Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 7.djvu/24

viii PROSPER MERIMEE incident, expecting that the result would be, at the very least, a war with Russia, and I was no little chagrined not only to receive authority to go, but to go that very evening to the home of the grand-duchess, to whom the policeman had been assigned as factotum. However, to soothe my feelings I wrote a letter to the grand-duchess giving her a piece of my mind. This letter, 'giving her a piece of my mind,' must have been an interesting composition, and I am sure the factotum did not show himself again."

As for formal gatherings, it would be impossible for any one to address them with more seriousness of demeanour and with less inward deference. Grave, sedate, of dignified carriage, when making an Academic visit, or delivering an impromptu address in public, his manner was irreproachable; but aU the while the bird-organ behind the scenes was playing a comic air which turned both the orator and the audience to ridicule. "The president of the Antiquarian Society rose from his seat, all the other guests following his example. He began to speak, saying that inasmuch as from those aspects I was a man of notable attainments, he wished to propose my health, as senator, as man of letters, and as a scholar. There was only the table between us, and I was strongly tempted to hurl a glass of Roman punch at his head. . . . The next morning I hstened to the minutes of the proceedings of the night before, in which it was stated that I had delivered a most eloquent address. I made a speech, to urge that all the adverbs be omitted from the report, but my request was not granted."

While a candidate for the Academy of Inscriptions, he was taken to call upon some learned persons of formidable