“Indeed,” returned my friend, “the ‘Vie Anecdotique’ would scarcely be complete without them. As I have already told you, M. de Talleyrand, from his earliest youth, has relied upon the support and patronage of women. There is scarcely one of these ladies who has not played some part in the advancement of his fortune. You might follow the epochs of his life by the title and social position of his patronesses. You smile; but it is even so. No _English_ mind can ever be made to comprehend the sort of _liaison_ which sometimes exists between persons of different sex in France. It is of every kind of friendship the most pure and disinterested; _love_ is seldom generated by these attachments; that sentiment would on the one side tend to mar the devotion, and on the other, render the feeling liable to the changes and chances of caprice. I could call to mind numberless examples of this species of allegiance, which, having begun in youth, have continued unto old age with the same confidence, the same self-sacrifice. Come hither; you will find an apt illustration of my meaning.”
He led me to a portrait placed in the shadow of the chimney. “This was the first friend of M. de Talleyrand, when he was a youth just let loose from the _séminaire_, and she whom this picture represents was a woman already advancing to maturity. Surely we cannot suspect the existence of love _there_. This lady, whose name was so long associated with every early success of the prince, when he was still Abbé de Perigord, was the celebrated Comtesse de Brionne, the mother of the unfortunate Princess de Lamballe, and grandmother of the present King of Sardinia. She was the first to distinguish the merit of the young abbé, and by her influence to maintain him in his position in spite of the dislike manifested towards him by the court of Marie Antoinette. Even lately I heard him speak of her in terms of intense gratitude and affection; and his voice, usually so deep and grave, faltered as he recounted to me the story of her death. She was among the first emigrants after the breaking out of the revolution, and retired to the Austrian dominions, having, by permission of the emperor, assumed the title of Princess of Lorraine. There she lived in poverty and obscurity for some years, resisting every effort made by M. de Talleyrand to obtain forgiveness for what she deemed his _crime_ in having deserted his caste and renounced his profession, to adopt the principles of the revolution.