Mr Nolte witnessed the proceedings of the three days of July, and betook himself to Marseilles, where he had scarcely commenced business when the failure of the Irish-French bankers who were to advance the greater part of the capital on behalf of his partner compelled him again to abandon it, and once more to return to Paris. He had been on very intimate terms with General Lafayette during that veteran revolutionist’s visit to the United States in 1825, had travelled with him, acted as his banker, rendered him some service, and shown him many attentions; for which he deemed himself far more than compensated by the privilege of the general’s society, and by the interest of his conversation. Alone with him, in the cabin of the American steamer which the authorities of New Orleans had allotted to the use of Washington’s old friend and comrade, Lafayette spoke freely of his past life and present opinions, and Mr Nolte was astonished by the revelation of plans which he would never have suspected to have lingered in that venerable head—so soon, in all probability, to be laid in the grave. The man who, at least as well as any living, had had opportunities of judging the Bourbon character—before and since the day when, upon the balcony at Versailles, he kissed, in sign of peace and good understanding, the hand of the defamed and martyred Marie Antoinette, amidst the acclamations of assembled thousands, whose discontent the symbol and the promised return of the royal family to Paris promptly, although but temporarily, appeased—declared his conviction of its unworthiness. For the good of France, in his opinion, she must expel the race of whom Talleyrand so truly said, that they had forgotten nothing, and learned nothing. “‘France cannot be happy under the Bourbons,’ said Lafayette, ‘and we must get rid of them. It would be already done, had Laffitte chosen.’
“‘Indeed!’ I exclaimed; ‘how so?’
“‘It is not so long ago,’ continued the general, ‘that you will have forgotten how two of the regiments of guards that were ordered to Spain under the command of the Duke of Angoulême, halted in Toulouse, and showed signs of raising the banner of revolt. The affair was quickly suppressed, and kept as quiet as possible. But the plan was ripe! I knew that from my private correspondence with several officers, and nothing but money was wanting for a successful insurrection then to have occurred. I addressed myself to Laffitte; he had scruples; he would and he would not. At last I offered to carry the thing through without his participation. On the first occasion when we are alone together—I said to him—but as soon as possible, lay a million of francs in bank-notes upon the chimney-piece—I will put them in my pocket without your perceiving it. The rest you may leave to me! Laffitte hesitated, was undecided, and at last declared he would have nothing whatever to do with the affair. And so the whole project fell through!’
“I could not conceal my surprise. ‘Had I heard what you have just told me from any other lips than yours, general,’ I said, ‘I would not have believed a word of it.’ The general merely replied, ‘C’etait pourtant ainsi.’”
In 1830 Lafayette’s desire was fulfilled—not to its full extent, for he wished the Bourbons to be replaced by a republic, partly because he believed that form of government the best suited to render France happy and prosperous, and partly because it would have best enabled him to gratify his unbounded greed of popularity. But the Bourbons had fled, and France had a citizen king and a national guard. Arms were required for the latter, and Mr Nolte thought that their supply would be a profitable business—quite in his way, because there was much money to be made in a short time. Lafayette, besides being commander-in-chief of the national guard, was the intimate friend of Gerard, Louis Philippe’s first minister of war, in whose department the matter lay, and who was desirous of making contracts for the supply of muskets. Mr Nolte betook himself to Lafayette, who received him most cordially (embracing him, to the infinite astonishment of his aide-de-camp, who had taken Nolte for an Englishman), and gave him the strongest recommendation to Gerard; the result of which was, that he obtained extensive contracts for the supply not only of muskets, but of thebriquetsor short Roman swords which Soult, who succeeded Gerard at the war-office, introduced into the army, and by which the mercenary old marshal—so his enemies affirmed, and thousands to this day believe—himself pocketed no inconsiderable sum. Be this true or not—and Soult’s proved rapacity at many previous periods of his life gave but too much probability to the accusation—Mr Nolte had occasion, whilst carrying out his contracts, which extended over a considerable time, to note several instances of that venality of French officials which rose to such a height under Louis Philippe’s reign as at last to extend to his very ministers, and to constitute one of the prominent causes of his dethronement. As early as 1831, Mr Nolte assures us, itching palms were plenty in France, and that amongst personages of no humble rank. But as far as military men were concerned, this was a mere continuation of the traditions and usages of the Empire—that period of unrefined sensuality and reckless extravagance, during which Napoleon’s subalterns, following their leader’s unscrupulous example, filled their pockets whenever and wherever they could, without much regard to the delicacy of the means employed. Amongst the anecdotes illustrative of this state of corruption to be found in Mr Nolte’s Reminiscences, is one of a certain general officer, not named, whom he thought it advisable to propitiate by a present. In this case, as in all others of the kind in which he had to deal with men of good breeding and position, the puzzle was how to administer thedouceurso that it might be taken without embarrassment. Mrs Nolte, to whom her husband communicated his difficulty, undertook to ascertain, through her acquaintances, the tastes and partialities of the high functionary in question. She discovered that he was very fond of snuff-boxes.
“This ascertained,” says Mr Nolte, “I chose a very handsome box, and placed a bank-note in it, in such a manner that on opening the box the amount, 1000 francs, must immediately catch the eye. Then I took the first opportunity that presented itself, when my friend had recourse to his own box for a pinch, to produce mine, as if for the same purpose. It immediately attracted his attention. ‘That snuff-box is really in excellent taste!’ he exclaimed. ‘Since it pleases you, general,’ I replied, ‘oblige me by accepting it as a keepsake!’ He thanked me, took the box, and at once opened it. I did not long remain in doubt as to the manner in which my present would be received. ‘Aha!’ he cried, ‘but it is right you should know that I am a great snuff-taker. A double pinch never does any harm, my dear sir!’ and so saying, he pocketed the box. The hint sufficed. On my return home, I enclosed a second thousand-franc note, with my card, in an envelope, and sent it to him.”
Another officer of rank, a colonel of artillery, who had served under Napoleon, and was then in command of the arsenal at Havre, made some difficulty about receiving a much larger sum, offered him by Mr Nolte in acknowledgment of important and gratuitous services, most kindly rendered. He ended by pocketing the affront, when it was sent by Mr Nolte under cover to his confidential servant, and probably, as an old soldier of the Empire, he thought it quite equitable and honourable that he should have his slice of the contractor’s gain. But he afterwards made a most generous use of a portion of the sum. Poor Nolte, after toiling hard for three years, during which time he delivered arms to the amount of nearly eight millions of francs, fell amongst thieves, as too often happened to him, and was swindled out of all his earnings. Some time afterwards, when he was absent from Paris in pursuit of fresh schemes, Colonel Lefrançois happened to hear that his wife was in embarrassed circumstances, and immediately called upon her. “My dear Madam,” he said, “I have received a great deal of money from your husband, much more than I had any claim to—I have spent and squandered the greater part of it, as one is wont to do with windfalls of that kind. But now that you need it, it is my duty to return you what remains. Here it is—do me the favour to accept it. You, your husband, and your little family, will always be dear to me.” This trait contrasts pleasingly with the numerous others, of a very contrary nature, to be found in the record of Mr Nolte’s Parisian experiences and transactions. These were of a nature to bring him into unavoidable—but, to him, in no way discreditable—connection with various equivocal characters. Some of his contracts were for secondhand muskets, which he employed agents to seek in the brokers’ shops of Paris. Many of these agents were recommended to him by the subordinate officials of the war-office. Others he fell in with casually. Thus, in the month of December 1831, a down-looking man, of unprepossessing exterior, accosted him on the stairs of the artillery depot, in the Rue de Luxembourg, and offered his services for the purchase of old muskets. Mr Nolte briefly replied, that if he knew of a parcel of such weapons for sale, he would send to look at them, and would buy them if price and quality suited. Accordingly, several small parcels of arms were purchased of this man, whose name was Darmenon, and whose flighty, uncertain manner always displeased Mr Nolte, and made him think he must have done something that would not bear daylight. On inquiry of the police, he learned that he was a forger, who had served his time at the galleys. He could not, however, on this account, make up his mind to refuse the unfortunate fellow’s services, and so, perhaps, drive him again to crime, so he continued to employ him, and Darmenon made himself very useful, and, moreover, gave him constant information of the plans and movements of the malcontents of the Faubourg St Antoine. Through him and other agents, Mr Nolte was kept informed of the number of muskets daily brought into Paris, the persons to whom they were delivered, and various other particulars. It was rare that more than 100 or 120 came in at a time. One morning, however, Darmenon informed his employer that 2600 had been brought in at an early hour through the barrier of St Denis, and had been taken to the faubourg of the same name. On reporting this at the ministry of war, Mr Nolte received directions to purchase the whole lot immediately on government account, and regardless of price. The purchase was effected, but not without some competition, which he thought unlikely to proceed from a merely mercantile motive, and on setting his agents to work, he found that his competitors were the Legitimists, who had been very busy for some time past. He became convinced, from this and other information that reached him, that there was a plot in existence against Louis Philippe, and he desired Darmenon to keep a sharp look-out, and inform him of whatever came to his knowledge. The occupation seemed to the taste of the ex-galley-slave, who reported, on the morning of the 1st February, that several Carlist emissaries were at work in the Faubourg St Antoine, that towards noon there would probably be a gathering of workmen, who would raise the banner of Henry V., and that at ten o’clock at night the conspirators would leave the house, No. 18 Rue des Prouvaires, force their way into the Tuileries, where there was to be a ball that evening, surround Louis Philippe, lead him away, and put him to death. The conspirators, with whom Darmenon confessed himself to have been long in the habit of intercourse, had offered him 6000 francs for 200 muskets, and had paid him 2000 francs in advance. These circumstantial details, and the sight of the notes, convincing Mr Nolte of the truth of the story, he jumped into his cab and drove to the prefecture of police, then presided over by the notorious Gisquet. On his way he called at the Bourse. There had been a sudden fall of 1½ per cent, owing to alarming rumours and to heavy sales by the Carlists. Gisquet, with whom Mr Nolte was acquainted, discredited, or affected to discredit, the whole affair, but noted a few particulars, and politely thanked his informant for the needless trouble he had given himself. But, before seven o’clock that evening, Darmenon had the whole 6000 francs in his possession. The 200 muskets were to be sent for before ten o’clock. Mr Nolte again hurried to Gisquet, and asked if he should deliver them. “Yes,” was the reply; “a few at a time; I will have them followed.” Mr Nolte gave the needful instructions, and was informed, the next morning, by his storekeeper, that Darmenon had had seventeen muskets delivered to him, and had been forthwith arrested. The Paris papers of the 2d February announced that the police, with Mr Carlier (then chief of the municipal guard, since prefect of police under the Republic) at their head, had forced their way into the house, No. 18 Rue des Prouvaires, at 11 o’clock on the previous night, and, after some resistance, had captured the whole band of conspirators there assembled. From the evidence on the trial, it appeared that Gisquet, incredulous to the eleventh hour, was even then undecided what to do. He feared the attack of the opposition press, ever ready to accuse the police of fabricating the plots they discovered. Carlier at last put an end to his perplexity, by violently exclaiming, “They are armed; we are of superior force; we must enter the house and use our weapons!” An hour later this was done; a municipal guard was killed, and Carlier himself received a slight bullet-wound on the head.
When Marshal Soult, Mr Nolte tells us, learned that it was one of his contractors who had led the way to the discovery of the plot, he was displeased that he had not been first informed of it, instead of the prefect of police. He was jealous of Thiers, then minister of the interior, who, on his part, bore him no love. Soult would not have been sorry to expose the inefficiency of his colleague’s police; Thiers, owing to the course adopted by Mr Nolte, was enabled to make a boast of its vigilance. All the merit of the affair was attributed to Gisquet, who was promoted to the rank of officer of the Legion of Honour. And when that worthy, after he was dismissed for his venality and scandalous immorality, wrote his memoirs and attempted justification, he ascribed the discovery of the plot of the Rue des Prouvaires entirely to his own activity and zeal, and made no mention whatever of Mr Nolte.
A chapter of amusing gossip, headed “Reminiscences of the Artistic World of Paris,” tempts us to linger, but the length to which this paper has already extended admonishes us to pause. We conclude by extracting a short anecdote, which we do not remember to have before heard, of that eccentric genius, Horace Vernet. It was some time before the capture of the Smala, his picture of which added so greatly to his reputation. Vernet was in Marshal Bugeaud’s camp, where all the soldiers knew of his presence, and one of them, who had promised to send his portrait to his mother, went to him and asked him if he would undertake the work, and at what price. Vernet’s reply was that he could not do it for less than a twenty-franc piece. The soldier thought this rather a high figure, but agreed to pay it, provided the likeness was perfect. This the painter promised that it should be, and accordingly, when the picture was done, it was exhibited in the camp, and the striking resemblance was proclaimed by all the comrades of the original. Thereupon the soldier paid the stipulated price, which Vernet quietly pocketed, observing that an artist must live by the price of his work. On leaving the camp, two days afterwards, he sent twenty napoleons to the captain of the soldier’s company, for distribution to him and his brave comrades.
Seldom, either in print or in the flesh, have we fallen in with so restless, versatile, and excursive a genius as Vincent Nolte, Esq., of Europe and America—no more limited address will sufficiently express his cosmopolitan domicile. The reader will perhaps imagine, after the perusal of this tolerably desultory paper, that we have traced a considerable portion of his journey through life. No idea was ever more erroneous. We have only picked a little here and there, and have taken scarcely any notice of the parts the author doubtless considers the most important in his book, and which will certainly be read with strong interest by bankers and merchants old enough to remember the mercantile history of the first quarter of the present century. It is chiefly to those intimate and personal commercial details that we attribute the uncommon success Mr Nolte’s autobiography has had in its place of publication, and in Germany generally. Independently of those, it contains matter of interest and entertainment for all classes of readers.