about a week after coningsby’s arrival in paris, as he was sauntering on the soft and sunny boulevards, soft and sunny though christmas, he met sidonia.
‘so you are here?’ said sidonia. ‘turn now with me, for i see you are only lounging, and tell me when you came, where you are, and what you have done since we parted. i have been here myself but a few days.’
there was much to tell. and when coningsby had rapidly related all that had passed, they talked of paris. sidonia had offered him hospitality, until he learned that lord monmouth was in paris, and that coningsby was his guest.
‘i am sorry you cannot come to me,’ he remarked; ‘i would have shown you everybody and everything. but we shall meet often.’
‘i have already seen many remarkable things,’ said coningsby; ‘and met many celebrated persons. nothing strikes me more in this brilliant city than the tone of its society, so much higher than our own. what an absence of petty personalities! how much conversation, and how little gossip! yet nowhere is there less pedantry. here all women are as agreeable as is the remarkable privilege in london of some half-dozen. men too, and great men, develop their minds. a great man in england, on the contrary, is generally the dullest dog in company. and yet, how piteous to think that so fair a civilisation should be in such imminent peril!’
‘yes! that is a common opinion: and yet i am somewhat sceptical of its truth,’ replied sidonia. ‘i am inclined to believe that the social system of england is in infinitely greater danger than that of france. we must not be misled by the agitated surface of this country. the foundations of its order are deep and sure. learn to understand france. france is a kingdom with a republic for its capital. it has been always so, for centuries. from the days of the league to the days of the sections, to the days of 1830. it is still france, little changed; and only more national, for it is less frank and more gallic; as england has become less norman and more saxon.’
‘and it is your opinion, then, that the present king may maintain himself?’
‘every movement in this country, however apparently discordant, seems to tend to that inevitable end. he would not be on the throne if the nature of things had not demanded his presence. the kingdom of france required a monarch; the republic of paris required a dictator. he comprised in his person both qualifications; lineage and intellect; blood for the provinces, brains for the city.’
‘what a position! what an individual!’ exclaimed coningsby. ‘tell me,’ he added, eagerly, ‘what is he? this prince of whom one hears in all countries at all hours; on whose existence we are told the tranquillity, almost the civilisation, of europe depends, yet of whom we receive accounts so conflicting, so contradictory; tell me, you who can tell me, tell me what he is.’
sidonia smiled at his earnestness. ‘i have a creed of mine own,’ he remarked, ‘that the great characters of antiquity are at rare epochs reproduced for our wonder, or our guidance. nature, wearied with mediocrity, pours the warm metal into an heroic mould. when circumstances at length placed me in the presence of the king of france, i recognised, ulysses!’
‘but is there no danger,’ resumed coningsby, after the pause of a few moments, ‘that the republic of paris may absorb the kingdom of france?’
‘i suspect the reverse,’ replied sidonia. ‘the tendency of advanced civilisation is in truth to pure monarchy. monarchy is indeed a government which requires a high degree of civilisation for its full development. it needs the support of free laws and manners, and of a widely-diffused intelligence. political compromises are not to be tolerated except at periods of rude transition. an educated nation recoils from the imperfect vicariate of what is called a representative government. your house of commons, that has absorbed all other powers in the state, will in all probability fall more rapidly than it rose. public opinion has a more direct, a more comprehensive, a more efficient organ for its utterance, than a body of men sectionally chosen. the printing-press is a political element unknown to classic or feudal times. it absorbs in a great degree the duties of the sovereign, the priest, the parliament; it controls, it educates, it discusses. that public opinion, when it acts, would appear in the form of one who has no class interests. in an enlightened age the monarch on the throne, free from the vulgar prejudices and the corrupt interests of the subject, becomes again divine!’
at this moment they reached that part of the boulevards which leads into the place of the madeleine, whither sidonia was bound; and coningsby was about to quit his companion, when sidonia said:
‘i am only going a step over to the rue tronchet to say a few words to a friend of mine, m. p——s. i shall not detain you five minutes; and you should know him, for he has some capital pictures, and a collection of limoges ware that is the despair of the dilettanti.’
so saying they turned down by the place of the madeleine, and soon entered the court of the hotel of m. p——s. that gentleman received them in his gallery. after some general conversation, coningsby turned towards the pictures, and left sidonia with their host. the collection was rare, and interested coningsby, though unacquainted with art. he sauntered on from picture to picture until he reached the end of the gallery, where an open door invited him into a suite of rooms also full of pictures and objects of curiosity and art. as he was entering a second chamber, he observed a lady leaning back in a cushioned chair, and looking earnestly on a picture. his entrance was unheard and unnoticed, for the lady’s back was to the door; yet coningsby, advancing in an angular direction, obtained nearly a complete view of her countenance. it was upraised, gazing on the picture with an expression of delight; the bonnet thrown back, while the large sable cloak of the gazer had fallen partly off. the countenance was more beautiful than the beautiful picture. those glowing shades of the gallery to which love, and genius, and devotion had lent their inspiration, seemed without life and lustre by the radiant expression and expressive presence which coningsby now beheld.
the finely-arched brow was a little elevated, the soft dark eyes were fully opened, the nostril of the delicate nose slightly dilated, the small, yet rich, full lips just parted; and over the clear, transparent visage, there played a vivid glance of gratified intelligence.
the lady rose, advanced towards the picture, looked at it earnestly for a few moments, and then, turning in a direction opposite to coningsby, walked away. she was somewhat above the middle stature, and yet could scarcely be called tall; a quality so rare, that even skilful dancers do not often possess it, was hers; that elastic gait that is so winning, and so often denotes the gaiety and quickness of the spirit.
the fair object of his observation had advanced into other chambers, and as soon as it was becoming, coningsby followed her. she had joined a lady and gentleman, who were examining an ancient carving in ivory. the gentleman was middle-aged and portly; the elder lady tall and elegant, and with traces of interesting beauty. coningsby heard her speak; the words were english, but the accent not of a native.
in the remotest part of the room, coningsby, apparently engaged in examining some of that famous limoges ware of which sidonia had spoken, watched with interest and intentness the beautiful being whom he had followed, and whom he concluded to be the child of her companions. after some little time, they quitted the apartment on their return to the gallery; coningsby remained behind, caring for none of the rare and fanciful objects that surrounded him, yet compelled, from the fear of seeming obtrusive, for some minutes to remain. then he too returned to the gallery, and just as he had gained its end, he saw the portly gentleman in the distance shaking hands with sidonia, the ladies apparently expressing their thanks and gratification to m. p——s, and then all vanishing by the door through which coningsby had originally entered.
‘what a beautiful countrywoman of yours!’ said m. p——s, as coningsby approached him.
‘is she my countrywoman? i am glad to hear it; i have been admiring her,’ he replied.
‘yes,’ said m. p——s, ‘it is sir wallinger: one of your deputies; don’t you know him?’
‘sir wallinger!’ said coningsby, ‘no, i have not that honour.’ he looked at sidonia.
‘sir joseph wallinger,’ said sidonia, ‘one of the new whig baronets, and member for ——. i know him. he married a spaniard. that is not his daughter, but his niece; the child of his wife’s sister. it is not easy to find any one more beautiful.’
