Dumas' Paris Part 35

Dumas wandered much farther afield than the land of his beloved Valois. To Italy, to Spain, to Algeria, to Corsica, to Germany, and even to Russia.

Mostly he made use of his experiences in his books of travel, of which "Les Impressions du Voyage" is the chief.

Who would read the narrative of the transactions which took place in Russia's capital in the early nineteenth century, should turn to "Les Memoires d'un Maitre d'Armes," or "Dix-huit Mois a St. Petersburgh." It presents a picture of the Russian life of the time, in which--the critics agree--there is but slight disguise. Its story--for it is confessedly fiction--turns upon the fortunes of a young subaltern, who played a considerable part in the conspiracy of 1825, and, it has been said by a contemporary writer of the time, hardly any circ.u.mstance but the real name of the young man is disguised.

It is in the main, or, at least, it has for its princ.i.p.al incident, the story of a political exile, and it is handled with Dumas' vivid and consummate skill, which therein proves again that the mere romancist had a good deal of the historian about him.

Besides the _locale_ of "La Tulipe Noire," Dumas takes the action of "The Forty-Five Guardsmen" into the Netherlands. Francois, the Duc d'Anjou, had entered Belgium and had been elected Duc de Brabant, Sovereign Prince of Flanders. At this time it was supposed that Elizabeth of England saw the opportunity of reuniting the Calvinists of Flanders and France with those of England, and so acquire a triple crown. Then follows an account of the attack on Antwerp, which resulted in final defeat of the French, and presents one of the most graphic descriptions of a battle to be found in the pages of Dumas. The historic incident of the interview in Duc Francois' tent, between that worthy and the French Admiral de Joyeuse, is made much of by Dumas, and presents a most picturesque account of this b.l.o.o.d.y battle. The topography of Antwerp and the country around about is as graphic as a would-be painting.

"'But,' cried the prince, 'I must settle my position in the country. I am Duke of Brabant and Count of Flanders, in name, and I must be so in reality. This William, who is gone I know not where, spoke to me of a kingdom. Where is this kingdom?--in Antwerp. Where is he?--probably in Antwerp also; therefore we must take Antwerp, and we shall know how we stand.'

"'Oh! monseigneur, you know it now, or you are, in truth, a worse politician than I thought you. Who counselled you to take Antwerp?--the Prince of Orange. Who disappeared at the moment of taking the field?--the Prince of Orange. Who, while he made your Highness Duke of Brabant, reserved for himself the lieutenant-generals.h.i.+p of the duchy?--the Prince of Orange. Whose interest is it to ruin the Spaniards by you, and you by the Spaniards?--the Prince of Orange. Who will replace you, who will succeed, if he does not do so already?--the Prince of Orange. Oh!

monseigneur, in following his counsels you have but annoyed the Flemings.

Let a reverse come, and all those who do not dare to look you now in the face, will run after you like those timid dogs who run after those who fly.'

"'What! you imagine that I can be beaten by wool-merchants and beer-drinkers?'

"'These wool-merchants and these beer-drinkers have given plenty to do to Philippe de Valois, the Emperor Charles V., and Philippe II., who were three princes placed sufficiently high, monseigneur, for the comparison not to be disagreeable to you.'"

In "Pascal Bruno," Dumas launched into a story of Sicilian brigandage, which has scarce been equalled, unless it were in his two other tales of similar purport--"Cherubino et Celestine," and "Maitre Adam le Calabrais."

Originally it formed one of a series which were published in one volume--in 1838--under the t.i.tle of "La Salle d'Armes, Pauline, et Pascal Bruno."

According to the "Memoires," a favourite rendezvous of Dumas in Paris, at this period, was Grisier's fencing-room. There it was that the _maitre d'armes_ handed him the ma.n.u.script ent.i.tled "Eighteen Months at St.

Petersburg,"--that remarkable account of a Russian exile,--and it is there that Dumas would have his readers to believe that he collected the materials for "Pauline" and "Murat."

The great attraction of "The Corsican Brothers" lies not so much with Corsica, the home of the _vendetta_, the land of Napoleon, and latterly known politically as the 86me Departement de France, as with the events which so closely and strenuously encircled the lives of the brothers De Franchi in Paris itself.

Corsican life and topography is limned, however, with a fidelity which has too often been lacking in Dumas' description of foreign parts. Perhaps, as has been said before, he extracted this information from others; but more likely--it seems to the writer--it came from his own intimate acquaintance with that island, as it is known that he was a visitor there in 1834.

If this surmise be correct, the tale was a long time in taking shape,--an unusually long time for Dumas,--as the book did not appear until 1845, the same year as the appearance of "Monte Cristo" in book form.

It was dedicated to Prosper Merimee, whose "Colomba" ranks as its equal as a thrilling tale of Corsican life.

It has been remarked that, curiously enough, in spite of the fact that the story has been so often dramatized and adapted for the stage,--and acted by persons of all shades and grades of ability,--Dumas never thought well enough of it to have given it that turn himself.

Dumas' acquaintance with Naples never produced any more lucid paragraphs descriptive of character, and the local colour and scenic effect besides, than in the few short pages of "Les Pecheurs du Filet." It comes, of course, as a result of Dumas' rather extended sojourn in Italy.

When Dumas actually did write scenic descriptions, they were exceedingly graphic,--though not verbose,--and exceedingly picturesque,--though not sentimental,--as witness the following lines which open the tale--though he does make use a little farther on of the now trite tag, "See Naples and die."

"Every morning on awakening I was in the habit of resting my elbows on the window-sill and gazing far out over the limpid and sparkling mirror of the Tyrrhenian Sea.... At night the bay is so intensely blue that, under more favourable conditions, it resembles those leaden-hued lakes, such as Avernus, the Fucine Lake, or Lake Agnano,--all in the neighbourhood of Naples, which cover the craters of extinct volcanoes."

The story gives further a wonderful pen-portrait of Ladislas I. of Hungary, of Jerusalem, and of Sicily, and of the barbaric torture of "The Question," which was performed upon the aspiring lover of Joanna of Naples.

Rome figures chiefly in "The Count of Monte Cristo," wherein half a dozen chapters are devoted to the "Eternal City." Here it is that Monte Cristo first meets Albert de Morcerf, son of one of that trio of enemies on whom the count has sworn revenge. De Morcerf, enjoying the pleasures of the Roman carnival, is captured by bandits, from whom he is rescued by the count, who, in saving the son, makes the first move of vengeance against the father.

Various interesting parts of Rome are described and touched upon,--the Teatro Argentino, the Colosseum, the Plaza del Popolo--scene of the public executions of that time,--the catacombs of San Sebastian, and many others.

The characteristic and picturesque manners and customs of the Romans, from _n.o.blesse_ to peasants, are set down here in vivid and graphic style; and it is clearly plain that when Dumas sojourned in Rome he "did as the Romans do."

Dumas' familiarity with Switzerland was no greater or no less than his knowledge of Spain, of Italy, of Russia, or of Corsica. In his volumes of travel, "Impressions du Voyage," are many charming bits of narrative which might well be extracted and elaborated into what is otherwise known as fiction. With regard to "Pauline," this is exactly what did happen, or, rather, the relations.h.i.+p between the Pauline of the novelette and the Pauline of "La Voyage en Suisse" is one based upon a common parentage.

Switzerland early attracted Dumas' attention. He took his first tour in the cantons in 1832, partly as a means of convalescing from a severe illness, and partly because he was in danger of arrest for the too active part taken by him in the public funeral of General Lamarque and the riots that followed. No sooner was Dumas _en route_ than the leaves of his note-book were torn asunder and despatched forthwith to the then newly founded _Revue des Deux Mondes_.

At Fluelen, that high Alpine pa.s.s, the mysterious veiled Pauline de Meulien and her cavalier, Alfred de N----, make their first appearance.

One feels intuitively that here are the elements of a drama, of which the author will avail himself before long. The voyages continue, however, and the veiled lady fails to reappear until the end of the journey, when another transitory glimpse of her is had at Pfeffers.

This Pauline's adventures evidently demanded more s.p.a.ce than the travels could afford, and became ultimately a novelette.

"Pauline" is one of Dumas' early attempts at fiction, and is told with originality, and a very considerable skill. Nearly twenty years after "Pauline" was written, Dumas told us that he met the counterpart of the villain of the story, Horace de Beuzeval, who consigned the beautiful Pauline to a living burial in the old abbey vault on the coast of Normandy, near Trouville.

Dumas' pictures of Switzerland are more or less conventional; with him the story was the thing, and the minutiae of stage setting but a side issue.

In "Les Crimes Celebres," Dumas goes back to history, though he sticks to France, with the exception of those dealing with the Borgias and Mary Stuart.

The crimes of the Borgias--and they were many--end the series, though they cover but the period 1492-1507. The most unnatural and quite the most despicable being the throwing into the Tiber by Caesar Borgia the cadaver of his brother. Rome, the Popes, and Italy in general form much of the venue, but the political history of France, Spain, and Austria enter largely into the movement of the chronicle, and such widely separated towns of France as Perpignan, in the Comte de Roussillon in the south, and Hesdin, Etaples, and Bethune in the north, all play their parts in the political treaties of the time.

THE END.