Transcriber’s note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
TALLEYRAND
A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY
| From an engraving after a painting by Gerard. | Allen H. London, Ltd. &c. |
TALLEYRAND
A Biographical Study
By
JOSEPH McCABE
Author of “Peter Abélard,” “Saint Augustine,” &c.
WITH 25 PORTRAITS
INCLUDING A PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECE
London
Hutchinson & Co.
Paternoster Row
1906
PREFACE
Sainte-Beuve, after an attempt that one cannot describeas successful, declared that “it is hardly possible to writethe life of M. de Talleyrand.” Frédéric Masson noticedthe figure of the great diplomatist as he passed with adisdainful “ce Sphinx.” Carlyle forgot his dogmatismfor a moment, and pronounced Talleyrand “one of thestrangest things ever seen or like to be seen, an enigmafor future ages.” Even a woman of penetration, Mme.de Staël, who had known him well, assures us thathe was “the most impenetrable and most inexplicableof men.”
There were a few who thought that the long-sealed“Memoirs” of the Prince, which were published onlya few years ago, would reveal every secret. They forgotthat these were the work of the man who held(improving on Voltaire) that “speech was given to manto disguise his thoughts”—the man who conducted hisexit from the world with all the art he had used at theCongress of Vienna. Yet, if the “Memoirs” havethrown no light, or only a deceptive light, on some ofthe obscurer passages in Talleyrand’s career, they haveat least filled in our picture of his personality, so thatthe tradition of its inscrutability must be surrendered.There has been a prolonged and microscopic researchinto the age or ages of Talleyrand,—the Old Regime,the Revolution, the Consulate, the Restoration, andthe second Revolution. The memoirs of nearly all hiscontemporaries have seen the light, and official recordseverywhere have been examined. I have made acareful use of all this research up to date, andfind it possible to present a consistent and intelligiblepersonality.
Lady Blennerhassett included the material of the“Memoirs” in the biography of Talleyrand that shewrote ten years ago. But a good deal of light hassince been thrown on the earlier part of his career,and in this regard I gratefully avail myself of theinvestigations of M. de Lacombe. Moreover, LadyBlennerhassett is chiefly occupied with the Prince’sdiplomatic action. His personality does not standout very clearly from her very crowded canvas. Thatis an inherent disadvantage in writing the life of agreat diplomatist. However, in spite of the alluringcharacter of the stretch of history across which thethread of Talleyrand’s life passes, I have tried tokeep it in its place as a background, and to bring outin