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 Journal of
Imaging

Image Processing
Using FPGAs
Edited by
Donald G. Bailey
Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Journal of Imaging

www.mdpi.com/journal/jimaging
Image Processing Using FPGAs
Image Processing Using FPGAs

Special Issue Editor

Donald G. Bailey

MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade

Special Issue Editor
Donald G. Bailey
Massey University
New Zealand

Editorial Office
MDPI
St. Alban-Anlage 66
4052 Basel, Switzerland

This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal
Journal of Imaging (ISSN 2313-433X) from 2018 to 2019 (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/
journal/jimaging/special issues/Image FPGAs).

For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as
indicated below:

LastName, A.A.; LastName, B.B.; LastName, C.C. Article Title. Journal Name Year, Article Number,
Page Range.

ISBN 978-3-03897-918-0 (Pbk)

ISBN 978-3-03897-919-7 (PDF)


c 2019 by the authors. Articles in this book are Open Access and distributed under the Creative
Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon
published articles, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum
dissemination and a wider impact of our publications.
The book as a whole is distributed by MDPI under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons
license CC BY-NC-ND.
Contents

About the Special Issue Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

Preface to ”Image Processing Using FPGAs” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Donald Bailey
Image Processing Using FPGAs
Reprinted from: Journal of Imaging 2019, 5, 53, doi:10.3390/jimaging5050053 . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Fahad Siddiqui, Sam Amiri, Umar Ibrahim Minhas, Tiantai Deng, Roger Woods,
Karen Rafferty and Daniel Crookes
FPGA-Based Processor Acceleration for Image Processing Applications
Reprinted from: Journal of Imaging 2019, 5, 16, doi:10.3390/jimaging5010016 . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Paulo Garcia, Deepayan Bhowmik, Robert Stewart, Greg Michaelson and Andrew Wallace
Optimized Memory Allocation and Power Minimization for FPGA-Based Image Processing
Reprinted from: Journal of Imaging 2019, 5, 7, doi:10.3390/jimaging5010007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Runbin Shi, Justin S.J. Wong and Hayden K.-H. So

High-Throughput Line Buffer Microarchitecture for Arbitrary Sized Streaming Image
Processing
Reprinted from: Journal of Imaging 2019, 5, 34, doi:10.3390/jimaging5030034 . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Donald Bailey and Anoop Ambikumar

Border Handling for 2D Transpose Filter Structures on an FPGA
Reprinted from: Journal of Imaging 2018, 4, 138, doi:10.3390/jimaging4120138 . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Andrew Tzer-Yeu Chen, Rohaan Gupta, Anton Borzenko, Kevin I-Kai Wang and
Morteza Biglari-Abhari
Accelerating SuperBE with Hardware/Software Co-Design
Reprinted from: Journal of Imaging 2018, 4, 122, doi:10.3390/jimaging4100122 . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Aiman Badawi and Muhammad Bilal

High-Level Synthesis of Online K-Means Clustering Hardware for a Real-Time Image
Processing Pipeline
Reprinted from: Journal of Imaging 2019, 5, 38, doi:10.3390/jimaging5030038 . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Haonan Zhou, Raju Machupalli and Mrinal Mandal

Efficient FPGA Implementation of Automatic Nuclei Detection in Histopathology Images
Reprinted from: Journal of Imaging 2019, 5, 21, doi:10.3390/jimaging5010021 . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Donald Bailey, and Michael Klaiber

Zig-Zag Based Single-Pass Connected Components Analysis
Reprinted from: Journal of Imaging 2019, 5, 45, doi:10.3390/jimaging5040045 . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Zhe Wang, Trung-Hieu Tran, Ponnanna Kelettira Muthappa and Sven Simon
A JND-Based Pixel-Domain Algorithm and Hardware Architecture for Perceptual Image
Coding
Reprinted from: Journal of Imaging 2019, 5, 50, doi:10.3390/jimaging5050050 . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

v
About the Special Issue Editor
Donald G. Bailey received his Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) degree in Electrical Engineering
in 1982, and Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Canterbury,
New Zealand, in 1985. From 1985 to 1987, he applied image analysis to the wool and paper industries
of New Zealand. From 1987 to 1989, he was a Visiting Research Engineer at University of California,
Santa Barbara. Prof. Bailey joined Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand, as Director
of the Image Analysis Unit in November 1989. He was a Visiting Researcher at the University of
Wales, Cardiff, in 1996; University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2001–2002; and Imperial College
London in 2008. He is currently Professor of Imaging Systems in the Department of Mechanical
and Electrical Engineering in the School of Food and Advanced Technology at Massey University,
where he is Leader of the Centre for Research in Image and Signal Processing. Prof. Bailey has spent
over 35 years applying image processing to a range of industrial, machine vision, and robot vision
applications. For the last 18 years, one area of particular focus has been exploring different aspects
of using FPGAs for implementing and accelerating image processing algorithms. He is the author
of many publications in this field, including the book “Design for Embedded Image Processing on
FPGAs”, published by Wiley/IEEE Press. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, and is active in the
New Zealand Central Section.

vii
Preface to ”Image Processing Using FPGAs”
Over the last 20 years, FPGAs have moved from glue logic through to computing platforms.
They effectively provide a reconfigurable hardware platform for implementing logic and algorithms.
Being fine-grained hardware, FPGAs are able to exploit the parallelism inherent within a hardware
design while at the same time maintaining the reconfigurability and programmability of software.
This has led to FPGAs being used as a platform for accelerating computationally intensive tasks. This
is particularly seen in the field of image processing, where the FPGA-based acceleration of imaging
algorithms has become mainstream. This is even more so within an embedded environment, where
the power and computational resources of conventional processors are not up to the task of managing
the data throughput and computational requirements of real-time imaging applications.
Unfortunately, the fine-grained nature of FPGAs also makes them difficult to programme
effectively. Conventional processors have a fixed computational architecture, which is able to provide
a high level of abstraction. By contrast, on an FPGA, it is necessary to design not only the algorithm
but also the computational architecture, which leads to an explosion in the design space complexity.
This, coupled with the complexities of managing the concurrency of a highly parallel design and the
bandwidth issues associated with the high volume of data associated with images and video, has
led to a wide range of approaches and architectures used for realising FPGA-based image processing
systems. This Special Issue provides an opportunity for researchers in this area to present some of
their latest results and designs. The diversity of presented techniques and applications reflects the
nature and current state of FPGA-based design for image processing.

Donald G. Bailey
Special Issue Editor

ix
 Journal of
Imaging
Editorial
Image Processing Using FPGAs
Donald G. Bailey
Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, School of Food and Advanced Technology,
Massey University, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand; [email protected]

Received: 6 May 2019; Accepted: 7 May 2019; Published: 10 May 2019

Abstract: Nine articles have been published in this Special Issue on image processing using
field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The papers address a diverse range of topics relating
to the application of FPGA technology to accelerate image processing tasks. The range includes:
Custom processor design to reduce the programming burden; memory management for full frames,
line buffers, and image border management; image segmentation through background modelling,
online K-means clustering, and generalised Laplacian of Gaussian filtering; connected components
analysis; and visually lossless image compression.

Keywords: field programmable gate arrays (FPGA); image processing; hardware/software co-design;
memory management; segmentation; image analysis; compression

1. Introduction to This Special Issue

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are increasingly being used for the implementation
of image processing applications. This is especially the case for real-time embedded applications,
where latency and power are important considerations. An FPGA embedded in a smart camera is able
to perform much of the image processing directly as the image is streamed from the sensor, with the
camera providing a processed output data stream, rather than a sequence of images. The parallelism of
hardware is able to exploit the spatial (data level) and temporal (task level) parallelism implicit within
many image processing tasks. Unfortunately, simply porting a software algorithm onto an FPGA often
gives disappointing results, because many image processing algorithms have been optimised for a
serial processor. It is usually necessary to transform the algorithm to efficiently exploit the parallelism
and resources available on an FPGA. This can lead to novel algorithms and hardware computational
architectures, both at the image processing operation level and also at the application level.
The aim of this Special Issue is to present and highlight novel algorithms, architectures, techniques,
and applications of FPGAs for image processing. A total of 20 submissions were received for the
Special Issue, with nine papers being selected for final publication.

2. Contributions
Programming an FPGA to accelerate complex algorithms is difficult, with one of four approaches
commonly used [1]:

• Custom hardware design of the algorithm using a hardware description language, optimised for
performance and resources;
• implementing the algorithm by instantiating a set of application-specific intellectual property
cores (from a library);
• using high-level synthesis to convert a C-based representation of the algorithm to
synthesisable hardware; or
• mapping the algorithm onto a parallel set of programmable soft-core processors.

J. Imaging 2019, 5, 53; doi:10.3390/jimaging5050053 1 www.mdpi.com/journal/jimaging

J. Imaging 2019, 5, 53

The article by Siddiqui et al. [1] took this last approach, and describes the design of an efficient
16-bit integer soft-core processor, IPPro, capable of operating at 337 MHz, specifically targetting the
dataflow seen in complex image processing algorithms. The presented architecture uses dedicated
stream access instructions on the input and output, with a 32-element local memory for storing pixels
and intermediate results, and a separate 32-element kernel memory for storing filter coefficients
and other parameters and constants. The exploitation of both data-level parallelism and task-level
parallelism is demonstrated through the mapping of a K-means clustering algorithm onto the
architecture, showing good scalability of processing speed with multiple cores. A second case study of
traffic sign recognition is partitioned between the IPPro cores and an ARM processor, with the colour
conversion and morphological filtering stages mapped to the IPPro. Again, the use of parallel IPPro
cores can significantly accelerate these tasks, compared to conventional software, without having to
resort to the tedious effort of custom hardware design.
Garcia et al. [2] worked on the thesis that the image processing operations which require random
access to the whole frame (including iterative algorithms) are particularly difficult to realise in FPGAs.
They investigate the mapping of a frame buffer onto the memory resources of an FPGA, and explore
the optimal mapping onto combinations of configurable on-chip memory blocks. They demonstrate
that, for many image sizes, the default mapping by the synthesis tools results in poor utilisation, and is
also inefficient in terms of power requirements. A procedure is described that determines the best
memory configuration, based on balancing resource utilisation and power requirements. The mapping
scheme is demonstrated with optical flow and mean shift tracking algorithms.
On the other hand, local operations (such as filters) only need part of the image to produce an
output, and operate efficiently in stream processing mode, using line buffers to cache data for scanning
a local window through the image. This works well when the image size is fixed, and is known in
advance. Two situations where this approach is less effective [3] are in the region of interest processing,
where only a small region of the image is processed (usually determined from the image contents at
run-time), and cloud processing of user-uploaded images (which may be of arbitrary size). This is
complicated further in high-speed systems, where the real-time requirements demand processing
multiple pixels in every clock cycle, because, if the line width is not a multiple of the number of pixels
processed each cycle, then it is necessary to assemble the output window pixels from more than one
memory block. Shi et al. [3], in their paper, extend their earlier work on assembling the output window
to allow arbitrary image widths. The resulting line buffer must be configurable at run-time, which is
achieved through a series of “instructions”, which control the assembly of the output processing
window when the required data spans two memory blocks. Re-configuration only takes a few clock
cycles (to load the instructions), rather than conventional approach of reconfiguring the FPGA each
time the image width changes. The results demonstrate better resource utilisation, higher throughput,
and lower power than their earlier approach.
When applying window operations to an image, the size of the output image is smaller than
the input because data is not valid when the window extends beyond the image border. If necessary,
this may be mitigated by extending the input image to provide data to allow such border pixels to be
calculated. Prior work only considered border management using direct form filter structures, because
the window formation and filter function can be kept independent. However, in some applications,
transpose-form filter structures are desirable because the corresponding filter function is automatically
pipelined, leading to fewer resources and faster clock frequencies. Bailey and Ambikumar [4] provide
a design methodology for border management using transpose filter structures, and show that the
resource requirements are similar to those for direct-form border management.
An important task in computer vision is segmenting objects from a complex background. While
there are many background modelling algorithms, the complexity of robust algorithms make them
difficult to realise on an FPGA, especially for larger image sizes. Chen et al. [5] address scalability issues
with increasing image size by using super-pixels—small blocks of adjacent pixels that are treated as a
single unit. As each super-pixel is considered to be either object or background, this means that fewer

2
J. Imaging 2019, 5, 53

models need to be maintained (less memory) and fewer elements need to be classified (reduced
computation time). Using hardware/software co-design, they accelerated the computationally
expensive steps of Gaussian filtering and calculating the mean and variance within each super-pixel
with hardware, with the rest of the algorithm being realised on the on-chip CPU. The resulting system
gave close to state-of-the-art classification accuracy.
A related paper, by Badawi and Bilal [6], used K-means clustering to segment objects within video
sequences. Rather than taking the conventional iterative approach to K-means clustering, they rely
on the temporal coherence of video streams and use the cluster centres from the previous frame as
initialisation for the current frame. Additionally, rather than waiting until the complete frame has
been accumulated before updating the cluster centres, an online algorithm is used, with the clusters
updated for each pixel. To reduce the computational requirements, the centres are updated using a
weighted average. They demonstrate that, for typical video streams, this gives similar performance to
conventional K-means algorithms, but with far less computation and power.
In another segmentation paper, Zhou et al. [7] describe the use of a generalised Laplacian of
Gaussian (LoG) filter for detecting cell nuclei for a histopathology application. The LoG filters detect
elliptical blobs at a range of scales and orientations. Local maxima of the responses are used as
candidate seeds for cell centres, and mean-shift clustering is used to combine multiple detections
from different scales and orientations. Their FPGA design gave modest acceleration over a software
implementation on a high-end computer.
Given a segmented image, a common task is to measure feature vectors of each connected
component for analysis. Bailey and Klaiber [8] present a new single-pass connected components
analysis algorithm, which does this with minimum latency and relatively few resources. The key novelty
of this paper is the use of a zig-zag based scan, rather than a conventional raster scan. This eliminates the
end-of-row processing for label resolution by integrating it directly within the reverse scan. The result is
true single-pixel-per-clock-cycle processing, with no overheads at the end of each row or frame.
An important real-time application of image processing is embedded online image compression
for reducing the data bandwidth for image transmission. In the final paper within this Special Issue,
Wang et al. [9] defined a new image compression codec which works efficiently with a streamed image,
and minimises the perceptual distortion within the reconstructed images. Through small local filters,
each pixel is classified as either an edge, a smooth region, or a textured region. These relate to a
perceptual model of contrast masking, allowing just noticeable distortion (JND) thresholds to be
defined. The image is compressed by downsampling; however, if the error in any of the contributing
pixels exceeds the visibility thresholds, the 2 × 2 block is considered a region of interest, with the
4 pixels coded separately. In both cases, the pixel values are predicted using a 2-dimensional predictor,
and the prediction residuals are quantised and entropy-encoded. Results typically give a visually
lossless 4:1 compression, which is significantly better than other visually lossless codecs.

3. Conclusions
Overall, this collection of papers reflects the diversity of approaches taken to applying FPGAs to
image processing applications. From one end, using the programmable logic to design lightweight
custom processors to enable parallelism, through overcoming some of the limitations of current
high-level synthesis tools, to the other end with the design of custom hardware designs at the
register-transfer level.
The range of image processing techniques include filtering, segmentation, clustering, and
compression. Applications include traffic sign recognition for autonomous driving, histopathology,
and video compression.

3
J. Imaging 2019, 5, 53

Funding: This research received no external funding.

Acknowledgments: The Guest Editor would like to acknowledge the time and contributions of the authors
(both successful and unsuccessful) who prepared papers for this Special Issue. Special thanks go to all the
reviewers who provided constructive reviews of the papers in a timely manner; your analysis and feedback has
ensured the quality of the papers selected. It is also necessary to acknowledge the assistance given by the MDPI
editorial team, in particular Managing Editors Alicia Wang and Veronica Wang, who made my task as Guest
Editor much easier.
Conflicts of Interest: The author declares no conflict of interest.

References
1. Siddiqui, F.; Amiri, S.; Minhas, U.I.; Deng, T.; Woods, R.; Rafferty, K.; Crookes, D. FPGA-based processor
acceleration for image processing applications. J. Imaging 2019, 5, 16. [CrossRef]
2. Garcia, P.; Bhowmik, D.; Stewart, R.; Michaelson, G.; Wallace, A. Optimized memory allocation and power
minimization for FPGA-based image processing. J. Imaging 2019, 5, 7. [CrossRef]
3. Shi, R.; Wong, J.S.; So, H.K.H. High-throughput line buffer microarchitecture for arbitrary sized streaming
image processing. J. Imaging 2019, 5, 34. [CrossRef]
4. Bailey, D.G.; Ambikumar, A.S. Border handling for 2D transpose filter structures on an FPGA. J. Imaging
2018, 4, 138. [CrossRef]
5. Chen, A.T.Y.; Gupta, R.; Borzenko, A.; Wang, K.I.K.; Biglari-Abhari, M. Accelerating SuperBE with
hardware/software co-design. J. Imaging 2018, 4, 122. [CrossRef]
6. Badawi, A.; Bilal, M. High-level synthesis of online K-Means clustering hardware for a real-time image
processing pipeline. J. Imaging 2019, 5, 38. [CrossRef]
7. Zhou, H.; Machupalli, R.; Mandal, M. Efficient FPGA implementation of automatic nuclei detection in
histopathology images. J. Imaging 2019, 5, 21. [CrossRef]
8. Bailey, D.G.; Klaiber, M.J. Zig-zag based single pass connected components analysis. J. Imaging 2019, 5, 45.
[CrossRef]
9. Wang, Z.; Tran, T.H.; Muthappa, P.K.; Simon, S. A JND-based pixel-domain algorithm and hardware
architecture for perceptual image coding. J. Imaging 2019, 5, 50. [CrossRef]

c 2019 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

4
Other documents randomly have
different content
when there were friends present at his house and all historians were
absent, he would declaim in thunderous tones—
"Would you believe it, gentlemen, there are in France, at the present
moment and of our generation and rank, historians who take it into
their heads to copy the style of the veterans, Berruyer, Catrou and
Rouille? Yes, in each line of their modern battles they will tell you
that thirty thousand men were cut in pieces, or that they bit the
dust, or that they were left lying strewn upon the scene. How behind
the times these youngsters are! The other day, one of them, in
describing the battle of Austerlitz, wrote this sentence: 'Twenty-five
thousand Russians were drawn up in battle upon a vast frozen lake;
Napoléon gave orders that firing should be directed against this lake.
Bullets broke through the ice and the twenty-five thousand Russians
BIT THE DUST!'"

It is curious to note that such a sentence was actually written in one

of the résumés of that date. The second remark that we ought to
have made will explain the comparison that Rabbe had hazarded
when he spoke of himself as Hercules and of Brézé as Pirithous. He
had so effectually contracted the habit of using grand oratorical
metaphor and stilted language, that he could never descend to a
more familiar style of speech in his relations with more ordinary
people. Thus, he once addressed his hairdresser solemnly in the
following terms:—
"Do not disarrange the economy of my hair too much; let the strokes
of your comb fall lightly on my head, and take care, as Boileau says,
that 'L'ivoire trop hâté ne se brise en vos mains!'"
He said to his porter—
"If some friend comes and knocks at my hospitable portal, deal
kindly with him.... I shall soon return: I go to breathe the evening air
upon the Pont des Arts."
He said to his pastry-cook, Grandjean, who lived close by him in the
rue des Petits-Augustins—
"Monsieur Grandjean, the vol-au-vent that you did me the honour to
send yesterday had a crust of Roman cement, obstinate to the
teeth; give a more unctuous turn to your culinary art and people will
be grateful to you."
While all these things were happening, Rabbe fully imagined that he
was writing his novel, La Sœur grise.
One day, Thiers came in to see him, as was his custom.
"Well, Rabbe," he said, "what are you at work upon now?"
"Parbleu!" replied Rabbe, "the same as usual, you know! My Sœur
grise."
"It ought to be nearly finished by now."
"It is finished."
"Oh, indeed!"
"Do you doubt me?"
"No."
"But you do doubt it?"
"Of course not."
"Stay," he said, picking up an exercise-book full of sheets of paper,
"here it is."
Thiers took it from him.
"But what is this? You have given me blank sheets of paper, my dear
fellow!"
Rabbe sprang like a tiger upon Thiers, and might, perhaps, in 1825,
have demolished the Minister of the First of March, had not Thiers
opened the book and showed him the pages as white as the dress
worn by M. Planard's shepherdess. Rabbe tore his hair with both
hands.
"Do you know what has happened to me?" he shouted.
"No."
"Someone has stolen the MS. of my Sœur grise!"
"Oh! my God!" exclaimed Thiers, who did not want to vex him; "do
you know who is the thief?"
"No ... stay, yes, indeed, I think I do ... it is Loëve-Weymars! He
shall perish by my own hand; I will send him my two seconds!"
Loëve-Weymars was not in Paris. For upwards of a fortnight Rabbe
laboured under the delusion that he had written La Sœur grise from
cover to cover, and that Loëve-Weymars was jealous of him and had
robbed him of his manuscript.
When such petulant insults fell upon friends like Loëve-Weymars,
Thiers, Mignet, Armaud Carrel and Méry, it did not matter; but, when
they were directed at strangers less acquainted with Rabbe's follies,
affairs sometimes assumed a more tragic aspect. Thus, about this
period, he had two duels; one with Alexis Dumesnil, the other with
Coste; he received a sword-cut from both of these gentlemen; but
these wounds did not cure him of his passion for quarrelling. He
used to say that, in his youth, he had been very clever at handling
the javelin; unluckily, however, his adversaries always declined that
weapon, which refusal Rabbe, with his enthusiasm for antiquity,
never could understand.
But if Rabbe admired antiquity madly, it was because he felt it
strongly; his piece, Le Centaure, is André Chénier in prose. Let us
give the proof of what we have been stating—

THE CENTAUR

"Swift as the west wind, amorous, superb, a young centaur

comes to carry off the beauteous Cymothoë from her old
husband. The impotent cries of the old man are heard afar....
Proud of his prey, impotent with desire, the ravisher stops
beneath the deep shade of the banks of the river. His flanks still
palpitate from the swiftness of his course; his breath comes
hard and fast. He stops; his strong legs bend under him; he
stretches one forth and kneels with agility on the other. He
lovingly raises his beautiful prey whom he holds trembling
across his powerful thighs; he takes her and presses her against
his manly breast, sighs a thousand sighs and covers her tear-
dewed eyelids with kisses.
"'Fear not,' he says to her, 'O Cymothoë! Be not terrified of a
lover who offers to thy charms the united quality of both man
and war-horse. Believe me! my heart is worth more than that of
a vile mortal who dwells in your towns. Tame my wild
independence; I will bear thee to the freshest rivers, beneath
the loveliest of shade; I will carry thee over the green prairies,
which are bathed by the Pene or patriarchal Achelous. Seated
on my broad back, with thy arms intertwined in the rings of my
black hair, thou canst entrust thy charms to the gambols of the
waves, without fear that a jealous god will venture to seize thee
to take thee to the depths of his crystal grotto.... I love thee, O
young Cymothoë! Drive away thy tears; thou canst try thy
power: thou hast me in subjection!'
"'Splendid monster!' replies the weeping Cymothoë, 'I am struck
with amazement. Thy accents are full of gentleness, and thou
speakest words of love! Why, thou talkest like a man! Thy
fearful caresses do not slay me! Tell me why! But dost thou not
hear the cries of Dryas, my old husband? Centaur, fear for thy
life! His kisses are like ice, but his vengeance is cruel; his
hounds are flying in thy tracks; his slaves follow them; haste
thee to fly and leave me!'
"'I leave thee!' replies the Centaur. And he stifles a plaintive
murmur on the lips of his captive. 'I leave thee! Where is the
Pirithous, the Alcides who dare come to dispute my conquest
with me? Have I not my javelins? Have I not my heavy club?
Have I not my swift speed? Has not Neptune given to the
Centaur the impetuous strength of the storm?'
"Then suddenly he bounded away full of courage, confidence
and happiness. Cymothoë balanced as if she was hung in a
moving net under these green vaults, or like as though borne in
a chariot of clouds by Zephyrus, henceforth rids herself of her
useless terrors and abandons herself to the raptures of this
strange lover.
"Again he stops and she admires the way nature has delighted
to mate in him the lovely form of a horse with the majestic
features of a man. Intelligent thought animates his glance, so
proud and yet so gentle; beneath that broad breast dwells a
heart touched by her charms.... What a splendid slave to
Cymothoë and to love!
"She soon stops looking; a burning blush covers her cheeks and
her eyelids droop; then, as her lover redoubles his caresses, and
unfastens her girdle—
"'Stay!' she says to him, 'stay, beauteous Centaur! Dost thou not
hear the fiery pack of hounds? Do not the arrows whistle in thy
ears.... I do not indeed hate thee; but leave me! Leave me!'
"But neither Dryas nor his hounds nor slaves come that way,
and those were not the reason of Cymothoë's fears. He, smiling
—
"'Calm thy fright; come, let us cross the river, and do not dread
the sacrifice we are about to offer to the powerful Venus on the
other side!... Soon, alas! the forests will see no more such
nuptials. Our fathers have succumbed, betrayed by the wedding
of Thetis and Peleus; we are now few in number, solitary,
fugitive, not from man, weaker and less noble than we, but
before Death who pursues us. The laws of a mysterious nature
have thus decreed it; the reign of our race is nearly over!
"'This globe, deprived of the love of the gods who made it, must
grow old and the weak replace the strong; debased mortals will
have nothing but vain memories of the early joys of the world.
Thou art perhaps the last daughter of men destined to be allied
 with our race; but thou wilt at least have been the most
beautiful and the happiest! Come!'
"Thus speaks the man-horse, and replacing his delightsome
burden on his bare back, he runs to the river and rushes into
the midst of the waves, which sparkle round him in diamond
sheaves burning with the setting fire of a summer sun. His eyes
fixed on those of the beauty which intoxicates him, he swims
across the stream and is lost to sight in the green depths which
stretch from the other side to the foot of the high mountains...."

Is this not a genuine bit of antiquity without a modern touch in it,

like a bas-relief taken from the temple of Hercules at Thebes or of
Theseus at Athens?

[1] Do not let it be thought for one moment that it is in order to

make out any intimacy whatsoever with the two famous
historians, whom I have several times mentioned, that I say
Thiers and Mignet; theirs are names which have won the privilege
of being presented to the public without the banal title of
monsieur.

CHAPTER XI

Adèle—Her devotion to Rabbe—Strong meat—Appel à Dieu—

L'âme et la comédie humaine—La mort—Ultime lettere—Suicide
—À Alphonse Rabbe, by Victor Hugo

We have been forgetful, more than forgetful, even ungrateful, in

saying that Rabbe's one and only consolation was his pipe; there
was another.
A young girl, named Adèle, spent three years with him; but those
three happy years only added fresh sorrows to Rabbe, for, soon, the
beautiful fresh girl drooped like a flower at whose roots a worm is
gnawing; she bowed her head, suffered for a year, then died.
History has made much stir about certain devoted attachments; no
devotion could have been purer or more disinterested than the
unnoticed devotion of this young girl, all the more complete that she
crowned it with her death.
A subject of this nature is either stated in three brief lines of bald
fact, or is extended over a couple of volumes as a psychological
study. Poor Adèle! We have but four lines, and the memory of your
devotion to offer you! Her death drove Rabbe to despair; from that
time dates the most abandoned period of his life. Rabbe found out
not only that the seeds of destruction were in him, but that they
emanated from him. His wails of despair from that moment became
bitter and frequent; and his thoughts turned incessantly towards
suicide so that they might become accustomed to the idea. Certain
memoranda hung always in his sight; he called them his pain des
forts; they were, indeed, the spiritual bread he fed himself on.
We will give a few examples of his most remarkable thoughts from
this lugubrious diary:—

"The whole life of man is but one journey towards death."

**
"Man, from whence comes thy pride? It was a mistake for thee
to have been conceived; thy birth is a misfortune; thy life a
labour; thy death inevitable."
**
"Thou living corpse! When wilt thou return to the dust? O
solitude! O death! I have drunk deep of thy austere delights.
You are my loves! the only ones that are faithful to me!"
**
"Every hour that passes by drives us towards the tomb and is
hastened by the advance of those that precede it."
 **
"Bitter and cruel is the absence of God's face from me. How
much longer wilt Thou make me suffer?"
**
"Reflect in the morning that by night you may be no longer
here; and at night, that by morning you may have died."
**
"Sometimes there is a melancholy remembrance of the glorious
days of youth, of that happiness which never seems so great or
so bitter as when remembered in the days of misfortune; at
times, such collections confront the unfortunate wretch whose
aspirations are towards death. Then, his despair turns to
melancholy—almost even to hope."
**
"But these illusions of the beautiful days of youth pass and
vanish away! Oh! what bitterness fills my soul! Inexorable
nature, fate, destiny of providence give me back the cup of life
and of happiness! My lips had scarcely touched it before you
snatched it out of my trembling hands. Give me back the cup!
Give it back! I am consumed by burning thirst; I have deceived
myself; you have deceived me; I have never drunk, I have
never satisfied my thirst, for the liquid evaporated like blue
flame, which leaves behind it nothing but the smell of sulphur
and volcanoes."
**
"Lightning from heaven! Why dost thou not rather strike the
lofty tops of those oaks and fir trees whose robust old age has
already braved a hundred winters? They, at least, have lived;
and have satiated themselves with the sweets of the earth!"
**
 "I have been struck down in my prime; for nine years I have
been a prey, fighting against death.... Miserable wretch why has
not the hand of God which smote me annihilated me
altogether?"

Then, in consequence of his pains, the soul of the unhappy Rabbe

rises to the level of prayer; he, the sceptic, loses faith in unbelief
and returns to God—

"O my God!" he exclaims in the solitudes of night, which carries

the plaint of his groans and tears to the ears of his neighbours.
"O my God! If Thou art just, Thou must have a better world in
store for us! O my God! Thou who knowest all the thoughts that
I bare here before Thee and the remorse to which my scalding
tears give expression; O my God! if the groanings of an
unfortunate soul are heard by Thee, Thou must understand, O
my God! the heart that Thou didst give me, thou knowest the
wishes it formed, and the insatiable desires that still possess it.
Oh! if afflictions have broken it, if the absence of all consolation
and tenderness, if the most horrible solitude, have withered it,
O my God! help Thy wretched creature; give me faith in a better
world to come! Oh! may I find beyond the grave what my soul,
unrecognised and bewildered, has unceasingly craved for on
this earth...."

Then God took pity on him. He did not restore his health or hope,
his youth, beauty and loves in this life; those three illusions vanished
all too soon: but God granted him the gift of tears. And he thanked
God for it. Towards the close of the year 1829, the disease made
such progress that Rabbe resolved he would not live to see the
opening of the year 1830. Thus, as he had addressed God, as he
had addressed his soul, so he now addresses death—

DEATH
"Thou diest! Thou hast reached the limit to which all things
comes at last; the end of thy miseries, the beginning of thy
happiness. Behold, death stands face to face with thee! Thou
wilt not longer be able to wish for, nor to dread it. Pains and
weakness of body, sad heart-searchings, piercing spiritual
anguish, devouring griefs, all are over! Thou wilt never suffer
them again; thou goest in peace to brave the insolent pride of
the successful evil-doer, the despising of fools and the abortive
pity of those who dare to style themselves good.
"The deprivation of many evils will not be an evil in itself; I have
seen thee chafing at thy bit, shaking the humiliating chains of
an adverse fate in despair; I have often heard the distressing
complaints which issued from the depths of thy oppressed
heart.... Thou art satisfied at last. Haste thee to empty the cup
of an unfortunate life, and perish the vase from which thou wast
compelled to drink such bitter draughts.
"But thou dost stop and tremble! Thou dost curse the duration
of thy suffering and yet dost dread and regret that the end has
come! Thou apprisest without reason or justice, and dost
lament equally both what things are and what they cease to be.
Listen, and think for one moment.
"In dying, thou dost but follow the path thy forefathers have
trodden; thousands of generations before thee have fallen into
the abyss into which thou hast to descend; many thousands will
fall into it after thee. The cruel vicissitude of life and death
cannot be altered for thee alone. Onward then towards thy
journey's end, follow where others have gone, and be not afraid
of straying from it or losing thyself when thou hast so many
other travelling companions. Let there be no signs of weakness,
no tears! The man who weeps over his own death is the vilest
and most despicable of all beings. Submit unmurmuringly to the
inevitable; thou must die, as thou hast had to live, without will
of thy own. Give back, therefore, without anxiety, thy life which
thou receivest unconsciously. Neither birth nor death are in thy
power. Rather rejoice, for thou art at the beginning of an
immortal dawn. Those who surround thy deathbed, all those
whom thou hast ever seen, of whom thou hast heard speak or
read, the small number of those thou hast known especially
well, the vast multitude of those who have lived formerly or
been born or are to be born in ages to come throughout the
world, all these have gone or will go the road thou art going.
Look with wise eyes upon the long caravan of successive
generations which have crossed the deserts of life, fighting as
they travel across the burning sands for one drop of the water
which inflames their thirst more than it appeases it! Thou art
swallowed up in the crowd directly thou fallest: but look how
many others are falling too at the same time with thee!
"Wouldst thou desire to live for ever? Wouldst thou only wish
thy life to last for a thousand years? Remember the long hours
of weariness in thy short career, thy frequent fainting under the
burden. Thou wast aghast at the limited horizon of a short,
uncertain and fugitive life: what wouldst thou have said if thou
hadst seen an immeasurable, inevitably long future of weariness
and sorrow stretch before thy eyes!
"O mortals! you weep over death, as though life were
something great and precious! And yet the vilest insects that
crawl share this rare treasure of life with you! All march towards
death because all yearn towards rest and perfect peace.
"Behold! the approach of the day that thou fain wouldst have
tried to bring nearer by thy prayers, if a jealous fate had not
deferred it; for which thou didst often sigh; behold the moment
which is to remove the capricious yoke of fortune from the
trammels of human society, from the venomous attacks of thy
fellow-creatures. Thou thinkest thou wilt cease to exist and that
thought torments thee.... Well, but what proves to thee that
thou wilt be annihilated? All the ages have retained a hope in
immortality. The belief in a spiritual life was not merely a dogma
of a few religious creeds; it was the need and the cry of all
 nations that have covered the face of the earth. The European,
in the luxuries of his capital towns, the aboriginal American-
Indian under his rude huts, both equally dream of an immortal
state; all cry to the tribunal of nature against the
incompleteness of this life.
"If thou sufferest, it is well to die; if thou art happy or thinkest
thou art so, thou wilt gain by death since thy illusion would not
have lasted long. Thou passest from a terrestrial habitation to a
pure and celestial one. Why look back when thy foot is upon the
threshold of its portals? The eternal distributor of good and evil,
our Sovereign Master, calls thee to Himself; it is by His desire
thy prison flies open; thy heavy chains are broken and thy exile
is ended; therefore rejoice! Thou wilt soar to the throne of thy
King and Saviour!
"Ah! if thou art not shackled with the weight of some
unexpiated crime, thou wilt sing as thou diest; and, like the
Roman emperor, thou wilt rise up in thy agony at the very
thought, and thou wouldst die standing with eyes turned
towards the promised land!
"O Saint Preux and Werther! O Jacob Ortis! how far were you
from reaching such heights as that! Orators even to the death
agony, your brains alone it is which lament; man in his death
throes, this actually dying creature, it is his heart that groans,
his flesh that cries out, his spirit which doubts. Oh! how well
one feels that all that hollow philosophising does not reassure
him as to the pain of the supreme moment, and especially
against that terror of annihilation, which brought drops of sweat
to the brow of Hamlet!
"One more cry—the last, then silence shall fall on him who
suffered much."

Moreover, Alphonse Rabbe wished there to be no doubt of how he

died; hear this, his will, which he signed; there was to his mind no
dishonour in digging himself a grave with his own hands between
those of Cato of Utica and of Brutus—

"31 December 1829

"Like Ugo Foscolo, I must write my ultime lettere. If every man
who had thought and felt deeply could die before the decline of
his faculties from age, and leave behind him his philosophical
testament, that is to say, a profession of faith bold and sincere,
written upon the planks of his coffin, there would be more
truths recognised and saved from the regions of foolishness and
the contemptible opinion of the vulgar.
"I have other motives for executing this project. There are in
the world various interesting men who have been my friends; I
wish them to know how I ended my life. I desire that even the
indifferent, namely, the bulk of the general public (to whom I
shall be a subject of conversation for about ten minutes—
perhaps even that is an exaggerated supposition), should know,
however poor an opinion I have of the majority of people, that I
did not yield to cowardice, but that the cup of my weariness
was already filled, when fresh wrongs came and overthrew it. I
wish, in conclusion, that my friends, those indifferent to me, and
even my enemies, should know that I have but exercised quietly
and with dignity the privilege that every man acquires from
nature—the right to dispose of himself as he likes. This is the
last thing that has interest for me this side the grave. All my
hopes lie beyond it ...if perchance there be anything beyond."

Thus, poor Rabbe, after all thy philosophy, sifted as fine as ripe
grain; after all thy philosophising; after many prayers to God and
dialogues with thy soul, and many conversations with death, these
supreme interlocutors have taught thee nothing and thy last thought
is a doubt!
Rabbe had said he would not see the year 1830: and he died during
the night of the 31 December 1829.
Now, how did he die? That gloomy mystery was kept locked in the
hearts of the last friends who were present with him. But one of his
friends told me that, the evening before his death, his sufferings
were so unendurable, that the doctor ordered an opium plaster to be
put on the sick man's chest. Next day, they hunted in vain for the
opium plaster but could not find it....
On 17 September 1835, Victor Hugo addresses these lines to him:—

À ALPHONSE RABBE

Mort le 31 décembre 1829

"Hélas! que fais tu donc, ô Rabbe, ô mon ami,

Sévère historien dans la tombe endormi?

Je l'ai pensé souvent dans les heures funèbres,

Seul, près de mon flambeau qui rayait les ténèbres,
O noble ami! pareil aux hommes d'autrefois,
Il manque parmi nous ta voix; ta forte voix,
Pleine de l'équité qui gonflait ta poitrine.

Il nous manque ta main, qui grave et qui burine,

Dans ce siècle où par l'or les sages sont distraits,
Où l'idée est servante auprès des intérêts;
Temps de fruits avortés et de tiges rompues,
D'instincts dénaturés, de raisons corrompues,
Où, dans l'esprit humain tout étant dispersé,
Le présent au hasard flotte sur le passé!

Si, parmi nous, ta tête était debout encore,

Cette cime où vibrait l'éloquence sonore,
Au milieu de nos flots tu serais calme et grand;
Tu serais comme un pont posé sur le courant.
Tu serais pour chacun la boix haute et sensée
Qui fait que, brouillard s'en va de la pensée,
Et que la vérité, qu'en vain nous repoussions,
Sort de l'amas confus des sombres visions!

Tu dirais aux partis qu'ils font trop be poussière

Autour de la raison pour qu'on la voie entière;
Au peuple, que la loi du travail est sur tous,
Et qu'il est assez fort pour n'être pas jaloux;
Au pouvoir, que jamais le pouvoir ne se venge,
Et que, pour le penseur, c'est un spectacle étrange.
Et triste, quand la loi, figure au bras d'airain,
Déesse qui ne doit avoir qu'un front serein,
Sort, à de certains jours, de l'urne consulaire,
L'œil hagard, écumante et folle de colère!

Et ces jeunes esprits, à qui tu souriais,

Et que leur âge livre aux rêves inquiets,
Tu leur dirais: Amis nés pour des temps prospères,
Oh! n'allez pas errer comme ont erré vos pères!
Laissez murir vos fronts! gardez-vous, jeunes gens,
Des systèmes dorés aux plumages changeants,
Qui, dans les carrefours, s'en vont faire la roue!
Et de ce qu'en vos cœurs l'Amérique secoue,
Peuple à peine essayé, nation de hasard,
Sans tige, sans passé, sans histoire et sans art!
Et de cette sagesse impie, envenimée,
Du cerveau de Voltaire éclose tout armée,
Fille de l'ignorance et de l'orgueil, posant
Les lois des anciens jours sur les mœurs d'à présent;
Qui refait un chaos partout où fut un monde;
Qui rudement enfoncé,—ô démence profonde!
Le casque étroit de Sparte au front du vieux Paris;
Qui, dans les temps passés, mal lus et mal compris,
Viole effrontément tout sage, pour lui faire
Un monstre qui serait la terreur de son père!
Si bien que les héros antiques tout tremblants
S'en sont voilé la face, et qu'après deux mille ans,
Par ses embrassements réveillé sous la pierre,
Lycurgue, qu'elle épouse, enfante Robespierre!"

Tu nous dirais à tous: 'Ne vous endormez pas!

Veillez et soyez prêts! Car déjà, pas à pas,
La main de l'oiseleur dans l'ombre s'est glissée
Partout où chante un nid couvé par la pensée!
Car les plus nobles fronts sont vaincus ou sont las!
Car la Pologne, aux fers, ne peut plus même, hêlas!
Mordre le pied tartare appuyé sur sa gorge!
Car on voit, chaque jour, s'allonger dans la forge
La chaîne que les rois, craignant la liberté,
Font pour cette géante, endormie à côté!
Ne vous endormez pas! travaillez sans relâche!
Car les grands ont leur œuvre et les petits leur tâche;
Chacun a son ouvrage à faire, chacun met
Sa pierre à l'édifice encor loin du sommet—
Qui croit avoir fini, pour un roi qu'on dépose,
Se trompe: un roi qui tombe est toujours peu de
chose;
Il est plus difficile et c'est un plus grand poids
De relever les mœurs que d'abattre les rois.
Rien chez vous n'est complet: la ruine ou l'ébauche!
L'épi n'est pas formé que votre main le fauche!
Vous êtes encombrés de plans toujours rêvés
Et jamais accomplis ... Hommes, vous ne savez,
Tant vous connaissez peu ce qui convient aux âmes,
Que faire des enfants, ni que faire des femmes!
Où donc en êtes-vous? Vous vous applaudissez
Pour quelques blocs de lois au hasard entassés!
Ah! l'heure du repos pour aucun n'est venue;
Travaillez! vous cherchez une chose inconnue;
Vous n'avez pas de foi, vous n'avez pas d'amour;
Rien chez vous n'est encore éclairé du vrai jour!
Crépuscule et brouillards que vos plus clairs systèmes
Dans vos lois, dans vos mœurs et dans vos esprits
mêmes,
Partout l'aube blanchâtre ou le couchant vermeil!
Nulle part le midi! nulle part le soleil!'

Tu parlerais ainsi dans des livres austères,

Comme parlaient jadis les anciens solitaires,
Comme parlent tous ceux devant qui l'on se tait,
Et l'on t'écouterait comme on les écoutait;
Et l'on viendrait vers toi, dans ce siècle plein d'ombre,
Où, chacun se heurtant aux obstacles sans nombre
Que, faute de lumière, on tâte avec la main,
Le conseil manque à l'âme, et le guide au chemin!

Hélas! à chaque instant, des souffles de tempêtes

Amassent plus de brume et d'ombre sur nos têtes;
De moment en moment l'avenir s'assombrit.
Dans le calme du cœur, dans la paix de l'esprit,
Je l'adressais ces vers, où mon âme sereine
N'a laissé sur ta pierre écumer nulle haine,
À toi qui dors couché dans le tombeau profond,
À toi qui ne sais plus ce que les hommes font!
Je l'adressais ces vers, pleins de tristes présages;
Car c'est bien follement que nous nous croyons sages.
Le combat furieux recommence à gronder
Entre le droit de croître et le droit d'émonder;
La bataille où les lois attaquent les idées
Se mêle de nouveau sur des mers mal sondées;
Chacun se sent troublé comme l'eau sous le vent ...
Et moi-même, à cette heure, à mon foyer rêvant,
Voilà, depuis cinq ans qu'on oubliait Procuste,
Que j'entends aboyer, au seuil du drame auguste,
La censure à l'haleine immonde, aux ongles noirs,
Cette chienne au front has qui suit tous les pouvoirs,
Vile et mâchant toujours dans sa gueule souillée,
O muse! quelque pan de ta robe étoilée!
 Hélas! que fais-tu donc, ô Rabbe, ô mon ami!
Sévère historien dans la tombe endormi?"

If anything of poor Rabbe still survives, he will surely tremble with

joy in his tomb at this tribute. Indeed, few kings have had such an
epitaph!

CHAPTER XII

Chéron—His last compliments to Harel—Obituary of 1830—My

official visit on New Year's Day—A striking costume—Read the
Moniteur—Disbanding of the Artillery of the National Guard—
First representation of Napoléon Bonaparte—Delaistre—
Frédérick Lemaître

Meantime, throughout the course of that glorious year of 1830,

death had been gathering in a harvest of celebrated men.
It had begun with Chéron, the author of Tartufe de Mœurs. We
learnt his death in a singular fashion. Harel thought of taking up the
only comedy that the good fellow had written, and had begun its
rehearsals the same time as Christine. They rehearsed Chéron's
comedy at ten in the morning and Christine at noon. One morning,
Chéron, who was punctuality itself, was late. Harel had waited a little
while, then given orders to prepare the stage for Christine. Steinberg
had not got further than his tenth line, when a little fellow of twelve
years came from behind one of the wings and asked for M. Harel.
"Here I am," said Harel, "what is it?"
"M. Chéron presents his compliments to you," said the little man,
"and sends word that he cannot come to his rehearsal this morning."
"Why not, my boy?" asked Harel.
"Because he died last night," replied the little fellow.
"Ah! diable!" exclaimed Harel; "in that case you must take back my
best compliments and tell him that I will attend his funeral to-
morrow."
That was the funeral oration the ex-government inspector to the
Théâtre-Français pronounced over him.
I believe I have mentioned somewhere that Taylor succeeded
Chéron.
At the beginning of the year, on 15 February, Comte Marie de
Chamans de Lavalette had also died; he it was who, in 1815, was
saved by the devotion of his wife and of two Englishmen; one of
whom, Sir Robert Wilson, I met in 1846 when he was Governor of
Gibraltar. Comte de Lavalette lived fifteen years after his
condemnation to death; caring for his wife, in his turn, for she had
gone insane from the terrible anxiety she suffered in helping her
husband to escape.
On 11 March the obituary list was marked by the death of the
Marquis de Lally-Tollendal, whom I knew well: he was the son of the
Lally-Tollendal who was executed in the place de Grève as guilty of
peculation, upon whom it will be recollected Gilbert wrote lines that
were certainly some of his best. The poor Marquis de Lally-Tollendal
was always in trouble, but this did not prevent him from becoming
enormously stout. He weighed nearly three hundred pounds;
Madame de Staël called him "the fattest of sentient beings."
Perhaps I have already said this somewhere. If so, I ask pardon for
repeating it.
The same month Radet died, the doyen of vaudevillists. During the
latter years of his life he was afflicted with kleptomania, but his
friends never minded; if, after his departure they missed anything
they knew where to go and look for the missing article.
Then, on 15 April, Hippolyte Bendo died. He was behindhand, for
death, who was out of breath with running after him, caught him up
at the age of one hundred and twenty-two. He had married again at
one hundred and one!
Then, on 23 April, died the Chevalier Sue, father of Eugène Sue; he
had been honorary physician in chief to the household of King
Charles X. He was a man of great originality of mind and, at times,
of singular artlessness of expression; those who heard him give his
course of lectures on conchology will bear me out in this I am very
sure.
On 29 May that excellent man Jérôme Gohier passed away, of whom
I have spoken as an old friend of mine; and who could not forgive
Bonaparte for causing the events of 18 Brumaire, whilst he, Gohier,
was breakfasting with Josephine.
On 29 June died good old M. Pieyre, former tutor and secretary to
the duc d'Orléans; author of l'École des pères; and the same who,
with old Bichet and M. de Parseval de Grandmaison, had shown such
great friendship to me and supported me to the utmost at the
beginning of my dramatic career.
Then, on 29 July, a lady named Rosaria Pangallo died; she was born
on 3 August 1698, only four years after Voltaire, whom we thought
belonged to a past age, as he had died in 1778! The good lady was
132, ten years older than her compatriot Hippolyte Bendo, of whom
we spoke just now.
On 28 August Martainville died, hero of the Pont du Pecq, whom we
saw fighting with M. Arnault over Germanicus.
On 18 October Adam Weishaupt died, that famous leader of the
Illuminati whose ashes I was to revive eighteen years later in my
romance Joseph Balsamo.
Then, on 30 November, Pius VIII. passed to his account; he was
succeeded by Gregory XVI., of whom I shall have much to say.
On 17 December Marmontel's son died in New York, America, in
hospital, just as a real poet might have done.
Then, on the 31st of the same month, the Comtesse de Genlis died,
that bogie of my childhood, whose appearances at the Château de
Villers-Hellon I related earlier in these Memoirs, and who, before she
died, had the sorrow of seeing the accession to the throne of her
pupil, badly treated by her, as a politician, in a letter which we
printed in our Histoire de Louis-Philippe.
Finally, on the last night of the old year, the artillery came to its end,
killed by royal decree; and, as I had not heard of this decree soon
enough, it led me to make the absurd blunder I am about to
describe, which was probably among all the grievances King Louis-
Philippe believed he had against me the one that made him cherish
the bitterest rancour towards me. The reader will recollect the
resignation of one of our captains and my election to the rank thus
left vacant; he will further remember that, owing to the enthusiasm
which fired me at that period, I undertook the command of a
manœuvre the day but one after my appointment. This made the
third change I had had to make in my uniform in five months: first,
mounted National Guard; then, from that, to a gunner in the
artillery; then, from a private to a captain in the same arm of the
service. In due course New Year's day was approaching, and there
had been a meeting to decide whether we should pay a visit of
etiquette to the king or not. In order to avoid being placed upon the
index for no good reason, it was decided to go. Consequently, a
rendez-vous was made for the next day, 1 January 1831, at nine in
the morning, in the courtyard of the Palais-Royal. Whereupon we
separated. I do not remember what caused me to lie in bed longer
than usual that New Year's morning 1831; but, to cut a long story
short, when I looked at my watch, I saw that I had only just time, if
that, to dress and reach the Palais-Royal. I summoned Joseph and,
with his help, as nine o'clock was striking, I flew down stairs four
steps at a time from my third storey. I need hardly say that, being in
such a tremendous hurry, of course there was no cab or carriage of
any description to be had. Thus, I reached the courtyard of the
Palais-Royal by a quarter past nine. It was crowded with officers
waiting their turn to present their collective New Year's
congratulations to the King of the French; but, in the midst of all the
various uniforms, that of the artillery was conspicuous by its
absence. I glanced at the clock, and seeing that I was a quarter of
an hour late, I thought the artillery had already taken up its position
and that I should be able to join it either on the staircases or in one
of the apartments. I rushed quickly up the State stairway and
reached the great audience chamber. Not a sign of any artillerymen!
I thought that, like Victor Hugo's kettle-drummers, the artillerymen
must have passed and I decided to go in alone.
Had I not been so pre-occupied with my unpunctuality, I should have
remarked the strange looks people cast at me all round; but I saw
nothing, thanks to my absent-mindedness, except that the group of
officers, with whom I intermingled to enter the king's chamber,
made a movement from centre to circumference, which left me as
completely isolated as though I was suspected of bringing infection
of cholera, which was beginning to be talked about in Paris. I
attributed this act of repulsion to the part the artillery had played
during the recent disturbances, and as I, for my part, was quite
ready to answer for the responsibility of my own actions, I went in
with my head held high. I should say, that out of the score of
officers who formed the group I had honoured with my presence, I
seemed to be the only one who attracted the attention of the king;
he even gazed at me with such surprise that I looked around to find
the cause of this incomprehensible stare. Among those present some
put on a scornful smile, others seemed alarmed; and the expression
of others, again, seemed to say: "Seigneur; pardon us for having
come in with that man!" The whole thing was inexplicable to me. I
went up to the king, who was so good as to speak to me.
"Ah! good day, Dumas!" he said to me; "that's just like you! I
recognise you well enough! It is just like you to come!"
I looked at the king and, for the life of me, I could not tell what he
was alluding to. Then, as he began laughing, and all the good
courtiers round imitated his example, I smiled in company with
everybody else, and went on my way. In the next room where my