duchesse de Chitillon— She wins Julie's heart 156 CONTENTS xiii CHAPTER VII The foreign colony in Paris in the eighteenth century— Success of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse with these birds of passage — David Hume — Incredible public infatuation for this man — He haunts Julie's saloji — She intervenes in the quarrel between Hume and J. J. Rousseau — She presides at the conference which dictates Hume's line of conduct — Conse- quent dissensions in the Encyclopccdist camp — Espitolary war between d'Alembert, Rousseau, Walpole, Voltaire, and others — Generous conduct of Hume — Other foreign friends of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse : the Marquis Carracioli, Abbe Galiani, Lord Shelburne — Intimacy of Julie with the latter — She professes admiration for his statesmanship. 184 CHAPTER VIII Mademoiselle de Lespinasse and politics — Curious mixture of utopianism and pessimism — Her feeling for Turgot — Julie's ideas and tastes in music and literature — Her intimate life — Her horror of all change — Relations with her family — Regular correspondence with Abel de Vichy — She plays the mother to her brother — Her wise advice to him — Her sad confidences to him in respect of her poverty — Growing discouragement of her last years ...... 214 CHAPTER IX Love in the latter half of the eighteenth century — Revolutionary influence on feminine ideas of the works of J. J. Rousseau and Richardson — Mademoiselle de Lespinasse is the most illustrious victim of the romantic infection — The Fuentes family — Birth and education of the Marquis de Mora — His marriage— His father-in-law. Count d'Aranda — Death of the Marquise de Mora — The Marquis comes to Paris — Reputation of the family — His personal success in the literary and social salons — First meeting with Julie — His instant attraction for her — He leaves Paris directly afterwards — His triumphant reception in Madrid society — His essays in literature— Relations with the Duchesse de Huescar — Sudden death of Mora's son — He returns to Paris. 234 xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER X PAGE Changed opinions of Mora — His ill-health and discouragement — Similar ailments of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse — Violent outburst of mutual passion — Initial excitement of both — Mora visits Ferney, and is warmly received by Voltaire on d'Alembert's introduction — Return to Paris and resumption of the romance — Platonic character of the connection — Projected marriage with Julie — Mora, recalled to the Spanish army, hands in his papers, but is taken seriously ill and sent to Valentia — Violent excitement of Made- moiselle de Lespinasse — Consequent disappointment of d'Alembert — He travels for two months — Sudden return of Mora to Paris — Renewed passion, and relapse of Mora — His father insists on his leaving France — Painful parting of the lovers 257 CHAPTER XI Fete at Moulin-Joli — Count Guibert — His high repute at this time — Popularity with women — Madame de Montsauge — Guibert impresses Julie — Her long illusion on the nature of his feelings for her — His German tour — Increasing passion of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse — Her remorse on account of Mora — Bad news from the latter — Correspondence between d'Alembert and the Duke of Villa Hermosa — Cruel agitation of Julie — She confesses her love to Guibert — His response — Growing jealousy on account of Madame de Montsauge — Illness of Guibert — Julie's anxiety — Guibert at last announces his return ..... 287 CHAPTER Xn Guibert returns to Paris — Julie's passionate outburst — Guibert breaks with Madame de Montsauge — Soiree of February 10, 1774— Tragic coincidence — First excitement after the fact — Julie closes her salon — First disillusionment — Jealous suspicions on meeting Madame de BoufBers and Madame de Montsauge — Scenes between the lovers — Julie's despair at her own weakness— Serious relapse of the Marquis de Mora — d'Alembert's attempts to bring him back to Paris— Mora's secret doubt of Julie's faithfulness — He sets out to rejoin her — Accident consequent on fatigue of the journey — Final letter to Julie— His death — Julie's anguish and attempt to commit suicide — Persistent remorse — Her letters to the dead man — Surprising patience of Guibert .... ..... Ptiblic Archives. — MSS. in the library at Roanne ; MSS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale ;"MunicipaI and Departmental archives at Lyons ; Departmental Archives of Macon ; MSS. in the Library of the British Museum, and elsewhere. JULIE DE LESPINASSE CHAPTER I Master Basiliac's client — Birth of Julie de Lespinasse — Her father — Early years at the Chateau d'Avauges — Maternal distress of the Countess d'Albon— Her death — ^Julie at the Chateau de Champrond — Her younger brother, Abel de Vichy — Family scenes and quarrels — ^Julie desires to take the veil — Madame du Deffand. In the heart of the city of Lyons, and fronting the quays which Hne the right bank of the Saone, rise the great buildings of a picture gallery. Originally known by the name of Grand Custom- House Place, the space thus filled was up to quite recent times the site of the old Custom House. Here, about the year 1730, master Louis Basiliac, "official surgeon to the Marshal," occupied a modest tene- ment with his wife, dame Madeleine Ganivet, a professional midwife. The quarter was un- fashionable, and the neighbours were almost exclu- sively of the lower middle and artisan classes, but known honesty and a lengthy practice seem to have gained the surgeon a considerable local reputation. To this discreet house and respectable couple there came a client one November evening in the year 1732. A face of refined sweetness, extreme youth and beauty, no less than a style of dress, A 2 JULIE DE LESPINASSE manners, and speech very different from those of the Basiliacs' usual patrons, conspired to surround the visitor with an air of tantalising mystery. The newcomer left her hosts little time for speculation, since already on the 9th of the month she was delivered of a girl child, more frail and of less size than usual, but perfectly sound and of the liveliest disposition. She was baptized next day in the neighbouring church of Saint Paul, Basiliac and his wife standing godfather and godmother. The names of two other witnesses are unknown. The entry in the Register, from the hand of Rector Ambrose himself, may be printed here in full, since no correct transcription has yet been published. " This loth of November 1732 was baptized Julie Jeanne Eleonore de Lespinasse, born yesterday, legitimate daughter of Claude Lespinasse, burgher of Lion, and of dame Julie Navarre his wife. Godfather, master Louis Basiliac, licensed surgeon of Lyon ; godmother, dame Madeleine Ganivet, wife of said Basiliac, vice dame Julie Lechot absent. Lacking the father's signature through absence, two witnesses attest with their signatures in addition to those of godfather and godmother. In witness whereof "BASILIAC— AMBROSE, Rector.'' At a later date, in a different ink, an unknown hand has inserted z*/ before "legitimate," while the words his wife are ruled out, and the margin is marked with a cross, the particular sign used in this register to denote the issue of irregular unions. Claude I'Espinasse and Julie Navarre, the parents assigned, are purely fictitious personages of whom no trace has ever existed in the BIRTH OF JULIE 3 city registers. Claude and Julie are, however, the Christian names of a certain great lady, at that time an object of universal attention among the scandal- mongers of Lyons. The name of I'Espinasse is, further, that of an estate brought into the d'Albon family during the fifteenth century by the marriage of ^ Alix de I'Espinasse with William d'Albon, seigneur de Saint- Forgeux. Master Basiliac's client was, thus, at little pains to disguise her identity when she caused the doctor to register her daughter's baptism in this fashion. Few will be ignorant of the antiquity and fame of the house of d'Albon. From the twelfth century onwards its members give frequent governors to Dauphiny, while its power and wealth were such that one of its chroniclers can record how there was once a question " whether its lands should not be constituted a kingdom, since indeed they are as a kingdom in size." Among the many scions of this warlike house, who have left their name in our history,^ Marshal Saint-Andre, a hero of the re- ligious wars, killed gloriously at the battle of Dreux, is undoubtedly the most famous. In the opening years of the eighteenth century the house was divided into two branches, the Counts of Saint-Marcel and the Marquisses of Saint- Forgeux, either being represented by an only child — Claude d'Albon, Count of Saint- Marcel, born at ^ Contemporary Memoirs and legal documents make no attempt at a uniform spelling of the name. I'Espinasse, de Lespinasse, and even Lespinasse, with no prefix, are found together. I have, through- out, adopted Julie's own autograph of de Lespinasse. ^ Jacques d'Albon, Marshal Saint-Andre, 1 524-1 562. 4 JULIE DE LESPINASSE Roanne on June 25, 1687, and Julie Claude Hilaire d'Albon, born at Lyons on July 28, 1695. This girl, motherless from the age of three, and thenceforward cared for only by a father whose life appears to have been most unedifying, rightly passed for one of the richest heiresses in the country, being heir-pre- sumptive through her father to the Marquisate of Saint-Forgeux, while from her mother she inherited the principality of Yvetot. She already bore this last title, and since the revenues attached formed a considerable dowry in themselves one can easily conceive that both branches of the family joined hands in the common hope of uniting such fair estates in the person of a d'Albon, Questions of compatibility or choice, on the part of those princi- pally concerned, presented no problem to parents of that period. The idea of a marriage between the cousins was carried out as soon as conceived. The Archbishop of Lyons gave the necessary dispen- sation ; the contract was signed at the Chateau d'Avauges on February 10, 171 1, and a few weeks later saw the marriage solemnised at Lyons. Julie d'Albon was sixteen when her future was thus arranged. An interesting portrait in the Chateau d'Avauges, painted a few years later, shows us a young woman of slight but active figure, with an oval face of refined features, and light brown hair. The black eyes, of a softly languish- ing aspect, impart a dreamy quality to the entire face. A certain length in the n(^e mars features otherwise beautiful in a regular style, but the dominant impression to be derived from this por- COUNTESS D'ALBON 5 trait is that of extreme sweetness ; its melancholy, in the language of that day its "touching," expres- sion suggests a spirit already resigned to the troubles that the future is to bring. The early years of this marriage, even if im- perfectly happy, were none the less free of any disaster. Several children prove the reality of the married tie ; a daughter, Marie Camille Diane, was born in 17 16. Two others died in infancy. Finally, on November 11, 1724, came the son, Camille Alix Eleonor Marie, whose birth, long and impatiently awaited, was to assure the perpetuity of the race. But from this moment trouble begins, and does not end until all community of existence concludes in a definite separation. No effort has yet succeeded in illuminating the obscurity which clings alike to the causes and cir- cumstances of this separation. It may, however, be inferred that the first fault lay with the man, and that his fault was grave. That guardianship of the two children was, from the first, entrusted to the Countess d'Albon seems eloquent proof of this supposition, no less than the fact that she kept them with her to the day of her death. Whatever her later conduct may have been, and it was surely such as would have justified protest by the count, the latter never raised an objection or criticism. He established himself in the town of Roanne, dying there in 1771, after an obscure and retired existence. Th( silence of this retirement was broken by no effort on his part, nor did he ever attempt to assert a claim on the life of his family. 6 JULIE DE LESPINASSE The Countess d'Albon, meanwhile, continued to reside on her estates, more generally at the Chateau d'Avauges, sometimes in her house at Lyons. Quasi-widowed at the age of thirty, beau- tiful, sensitive, and of the romantic disposition clearly indicated by what little we know of her, it was easy to prophesy that her heart would find some kind of distraction. Nor was the event long delayed, for she presently conceived an attachment no less serious and lasting than it was almost publicly avowed, as was the custom of the day. The period is, indeed, one in which the majority of her sex found virtue to consist in the possession of no more than one lover at a time, and morality in faithfulness to him. A species of handbook for women, or a guide to the conscience, written by one of them at about this date, contains these ingenuous lines : "If our lady have a lover is not the question, but ' who is the lover ? ' " A woman's reputation hangs on the reply to this. Dishonour, to-day, may lie " in the object, but never in the attachment." A passage in Bachaumont's memoirs is even more original. Calmly debating the proba- bilities in respect of his own paternity, he decides in favour of a cousin, a particular friend of his mother, on the ground that a close physical re- semblance is seldom fortuitous. But, whatever the real facts, and however erroneous contemporary gossip, local scandal never hesitated to couple the names of Madame d'Albon and a certain man. Madame du Deffand categorically asserts that "no one is ignorant " of this romance. JULIE'S FATHER 7 Julie de Lespinasse was, as already detailed, the child of this attachment, but she was neither the only one nor the first. On June 14, 1731, Madame d'Albon became the mother of a son who, at his baptism in the parish of Saint-Nizier at Lyons, received her own first name of Hilaire, and was registered as "son of John Hubert, merchant, and of Catherine Blando." The child has no place in this chronicle. Reared secretly in some unknown monastery within the city, on April 13, 1750, being then eighteen, this lad followed his mother's express desire, and assumed the habit of a novice in the Franciscan Convent of Saint Bona- venture. His mother's efforts having secured him a portion of several thousands of pounds, he took the vows next year, and, although no evidence is forthcoming in either sense, it seems probable that he lived his life out in the peaceful oblivion of the cloisters. Hilaire was twenty months old when this history opens with his sister's birth in the house of master Basiliac. The paternity of these children is a delicate question which has defied the efforts of all Julie's biographers. The absolute silence of contemporary writers of memoirs upon this point can only be set down to their equal ignorance. The name of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse did not acquire noto- riety until the third of a century had overlaid the scandal, while the Countess d'Albon had been dead these twenty years. At the time of the intrigue, it was doubtless one of many subjects for local gossip ; it occurred in the provinces, and 8 JULIE DE LESPINASSE provincial scandals had not yet found ready access to Parisian ears. The persons interested were, moreover, eminently in a position to guard their own secrets. Bachaumont alone attempts to lift the veil. Immediately after Julie's death we find this bold announcement in his pages : " We now know that Mademoiselle de Lespinasse was the illegitimate daughter of Cardinal de Tencin, just as d'Alembert is the bastard of Madame de Tencin — an identity in origin and species of origin which explains the later connection of the pair." It is unfortunate that so ingenuous an explanation commands no sort of credence. The cardinal was fifty-two years old at the date of Julie's birth, an age which dis- poses of the story when the state of his health at the time is also remembered. His then residence was a hundred miles from Lyons, and not until ten years later did he remove to that city, while, as Archbishop of Embrun, his energies were so entirely absorbed by a struggle with his suffragan, Soanen, Bishop of Senez, a main pillar of Jan- senism, that he certainly could not have found leisure for such intrigues. Finally, the letters of Madame du Deffand, since published, contain a sufficient refutation of the legend. " The Cardinal de Tencin," she writes, while speaking of Made- moiselle de Lespinasse, " met her when on a recent visit to me, and at once asked me who she was. I found no difficulty in telling him under the seal of confidence." Bachaumont's statement is cer- tainly without further foundation than the two facts JULIE'S FATHER 9 that d'Alembert and Julie occupied the same house, and were of like uncertain birth. While the world was thus free to imagine its own story, with every probability of never arriving at the truth, a fortu- nate chance turned my attention to an entirely new quarter, and if the hypothesis now advanced is in- capable of proof, it still wears every appearance of reality. A passage in my " Kingdom of the Rue Saint- Honore" dwelt upon the long and intimate friend- ship uniting Madame Geoffrin and Mademoiselle de Lespinasse. Throughout the long period of some twelve years, the latter was little less than a member of the famous household in the Rue Saint-Honore, paying its aged mistress long daily visits, and finding in her the wisest counsellor, most generous protector, almost a second mother. If ever the younger woman confided in a human being, this discreet and sure friend received those confidences, and we can deem it nothing else than natural if Madame de la Ferte Imbault, Madame Geoffrin's daughter, has revealed the riddle of Julie's birth. The pages of the private diary, which this lady was nightly accustomed to fill with personal jottings and such interesting matters as chanced to have reached her during the past day, among many passages about her mother's friend contain these two : " She is the illegitimate daughter of the Countess d'Albon by Madame du Deffand's brother," and again, " Madame du Deffand's illegitimate niece." Madame du Deffand's maiden-name was Marie lo JULIE DE LESPINASSE de Vichy Champrond. Of her two known brothers, one, much younger than herself, forswore the world at an early age and died canon-treasurer of La Sainte Chapelle at Paris. The remaining brother, Gaspard III. de Vichy, born at Champrond in 1695, and his sister's senior by two years, is the only one to whom these notes can apply. The Counts of Vichy were a family of old and high nobility, long established in Forez and the Maconnais. Among the family's many excellent marriages, one of the most recent was an alliance with their neighbours, the d'Albons. By this mar- riage Hilaire d'Albon became the wife of Count Gaspard de Vichy, great-grandfather of Madame du Deffand and her brother. Such close relation- ship, and the proximity of their estates, naturally led to constant intercourse between the two families, and if Julie d'Albon and Gaspard de Vichy, cousins of like age and close neighbours, conceived a mutual liking, the fact need not surprise us. The one apparent objection to this hypothesis is capable of an equally natural solution. Gaspard, first com- missioned at the age of twenty, and employed in all the campaigns of the first half of Louis XV. 's reign, was certainly away from home during long periods. But the years 1727 and 1733, the period in which Julie's affairs came to a crisis, exactly correspond with an interval of peace during which the wanderer was at home, and had ample leisure for such an intrigue as that bluntly recorded by Madame de la Ferte Imbault. Even a double assertion of this kind by Madame GASPARD DE VICHY ii Geoffrin's daughter might be questioned, did not strong circumstantial evidence point to its accuracy. It would be hard to conceive a more natural ex- planation of the immediate and singular interest taken by Madame du Deffand in a young girl, thrown in her way by the chance of a brief resi- dence in the country. It accounts for the heat with which she overrides all opposition to taking her young friend to Paris, and the immediate place found by her in her protector's own household. It explains the zeal of this protector in discouraging all inquiry into the mystery of the girl's birth ; her rage and violent indignation, when she afterwards imagines herself betrayed, not by the stranger whom a common arrangement has brought to share her life, but a woman of her own blood for whom she has been at pains to contrive a home and a place in the family. I will not here anticipate the future further than to note the extraordinary re- semblance displayed in the character, tastes, and intellect of the pair, points of which there can be no explanation so natural as kinship, but pass to the evidence afforded by the letters of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse herself. Certain of Julie's letters to Guibert and Con- dorcet contain passages hitherto scarcely intelligible, at best wearing every appearance of morbid over- emphasis. In this strain she writes to the former : " One day I will tell you such tales as are not to be found in the novels either of Prevost or Richard- son. The compound of unhappy circumstances that make up my history has taught me that the 12 JULIE DE LESPINASSE truth is often too utterly incredible. . . . Oh, but I can tell you that men are cruel! Tigers are kind by comparison ! " The same tragic note runs through this to Condorcet : "I, who have known nothing but pain and suffering, I, who have suffered atrocities at the very hands from which I should have looked for nothing but gentleness ! " These are strong expressions to apply to the, unhappily too common, situation of the child born out of wedlock, and suffering for the fault of which it is guiltless. But, call Gaspard de Vichy her father, and we have a key to the woe. In 1736, being then forty years of age, and Julie seven, this man married Marie Camille Diane, the Countess d'Albon's legitimate daughter, and his junior by twenty years. Such a marriage with the daughter of a former mistress, however reprehensible in itself, is not without parallel, especially at this epoch. But the situation becomes complicated when the child of the earlier and unlawful connec- tion is reared under an assumed name by a mother who wishes to acknowledge her but dares not, and in full view of the father, also a brother-in-law, whose interests are consequently in direct opposi- tion to those of his natural daughter. It is not difficult to imagine what unhappy conflicts and miserable pangs were the inevitable result of such confusion. Of what little we know of Gaspard de Vichy's character, nothing unhappily discredits these horrors. With the single exception of the "Abbe de Champrond " — the simple and good-natured trea- GASPARD DE VICHY 13 surer of La Sainte Chapelle — every Vichy in this generation, Madame du Deffand or Madame d'Aulan no less than their brothers, exhibits the same characteristics and is cast in the like mould. All are spirited above the ordinary, cultivated and attractive ; but they are, also, hard and opinionated egoists, cynical in speech and unscrupulous in act. "Certainly," writes a contemporary, with every reason to know them, "they are a unique collection. Our poor abbe has an eminently kind heart, but I doubt the rest are not sure whether they possess such an organ." And this criticism is the sad confidence of Gaspard's wife to her children ! No discussion on the point of Julie's birth can close without a reference to the documents, put in my hands by a fortunate chance. The marriage of Count de Vichy with Diane d'Albon found issue in a son, Abel Marie Claude, a boy, as already set out, at once the brother and nephew of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse. This boy, her junior by eight years, presently became the object of her particular affec- tion. A mass of letters, written by Julie to her brother — correspondence hitherto unknown, but one of the chief authorities for much in the present volume — exhibits the unmistakable note of an elder sister's loving care. Claiming no open confession of the sentiment, their writer displays a sweet and motherly concern, the sense that it is both her right and duty to watch over one whose happiness, she constantly repeats, "is dearer and more precious to me than anything else in the world." This affection stands out the more clearly by contrast to her in- 14 JULIE DE LESPINASSE difference, not to say hostility, to all that touches a d'Albon, a note only too clearly apparent in such sarcasm as ting-es these lines to the same brother. " It seems to me that you see little, if anything, of your d'Albon relations, or does this mean that your affection for them is on the same scale? It would be a natural feeling enough ! " The same note is yet more apparent in this : ** You fail to tell me if the little d'Albon still continues to aspire to a monastery, or will solve the problem by dying in a decline. He would be a great loss — his face at all events." But the same writer becomes almost passionate where her subject is Gaspard de Vichy's son. Every circumstance of his life calls out fresh interest, his wife when he marries, "the children, whom I love to distraction." She is his mentor in all the thousand chances of life — his career, his attitude towards the family, even his investments. She takes infinite pains to push his promotion while in the army, to obtain for him the Cross of Saint Louis, when he retires. Ill and shivering with fever, she leaves her bed to press some plea on his behalf. "In a thousand years I shall not exert myself again as I have just done for you ! " Every page of this correspondence is filled with the caressing expressions in which a sister's tender- ness pours out. " All that interests you is dear to me, and I shall always hold my happiness incom- plete while we are condemned to live so far apart. ... I loved you to distraction when you were a child. The feeling is unchanged, and will never alter while I live. . . . All that I do for you is the ABEL DE VICHY 15 one thing for which there may be no gratitude, to love you with all my heart." One of her first letters after their parting gently scolds him, boy as he still is, for a too formal address towards herself. "You are, I know, a pretty big boy, a man of consegz^ence, but remember that I knew you when that high. Then I was your good friend in name ; to-day I am this in fact. And so, I beg of you, do not fear the words which express friendship. I will tolerate no Mademoiselle in a letter from you. In public one bows to custom, but between you and me I will lose nothing." Young Vichy's backwardness seems excusable enough, for it appears certain that he was long ignorant of the truth about his friend's origin, witness a letter with veiled allusions to the family's earlier refusal of Madame d'Albon's great desire that her daughter should be recognised. " Perhaps all this is still a sealed book to you, dear friend. Your mother will give you a key to unlock it." The young man naturally questioned Countess de Vichy, and the unhappy impression of the dismal truth upon his candid nature is clearly apparent in this laconic entry in the day's diary. " I had a long talk with mother about Mademoiselle de Lespinasse. What horrors ! " Abel's affection for his sister in- creases from this date, becomes, if possible, more tender. He journeys to Paris especially to see her, and to show her his wife and children ; takes a more active part against her traducers ; when the time comes, makes himself a place at her bedside, and refuses to leave before the end. " My nephew," i6 JULIE DE LESPINASSE writes Madame du Deffand next day, " wished to see the will. He claimed a right to this, and it seems that he had one, for he certainly got his way." This lengthy discussion may close with a plea for indulgence, if only since it anticipates several points which must be reopened in the course of my narrative. But it is to be remembered that the problem of Julie's parentage has been regarded as one of the insoluble enigmas of literary history. Material proof is still lacking, as is usual in such cases, but the moral proofs just brought together seem convincing, and the following narrative will assume that they are so. The silence of contemporary records anent the parentage of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse is broken in regard to her childhood, but the major part of the details to be thus gleaned are unfortunately apocryphal. The most complete story is La Harpe's. It is likewise the least trustworthy — a regrettable fact, since his narration is quite a drama in brief, and lacks no element of possible interest. The injured husband of his tale kidnaps the child and hides her in a provincial convent ; there the dis- tracted mother mysteriously appears, while jealous legitimate children terrify their unfortunate sister with brutal threats. "Her mother redoubled her fears by the most solemn warnings against all who might endeavour to visit her at the convent. She must partake of nothing which did not emanate from the kitchen of the house, decline all sweets and flowers, leave the grounds under no pretext whatever." Grimm is less circumstantial, but EARLY LIFE AT AVAUGES 17 almost as ill-informed. " She was the daughter of Countess d'Albon, who never dared to own her. Since she has learned the full meaning of this denial, she declines to receive anything from her mother." The errors in all these recitals are little less numerous than the words in which they are couched. The truth is both far from simple, and far less tragic. So far from disowning her daughter, the coun- tess at once took Julie into her own house, rearing her "almost publicly," and in defiance of gossip. 