Before dinner, and after Buchanan had shaken hands with all of us, expressing to each one his great pleasure at making his aquaintance personally, Mazzini took Ledru-Rollin by the arm, and at the same time Buchanan carried out the same manoeuvre with Kossuth and, both gently leading forward the two men who were the occasion of the dinner, brought them almost into collision and named each to the other. The new acquaintances did not hang back, and showered each other with compliments
Oriental and florid from the great Magyar, full of power and the colour and eloquence of the Convention from the great Gaul.
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All the time that this scene was being played I stood by the window with Orsini . . . as I looked at him I was fearfully glad to see a slight smile, more in his eyes than on his lips.
'Let me tell you,' I said, 'what nonsense has come into my head. In 1 847 I saw in Paris, at the Theatre de l'Histoire, a very stupid play about a war, in which the chief part was acted by smoke and shooting and the second by horses, cannon and drums.
In one of the acts the commanders of both armies came from opposite sides of the stage to negotiate; they walked bravely towards each other and, as they came near, one took off his hat and said, "Suvorov-Massena ! " to which the other, also hatless, answered, "Massena-Suvorov! " '
'I've hardly been able to keep from laughing myself,' said Orsini to me, with a completely grave face.
The sly old man Buchanan, who was then a lready dreaming, in spite of his seventy years, of the presidency, and therefore was constantly talking of the happiness of retirement, of the idyllic life and of his own infirmity, made up to us as he had made up to Orlov and Benckendorf at the Winter Palace when he was ambassador in the time of Nicholas. Kossuth and Mazzini he knew already; to the others he paid compliments specially selected for each, much more reminiscent of an experienced diplomatist than of the austere citizen of a democratic republic.
To me he said nothing except that he had been in Russia for a long time, and had brought away the conviction that she had a great future. I made no reply to that, of course, but observed that I remembered him from the time of Nicholas's coronation. 'I was a boy, but you were so conspicuous in your simple, black frockcoat and round hat, in that crowd of embroidered, gilded, uniformed notables.'
To Garibaldi he remarked: 'You have the same reputation in America as you have in Europe, only in America you have another title to fame as well : you're known there . . . you're known there as a distinguished sailor.'
At dessert, when Madame Saunders had gone and we had been offered cigars with another large quantity of wine, Buchanan, who was sitting opposite Ledru-Rollin, told him that he had 'a friend in New York who had said he was prepared to travel from America to France only to make Lf'dru-Rollin's acquaintance.'
Unfortunately Buchanan mumbled rather and Ledru-Rollin d id not understand English \vell; so that a most amusing quid pro quo occurred-Ledru-Rollin thought that Buchanan was speaking of himself, and with a French effusion de reconnaissance started to thank him, and held out his huge hand to him
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across the table. Buchanan accepted the thanks and the hand and, with the imperturbable coolness in difficult circumstances with which Englishmen and Americans go down with their ship or lose half their fortune, observed to him, 'I think this is a mistake; it was not I who thought so: it was one of my best friends in New York.'
The festal evening ended when, late at night, after Buchanan left, and when Kossuth did not think it possible to remain any longer, and went away with his Minister without Portfolio, the consul began begging us to go back into the dining-room, where he wished to make for us with his own hands an American punch of old Kentucky whisky. vVhat was more, Saunders wanted to compensate himself there for the absence at dinner of vehement toasts to the future universal (white) republic, which the cautious Buchanan must have forbidden. At dinner we had drunk to the health of two or three of the guests and Saunders, without speeches.
While he was burning some alcohol and seeing to the flavouring, seasoning and spicing, he proposed a ceremonial singing of the Marseillaise in chorus. It proved that only Worcell knew the tune properly, but he had an extinction of the voice, and Mazzini knew it slightly-so the American Mrs Saunders had to be summoned, and she played the Marseillaise on the guitar.
Meanwhile her spouse, having finished his concoction, tried it, was pleased with it and poured us out big teacups. With no thought of danger I took a big mouthful, and for a minute I could not draw breath. When I had recovered, and saw that Ledru-Rollin was preparing to gulp it just as eagerly, I stopped him with the words :
'If life i s dear t o you, approach the Kentucky refreshment with more circumspection: I am a Russian, and even so I've scorched my palate, my throat and my whole alimentary canaclass="underline" \vhat will happen to you? Punch in Kentucky must be made from red pepper with an infusion of oil of vitriol.'
The American smiled ironically, rejoicing at the feebleness of Europeans. I, having followed from my youth in the footsteps of Mithridates, was the only one vvho held out my empty cup and asked for more. The chemical affinity with alcohol raised me terribly high in the consul's eyes.
'Yes, yes,' he said: 'it's only in America and Russia that people know how to drink.'
'\\'ell,' I thought, 'there is an even more flattering affinity: it's only in America and Russia that they know how to flog serfs to death.'
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With punch, then, of 70 degrees there came to an end this dinner, which did more harm to the blood of German foll iculaires than it did to the stomachs of the diners.
The transatlantic dinner was followed by the venture of an International Committee-the last endeavour of the Chartists and exiles to declare, with united power, their mode of life and their alliance. The idea of this committee came from Ernest Jones. He wanted to revivify Chartism, which was decrepit, considering its age, by bringing together the English workers and French socialists. The public enactment of this entente cordiale was to be a political meeting in memory of 24th February, 1 848.
The International Committee elected me a member, among a dozen others, and asked me to make a speech about Russia. I thanked them for their letter and declined to make a speech.
The matter would have rested there if Marx and Golovin had not compelled me to spite them by appearing on the platform at St Martin's Hall. I X
To begin with Jonr•s n�ceived a lettl'r from some German protesting against the choice of me. HP wrote that I was a known panslavist, that I had written of the necessity for conquering Vienna, which I called the Slavonic capital, and that I preached the serfdom of Russia as an ideal for an agricultural population.
In all this he relied on my letters to Linton (La Russic et le vieuz monde) . Jones threw the patriotic slander away and paid no attention.
But this letter was only a reconnaissance patrol. At the next meeting Marx declared that he considered my election inconsistent with the object of the committee and proposed that it should be quashed. Jones remarked that this was not as easy as he thought; that the committee, \vhich had elected a person who had expressed no desire to be a member, and had communicated to him his official election, could not alter its decision at the wish of one member; let Marx make his accusations formally and submit them for the consideration of the committee.