XIII.
Of course I witnessed all that was accessible to me of Parisian public
life. I fairly often found my way, as I had done in 1866, to the Palais
de Justice to hear the great advocates plead. The man I enjoyed
listening to most was Jules Favre, whose name was soon to be on every
one's lips. The younger generation admired in him the high-principled
and steadfast opponent of the Empire in the Chamber, and he was regarded
as well-nigh the most eloquent man in France. As an advocate, he was
incomparable. His unusual handsomeness,--his beautiful face under a
helmet of grey hair, and his upright carriage,--were great points in his
favour. His eloquence was real, penetrating, convincing, inasmuch as he
piled up fact upon fact, and was at the same time, as the French manner
is, dramatic, with large gesticulations that made his gown flutter
restlessly about him like the wings of a bat. It was a depressing fact
that afterwards, as the Minister opposed to Bismarck, he was so unequal
to his position.
I was present at the _Theatre Francais_ on the occasion of the
unveiling of Ponsard's bust. To the Romanticists, Ponsard was nothing
less than the ass's jawbone with which the Philistines attempted to slay
Hugo. But Emile Chasles, a son of my old friend, gave a lecture upon
him, and afterwards _Le lion amoureux_ was played, a very tolerable
little piece from the Revolutionary period, in which, for one thing,
Napoleon appears as a young man.
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