THE LATE JULIUS MOHL.
AS neither of the Lives of Madame Mohl have, in our opinion, done adequate justice to the power of Julius Mehl as a raconteur, we have great pleasure in publishing a long letter, written twenty-eight years ago, giving the impression made by M. Mohl's conversation at a first meeting with him on an adequate judge :—
Paris, July 5th, 1859.
Mr DEAR S—,—Lady Augusta Bruce is delightful, and her idea of a party is a good one—four persons to a plain dinner— and at the dinner, or in the evening, one person who is really worth meeting. The day before yesterday she gave us a M. Mohl, a German by extraction, Professor of Sanscrit, hater of the French official hierarchy, as they call it, and above and beyond all of Louis Napoleon, but naturalised here for thirty years or so, and a person of extreme fun. The evening (or the best part of it) reduced itself into an account of all his adven- tures while in the National Guard. I wish I could give you them ; but, in the first place, I cannot remember all, and, next, half the fun was in his vigorous and lively way of telling, and his very good but strongly accented English. I will try, how- ever, and you must fancy all his sayings in French or German- English—every syllable equally accented—foreign words here and there, English familiar phrases slightly diverted from their uses, and so on,—but fluent and pointed.
Imprimis, he was obliged in 1830 to enter the National Guard, and abhorring it and all that belonged to it, set himself, in the first place, to consider how, without subjecting himself to any penalty, he could get out of it. The best way which occurred to him was to get a copy of the 287 articles of war, to put them tip on the wall of his room, and to make himself each a perfect master of them, that by a proper and constant use of them (being a man of talent, industry, coolness, and infinite humour) he might make himself so utterly insupportable to everybody as to tire them into turning him out Henry will f ally appreciate the extreme wisdom of his proceedings ; though it seems to have cost him twelve years' labour to accomplish his object.
However, here are two or three of his anecdotes,—supply
foreign accent :—"Now, I will show you how they did things in those days. I will tell you about the man who was assassinated. While I was on duty at night in the corps de garde, a man came rushing in to say there was a terrible thing,—they were assassinating a man in the Rue Cherche- midi. Well, instead of our going out as fast as we could to help this man who was assassinating or assassinated, the officer says to me,—' Go immediately, and tell the commissaire de police—be lives in the Rue Grenelle—under a red lamp. Well, away I go and find my Rue Grenelle and red lamp, and I make a great noise at the door for a long time; at last a head with a nightcap comes out of the window and asks me what in the world I want. 'The commiesaire de police,' say I ' Well, I am the commissaire de police,—what do you want?' There is a man being assassinated in the Rue Oherche-midi P' Which side of the gutter?' says he. Well, I did not know anything about one aide of the gutter or the other side, so I say at once boldly,' The right side as you come down the street.' Ah he says, 'that is in the other arrondissement; go to the other commissaire, No. — Rae So away I go, with my man being assassinated all the time, and I find my other commissaire. Which side of the gutter ?' says he. So I thought at any rate I would stick to my story, and I say, 'The right side coming down the street." All I' dit-il ' cola me regarde. But how long is it since they have been assassinating him r ' About three-quarters of an hour,' say I. Ah then he is dead by this time; we must get two men and a stretcher to carry him away.' So away we go with our stretcher, and I went with them, for I wanted to see whether the man was on the right side of the gutter or not,—and we found him lying stone dead, with his head in the gutter. But he was more on the right side than the left, and he was stabbed through the heart, so the three-quarters of an hoar did not signify. But that is the way they do things here."
Then came instances of his own mode of performing military duty. You must remember that in Louis Philippe's time, the Line and the National Guard were doubled up, as it were, every sentry consisting of one Liner and one National. He had begun by giving us an account of the "gone" or " am" (gun) which had been issued to him—incapable of going off, and bought cheap from the Tower of London because the English wanted to get rid of it. This "gohn " played a great part in all his adventures:—" One day, when I was going down to take my twenty-four hours' duty, I thought how I should get through the time, and as I was going down, I stop at a bouguiniate, what you call bookstall, and bought a dozen brochures or so, to read till I go home again.
And when I get to my post, I put my ' carefully away in my sentry-box, and sit down to read. There was a little dwarf wall under the archway by ray sentry-box—a wall round the corner to prevent the carriages coming on the trottoir—so I spread out my dozen brochures on the dwarf wall, and I choose out the one I like best, and I sit down among my books and begin my reading. Well, presently I hear a gentle- man go by on horseback who talks to the soldiers, and seems very much discomposed ; but I do not pay any attention, and when he is gone, up comes the soldier and says, 'National, you are in a serape; vow donnez scandals.' Why should I be in a scrape ?' say I. Nous verrons. Well, presently I hear a noise, and I look up and I see our capitaine running along without his hat, and carrying his sword in his hand to run faster, and he runs up to me like a madman, and says, 'Mais quel scandale quel horreur I' Mais gad scandals, capitaine r lui 'qu'est-ce qui est arrivd ? " Maio c'est vons—c'est vons—est-ce qua c'est comma ga quo vons moutez garde P Ole est votre fusil " It is safe in my sentry-box,' say I. 'Et von livres ! eat-ce done quo vons tenez ioi boutique de bonquiniste P "It is only something for me to read,—I cannot wait here all day doing nothing.' Et vons restez tonjonrs anis comma ga." Male oni,—I have not the force in my legs to keep always standing.' C'est un
scandals, vous die-je,—c'est nu scandale. Mais West fact faire done, capitaine ? ' And as he was a reasonable man, I got him at last to consent to a compromise. I had found out by this time which of my brochures were worth reading and which
were not ; so I agreed that I would take my ' out of my sentry-box, and I would put there in its stead my eleven brochures which were not worth reading, and I would sit on my dwarf wall and put my ' gam ' between my knees and go on reading my twelfth brochure."
Another in the same spirit :—" One day I was told to stand sentry:tinder an archway to prevent the carriages from passing under it. But I find that the masons bad made a scaffolding and a wall, and a great mess altogether, so that a dog could not pass, much less a earriage ; so I sit down, and take out my newspaper and spread it out before my eyes, and begin reading. Well, before long I hear somebody chattering and sputtering behind my newspaper, and I turn down the top and look over it, and see a capitaine of the Line in a great rage, and he says, What are you about? What do you suppose you are here for?' I am here,' I say, 'to prevent carriages from going through ; mail je lee en dgfie,—done je cultive mon esprit.' And so we fell into an argument, and at last says he, But with that newspaper before your eyes you cannot salute an officer as he passes.' So I say to him quite quietly, Y tenez-vous, capitaine P' and that put him out of himself. ' Votre nom,' me dad]. 'Je ne pourrais pas wins dire.' Haig voce connoissez votre nom." Mais vraiment cette occu- pation me rend si stupide qua je ne ponrrai rien dire ayes certi- tude. Demandez an corps de garde." Now, I must tell you there was one thing about which we Nationals were all agreed, that nobody should get any information at the corps de garde. ' Who is the sentry at the gate of the Tuileries?' ' We do not know.' Let me see the feuille de service.' There it is, but it will tell you nothing, for the Nationals are always exchanging duties, and the changes are not entered.' And so it was that my capitaine went away, and I heard no more of him."
Lastly, you shall have his crowning exploit, after which they never put him on duty again. The law authorises the officers to call out National Guards for twenty-four hours' duty; but they used to add on to this two hours extra, calling them out two hours before the duty began, for drill and parade. Our friend knew and did not like this ; so he presented himself two hours after the time appointed, and quietly took up a position ready to fall in when the parade was over and the Nationals dismissed to their respective poets. " When the parade was over, the Colonel saw me standing at my ease, and that I had not been parading with the rest (which was as plain as a pike-staff), and asked me why I had not come before. 'Because,' say I, the law only allows you to call me out for twenty-four hours, and as I know you will not send me away before 11 o'clock to- morrow, I have not come before 11 o'clock to-day.' Ah says he, ' la garde nationale se perdra par lea raisonnements.' ' Touts chose,' lni dis-je, se perd par son ennemi nature.' Then he tells me that he will give me double duty,—and I tell him that I must submit, but that I shall bring an action against him for abus de pouvoir. However, he gives me double duty at the gate, which is now blocked up, from the garden of the Tuileries on to the Seine. Well, there I went, and as there were a great many of my friends going to and fro there, I begin talking to them, when a little gentleman with a fine cane begins a conversation with me. ' Well, National, it is a fine day; how do you like being on guard?' and after a word or two he says, 'You do not seem to know me.' I say, I have not the honour of your acquaintance.' Says he, I am the Colonel of your regiment.' Say And I am the National Guard whom you ordered to do double duty this morning, and if you are a Colonel (he was in plain clothes), you ought to know that it is an offence to speak to a sentry on his post, and I therefore arrest you for it, and will trouble you to walk into my sentry-box till the corporal comes round to let you out.' 'Ah I' he says, 'that is a plaisanterie." Da tout,' say je ne plaisante jamaie avec la baionnette. Go into my sentry-box, or the soldier opposite will put his hand on your collar and put you in.' He did not like this at all, as he was one of the fine gentlemen of Paris— the Due de Grammont, I think—and he did not want to stand like an ape behind me in my sentry-box, for all his fine friends to laugh at as they passed. The only thing I wondered at was why he did not sink into the earth. For what could he do P He had before him a man with a gun in his hand, with the law on his side (for he was in his wrong) " (dans son tort), "and hie mortal enemy. So he made a great fuss about it, and at last I let him go, telling him he had better not be so strict to other people another time. After that I was never called out to do
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