He wrote to Madame Hanska, at each of the stopping-places during his tiring overland journey back to France, and describes vividly the miserable, jolting journey through Livonia, where the carriage road was marked out by boughs thrown down in the midst of a sandy plain, and all around was depressing poverty and desolation. Berlin, peopled with Germans of "brutal heaviness," he detested, and he loathed the society dinner parties, with no conversation--nothing but tittle-tattle and Court gossip; and complained of the trains, which travelled he said no quicker than a French diligence. Nevertheless, in contrast to Russia, the great _voyant_ was struck with the air of "liberte de moeurs" which prevailed throughout Germany. He liked Dresden, and enjoyed his visit to its picture gallery, where he especially admired a Madeleine and two Virgins by Correggio, as well as two by Raphael, one of them presumably the San Sisto Madonna. The gem of the whole collection, however, in his opinion, was Holbein's Madonna; and he longed to have Madame Hanska's hand in his while he gazed at it. As he was away from her, he was very restless, and soon tired of all he saw. He longed to be back in Paris, and to find distraction in his work. "Think of my trouble, my sadness, and my sorrow, and you will be full of pity and of indulgence for the poor exile,"[*] he writes. [*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere." CHAPTER XIII 1843 - 1846 Pamela Giraud--Balzac again attempts to become member of the Academie Francaise--Mlle. Henriette Borel's reception into a religious house--Comte Georges Mniszech--"Les Paysans" started in _La Presse_--Madame Hanska's unreasonableness hinders Balzac's work--He travels with her and her daughter, and they return with him to Passy--Comtesse Anna engaged to Comte Georges Mniszech --Balzac takes Madame Hanska and her daughter to Brussels--He meets Madame Hanska at Baden-Baden--Leaves Paris again, meets Wierzchownia party at Naples--Buys bric-a-brac for future home --Work neglected--Dispute with Emile de Girardin--Balzac's unhappiness and suspense--He goes to Rome--Comes back better in health and spirits--"La Cousine Bette" and "Le Cousin Pons" --Balzac goes to Wiesbaden--Marriage of Comtesse Anna and Comte Georges Mniszech--Balzac and Madame Hanska secretly engaged --Parisian gossip.