itre's tuition he composed a
speech supposed to be addressed by the wife of Brutus to her husband,
after the condemnation of her sons, in which, Laure tells us, the
anguish of the mother is depicted with great power, and Balzac shows
his wonderful faculty for entering into the souls of his personages.
Lepitre had evidently a powerful influence over his pupil, and as a
master of rhetoric he would naturally be eloquent and have command of
language, and in consequence would be most probably of fiery and
enthusiastic temperament. We can imagine the fervour with which the
impressionable boy drank in stories of the sufferings of the royal
family during their imprisonment in the Temple, and strove not to miss
a syllable of his master's magnificent exordiums, which glowed with
the light and heat of impassioned loyalty.

No doubt Balzac's "Une Vie de Femme," a touching account of the life
of the Duchesse d'Angouleme, which appeared in the _Reformateur_ in
1832, was partly compiled from the reminiscences of his old master;
and when we hear of his ardent defence of the Duchesse de Berry, or
that he treasured a tea-service which was not of any intrinsic value,
because it had belonged to the Duc d'Angouleme, we see traces of his
intense love and admiration for the Bourbon family.

Nevertheless, in that big, well-balanced brain there was room for many
emotions, and for a wide range of sympathies. The many-sidedness which
is a necessary characteristic of every great psychologist, was a
remarkable quality in Balzac. He may have been present at Napoleon's
last review on the Carrousel--at any rate he tells in "La Femme de
Trente Ans" how the man "thus surrounded with so much love,
enthusiasm, devotion, prayer--for whom the sun had driven every cloud
from the sky--sat motionless on his horse, three feet in advance of
the dazzling escort that followed him," and that an old grenadier
said, "My God, yes, it was always so; under fire at Wagram, among the
dead in the Moskowa, he was quiet as a lamb--yes, that's he!" Balzac's
admiration for Napoleon was intense, as he shows in many of his
writings, and his proudest boast is to be found in the words, said to
have been inscribed on a statuette of Napoleon in his room in the Rue
Cassini, "What he has begun with the sword, I shall finish with the
pen."

None of Balzac's masters thought much of his talents, or perceived
anything remarkable about him. He returned home in 1816, full of
health and