Note 289 — BOOK IX[283]
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
This is in allusion to an episode which occurred in 1834, of which the country-house of a ministerial deputy was the scene and M. Thiers, then Minister of the Interior, the hero. Dr. Bonnet de Malherbe, in his Notes inédites sur M. Thiers (1888, p. 73) refers to it in the following words:
"One episode especially, the feast of Grand-Vaux, at the château of the Comte Vigier, which the newspapers called the 'Orgy of Grand-Vaux,' made a great stir at the time. M. Thiers, if the chroniclers of the time are to be credited, played a part in it which went far beyond the 'pranks' of the Marseilles school-boy, and 'showed himself' in a 'posture' which was not exactly that of which another minister spoke, with some emphasis, half a century later. The Quotidienne published a very spicy article in this connection, nor was the Charivari sparing in caricatures."—B.