登陆注册
35302100000061

第61章

Shut up in Paris, held by the crowds, his heart is always with the hounds. Twenty times in 1790 we read in his journal of a stag-hunt occurring in this or that place; he regrets not being on hand. No privation is more intolerable to him; we encounter traces of his chagrin even in the formal protest he draws up before leaving for Varennes; transported to Paris, shut up in the Tuileries, "where, far from finding conveniences to which he is accustomed, he has not even enjoyed the advantages common to persons in easy circumstances," his crown to him having apparently lost its brightest jewel.

VI. UPPER CLASS DISTRACTIONS.

Other similar lives. - Princes and princesses. - Seigniors of the court. - Financiers and parvenus. - Ambassadors, ministers, governors, general officers.

As is the general so is his staff; the grandees imitate their monarch. Like some costly colossal effigy in marble, erected in the center of France, and of which reduced copies are scattered by thousands throughout the provinces, thus does royal life repeat itself, in minor proportions, even among the remotest gentry. The object is to make a parade and to receive; to make a figure and to pass away time in good society. - I find, first, around the court, about a dozen princely courts. Each prince or princess of the blood royal, like the king, has his house fitted up, paid for, in whole or in part, out of the treasury, its service divided into special departments, with gentlemen, pages, and ladies in waiting, in brief, fifty, one hundred, two hundred, and even five hundred appointments.

There is a household of this kind for the queen, one for Madame Victoire, one for Madame Elisabeth, one for Monsieur, one for Madame, one for the Comte d'Artois, and one for the Comtesse d'Artois. There will be one for Madame Royale, one for the little Dauphin, one for the Duc de Normandie, all three children of the king, one for the Duc d'Angoulême, one for the Duc de Berry, both sons of the Comte d'Artois: children six or seven years of age receive and make a parade of themselves. On referring to a particular date, in 1771,[55] I find still another for the Duc d'Orléans, one for the Duc de Bourbon, one for the Duchesse, one for the Prince de Condé, one for the Comte de Clermont, one for the Princess dowager de Conti, one for the Prince de Conti, one for the Comte de la Marche, one for the Duc de Penthièvre.

- Each personage, besides his or her apartment under the king's roof has his or her chateau and palace with his or her own circle, the queen at Trianon and at Saint-Cloud, Mesdames at Bellevue, Monsieur at the Luxembourg and at Brunoy, the Comte d'Artois at Meudon and at Bagatelle, the Duc d'Orléans at the Palais Royal, at Monceaux, at Rancy and at Villers-Cotterets, the Prince de Conti at the Temple and at Ile-Adam, the Condés at the Palais-Bourbon and at Chantilly, the Duc de Penthièvre at Sceaux, Anet and Chateauvilain. I omit one-half of these residences. At the Palais-Royal those who are presented may come to the supper on opera days. At Chateauvilain all those who come to pay court are invited to dinner, the nobles at the duke's table and the rest at the table of his first gentleman. At the Temple one hundred and fifty guests attend the Monday suppers. Forty or fifty persons, said the Duchesse de Maine, constitute "a prince's private company."[56] The princes' train is so inseparable from their persons that it follows them even into camp. "The Prince de Condé," says M. de Luynes, "sets out for the army to-morrow with a large suite: he has two hundred and twenty-five horses, and the Comte de la Marche one hundred. M. le duc d'Orléans leaves on Monday; he has three hundred and fifty horses for himself and suite."[57] Below the rank of the king's relatives all the grandees who figure at the court figure as well in their own residences, at their hotels at Paris or at Versailles, also in their chateaux a few leagues away from Paris. On all sides, in the memoirs, we obtain a foreshortened view of some one of these seignorial existences. Such is that of the Duc de Gèvres, first gentleman of the bedchamber, governor of Paris, and of the Ile-de-France, possessing besides this the special governorships of Laon, Soissons, Noyon, Crespy and Valois, the captainry of Mousseaux, also a pension of 20,000 livres, a veritable man of the court, a sort of sample in high relief of the people of his class, and who, through his appointments, his airs, his luxury, his debts, the consideration he enjoys, his tastes, his occupations and his turn of mind presents to us an abridgment of the fashionable world.[58] His memory for relationships and genealogies is surprising; he is an adept in the precious science of etiquette, and on these two grounds he is an oracle and much consulted. "He greatly increased the beauty of his house and gardens at Saint-Ouen. At the moment of his death," says the Duc de Luynes, "he had just added twenty-five arpents to it which he had begun to enclose with a covered terrace. . . . He had quite a large household of gentlemen, pages, and domestic of various kinds, and his expenditure was enormous. . . . He gave a grand dinner every day. . . . He gave special audiences almost daily. There was no one at the court, nor in the city, who did not pay his respects to him. The ministers, the royal princes themselves did so. He received company whilst still in bed. He wrote and dictated amidst a large assemblage.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 魔喚世界

    魔喚世界

    千年文明,毁于一夕,在遥远的外空银河孕育着无数行星,如二级行星,牧韵星,三级行星,荒兽星域,四级行星,罪恶之星,等等等等。然而有一天掌控着银河系最大行星,潘多拉星的星主,突然发现一颗二级行星苍睌行星战力暴涨,已经不在自己的控制范围,为了保住自己的地位,潘多拉星主发起了和苍睌的战争。
  • 星宇始神

    星宇始神

    浩瀚无边的宇宙中,两股站在星宇文明顶端,代表正义与邪恶的高阶文明,在经过数千亿万年的争斗后,终究两败俱伤!这给了处于次高阶地位的文明一个亿载难逢的提升机会!整个宇宙也步入了又一时期的进化!一颗被宇宙高阶文明认为还在茫荒阶段的不起眼的蓝色小星球——地球,正在以自己的形式飞速的发展着。一个蓝发少年云炙爽,因无意间同时拥有了宇宙中代表光明的白日力量和代表黑暗的末世力量,而走上了修神的艰辛历程。
  • 寒鸢墨忆

    寒鸢墨忆

    空山鸟语灵魂人物---墨鸦,活在另一个架空的世界里。看你心中男神不一样的故事,不一样的结局。
  • 穷比富二代

    穷比富二代

    从小被亲生父母抛弃,发誓一定要自力更生,当遇到她,一切都变了。三年后亲生父亲带着千亿来认自己亲儿子,从此命运将会彻底改变大家多多支持我是一名新开的作者感谢大家支持
  • 网王之咸鱼一般的恋爱

    网王之咸鱼一般的恋爱

    震惊!一觉睡醒变成了菜菜子,命运的齿轮也就此展开……
  • 统御四极

    统御四极

    朱木宇穿越成大明信王,接下来他应该脚踢东林党,拳打皇太极,但是,这好像有点不对劲?老魏去哪了?为啥来接我登上皇位的是内阁首辅杨廷和?。。。。。。宫廷混乱,经济疲敝,军备不整,大灾大疫,农民起义,满清入侵,列强壮大种种考验接踵而来,且看朱木宇如何统御四极,坐镇八方
  • 罗大冈译波斯人信札

    罗大冈译波斯人信札

    本书是孟德斯鸠惟一的一部文学作品,全书由一百六十封书信组成。信中有对当时法国社会的细致观察和犀利批判,对流血、肉欲和死亡的描绘,黑白阉奴与后房被囚妻妾的对话,以及身处异国他乡的主人的绵绵情话等。这是一部游记与政论相结合的小说,也是一部哲理小说。
  • 愿时光开出你爱的花

    愿时光开出你爱的花

    你以为你爱一个人深入骨髓,不需要对方的任何回报,却不知你爱的只是你在爱情里面的样子。但无论你爱的是谁,在这个世界上总会有那么一个人为了成全你的所有姿态而隐姓埋名,只愿时光开出你爱的花。
  • 顽固

    顽固

    瑞天,一个看似普通却内心屌丝的男生,他奇葩幽默但又脾气古怪,由于家庭背景的影响,他总认为这个世上充满了虚假。他曾幻想过改变世界,直到上了高中,才发现,自己连自己也未曾了解
  • 纵横异界时空

    纵横异界时空

    地球出现危机!孙悟空拯救了地球?屌丝主角林磊英雄救美,却惹怒了纨绔子弟,随即而来的报复,他能否安然无恙?时空?穿越?一次奇遇,走投无路的林磊穿越到了别的时空!却发现自己手无缚鸡之力,好歹也是堂堂男儿却连一个弱女子都打不过;一次又一次的危机,让林磊明白要想活下去必须变强!经历种种磨难的他竟统领了整个时空,美女!地位!应有尽有……