h
made us laugh! Thy cuff scorched, thy boa lost! And that dear portrait
of the divine Shakespeare which we sold one evening that we might sup! I
was a beggar and thou wert charitable. I kissed thy fresh round arms
in haste. A folio Dante served us as a table on which to eat merrily a
centime's worth of chestnuts. The first time that, in my joyous den, I
snatched a kiss from thy fiery lip, when thou wentest forth, dishevelled
and blushing, I turned deathly pale and I believed in God. Dost thou
recall our innumerable joys, and all those fichus changed to rags? Oh!
what sighs from our hearts full of gloom fluttered forth to the heavenly
depths!]
[Footnote 54: My nose is in tears, my friend Bugeaud, lend me thy
gendarmes that I may say a word to them. With a blue capote and a
chicken in his shako, here's the banlieue, co-cocorico.]
[Footnote 55: Love letters.]
[Footnote 56:
"The bird slanders in the elms,
And pretends that yesterday, Atala
Went off with a Russian,
Where fair maids go.
Lon la.
My friend Pierrot, thou pratest, because Mila knocked at her pane the
other day and called me. The jades are very charming, their poison which
bewitched me would intoxicate Monsieur Orfila. I'm fond of love and its
bickerings, I love Agnes, I love Pamela, Lise burned herself in setting
me aflame. In former days when I saw the mantillas of Suzette and of
Zeila, my soul mingled with their folds. Love, when thou gleamest in
the dark thou crownest Lola with roses, I would lose my soul for that.
Jeanne, at thy mirror thou deckest thyself! One fine day, my heart flew
forth. I think that it is Jeanne who has it. At night, when I come from
the quadrilles, I show Stella to the stars, and I say to them: "Behold
her." Where fair maids go, lon la.]
[Footnote 57: But some prisons still remain, and I am going to put
a stop to this sort of public order. Does any one wish to play at
skittles? The whole ancient world fell in ruin, when the big ball
rolled. Good old folks, let us smash with our crutches that Louvre where
the monarchy displayed itself in furbelows. We have forced its gates. On
that day, King Charles X. did not stick well and came unglued.]
[Footnote 58: Steps on the Aventine Hill, leading to the Tiber, to which
the bodies of executed criminals were dragged by hooks to be thrown into
the Tiber.]
[Footnote 59: Mustards.]
[F
|