(nephew to the Princesse de Chimay, who acted as proxy for
Marie Antoinette at Madame de Berny's christening) and others, to
found a Legitimist journal, the _Renovateur_. In this appeared an
article against the proposed destruction of the monument to the Duc de
Berry, in which Balzac indignantly asks: "Why do you not finish the
monument, and raise an altar where the priests may pray God to pardon
the assassin?"

Having thus shown his principles clearly, he turned his attention in
1832 to Chinon, which was close to Tours, where he and his family had
lived for so long, and to Sache, where he was a constant visitor.
There, if anywhere, he seemed likely to succeed; and the
_Quotidienne_, the paper which afterwards supported him during his
lawsuit against the _Revue de Paris_, had promised its voice in his
favour. Again cruel Fate dogged his footsteps, as in May he tumbled
out of his tilbury, and his head came violently into contact with what
he calls the "heroic pavements of July"; the accident being a sad
result of his childish delight in driving at a tremendous pace in the
Bois, which is rebuked by his sage adviser, Madame Carraud. Certainly
carriages, horses, and a stable, seemed hardly prudent acquisitions
for a man in debt; but Balzac always defended his pet extravagances
with the specious reasoning that nothing succeeds like success; and
that most of his literary friends did not become rich because they
lived in garrets, and were on that account trampled on by haughty
publishers and editors. He writes to Madame de Girardin on this
occasion: "Only think, that I who am so handsome have been cruelly
disfigured for several days, and it has seemed curious to be uglier
than I really am."[*] As a further and more serious result, he was
laid up in bed, and had to undergo a severe regimen of bleeding,
during the time that he should have been at Sache, working hard about
his election; and when he did arrive there, in June, he recognised
that he was too late for success. However, another dissolution, which
after all did not take place, was expected in September, and Balzac
looked forward to making a determined attempt then. This hope being
frustrated, it was not till 1834 that he again came forward as a
candidate: this time for Villefranche, where, curiously enough,
another M. de Balzac was nominated, and when M. de Hanski wrote to
congratulate Balzac, the latter was obliged to explain the mistake. On
this occasion he had purp