Vanity Fair - Page 535/573

We had on our side the Home Minister, the Master of the Horse, the

Duke's Private Secretary, and the Prince's Tutor; whereas of the French

party were the Foreign Minister, the Commander-in-Chief's Lady, who had

served under Napoleon, and the Hof-Marschall and his wife, who was glad

enough to get the fashions from Pans, and always had them and her caps

by M. de Macabau's courier. The Secretary of his Chancery was little

Grignac, a young fellow, as malicious as Satan, and who made

caricatures of Tapeworm in all the-albums of the place.

Their headquarters and table d'hote were established at the Pariser

Hof, the other inn of the town; and though, of course, these gentlemen

were obliged to be civil in public, yet they cut at each other with

epigrams that were as sharp as razors, as I have seen a couple of

wrestlers in Devonshire, lashing at each other's shins and never

showing their agony upon a muscle of their faces. Neither Tapeworm nor

Macabau ever sent home a dispatch to his government without a most

savage series of attacks upon his rival. For instance, on our side we

would write, "The interests of Great Britain in this place, and

throughout the whole of Germany, are perilled by the continuance in

office of the present French envoy; this man is of a character so

infamous that he will stick at no falsehood, or hesitate at no crime,

to attain his ends. He poisons the mind of the Court against the

English minister, represents the conduct of Great Britain in the most

odious and atrocious light, and is unhappily backed by a minister whose

ignorance and necessities are as notorious as his influence is fatal."

On their side they would say, "M. de Tapeworm continues his system of

stupid insular arrogance and vulgar falsehood against the greatest

nation in the world. Yesterday he was heard to speak lightly of Her

Royal Highness Madame the Duchess of Berri; on a former occasion he

insulted the heroic Duke of Angouleme and dared to insinuate that

H.R.H. the Duke of Orleans was conspiring against the august throne of

the lilies. His gold is prodigated in every direction which his stupid

menaces fail to frighten. By one and the other, he has won over

creatures of the Court here--and, in fine, Pumpernickel will not be

quiet, Germany tranquil, France respected, or Europe content until this

poisonous viper be crushed under heel": and so on. When one side or

the other had written any particularly spicy dispatch, news of it was

sure to slip out.

Before the winter was far advanced, it is actually on record that Emmy

took a night and received company with great propriety and modesty.

She had a French master, who complimented her upon the purity of her

accent and her facility of learning; the fact is she had learned long

ago and grounded herself subsequently in the grammar so as to be able

to teach it to George; and Madam Strumpff came to give her lessons in

singing, which she performed so well and with such a true voice that

the Major's windows, who had lodgings opposite under the Prime

Minister, were always open to hear the lesson. Some of the German

ladies, who are very sentimental and simple in their tastes, fell in

love with her and began to call her du at once. These are trivial

details, but they relate to happy times. The Major made himself

George's tutor and read Caesar and mathematics with him, and they had a

German master and rode out of evenings by the side of Emmy's

carriage--she was always too timid, and made a dreadful outcry at the

slightest disturbance on horse-back. So she drove about with one of

her dear German friends, and Jos asleep on the back-seat of the

barouche.