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claimed the chief writer of the epoch. The Institute had the
academician, Napoleon Bonaparte, stricken from its list
of members. A royal ordinance erected Angouleme into a
naval school; for the Duc d’Angouleme, being lord high ad-
miral, it was evident that the city of Angouleme had all the
qualities of a seaport; otherwise the monarchical principle
would have received a wound. In the Council of Ministers
the question was agitated whether vignettes represent-
ing slack-rope performances, which adorned Franconi’s
advertising posters, and which attracted throngs of street
urchins, should be tolerated. M. Paer, the author of Agnese,
a good sort of fellow, with a square face and a wart on his
cheek, directed the little private concerts of the Marquise de
Sasenaye in the Rue Ville l’Eveque. All the young girls were
singing the Hermit of Saint-Avelle, with words by Edmond
Geraud. The Yellow Dwarf was transferred into Mirror. The
Cafe Lemblin stood up for the Emperor, against the Cafe
Valois, which upheld the Bourbons. The Duc de Berri, al-
ready surveyed from the shadow by Louvel, had just been
married to a princess of Sicily. Madame de Stael had died a
year previously. The body-guard hissed Mademoiselle Mars.
The grand newspapers were all very small. Their form was
restricted, but their liberty was great. The Constitutionnel
was constitutional. La Minerve called Chateaubriand Cha-
teaubriant. That t made the good middle-class people laugh
heartily at the expense of the great writer. In journals which
sold themselves, prostituted journalists, insulted the exiles
of 1815. David had no longer any talent, Arnault had no lon-
ger any wit, Carnot was no longer honest, Soult had won no

204 Les Miserables