happy life, reappears
like a star for a moment clouded, and I began to laugh, as you
know I can laugh. I say to myself that so much work will have its
recompense, and that I shall have, like Lord Byron, my Diodati. I
sing in my bad voice: 'Diodati, Diodati!'"

Another excerpt shows that Balzac had in mind his own life in
connection with Madame Hanska's in writing _Albert Savarus_:

". . . It is six o'clock in the morning, I have interrupted myself
to think of you, reminded of you by Switzerland where I have
placed the scene of _Albert Savarus_.--Lovers in Switzerland,--for
me, it is the image of happiness. I do not wish to place the
Princess Gandolphini in the _maison Mirabaud_, for there are
people in the world who would make a crime of it for us. This
Princess is a foreigner, an Italian, loved by Savarus."

Many of Balzac's traits are seen in Albert Savarus. Like Balzac,
Albert Savarus was defeated in politics, but hoped for election; was a
lawyer, expected to rise to fame, and was about three years older than
the woman he loved. Like Madame Hanska, the Duchesse d'Argaiolo, known
as the Princess Gandolphini, was beautiful, noble, a foreigner, and
married to a man very rich and much older than she, who was not
companionable. It was on December 26 that Albert Savarus arrived at
the Villa on Lake Geneva to visit his princes, while Balzac arrived
December 25 to visit Madame Hanska at her Villa there. The two lovers
spent the winter together, and in the spring, the Duc d'Argaiolo
(Prince Gandolphini) and his wife went to Naples, and Albert Savarus
(Rodolphe) returned to Paris, just as M. de Hanski took his family to
Italy in the spring, while Balzac returned to Paris.

Albert Savarus was falsely accused of being married, just as Madame
Hanska had accused Balzac. The letters to the Duchess from Savarus are
quite similar to some Balzac wrote to Madame Hanska. Like Balzac,
Savarus saw few people, worked at night, was poor, ever hopeful,
communed with the portrait of his adored one, had trouble in regard to
the delivery of her letters, and was worried when they did not come;
yet he was patient and willing to wait until the Duke should die. Like
Madame Hanska, the Duchess feared her lover was unfaithful to her, and
in both cases a woman sowed discord, though the results were
different.[*]

[*] Miss K. P. Wormeley does not think that _Albert Savarus_ was
inspired by Balzac's relations with Madame