ing effect of the clouds of incense,
which enveloped the officiating priests, and from which he possibly
derived the idea of the mists which he often introduces into his
descriptions.

[*] See "Balzac, sa Vie et ses Oeuvres, d'apres sa Correspondance" par
Madame L. Surville (nee de Balzac).

CHAPTER III

1814 - 1820

Balzac's tutors and law studies--His youth, as pictured in the
"Peau de Chagrin"--His father's intention of making him a lawyer
--He begs to be allowed to become a writer--Is allowed his wish
--Life in the Rue Lesdiguieres, privations and starvation--He
writes "Cromwell," a tragedy.

At the end of 1814 the Balzac family moved to Paris, as M. de Balzac
was put in charge of the Commissariat of the First Division of the
Army. Here they took a house in the Rue de Roi-Dore, in the Marais,
and Honore continued his studies with M. Lepitre, Rue Saint-Louis, and
MM. Sganzer and Benzelin, Rue de Thorigny, in the Marais. To the
influence of M. Lepitre, a man who, unlike old M. de Balzac and many
other worthy people, was an ardent Legitimist _before_ as well as
_after_ 1815, we may in part trace the strength of Balzac's Royalist
principles. On the 13th Vendemiaire, M. Lepitre had presided over one
of the sections of Paris which rose against the Convention; and though
on one occasion he failed in nerve, his services during the Revolution
had been most conspicuous. On his reception at the Tuileries by the
Duchesse d'Angouleme, she used these words, never to be forgotten by
him to whom they were addressed: "I have not forgotten, and I shall
never forget, the services you have rendered to my family."[*]

[*] "Biographie Universelle," by De Michaud.

We can imagine the enthusiasm and delight with which the man who,
whatever might be his shortcomings in courage, had always remained
firm to his Royalist principles, and who had been a witness of the
terrible anguish of the prisoners in the Temple, would hear these
words from the lips of the lady who stood to him as Queen--the
Antigone of France--the heroine whose sufferings had made the heart of
every loyal Frenchman bleed, the brave woman who, according to
Napoleon, was the one man of her family. Lepitre's visit to the
Tuileries took place on May 9th, 1814, the year that Balzac began to
take those lessons in rhetoric which first opened his eyes to the
beauty of the French language. During Lep