I have spoken of Prince Talleyrand, whom I saw occasionally in Paris this winter (1818-19), and of whom I have given my general impressions.1 But I met him twice, under circumstances which afforded me such intimations of his character, that I think it worth while to record them long afterwards, although I failed at the time to write out my notes, as I often did during my hurried life in Paris, at that period. On both the occasions referred to, I met Mons. de Talleyrand at the hotel of the Duchess de Duras, to whom I was presented by a letter from the Duc Adrien de Montmorency Laval, French ambassador in Madrid, in such a way that, from the first, she received me with great kindness and permitted me to visit her familiarly. She received a great deal of company, but her favorite time for seeing her friends without ceremony was between four and six,—what she called ‘mes ’
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The following anecdotes were written down later by Mr. Ticknor, and placed by him in the Journal according to the date:—
1 The passage in which Mr. Ticknor had already given his impression of Talleyrand is this: ‘His recollection of all he had seen and of all the persons he had known in America seemed as distinct as if he had left the country only a few days since; and he spoke of them with a fresh and living interest that continually surprised me. I remarked, however, that if I spoke, in reply to him, of anything that had happened since to those persons, or of any change in the circumstances that were still so familiar to his thoughts, it made not the slightest impression upon him. It was only his own recollections that interested him, and the persons he had known then occupied him only as a part of himself, so that it was indifferent to him whether they were now dead or alive.’
Boston, J. R. Osgood and company, 1876.
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