Newspaper Page Text
1852.]
ISOLINE DE VALMONT.
A SCENE IN THE PARIS REVOLUTION
OF 1830.
Selected.
I was resident in Paris during the three
days Revolution in July, 1830. When
the court and its consequences had been
discussed in every bearing; when the
shout of triumph, the song of victory,
and the wail of bereavement, were hush
ing into silence; the tale and the anecdote
of those who had striven and suffered,
succeeded to more exciting and absorb
ing topics. The journals teemed with
liislorietles, and every soirbc had its
raconteur who appealed to our sympa
thies, and “beguiled us of our tears” with
some new and touching narrative. —
Among those which my memory chron
icled, the following arrested my attention
forcibly, inasmuch as 1 had frequently
met the daughter of De Valinont in so
ciety; and possibly it may not be found
altogether devoid of interest to others.
in the gay salons of Paris, in the sea
son of 1830, there were few demoiselles
who attracted greater notice than Isoiine
de Valmont. It is a frequent remark
that, though beauty is more generally dis
tributed among the women of England
than those of France, yet. when pos
sessed by the latter, it is of a higher and
more unquestionable character; as if Na
ture reserved all her gifts for her few
and special favourites, and lavished her
bounty upon them in prodigal profu
sion.
And certainly Isoline was one of these.
The large dark blue eye, with its long
silken fringe; the fair round cheek, to
which emotion only lent a crimson glow;
the waves of blackest shining hair; were
combined with a form, taller and more
exuberant than her country-women can
usually boast, and features who-e ex
pression blended the innocence of infancy
with that pure, spiritualized loveliness
which expresses the depth and earnest
ness of the mind within. The admira
tion which her beauty challenged, her
manners confirmed : soft, tender, caress
ing, she gathered around her the sympa
thies of all classes, from her own com
munity of feeling with their joys and
sorrows. The circumstances of her birth
and present position did not tend to
lessen the interest which her appearance
excited. Iler mother—before marriage
Mademoiselle de Montmorency —died in
the same hour which gave her infant
birth. The daughter of one of the proud
est and noblest of the French aristocracy,
she had left the convent where she had
been educated but a few months, when,
at the chateau of a maternal aunt, in
Burgundy, where a large party were as
sembled to enjoy the vintage, she met
with Monsieur de Valmont. Undistin
guished by birth, unendowed with for-
SOUTHERN LITERARY GAZETTE.
tune, he yet possessed what to womanly
calculation is of far greater worth—a
noble person, and gentlemanly bearing,
llis admiration of Mademoiselle de Mont
morency was ardent and undisguised.
She listened to its expression until the
i feeling became reciprocal. A few weeks
1 passed under the same roof consolidated
the attachment; and a few months subse
quently they were privately married.
Fora while the secret obtained not cir
| dilation. But the hour of discovery
! came at last, and brought with it misery
! and wo.
The obscurity of De Valmont had of
itself presented a sufficient barrier to for
giveness, but a yet more alienating and
exasperating cause existed in the fact
that he was avowedly of the wildest re
publican principles, the descendant of a
Regicide! Without a franc for a mar
riage dowery, with only the bitter and
awful portion of a father’s curses, his
bride was cast forth from her proud
ancestral halls to privation and poverty.
But the discipline of adversity ill accor
ded with the gentle nature of Madame de
I Valmont: she lived but to bring her
child into a bleak and pittiless world, and
the first anniversary of the day which
had witnessed her ill fated, unsanctioned
nuptials, beheld her laid in the quiet
grave.
Then was it that the natural disposition
of De Valmont fully developed itself.
F.erce, morose, vindictive, he had been
coerced, if l may so express myself, from
his original nature Into comparative mild
ness, by the presence of his meek, de
! voted wife. This link to goodness and
principle wrenched asunder, he stood
forth at war with himself, his species,
and his destiny. Idle by temperament,
vain and selfish, he flattered himself that
in an alliance with the house of Mont
morency he should find at once affluence
and aggrandizement. Though thwarted
in his expectations at the outset, by the
declared hostility of his wife’s parents, he
yet trusted that time would mitigate re
sentment, and no distant hour see her
reinstated in the affections and dignities
which she had once enjoyed. This hope
was for ever blasted; even the infant she
had left they refused to see; and they re
jected with haughty scorn every effort
he made towards reconciliation and par
don.
De Valmont had loved his wife pas
sionately and profoundly, llis grief at
her death was vehement and sincere; but
it was transient. With a desperation
characteristic of his disposition and cir
cumstances, he rushed from the house of
mourning into riot and revelry, tmd
sought, by plunging into every dissipa
tion that offered, oblivion for his sor
rows.
Having from early youth been ad
dicted to gambling, he now adopted it as
a profession. The excitement suited him
not less than the possibility of unla
boured competence which it suggested.
He became a systematic gamester, the
most unvarying attendant at Frascati’s,
as well as habitually the most successful.
How did it revolt the pure nature of
Isoline, when years brought capacity to
J comprehend the degradation, that her
i father drew subsistence for himself and
j her from the plunder of the unwary, the
ruin of the thoughtless ! During the
period of her education, the fact hsd not
reached her; but, when called on to pre
side over his hearth and home, it was too
soon revealed. She besought him ear
nestly, passionately, to abandon the path
which he had chosen. But he heard her
with a sigh, advanced the fixedness of
long habit and his own inability now to
acquire any profession, as palliatives in
her eyes, and left her to follow again his
disgraceful career.
Isoline wept silently and bitterly; she
loved her father with passionate fondness,
and his love for her was akin to worship,
i She resolved to qualify herself for the
| support of them both, by the exercise of
her musical talents, which were of first
i rate power. Her voice, too, was one of
remarkable beauty and compass. It was
i her intention, when duly prepared, to as
sist at private and public concerts, and
seek, by industry and perseverance, to
obtain a reputable, probably ample live
lihood for herself and her father. Wher
ever her purpose w T as confided, it met
; with ready and eager patronage and en
couragement. The commiseration which
the reckless character of her father, con
trasted with her own unvarying rectitude,
excited; her singular loveliness, and the
continued estrangement and hostility of •
her mother’s family; all contributed to
invest her with an extraordiaary interest.
With truth might it be said that she was
the admiration of every r circle —the idol
of her own.
It was early in the morning of the ever
memorable 29th of July, the closing day j
of the Paris Revolution. One broad
| blaze of sunlight Hooded the heavens and
illumined the earth. It shone in on many
a chamber of agony and suffering; and in
every countenance that its beams irradi
! ated were stamped in legible characters
traces of anxietv and care. Few had re
tired to rest the two preceding nights;
for who could sleep while the dreary
monotonous tocsin affrighted the ear with
its mournful echoes, and the sharp shrill
pound of musketry—for in many cases
night did not avail to separate the com
batants —came booming through the air ?
The dead on both sides lay yet unburied,
and the issue of the warfare had not ar
j rived to determine under what denomi
nation the originators and abettors of
the conflict should be classed—whether
I mourned as martyrs to liberty, with a
25
289