In the same apartment on the rue des Batailles, whose salon I described using Balzac's own words, I recall having seen a magnificent sketch of Louis Boulanger after a bas-relief of Léda and the Swan attributed to Michelangelo. It was the only picture that it contained, because the author of La Comédie Humaine did not yet have the taste for paintings and curiosities that he would later develop, and his luxury then, as we have seen, consisted more of sumptuousness than of art. His painter was Girodet. Some of his first stories show the influence of this admiration which led me to tease him with jibes that he accepted with good grace. IV One of the dreams of Balzac was of a heroic and devoted friendship, two souls, two courages, two intelligences blended into the same will. Pierre and Jaffier of Otway's Venice Preserv'd had impressed him greatly and he spoke of them many times. L'Histoire des Treize is nothing but this idea enlarged and complicated: one powerful unit composed of multiple beings acting unquestioningly toward an accepted and suitable goal. We know what gripping, mysterious and terrible effects he has drawn from this starting point in Ferragus, La Duchesse de Langeais, and La Fille aux Yeux d'Or; but real life and the intellectual life were not as clearly separated for Balzac as they were for certain authors, and his creations followed him outside of his study. He wanted to form an association after the fashion of that which united Ferragus, Montriveau, Ronquerolles, and their companions. Only it was not done in such bold strokes; a certain number of friends were to lend each other aid and relief at all times, and to work according to their strengths for the success or the fortune of the individual who would be selected, with the understanding that that person should in turn work for the others. Very much infatuated with his project, Balzac recruited some associates whom he put in contact with each other but took precautions as if it were a political society or a meeting of Carbonari. This needless mystery amused him considerably, and he pursued his activities with the utmost seriousness. When their numbers were complete, he assembled the adepts and made known the goal of the society. It need not be said that everyone was in agreement, and that the statutes were approved with enthusiasm. No one more than Balzac possessed the ability to agitate, to overexcite, to intoxicate the coolest heads, the most considered intellects. He had an eloquence that was overflowing, tumultuous, rousing, that carried you off: no objection was possible with him; he would immediately drown you in such a deluge of words that you were compelled to be silent. Besides he had an answer for everything; then he would cast upon you glances that were so sharp, so brilliant, so full of a mysterious power that he would infuse you with his own desire.