New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-09-14

pulled. In the course of my visit a domestic
incident took place which has since led me to
plead extenuating circumstances for what some
called his sturdy mendicancy and eg0tism.
Madame de LamcTtine came TO sit down under the
spreading sycamore where with her husband.
at first took her for an English old maid. She
was shrivelled, aud wore her hair III those comb
curls fashionable IN 1880, when leg-of-mutton
sleeves were in vogue. Joining for some short time
In fidgetty preoecupied manner in the CONVERSE
ton, she at length preached the subject of appeal
to the beneheence of her husbands admirers. She
talked for a while about 1t, and then, suddenly
turning round, asked him if he had been to the Nm.
Galgnani, to get appeal to the English resi-
dents in Paris inserted in their journal. Lamartne
said he had not. She TeprOached him with having
promised her twenty times at least TO go there He
retOrted sharply, and when she returned TO the
charge cried out IN an angry tone, raS t0t meme
and got up and left the garden.
Madame de Lamartine was a saint but she was
not sensible woman. She adored her husband.
and according to NJ. de Lacretelle the very ground
he walked on. Poetic inspiration she imagined he
communicated to the house in which he dwelt. OF
an Anglo-Indian family, she was brought up in the
lap of prOfuseness, with tribe of servants to wait
on her. and had no more notion of economy than
the French princess who wondered the starving
people did not eat brioche had of famine. Count
Joseph de Mastre converted her to the Romanist
faith, and made up the match between her and de
Lamartine. She had nomInally large fortune,
but only brought her husband lawsuits and attor-
neys bills of COSTS When the coup detat dispersed
the phalanx of great orators and writer's who
fourished in Louis Philippe's reign, and sienced
those who were not sent into exile Lamartine found
himself closed IN by narrow family circle. Debts
and dues obliged him to shut his diuing-roOm and
readmg-rocm upon the acquaintance who had
long shared his hospitality. The poplar TO sway
gently, and to give out music, wanted breeze, and
all was stagnatiOn- around it. 1t unfortunately
happened that Lamartine's numerous sisters we're
bigots, and the mothers of large families of
daughters who received conventional educations. In
this atmosphere his faculties rapidly dwindled.
When his colleagues of the Provisional Govern
ment were hale and active men he was stranded
wreck past repairing. from which the tide had
ebbed. Mile Valentine de Cessiat, who devoted
herself to Lamartlne IN his old age, was the young
est child of one of his younger sisters OF whom mere
were seven. She bears TO the poet striking like
ness ST. Point which she has succeeded in presery-
ing to the family, is kept up by her, less the
retinue Of servants, the stables the dog kennels,
and the hOspitable board as II was IN her uncles
time. At his instance, the Imperial government
authorized her to bear his name, She is called
" Madame de Lamartine" though an old mad: As
a canOness of a BavarIan religious house she has
right IN French society 70 the privileged position OF
a matrOn, and to wear a crimson ribbon en- SdutOu.
To be a canOness thirty-SiX quarters OF nobility
must be proved. LaTartlnes mother before the
Revolution held this grade IN the Abbey of Remire-
mont, IN the Yosges. Bourbon Princess was re-
fused the chair che filled, the blood OF the royal
house of France not having had time to recover
from the faint il received through the marriage Of
Henri " and Marie de Medecis, the granddaughter
of FlOrentine druggist.
Lamartine, all his life dwelt in a region of optical
illusions. He was no observer of the flowers and
herbs which carpet the ground. Perhaps it was
because he was too far from earth to see them. The
other day there was q curious effect observed by
the "ascensionists in the captive balloon. A cloud
drfted between them and Paris They could see
distinctly reflected as if in pool on the side of
the cloud next them, the balloon and their own
heads advancing over the balustrade; and, mir
rored on the cloud objects at the extreme limits
Of the horizon. Such was Lamartine's intellect.
His head was too far away from his feet for him to
observe what lay under them. Clouds bringing
visions of beautiful realities intercepted his view
of mankind. The fishers daughter at Naples
who cursed and swOre and stood In sore need OF
soap aud water, was taken up TO dustess and
ethereal cloudland and transmitted into the angelic
Graziella One finds in one Of Lamartine's sweetest
poems, swallows feeding on crumbs Of bread on the
terrace of st Point. Elsewhere. eagle builds in
mountain oak. NJ de Lacretelle does not notice
these falsties in his Lamartinlana; but be tells
story which goes to establish the small hold Teaty
had on the poets mind One day, returning from
Rothschid's with a loan of 10000 francs, Lamar
tine met broken-d0Wn noYehst, VINO told MN ~
sad tale and obtained from him the entire sum that
he had with difficulty been able TO borroW. Nheh
lie got home Madame dc Lamartine, who
wanted to pay some pressing bills asked
t. Gu was the answer. But make your mind
easy. II shall 90 back TO Rothschild and do not
think ne will refuse me what ask" " Yes, but II
Won meet some other distressed Bohemanf" To
provide for such a contingency shall borrow the
next time double the that asked for this morn
inR.D 1t never occurred to him that ROthscmld was
a hard inancier. who had taken good security Tor
fine loan and asked high interest, and lent with
bad grace. Victor Hugo is just as imaginative as
LamaTtiue-indeed considerably more So But ms
IDEAS foy from carefully observed facts. The only
had book he ever wrote is about Shakespeare. The
reason Is that he knew no more of the English poet
than Lamartine knew of the swallows at D. foint.