MY MEMOIRS ALEXANDRE DUMAS TRANSLATED BY E. M. WALLER WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW LANG. VOL. II 1822 TO 1825 WITH A FRONTISPIECE METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON CONTENTS BOOK I CHAPTER I An unpublished chapter from the _Diable boiteux_--History of Samud and the beautiful Doña Lorenza CHAPTER II The good my flouting at the hands of the two Parisians had done me--The young girls of Villers-Cotterets--My three friends-- First love affairs CHAPTER III Adolphe de Leuven--His family--Unpublished details concerning the death of Gustavus III.--The Count de Ribbing--The shoemakers of the château de Villers-Hellon CHAPTER IV Adolphe's quatrain--The water-hen and King William--Lunch in the wood--The irritant powder, the frogs and the cock--The doctor's spectre--De Leuven, Hippolyte Leroy and I are exiled from the drawing-room--Unfortunate result of a geographical error--M. Paroisse CHAPTER V Amédée de la Ponce--He teaches me what work is--M. Arnault and his two sons--A journey by diligence--A gentleman fights me with cough lozenges and I fight him with my fists--I learn the danger from which I escaped CHAPTER VI First dramatic impressions--The _Hamlet of Ducis_--_The Bourbons en 1815_--Quotations from it CHAPTER VII The events of 1814 again--Marmont, Duc de Raguse, Maubreuil and Roux-Laborie at M. de Talleyrand's--The _Journal des Débats_ and the _Journal de Paris_--Lyrics of the Bonapartists and enthusiasm of the Bourbons--End of the Maubreuil affair--Plot against the life of the Emperor--The Queen of Westphalia is robbed of her money and jewels 63 CHAPTER VIII Account of the proceedings relative to the abstraction of the jewels of the Queen of Westphalia by the Sieur de Maubreuil--Chamber of the Court of Appeal--The sitting of 17 April, 1817 BOOK II CHAPTER I The last shot of Waterloo--Temper of the provinces in 1817, 1818 and 1819--The _Messéniennes_--The _Vêpres siciliennes--Louis IX._--Appreciation of these two tragedies--A phrase of Terence--My claim to a similar sentiment--Three o'clock in the morning--The course of love-making--_Valeat res ludrica_ CHAPTER II Return of Adolphe de Leuven--He shows me a corner of the artistic and literary world--The death of Holbein and the death of Orcagna--Entrance into the green-rooms--Bürger's _Lénore_ --First thoughts of my vocation CHAPTER III The Cerberus of the rue de Largny--I tame it--The ambush-- Madame Lebègue--A confession CHAPTER IV De Leuven makes me his collaborator--The _Major de Strasbourg_-- My first _couplet-Chauvin_--The _Dîner d'amis_--The _Abencérages_ CHAPTER V