My Paris note-book

Chapter I. Page

My first glimpse of Paris — The return of the troops from the Crimea — My uncles part-authors of this book — Their attachment to Louis Napoleon — Their frequent interviews with him after he ascended the Imperial throne — An anecdote of Baron James de Rothschild— Napoleon's gratitude— The probable truth of the rouge on the Emperor's face on the morning of Sedan — The Emperor as a causeur — The Emperor and Mgr. Sib'our, Archbishop of Paris — The Emperor and Gustave Flaubert — "Madame Bovary" and the Emperor's criticism — A word about myself— The first impression produced by the sight of the Boulevards — An educated Yorkshireman defines that impression — My first impression of the French troops — The Emperor on the Turcos and Zouaves —A bit of unpublished history — The Emperor's feelings towards the Hapsburgs — An unknown story of Napoleon I. and Marie Louise — A bit of Marie Louise's biography — M. Sardou's Madame Sans-Gene 9

Chapter II

Napoleoniana — Napoleon I. a bad shot — The Emperor at his best when talking about Napoleon I. — Napoleon I. as a patron of the drama — About' s Guillery and Lemercier's Christophe Colomb — Napoleon I. within an ace of becoming a theatrical manager himself^Was Napoleon I. conscious of his future greatness ?— Louis Napoleon at Lady Blessington's — He and Charles Dickens have their fortunes told — Roger the great tenor — A curious coincidence — My uncle's opinions about Frenchmen's courage — An anecdote of Alexandre Dumas the elder — The Parisians' love of spectacular display and dramatic sensation — How Napoleon I. provided for it — Napoleon HI. an equally good stage-manager, though in a different way — The truth about the famous " Committee of

Resistance" 32

Contents.

Chapter III

Some notes on Victor Emmanuel— His portrait in later years —The sculptor Marochetti's opinion of Victor Emmanuel's physical appearance — A note of my younger grand-uncle— Victor Emmanuel's dislike of politics and Jinesse— A reception at the Tuileries — Victor Emmanuel and Napoleon HI. — Victor Emmanuel as a raconlezir.— Massimo d'Azeglio's stories of Victor Emmanuel — His estimate of the man and of the King — Victor Emmanuel's idea of accomplishing the unification of Italy — His dislike of etiquette and restraint — A hunting story — Victor Emmanuel at La Mandria — Rosina Vercellana, afterwards Contessa di Mirafiori ; Victor Emmanuel's morganatic wife— Victor Emmanuel's appetite— The story of his hair-dye and " make-up" — Contessa Rosina and the King at home — Contessa Rosina wants to dye her hair also — Contessa Rosina's temper — Napoleon III. on morganatic wives 58

Chapter IV

A chapter on the Comedie-Franfaise— My reasons for writing it — A country has the drama and theatrical institutions it deserves — Causerie, not history — My first glimpse of the late Augustine Brohan— Few of those whom I saw in my youth remain— Edmond Got— Got and Emile Augier— The genesis of Les jFourchamdauli— Theatrical Paris in 1861 — Les Eff routes — Louis Veuillot and Emile Augier— Got' s preparation for playing Bernard— Got' s preparations for playing Rabbi David Sichel— Got and M. Isidore, the late Chief Rabbin of France— Proposed epitaph for Parade— Got's extensive reading— Got and Mounet-Sully— Mounet-Sully as an actor— "A ladder for M. Mounet-Sully"— Got and Raoul Rigault of the Cornmune— The mise en scene of the Comedie-Franjaise- A retrospective view— The late M. Emile Perrin and some other administrators of the Comedie-Franjaise— A curious official mistake — MM. Erckmann-Chatrian and their beginnings—Mr. Henry Irving and " The Bells"— Got in search of a piano — His interview with the superior of a convent — Nourrit, the celebrated tenor, and King Bomba— The superior's eye for the main chance— Got's diplomacy— The i^ra^^yerie V Esperance— Brasseries of former days— A wo/ of Augustine Brohan 72

Contents.

Chapter V. Page

Personal recollections of two eminent men : Ernest Renan and Paul de Kock. — My first glimpse of Renan — The physical man — Renan's way of teaching the philosophy and the poetry of life — His way of composing his speeches and his works — What life may have meant to Renan— Renan's fondness for children — His grief at his own plainness — His almost boundless admiration of beautiful women — The genesis of PAbbesse de Jouarre — An anecdote of his youth — Renan and Jules Simon — Renan as a mimic and actor — Renan's imitation of Egger the savant — His imitation of Labeche the playwright — Renan and the Abbe Delille — Renan's indifference to spiteful criticism— Paul de Kock — A Dutch lad's disappointment at Paul de Kock's appearance — The silence of the critics with regard to de Kock's works — Paul de Kock's method of work — His dress — His apartment on the Boulevard St. Martin — Pius IX. 's appreciation of Paul de Kock's works 107

Chapter VI

A view of French society under the Third Republic — Wanted a Sebastien Mercier — In default of such an one, the author attempts the task — The author's qualifications — The author's knowledge of most of the present rulers of France — The author's system of getting at the truth — Look for the woman — The absence of the nice female element from the principal thoroughfares — The author takes a walk with an English friend — The lady's antecedents and present position — A remark of M. Edouard Herve of Le Soleil — The author's friend explains the situation — The attitude of the Faubourgs Saint- Germain and Saint-Honore towards the Republican bigwigs — The women of the Chaussee d'Antin — A scene from Dumas' Etrangere in real life — The late General Boulanger and his second daughter — Why the wives of the Republican bigwigs shun the public thoroughfares — A minister's "lady" on the prevalence of Offenbachian music in the Church service — An invitation to a dinner-party— My first impression

. — The late Emile Perrin on diamonds as heirlooms — A scrap

of conversation 137

I*

6 Contents.

Chapter VII. Page

Politics without petticoats — Marshal Mac-Mahon and the Duchesse de Magenta — The "friends" of the Republican bigwigs — Mme. Thiers and Mile. Dosne— Their influence over Theirs— A letter from Mile. Dosne — Mme. Grevy— Mme. Daniel Wilson, nee Grevy— Jules Grevy and Mesdames de Rainneville and d'Harcourt — Mme. Ferry — Mme. de Freycinet and Mile, de Freycinet — Boulanger and Mme. de Bonnemain — Women who influenced kings — Mme. Edmond Adam and Louise Michel— Political salons of former days— More conversation at the dinner-party — My friend's husband on the situation — The reason of the dislike to woman's influence — Corbiere's mother and Gambetta's father — Skobeleff" and the Jewish soldier — A short retrospect — The modern politician's love-affairs and his way of conducting them 156

Chapter VIII

Round about the Palais-Bourbon — The Salle des Pas-Perdus — M. Adolphe Ranc — Actors and critics — The editor of Le Matin — M. Arthur Meyer of Z,^ Gaulois — M. Edouard Herv6 of Le Soleil — An anecdote of the Due de Noailles — M. Ribot — M. Clemenceau — An anecdote of Gambetta in the heyday of his popularity — An anecdote of King Christian IX. — M. Henri Brisson — M. Goblet — Some late ambassadors — A hint to future historians — The President of the Chamber — The President's bell 176

Chapter IX

Round about the Palais-Bourbon — More about the President's bell— Past Presidents and their performances on the instrument— Dupin aine—K mot oiM. Floquet— Unruly deputies — M. de Cassagnac— M. Baudry d'Asson— The President's task more difficult now than it was formerly— The President's hat — The President's chair and table— The eight secretaries — The rostrum— Orators of former days, and speakers of to-day—Interrupters—The official shorthand reporters and summary writers — Their honesty — French journalists and their duties — M. Emile Ollivier, the ex-Empress Eugenie, and Sir John Lintorn Simmons— The Quaestors— The members' stipend, and what it led to in one instance— First appearance

Contents. 7

PAGE

of Gambetta on the political scene — A word about " An Englishman in Paris" — Refreshments for deputies — Quaestor Baze's reform — Distribution of the members' seats — The ministerial bench — The manner of voting — Ladies in the Chamber — Parliaraentory oratory 202

Chapter X

Three Presidents of the Republic— A test of the popularity of an eminent man in France — The theatres as a barometer in times of public excitement — The receipts at the theatres on the day of Mirabeau's death— On the day of Gambetta's funeral— On the day of Thiers' funeral — Not a single kindly note about Adolphe Thiers — An epitaph attributed to M. Victorien Sardou— Thiers and Louis Philippe— a wzo/ of Alphonse Karr— The Charivari's opinion of Thiers— The real aim of Thiers' life— Old Prince Metternich on Thiers— Thiers and Mac-Mahon during the Commune— Thiers and Louis Napoleon — Louis Napoleon's opinion — A conversation between these two— Thiers and Mr. Senior — His dread of Mr. Senior's publication — His family — Mac-Mahon— Madame de Mac-Mahon— The story of the Comte de Chambord's famous manifesto— Mac-Mahon' s story o^ \hQ plebiscite of 1852 — Mac-Mahon's genealogy— Mac-Mahon the real founder of the Third Republic "in spite of himself" — Mac-Mahon's title— Mac-Mahon's modesty 235

Chapter XI

Three Presidents of the Republic (continued)— M. Jules Grevy —His spotless political past— The truth about his famous amendment— The origin of his fall as a President— M. Gravy's early career— His acquaintance with Alfred de Musset— The love-letters of Alfred de Musset to George Sand— My uncle at Musset's funeral— My uncle's notes about Grevy — Theodore Barriere, the famous playwright— M. Grevy's wonderful memory — M. Gr6vy's fondness for women's society — Madame Gr6vy— Where she failed — M. Grevy's mesalliance — The sequel to the mesalliance — M. Grevy's literary attainments — His character a puzzle — M. Grevy's love of money — Anecdotes to that effect— A comparison between his greed and that of Thiers — M. Grevy's real age— His genealogy . 261

8 Contents.

chapter xii. PAGB

Round about the Elys6e-Bourbon— What an invitation to the Tuileries meant ; what an invitation to the Elysee means— My friend on M. Mollard, the " Introducteur des Ambassadeurs"— M. Mollard— His origin— His beginnings— How he became an employ^ at " Le Protocole"— His duties there — His functions at the beginning of the Third Republic— Some of his blunders— The menu on the occasion of the dinner to Archduke Albrecht— A quadrille d'honneur— A mot of Mac- Mahon— A/^/^ at Versailles— A reception at the Ministry of Finances— M. Mollard's portrait— The massacre of the hats — M. Mollard and M. Grevy— The Presidency during Thiers' time — The Presidency during Mac-Mahon's time — M. Gr^vy from a social point of view — Madame Grevy — Madame Wilson, nee Grevy — M. Daniel Wilson — M. Mollard and the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour — M. Mollard and the Sultan of Zanzibar's present — M. Mollard covets a horse — What he does with it — The guests at the Elysee during the presidency of M. Grevy— My barber at the Elysee — The story of 35,000 cigars 283

MY PARIS NOTE-BOOK.

Chapter I

My first glimpse of Paris — The return of the troops from the Crimea — My uncles part-authors of this book — Their attachment to Louis Napoleon — Their frequent interviews with him after he ascended the Imperial throne — An anecdote of Baron James de Rothschild — Napoleon's gratitude — The probable truth of the rouge on the Emperor's face on the morning of Sedan — The Emperor as a causeur—The Emperor and Mgr. Sibour, Archbishop of Paris — The Emperor and Gustave Flaubert — " Madame Bovary" and the Emperor's criticism — A word about myself— The first impression produced by the sight of the Boulevards — An educated Yorkshireman defines that impression — My first impression of the French troops — The Emperor on the Turcos and Zouaves — A bit of unpublished history — The Emperor's feelings towards the Hapsburgs — An unknown story of Napoleon I. and Marie Louise — A bit of Marie Louise's biography — M. Sardou's Madame Sans- Gene.

I AM beginning this book on the last day of the year (1893), and not without a certain feehngof sadness ; for I cannot help remembering that exactly thirty-eight years have elapsed since I first caught sight of the Paris Boulevards. It was on the occasion of the return of some of the troops from the Crimea (December 31, iS55)« We had a police pass, and were enabled to walk in the middle of the road, unhindered by any one. My two maternal grand-uncles, with whom I had come to stay, ostensibly on a short visit — which, in reality, only ended with their lives — ^were, to some extent, influential lo My Paris Note-Book.

people, though neither of them ever did anything remarkable. Nor was their influence due to wealth, their competence being but modest. They had both been army surgeons, and came to Paris shortly after Quatre- Bras and Waterloo, and never left the French capital again for any length of time until the day of their death ; for, odd to relate, these two men, who had become Parisians to the backbone and finger-tips, objected to sleep their last sleep in or near the city of their adoption. They both lie in a little cemetery near Amsterdam, where the yellow waters of the Y splash against the shore. "It won't do to sleep one's last sleep at Pere-la-Chaise's or Montmartre," they said in French — they had left off speaking their mother tongue long before that ; *' it won't do to sleep one's last sleep there ; the noise and din would be almost sure to disturb one ; and if one took it into his head to revisit the old haunts, there might be a blank stare, if not a cold shoulder, for in Paris a man is forgotten in a fortnight by his best friends." From this it will be gathered that they did not cherish many illusions with regard to the durability of Frenchmen's regret for, or recollection of, those who have gone before them ; they themselves were, however, capable of very deep-seated attachments.

One of those deep-seated attachments was to the person of Louis Napoleon, whose mother and father they had known when the latter were queen and kingof Holland. My relatives had, moreover, been able to render some slight services to the son before he became President of the Second Republic, and he, who was gratitude personified, gave them their grandes and petites entrees to the Tuileries when he ascended the Imperial throne. They availed themselves seldom of the former, but very often of the latter privilege. Louis

My Paris Note-Book. ii

Napoleon would have given them some lucrative appointment had they wanted it, but they were stubbornly though unostentatiously independent, and furthermore, almost contemptuously indifferent to money. When they settled in Paris they took to private practice. Up till within a short time of their death, their waitingroom was crowded for three hours in the morning, but I feel certain that the patients were much more numerous than the fees.

But though refusing to accept anything for themselves, they had no scruples about asking for others ; and where their own resources failed, or those of their less wealthy friends were exhausted, they unhesitatingly applied to the Emperor — when they dared no longer apply to Baron James de Rothschild. A mission to Baron James with such an object, entailed rising at six — whether it was summer or winter — in order to catch him after he had read the morning papers. ' ' Reading the papers" was in this instance a mere figure of speech ; Baron James rarely, if ever, read the papers himself; he had them read for him by a veteran actor named Charles Boudeville, who declaimed the ' ' money article' ' with the same art he would have employed declaiming the soliloquy of Hamlet. We shall perhaps meet with him again.

Of the many stories told to me by my relatives concerning Baron James — for unfortunately they did not commit all their recollections to paper — here is one. One morning on being admitted to Baron James' private room, my uncle found him apparently deeply engaged in examining a magnificently chased golden vase of the most exquisite workmanship, and incrusted with precious stones. The temporary owner, one of the best known bric-a-brac dealers of those days, was holding forth upon its beauty, and giving a recital of its pedigree, interlarding nearly every sentence with a — ' ' I feel certain, M. le Baron, that you have never seen anything like it before. ' ' The baron let him go on for nearly ten minutes uninterruptedly, during which time the sentence recurred at least a dozen times. At last he replied, ' ' You are right, I have never seen anything like it before ; and what is the price ?" *' The price is 220,000 francs, M. le Baron," answered the dealer. " Hm," remarked Baron James, " it's a stiff figure ; but you are right, I have never seen anything like it before. By-the-by," he added, rising, and with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, ** if you'll wait a few minutes, I fancy I'll be able to show you something the like of which you have never seen before. ' ' With which he disappeared into an inner room. In a little while he returned, and the three stood chatting for a moment or so. ''Now, if you'll come this way, I'll show you the thing the like of which you have never seen before. You may come too, ' ' he laughed, turning to my uncle, who was discreetly keeping back ; " I do not think you have ever seen the like before." The three men entered the room together, but it was in vain that my uncle strained his eyes in search of the object Baron James had promised to show them. The furniture was of the plainest ; bookcases all along the walls ; and in the centre of the apartment a somewhat large table, on which lay a bandana handkerchief that looked as if it had been forgotten there by its owner. ' ' Now, tell me if you have ever seen anything like this ?' ' asked Baron James, carelessly lifting the foulard, and "discovering," as the dramatists say, a small mahogany tray containing two hundred and twenty rouleaux of louis with their wrappers stripped off. The dealer was fairly dazzled, and did not answer. There was no **deal"

that morning, the baron deciding that each should keep the thing the Hke of which the other had never seen.

To return to the Emperor, who, as I remarked just now, was gratitude personified. Shortly after his escape from Ham, and while he was in London, he went one night to see Bouffe in two of his remarkable impersonations, viz. , the title-r61es of Le Gamin de Paris and Michel Perrin, both which pieces, if I mistake not, are known to Englishmen in their English guise of **Andy Blake" and ''The Spy" respectively. The name of Dion Boucicault is inseparably connected with the first play, that of the late Benjamin Webster with the other ; but, so far as I am aware, no English or foreign actor ever attempted to enact both characters. Bouif6, on the contrary, considered this as one of his greatest achievements, and felt so proud of it that on the days when Le Gamin held the bills, he used to appear on the Boulevards as a broken-down old man, painfully dragging himself along, though, in reality, he was as hale and hearty as ever ; while on the days of Michel Perrin, he made it his business to repair to the popular promenade spruce and active, with the buoyant step of a young fellow, and all this in order to impress those who might have seen him on the previous night, or those who were going to see him on that night, with the perfection of his method of changing his individuahty. What he delighted in most, though, was to represent the stripling of fourteen or fifteen and the septuagenarian in the same evening ; and during his London engagement at the time just mentioned, he did this very frequently. It was on one of these occasions that the future Emperor happened to be in the theatre in company with Count D'Orsay, who knew the great actor personally. Prince Louis was very anxious to see the transformation actually performed, and his friend took him to Bouffe's dressing-room in the interval between the two pieces, to the secret annoyance of the artist, who, first of all, did not care to discount his secrets before the rise of the curtain, and secondly, had not much time to entertain visitors. He had not the remotest idea of the identity of D'Orsay's companion. At the instance of D'Orsay, though, he let him stay, to Prince Louis' great delight. Just before they were leaving D'Orsay told Bouife whom he had obliged.

Years went by, and Bouff6, from no fault of his own, came to grief. Failing health prevented him from taking a permanent engagement. His resources, which had never been very large — for it must be remembered that in the forties and fifties the salaries of even great actors were not what they are now — dwindled to their lowest ebb. His debts soon began to worry him. His former comrades offered him their services for a farewell performance, which offers were gladly accepted. But Bouffe knew that the proceeds of an ordinary theatre, however crammed, and at twice the ordinary prices, would only be as a drop of water in the sea of his liabilities. As the day fixed upon for the performance drew near, his friends pressed him in vain to apply to Montigny, the manager of the Gymnase ; Bouff6 merely shook his head. ''I'm waiting," he said. "Waiting for what?" they asked. *' Waiting for the Opera House to be given to me," was the answer. They simply looked at bim ; they were under the impression that he had gone mad. But Bouff6 knew what he was doing ; he had sent a petition to the Emperor, and the moment the latter saw the signature he remembered the incident in London, and taking up a pen, wrote on the margin of the document — ^'Pour M. Bouffe, ouiy oui^ oui. Napol^on^

The receipts exceeded ;£iooo, exclusive of a handsome donation from the Emperor, but notwithstanding the general esteem in which Bouffe was held by his fellow actors, this then unprecedented favour aroused a good deal of jealousy, and a few days after the event my uncle Mark, who was the younger of the two, and who often went to see the Emperor either early in the morning or after dinner, told him so. "Your Majesty has raised a hornet's nest about his head ; henceforth every actor of note, and for that matter, every one who thinks himself one, will apply to your Majesty for the Opera." "And every one who has afforded me as genuine a quarter of an hour's amusement as Bouffe did, shall have it," was the answer. Thereupon the Emperor told my uncle the story as I have noted it down, winding up with a — "Besides, it may turn out that Bouffe has unwittingly rendered me a service. The time may come when I shall have to show a pleasant face under circumstances the reverse of pleasant, and the lesson learnt from Bouffe that evening will stand me in good stead. He showed me how to transform a young man into an old one ; I fancy I shall have sufficient ingenuity to reverse the process, or better still, to hide the ravages of despair beneath a layer oi fard (make-up). I have a great admiration for the memory of Mazarin ; the thing that appeals most to me is his putting on rouge on his bed of sickness, which proved to be his death-bed."

One may well doubt whether these words foreshadowed a resolution for the future to Louis Napoleon' s mind, but they become interesting in connection with M. Zola's late revelations in " La Debacle' ' as to the Emperbr having put on rouge on the morning of Sedan. But for an author's selfishness, I should have published that story eighteen months ago.

I have already said that my uncles were very fond of the Emperor, and to the day of their death maintained that he could have given odds to the wittiest French journalist of his time, if not with pen in hand, at any rate in conversation. Making allowance for their partiality, the notes I have by me of some of the Emperor's sallies lend colour to their assertion. Here is one which, until I gave it to a London paper while I was its Paris correspondent, had never appeared in print. One morning shortly after the Emperor's accession, my uncle Joseph — the elder of the two — found him in the brightest of spirits ; he was chuckling to himself, a thing of rare occurrence, for, though Louis Napoleon frequently smiled, *'his risible nerves seldom left their moorings," to use an expression which, albeit that it came from a medical man, was nevertheless not scientifically 'accurate. After they had been chatting for a little while, the Emperor said suddenly — ''Those priests are very funny now and then."

' ' Why date, Sire ?' ' replied my uncle, who had read a good deal, and who remembered the mot of Mirabeau when some one told him that the National Assembly had been dull that day.

' ' You are right, they are funny always, when they are not assommantSy^^ assented the Sovereign, who did not mind using a popular locution in talking to his friends. * ' I have been wasting my breath trying to persuade Sibour" (the then Archbishop of Paris, who was stabbed at St. Etienne-du-Mont), "that I cannot remove the tombs of, or rather the monuments to, Jean-Jacques and Voltaire from the Panth6on just to please some of his flock."

* * Why do they wish them removed, Sire, seeing that these monuments do not contain a pinch of Rousseau's or Voltaire's ashes ?' '

"That's just what I have been asking him ; but he would not answer the question, nor listen to my argument. He simply kept repeating that ' his flock felt uncomfortable in the presence of these two atheists.' "

" How did you pacify him. Sire?"

*'I didn't pacify him at all. I got out of temper myself in the end ; and then I exclaimed — ' Look you here, Monseigneur, how do you think these two atheists feel in the presence of your believers?' That settled him, and he did not say another word. "

Here is another instance of Louis Napoleon's tendency to take a ' ' topsy-turveydom' ' view of things in general, and of serious things in particular. When public opinion clamoured for the prosecution of the author of "Madame Bovary," the Emperor consented, though most reluctantly. He was one of the first who had read the book, and in his inmost heart he admired both the author and his work. "Then why prosecute him, Sire ?' ' asked my uncle Mark. ' ' V 11 tell you why, ' ' replied the Emperor, smiling. " If we do not prosecute, we shall have every cabman in Paris and in the provinces asking for double his fare the moment an affectionatelooking couple try to step into his vehicle. Flaubert ought to have known better ; if it was absolutely necessary to his plot to have Emma Bovary and L^on Dupuis drive round Rouen for a whole day in a conveyance with the blinds down, he ought to have made Leon go to a livery stable for the carriage, and not have made him take a mere hackney from the rank. This soi-disant, unmolested drive round and round the city casts, to begin with, and inferentially, a slur upon the vigilance b 2* of the Rouen police, who, stupid as they may be, would not have allowed such a thing to pass unchallenged, and who, to make up for their alleged neglect, will stop every cab that has its blinds down. They have a perfect right to do so in the matter of carriages plying for hire in the public thoroughfares, and we shall have the innocent uncle with his pretty niece, and the somewhat passee aunt with her lamb-like nephew, hauled before the magistrate for outrage aux mceurs. There is, furthermore, an outcry already that people cannot get into a hackney cab without being fleeced. It is not my fault, after all, that the spread of education has reached ^ cabby " — the Emperor liked to use an English word now and then — ' ' and that he has read this masterpiece of realistic fiction. No, Flaubert must be indicted ; there will be more scandals if we do not than if we do."

I have often wondered since whether Mr. Gilbert could have produced a more deliberately comical and distorted view of a moral problem.

I need scarcely say that my uncle's notes, from which I extracted the foregoing, were not left open to the inspection of a somewhat precocious lad of thirteen, and that my own ' ' note-book' ' was not begun until many years afterwards. I would state once for all that these pages are not exclusively personal recollections ; still I claim the right to call myself the author of this book, just as the custodian of Madame R6camier's notes claimed to be the author of " Madame R6camier's Recollections. ' ' A bon entendeur salut. If I can possibly help it, I shall not refer to the subject again, and merely assure the reader that I have more precedents than one for my claim.