consideration of the honour conferred upon the arrondissement and
Beranger's charity, took it into their heads to pass a resolution
offering Beranger the most conspicuous place in the cemetery for a tomb.
The poet fled once more, this time to the Quartier-Latin; but the
students insisting on pointing him out to their female companions, who,
in their enthusiasm, made it a point of embracing him on every possible
occasion, especially in the "Closerie des Lilas"--for to the end
Beranger remained fond of the society of young folk,--Beranger was
compelled to flit once more. After a short stay in the Rue Vendome, in
the neighbourhood of the Temple, he came to the Quartier-Beaujon, where
I visited him.

There have been so many tales with regard to Beranger's companion,
Mdlle. Judith Frere, and all equally erroneous, that I am glad to be
able to rectify them. Mdlle. Frere was by no means the kind of upper
servant she was generally supposed to be. A glance at her face and a few
moments spent in her company could not fail to convince any one that she
was of good birth. She had befriended Beranger when he was very young,
they had parted for some time, and they ended their days together, for
the poet only survived his friend three months. Beranger was a model of
honesty and disinterestedness. Ambition he had little or none; he was
somewhat fond of teasing children, not because he had no affection for
them, but because he loved them too much. His portrait by Ary Scheffer
is the most striking likeness I have ever seen; but a better one still,
perhaps, is by an artist who had probably never set eyes on him. I am
alluding to Hablot Browne, who unconsciously reproduced him to the life
in the picture of Tom Pinch. As a companion, Beranger was charming to a
degree. I have never heard him say a bitter word. The day I saw him
home, I happened to say to him, "You ought to be pleased, Victor Hugo is
in the same regiment with you." "Yes," he answered, "he is in the band."
He would never accept a pension from Louis-Napoleon, but he had no
bitterness against him. Lamartine was very bitter, and yet consented to
the Emperor's heading of the subscription-list in his behalf. That alone
would show the difference between the two men.

CHAPTER XIII.

Some men of the Empire -- Fialin de Persigny -- The public
prosecutor's opinion of him expressed at the trial for high
treason in 1836 -- Superior in many respects to Louis-Napoleo