llege of Louis le Grand, and under the immediate
direction of the Pere Langlois, Professor of Rhetoric in that
institution; a kind and benevolent-minded man, as it would seem, to whom
his pupil remained attached throughout his whole life, and who,
unchanged and unchangeable, wore, in 1828, the academic costume which
had prevailed before the Revolution--a long-skirted, collarless black
coat, buttoned to the chin; black knee breeches and silk stockings;
large shoes with silver-plated buckles; well powdered hair, with _ailes
de pigeon_ and a queue of portentous dimensions; and that indispensable
companion of a _savant crasseux_ of the middle of the eighteenth
century, a huge flat snuff-box, which lay concealed in the deep recesses
in his ample pockets. Talleyrand remained at this school for three
years, and would appear to have made a respectable figure as a student,
considering the disadvantages under which he labored from the want of
preliminary training. It is probable that a sense of this deficiency on
the part of a lively lad, joined to the stimulus of competition,
quickened his diligence, and he was rewarded with praise and prizes. He
was also addicted to active sports, for "he was strong and hardy in
spite of his lameness;" and we are told that his temper was mild and
tractable at this period, and that, when attacked, his defensive weapon
was his tongue, not his hands--so true is it, that "the boy is father to
the man." His sharp, quick speech, we are assured, was the terror of his
comrades--_i.e._ when a bolder youth would have boxed his antagonist's
ears, Talleyrand scolded, and doubtlessly provoked him; but as there
must be a philosophical reason for whatever concerns the nonage of a
celebrated person, it is added, that "even then (between twelve and
fifteen, observe) he had learned that the art of governing others
consisted merely in self-command." During his residence at college he
saw nothing of his father, and little of his mother; and when the latter
did visit him, she was always attended by an eminent surgeon, whose duty
it was to torture the unfortunate boy's leg, and to try, by bandages,
cauteries, and other appliances, to make that long and straight which
neglect had made short and crooked. These visits of _madame mere_ were
anticipated with horror, and ever afterward spoken of with disgust; nor
could they have increased that love for the author of his being which is
so natural to youth, and which an incid