ts only his client,
one of the elements of his parliamentary success, his high moral
character, does not assist him. Do you remember how, on the debate of
the Roman expedition, he annihilated by one sentence Jules Favre who had
ventured to assail him? "Les injures," he said, "sont comme les corps
pesants, dont la force depend de la hauteur d'ou ils tombent."'

'One man,' said Z., 'who enjoys a great European reputation, I could
never think of as a serious adversary, that is Lamartine.

'He appeared to me to treat the sad realities of political life as
materials out of which he could compose strange and picturesque scenes,
or draw food for his imagination and his vanity. He seemed always to be
saying to himself: "How will the future dramatist or poet, or painter,
represent this event, and what will be my part in the picture, or in the
poem, or on the stage?"

'_Il cherchait toujours a poser_.--He could give pleasure, he could give
pain--he could amuse, and he could irritate,--but he seldom could
persuade, and he never could convince. Even before the gate of the Hotel
de Ville, the most brilliant hour of his life, he owed his success rather
to his tall figure, his fine features, attractive as well as commanding,
his voice, his action--in short, to the assemblage of qualities which the
Greeks called [Greek: hupokrisis] than to his eloquence.'

'Was not,' I said, 'his contrast between the red flag and the tricolor
eloquent?'

'It was a fine bit of imagery,' said Z., 'and admirably adapted to the
occasion. I do not deny to him the power of saying fine things--perhaps
fine speeches, but he never made a _good_ speech--a speech which it was
difficult to answer.'

'If anyone,' he continued, 'ever takes the trouble to look into our
Parliamentary debates, Lamartine will hold a higher comparative rank than
he is really entitled to. Most of us were too busy to correct the reports
for the "Moniteur." Lamartine not only corrected them but inserted whole
passages.'

'He inserted,' said M, 'not only passages but facts. Such as
"_applaudissements_," "_vive emotion," "hilarite_," often when the speech
had been received in silence, or unattended to.'

'I remember,' said Corcelle, 'an insertion of that kind in the report of
a speech which was never delivered. It was during the Restoration, when
written speeches were read, and sometimes were sent to the "Moniteur" in
anticipation of their being read. Such had been the case with resp