Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/103

 comment; the public found the plays masterpieces of improving literature, and the grand-duke applauded them furiously!

In July of the same year Dumas heard of the sudden and shocking death of the young Duke of Orleans, who was thrown from his carriage, through his horses taking fright, and mortally injured. Full of grief, the author hurried post-haste to Paris, and arrived just in time for the funeral ceremonies, and the interment at Dreux. His sorrow for the promising young prince, of which there is no reason for doubting the sincerity, was artless and unrestrained, and afforded his enemies ample scope for mockery.

Dumas, like most French authors, had a desire to be judged Immortal whilst he lived, and had already more than once put himself forward for election to the Academy, and in particular to the seat vacant by the death of his old colleague and rival Casimir Delavigne, the author of "Louis XI." But in 1843, as on previous occasions, he was rejected by the Forty, whose orthodoxy was shocked by the audacious methods of this wicked "Romantic." On one occasion Hugo would have nominated Dumas for a vacant chair, but there were only thirteen Academicians present and twenty-one votes were necessary for election. Dumas consoled himself with the fact that he occupied the "forty-first