Note 381 — BOOK IX[283]
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
Talleyrand read his Éloge de Reinhard at the Institute on the 3rd of March 1838. The room was crowded. M. Mignet, the Perpetual Secretary, went to meet him in the room adjoining the lecture-room. The prince, who was then in his eighty-fifth year, was not able to climb the stairs on foot; he was carried up by two men in livery. When he entered the lecture-room, leaning on M. Mignet's arm and on his crutch, the whole audience stood up. His speech was delivered in a very strong voice and was frequently interrupted by applause. The reading took less than half an hour in all, which constituted the whole performance. When it was over, the enthusiasm knew no bounds:
"On his way out," says Sainte-Beuve (Nouveaux Lundis, Vol. I., p. 110), "the prince had to pass through a double row of foreheads which bowed with redoubled reverence."—B.