Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/111

 have had a salutary effect. As it was, both the squib and the motive for it were alike contemptible. One of the "workmen" attacked challenged the slanderer, who, at the instance of Dumas, was sentenced to fifteen days' imprisonment. Dumas fils took up his father's cause, and challenged Jacquot also; but that gentleman, with characteristic cowardice, shirked the encounter. Yet this contractor for the gutter press of Paris had not written in vain; for most subsequent biographies of Dumas, whether in English or in French, seem to have been founded on Jacquot's statements, and to be actuated by his spirit.

In 1846 the Duke of Montpensier, younger brother of the ill-fated Orleans, was betrothed by Louis Philippe to the Infanta of Spain, and set out for Madrid, for the wedding. The French Government invited Dumas to accompany the prince and act as official histriographer on this important occasion. Further, he was instructed to go forward to Algiers, and, in his gay, informative and incisive way, to "teach" France all about its new colony. A friendship had sprung up between the young Duke and Dumas, and the arrangement was a pleasant one for all parties. The writer, his vanity flattered by the commission, accepted, although at the very shortest notice, and without for a moment considering the consequences to himself.