New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-05-07
THE C1OSE OF A STRANGE LIE.
MADAME BALzAC's DEATH AND BURIAL.

TIE CLOSE or Il SIH-lNGE mr.
MADAME BALZAC'S DEATH AND BURIAL.
IRON TIE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF TIKI TRib, MI
PARIS, April Il.
Last week there taken to Pere LachalSe the
remains OF n very old lady who bore great name
The coffin was followed from the mortuary house
TO st. Philips Church where the obsequies were
solcmnized by few excd Poles of whom Some
like the Czartoryskis and Potockis. roll i'll riches
and others vcgetate in poverty. The Societe des
Gems de Lcttrcs was not represented No crown OF
flowers was reverenty dropped into the grave
And vet the old lady whose remains were taken to
their final home was the widow of Ilonorc Balzac,
the French writer who most closely approaches
Shakespeare in his power to turn human souls m
side out and read them. Calmann Levy the book
seller and his sons the only persons connected
with the literary world at the funeral. They are
wealthy Jews and the elder of the two Is q rude
man who had to make a sharp struggle for mere
existence in the outset of his career. They publish
Balzac's works. the copyrieht OF which the heir Of
Madame de Suryille 1-aure lie Balzac' has sold 10
them. Madame Lacrox sister Of the deceased, and
two palsIcG mcn-Servants, toothcss, almost bind.
and stupeied with age, walked abreast into the
church behind the howcricss coffin. The men were
Paulin and Louis. who often carried Balzac in their
arms in his last illness. Madame LacroiX remained
in the church after the corpse had been taken from
it, But the old men followed il the whole way to
the tomb This sister Of Madame Ballac is eighty
eight years old, and married to a distinguished
b,hlioulilc novelist and dramati,t, ana translator
of Macbeth" who j. her junior by fifteen years.
Vapereau sinks the fact that the lady has bad two
husbands and that the first was the infamous Count
de Bocarme. lie and she were the hero and heroine
many years ago of a mysterious poisoning case,
which excited as much interest in France rs the
Bravo affair did in England.
The death of Nine. de Ealzac and the Circum-
stances OF her life for the twenty years preceding
were enigmatical. The house in which she iived
was tumbling to pieces for want of a Sheltering
roof. There was money to repair, when repairs
were wanted One naturally inquired. How came
Madame de Balzac and her son in-law and
daughter. to whom she made over her great fortune
in ISIS. to be so poverty-stricken7 Nobody. not
even Madame Lacroix, could give o satisfactory
answer to the question. The BouIse and Count
Mnizcck's chimeIcal schemes fol- getting richer
than the RothSchllds would not explain all the
black misery. 1t would have needed Bazac S
talent for setting ION paper involved and tangled
Affairs in order to solve what enigmatical.
During the period / have mentioned Nine de
Balzac lived III the strictest rctiIemcnt-in winter
in the house in which the great novelist died, and
in summer in a chateau in a noble park at Vile
neuve st. Georges The town residence was OF
difficult almost impossible. access. lis real master
was said TO be gifted German jew, portrait
painter who although old could almost have been
Madame de Balzac's son. A curse seemed TO follow
the abode and its inmates. The few intimate
friends who were now and then admitted eau
tiousy and gided in furtively. were Anticipated
and odd-lookng. The daughter of the deceased is
an Old lady who wears false brown front - with
falling side curls or Anglaises, had once upon "a
time been a beauty and adhered TO the fashions il
which she made her early cODquests Bazac de-
scribed Anna de Ianska. long before she was his
daughter as a little thing in a Willie frock and rose
silk peerne, gathering wild flowers in her mothers
park and the pTettieSt Young spring blossom there
She is now septuagenarian and bedridden.
Madame de Ballac having from her infancy until
the time of her second marriage been attended and
done for by myriad of servants, was most help
less being IN all that related 10 housekeeping
When the fortune which she had settled on the
Muizecks disappeared, she unable to struggle
against povertv. When the few old domestics who
chung 10 her from feeling of devotion grew help
less the life of the hOuschCl Id was concentrated into
q few rooms and all The rest locked mp. brush
was rarely passed across the floor. or buster over
the furniture. Diamonds. pictures, objects OF virtu
fine clothing, handsomely bound books were
heaped up in the uulnhablled chambers. Balzac,
who seemingly had the gift of second sight, de-
scribed the disorder of his widows dwelling in
d" La Peau lie Chagrin." The spirit of BaiZac. his
widow often SAID, ami to the last hour OF her life
believed. was located in the house III which he
died. Everything was left in the apartments that
he occupied exactly as when he was their tenant.
In another week the objects which surrounded
him will be sent 10y creditors to the auction mart.
The icus er machinG of " La Coincide HUMANE
which embraces a series of masterpieces.
Plutus Money does not make men angels; but the
want of it and lust tor it, Balzac showed, the
of most of the tragedies in lit man existence,
and capable of transforming men and women into
hends incarnate. 1t is curious that his house
should lattery present striking analogy TO the
places in which the heroes and her0lnes OF many of
his novels lived. acted and suffered.
Madame de l}azac. although "A Catholic a
believer in Swedenbolg, and on the theory of
spiritual ViSltants explained the fatality CT which
she and her child appeared TO be the victims just
before she died she was at her earnest request
taken into the chambers where the relics OF the
great novelist were kept, and there lett alone to
commune with his spirit. She wa> heard talking
if in conversation and then relapscd into silence.
When her attendants came back she was in "a state
of torpOr in which she remained until the breath
had left her body.
4 TALE OF TIE DEVIL.