A friend was conversing with Talleyrand on the subject of Mademoiselle Duchesnois, the French actress, and another lady, neither of them remarkable for beauty; and the first happening to have peculiarly bad teeth, the latter none at all. "If Madame S." said Talleyrand, "only had teeth, she would be as ugly as Mademoiselle Duchesnois."

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"Ah; I feel the torments of hell," said a person, whose life had been supposed to be somewhat of the loosest. Already?" was the inquiry suggested to M. Talleyrand. The Cardinal de Retz's physician is said to have made a similar expression on a like occasion.

Talleyrand had a confidential servant, excessively devoted to his interests, but withal superlatively inquisitive. Having one day entrusted him with a letter, the Prince watched his faithful valet from the window of his apartment, and, with some surprise, observed him coolly reading the letter en route. On the next day a similar commission was confided to the servant; and to the second letter was added a postscript couched in the following terms :-" You may send a verbal answer by the bearer; he is perfectly acquainted with the whole affair, having taken the precaution to read this previous to its delivery."

A creditor to whom the Prince was indebted in a heavy sum, waited on him as he was setting off on his last departure for this country not to take so great a liberty as to ask for his money, but merely to ascertain any time, however remote, when he might presume to ask for a part of it. The diplomatist's only reply to the inquisitive intruder was, "Monsieur, vous êtes bien curieux ;" and no one but the diplomatist could have made such a reply.

Talleyrand's cook, Marie-Antoine Carême, contrasting the good and evil features of his vocation, exclaimed enthusiastically, "The charcoal kills us; but n'importe, our years are few in number, but full of glory."

PRESENTIMENT TO TALLEY RAND.

Dr. Sigmond received from the widow of M. Colmache, the private secretary and friend of M. de Talleyrand, the following remarkable anecdote.

One day, in the presence of the minister, the conversation had turned upon the subject of those sudden warnings which have been looked upon as communications from the world of spirits to man: some one observed, that it would be difficult to find a man of any note, who had not, in the course of his life, experienced something of the kind. I remember," said Talleyrand, "upon one occasion, having been gifted, for one single moment, with an unknown and nameless power. I know not to this moment whence it came; it has never

once returned, and yet upon that one occasion it saved my life. Without that sudden and mysterious inspiration I should not have been here to tell my tale. I had freighted a ship in concert with my friend Beaumetz. He was a good fellow, Beaumetz, with whom I had ever lived on the most intimate terms. I had not a single reason to doubt his friendship. On the contrary, he had given me, on several occasions, most positive proof of his devotion to my interest and well-being. We had fied from France; we had arrived at New York together, and we had lived in perfect harmony during our stay here. So, after having resolved upon improving the little money that was left by speculation, it was still in partnership and together, that we freighted a small vessel for India, trusting to all the goodly chances which had befriended us in our escape from danger and from death, to venture once more conjointly to brave the storms and perils of a longer and yet more adventurous voyage. Everything was embarked for our departure; bills were all paid, and farewells all taken, and we were waiting for a fair wind with most eager expectation, being prepared to embark at any hour of the day or night, in obedience to the warning of the captain. This state of uncertainty seemed to irritate the temper of poor Beaumetz: he grew remarkably restless: one day, he entered our lodging, evidently labouring under great excitement, although commanding himself to appear calm. I was engaged at that moment in writing letters to Europe; and looking over my shoulder, he said, with forced gaiety, 'What need to waste time in penning those letters? they will never reach their destination. Come with me, and let us take a turn on the Battery; perhaps the wind may be chopping round; we may be nearer our departure than we imagine.' The day was very fine, and though the wind was blowing hard, I suffered myself to be persuaded. Beaumetz, I remembered afterwards, displayed an unusual officiousness in aiding me to close my desk, and put away my papers, handing me with hurried eagerness, my hat and cane, and doing other services to quicken my departure, which, at the time, I attributed to his restless desire for change. We walked, through the crowded streets, to the Battery. He had seized my arm, and hurried me along. When we had arrived at the broad esplanade-the glory of New YorkBeaumetz quickened his step still more, until we reached close to the water's edge. He talked loud and quickly, admiring in energetic terms the beauty of the scenery, the Brooklyn heights, the shady groves of the island, the ships riding at anchor, and the busy scene on the peopled wharf, when suddenly he paused in his mad, incoherent discourse-for I had freed my arm from his grasp, and stood

6

immovable before him. Staying his wild and rapid steps, I fixed my eye upon his face. He turned aside, cowed and dismayed. Beaumetz,' I shouted, 'you mean to murder me; you intend to throw me from the height into the sea below. Deny it, monster, if you can.' The maniac stared at me for a moment; but I took especial care not to avert my gaze from his countenance, and he quailed beneath it. He stammered a few incoherent words, and strove to pass me, but I barred his passage with extended arms. He looked vacantly right and left, and then flung himself upon my neck, and burst into tears. "Tis true-'tis true, my friend! The thought has haunted me day and night, like a flash from the lurid fire of hell. It was for this I brought you here. Look! you stand within a foot of the edge of the parapet; in another instant the work would have been done." The demon had left him; his eye was un settled, and the white foam stood in bubbles on his parched lips; but he was no longer tossed by the same mad excitement under which he had been labouring, for he suffered me to lead him home without a single word. A few days' repose, bleeding, abstinence, completely restored him to his former self, and what is most extraordinary, the circumstance was never mentioned between us. FATE was at work."

MY

It was whilst watching by the bedside of his friend that Talleyrand received letters which enabled him to return to France; he did so, and left Beaumetz to prosecute the speculation alone. The Prince Talleyrand could never speak of the preceding event without shuddering, and to the latest hour of his existence believed that "he was for an instant gifted with an extraordinary light, and during a quick and vivid flash the possible and the true was revealed to a strong and powerful mind," and that upon this the whole of his destiny hinged. "This species of momentary exaltation," says Dr. Sigmond, "which is not again repeated, but is remembered with the most vivid impression, is what is more immediately known by the name of fantasia:" in Fiance and England it is named presentiment.-Dr. Forbes Winslow's Psychological Journal.

THE PRINCESS TALLEYRAND.

In the Memoirs of Prince Talleyrand we find the following portrait of his strange relative:-"She was the most eccentric person I ever met with the last of a race of which it will be impossible, from the change in human ideas, ever to behold another specimen. In her youth she had been most beautiful, and still retained, saving the loss of an eye, traces of loveliness even in advanced age. She ould not be called either clever or witty, but was the cause of such

interminable wit on the part of others, of such endless good sayings on the part of the Prince, that Valançay, to those who were accustomed to her society, seemed dull à perir when she was not there. She had the greatest fund of originality and natural vivacity that could be possessed by any human being. Her ideas could not be made, by any force of reasoning or persuasion, to follow the tide of improvement of the times; and she could never be taught to believe that the Revolution had wrought any change in the relative positions of the aristocracy and the people, but continued, to the latest period of her life, to treat all plebeians and roturiers as though they had still been serfs and vassals, subject at her will and pleasure to détresse and corvée. She was an invaluable specimen of the old insolent noblesse, and after a day spent in her company you might retire to rest, no longer wondering at the horrors of the great Revolution, nor yet at the hatred by which they had been instigated. On one occasion she had nearly set the whole province in uproar by an unseasonable display of what the Prince was wont to call her impertinence regente. A large party had been invited to dinner at the château, a party in honour of the arrival of some high and illustrious visitor at Valançay. I think there were even scions of Royalty among the guests. In short, it was one of the gaudy days of the castle, when the flaming yellow liveries, and the antique silver, and the Royal gifts were all displayed. Of course, the préfet of the department, the maire of Valançay, the curé, and, in short, all the authorities of the place, had been invited, and with true provincial punctuality had arrived at the exact hour named in the invitation, which, as usual in modern times, was long before the princely host expected to receive his guests, and, when they were ushered into the drawing-room, they found that none of the family had as yet appeared, and that they would be consequently compelled to amuse themselves as they best could until the ringing of the bell, which would gather together the stray members of the household. short time, however, the great doors of the drawing-room were thrown back with a loud fracas, and in sailed, in all the majesty of stiffened silks and fluttering plumes, her Highness the Princess T———. The troubled provincials immediately with one accord turned from the chimney, where they had been talking in mysterious murmurs concerning the mighty individuals whom they were to meet at dinner, and moved in a body, with sundry low bows, and a great display of gymnastic prostrations, towards the fair Princess. The latter stood for a moment, and gazed as they advanced, then turning suddenly round to the grinning domestic, who had remained standing at the door, 'Fool!' exclaimed she, indignantly, 'did I

In a

not bid you ascertain if anybody had arrived, before I troubled myself to come down to the salon?' 'Yes, Princess, and I came myself to see,' answered the servant, looking rather puzzled and embarrassed, first at his mistress, then at the guests, who stood wondering where the questioning would lead to; and when I found these gentlemen here, I'Idiot!' interrupted the Princess, not to know your business better; remember that such as these are not anybody, but nobody.' With these words she tossed out of the room, pointing with her fan over her shoulder at the poor stupified provincials, whose rage and mortification defy description."

TALLEYRAND AND BONAPAKTE.

Bourrienne is not the best of authorities, but the earlier volumes of the memoirs which pass under his name are less falsified than the later; and an anecdote which he relates of Talleyrand's interview with the First Consul, after being reappointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, is so characteristic, that its truth is highly probable :-" M. de Talleyrand, appointed successor to M. de Reinhart at the same time that Cambacères and Lebrun succeeded Sièyes and Roger Ducas as Consuls, was admitted to a private audience by the First Consul. The speech which he addressed to Bonaparte was so gratifying to the person to whom it was addressed, and appeared so striking to myself, that the words have remained in my memory:— 'Citizen Consul, you have confided to me the department of foreign affairs, and I will justify your confidence; but I must work under' no one but yourself. This is not mere arrogance on my part: in order that France be well governed, unity of action is required: you must be First Consul, and the First Consul must hold in his hand all the mainsprings of the political machine-the ministries of the interior, of internal police, of foreign affairs, of war, and the marine. The ministers of these departments must transact business with you alone. The ministries of justice and finance have, without doubt, a powerful influence upon politics; but it is more indirect. The second consul is an able jurist, and the third a master of finance leave these departments to them; it will amuse them; and you, General, having the entire management of the essential parts of government, may pursue without interruption your noble object, the regeneration of France.' These words accorded too closely with the sentiments of Bonaparte to be heard by him otherwise than with pleasure. He said to me, after M. de Talleyrand had taken his leave, Do you know, Bourrienne, Talleyrand's advice is sound. He is a man of sense.' He then added smilingly :-Talleyrand is