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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