The Preparation of the Memoirs--Aid Rendered by Family and Friends--The Judgment--Beaumarchais _Blâmé_--Enters the Secret Service of the King--Gudin Relates the Circumstances of the Meeting between the Civilly Degraded Man and Her Who Became His Third Wife--The Père Caron’s Third Marriage. But while public opinion was expressing itself so loudly in his favor, the situation of Beaumarchais was in reality cruel in the extreme. The breaking up of his household had necessitated the separation of the members of his family. His father went to board with an old friend, while Julie retired temporarily to a convent. The two sisters whose acquaintance we made while Beaumarchais was in Madrid, had returned to France, the elder a widow with two children. All of these were dependent upon the generosity of the brother and uncle. Madame de Miron, the youngest sister, had died during the same year, so that it was at the home of the next to the oldest member of the family, Madame Lépine, that the family reunions were held. M. de Loménie has drawn an admirable picture of these gatherings, where eager and devoted friends met to discuss, suggest, and criticise with Beaumarchais the composition of his memoirs. He says: “His coadjutors are his relatives and nearest friends. First of all it is the elder Caron, who with his seventy-five years of experience, gives his advice about the memoirs of his son. It is Julie, whose literary aptitudes we are already acquainted with. It is M. de Miron, the brother-in-law of Beaumarchais, _homme d’esprit_, of whom we have spoken elsewhere, who furnishes notes for the satirical parts; it is Gudin, who very strong in ancient history, aids in composing several erudite portions and whose heavy and pale prose grows supple and takes color under the pen of his friend. It is a young and very distinguished lawyer named Falconnet who superintends the drawing up by the author of parts where it is as a question of law. It is at last a medical doctor from the Provence, named Gardanne, who especially directs the dissection of the _Provençaux_ his compatriots, Marin and Bertrand.” This is the little phalanx that Madame Goëzman, in her memoirs, calls a “_clique infame_” and which the _grand Bertrand_, less ferocious and more reasonable names simply, _la bande joyeuse_. [Illustration: Figaro]