In 1786 Bodard de Saint-James, treasurer of the navy, excited more attention and gossip as to his luxury than any other financier in Paris. At this period he was building his famous "Folie" at Neuilly, and his wife had just bought a set of feathers to crown the tester of her bed, the price of which had been too great for even the queen to pay.
Bodard owned the magnificent mansion in the place Vendome, which the /fermier-general/, Dange, had lately been forced to leave. That celebrated epicurean was now dead, and on the day of his interment his intimate friend, Monsieur de Bievre, raised a laugh by saying that he "could now pass through the place Vendome without /danger/." This allusion to the hellish gambling which went on in the dead man's house, was his only funeral oration. The house is opposite to the Chancellerie.
To end in a few words the history of Bodard,--he became a poor man, having failed for fourteen millions after the bankruptcy of the Prince de Guemenee. The stupidity he showed in not anticipating that "serenissime disaster," to use the expression of Lebrun Pindare, was the reason why no notice was taken of his misfortunes. He died, like Bourvalais, Bouret, and so many others, in a garret.
Madame Bodard de Saint-James was ambitious, and professed to receive none but persons of quality at her house,--an old absurdity which is ever new. To her thinking, even the parliamentary judges were of small account; she wished for titled persons in her salons, or at all events, those who had the right of entrance at court. To say that many /cordons bleus/ were seen at her house would be false; but it is quite certain that she managed to obtain the good-will and civilities of several members of the house of Rohan, as was proved later in the affair of the too celebrated diamond necklace.
One evening--it was, I think, in August, 1786--I was much surprised to meet in the salons of this lady, so exacting in the matter of gentility, two new faces which struck me as belonging to men of inferior social position. She came to me presently in the embrasure of a window where I had ensconced myself.
"Tell me," I said to her, with a glance toward one of the new-comers, "who and what is that queer species? Why do you have that kind of thing here?""He is charming."
"Do you see him through a prism of love, or am I blind?""You are not blind," she said, laughing. "The man is as ugly as a caterpillar; but he has done me the most immense service a woman can receive from a man."As I looked at her rather maliciously she hastened to add: "He's a physician, and he has completely cured me of those odious red blotches which spoiled my complexion and made me look like a peasant woman."I shrugged my shoulders with disgust.
"He is a charlatan."
"No," she said, "he is the surgeon of the court pages. He has a fine intellect, I assure you; in fact, he is a writer, and a very learned man.""Heavens! if his style resembles his face!" I said scoffingly. "But who is the other?""What other?"
"That spruce, affected little popinjay over there, who looks as if he had been drinking verjuice.""He is a rather well-born man," she replied; "just arrived from some province, I forget which--oh! from Artois. He is sent here to conclude an affair in which the Cardinal de Rohan is interested, and his Eminence in person had just presented him to Monsieur de Saint-James.
It seems they have both chosen my husband as arbitrator. The provincial didn't show his wisdom in that; but fancy what simpletons the people who sent him here must be to trust a case to a man of his sort! He is as meek as a sheep and as timid as a girl. His Eminence is very kind to him.""What is the nature of the affair?"
"Oh! a question of three hundred thousand francs.""Then the man is a lawyer?" I said, with a slight shrug.
"Yes," she replied.
Somewhat confused by this humiliating avowal, Madame Bodard returned to her place at a faro-table.
All the tables were full. I had nothing to do, no one to speak to, and I had just lost two thousand crowns to Monsieur de Laval. I flung myself on a sofa near the fireplace. Presently, if there was ever a man on earth most utterly astonished it was I, when, on looking up, Isaw, seated on another sofa on the opposite side of the fireplace, Monsieur de Calonne, the comptroller-general. He seemed to be dozing, or else he was buried in one of those deep meditations which overtake statesmen. When I pointed out the famous minister to Beaumarchais, who happened to come near me at that moment, the father of Figaro explained the mystery of his presence in that house without uttering a word. He pointed first at my head, then at Bodard's with a malicious gesture which consisted in turning to each of us two fingers of his hand while he kept the others doubled up. My first impulse was to rise and say something rousing to Calonne; then I paused, first, because Ithought of a trick I could play the statesman, and secondly, because Beaumarchais caught me familiarly by the hand.
"Why do you do that, monsieur?" I said.
He winked at the comptroller.
"Don't wake him," he said in a low voice. "A man is happy when asleep.""Pray, is sleep a financial scheme?" I whispered.
"Indeed, yes!" said Calonne, who had guessed our words from the mere motion of our lips. "Would to God we could sleep long, and then the awakening you are about to see would never happen.""Monseigneur," said the dramatist, "I must thank you--""For what?"
"Monsieur de Mirabeau has started for Berlin. I don't know whether we might not both have drowned ourselves in that affair of 'les Eaux.'""You have too much memory, and too little gratitude," replied the minister, annoyed at having one of his secrets divulged in my presence.
"Possibly," said Beaumarchais, cut to the quick; "but I have millions that can balance many a score."Calonne pretended not to hear.
It was long past midnight when the play ceased. Supper was announced.
