[.35 



The Book of the Month. 



THE MEMOIRS OF MADAME STEINHEIL. 



THIS book is a remarkable one, first because it 

 deals with one of the most sensational of causes 

 cel'ebres of recent years, and, secondly, because 

 it gives to the world one of the most striking examples 

 of introspecti\p. soul-searching autobiography. A\'hnc 

 it is certain ti.at the majorit}- will turn cither to the 

 pages dealing 

 with the crime 

 of the Impasse 

 Ronsin or the 

 subsequent trial, 

 glancing en />as- 

 saiit at the pages 

 dealing with 

 President Faure, 

 there can be no 

 question but 

 that the earlier 

 part of the book 

 will be remem- 

 bered when the 

 later pages, the 

 police-court 

 news on the 

 higher plane, 

 will have been 

 forgotten. How 

 many admirers 

 of the poem com- 

 mencing " Stone 

 walls do not a 

 prison make " 

 care about the 

 trial and im- 

 prisonment of 

 Lovelace ? The 

 only interest at- 

 taching to the 

 crime and trial 

 of Ma d a m e 

 Steinhcil in this 

 book is that 

 without having 

 undergone these 

 she could never 

 have written her 

 earlier memoirs 

 as she lias done. 

 It was the .^5.-; 

 days in a noisome 



* "My .Memoirs, ' 

 by Mar(;urrili- 

 Stcinheil. (Nasli. 

 los. 6(1. net.) 



J'htti^gm*^ fy] 



Madame Steinhcil, 



prison, tormented by interrogatories, dreading still 

 fresh questions, that forced this woman, who from 

 her youth up had been accustomed to attract and 

 fascinate, to become introspective, to search the cells 

 of her memory in order to leave no possibility of a 

 surprise question finding her unprepared. As she lay 



sleepless in her 

 cell she was 

 thinking — think- 

 ing first of the 

 great events of 

 the red - letter 

 days of her life, 

 and while these 

 were passing be- 

 fore her mental 

 vision, chance 

 stories, casual 

 incidents of the 

 past became 

 known to her 

 again, never to 

 be forgotten 

 while she lives. 



IN PRISON CELL. 



Think a mo- 

 ment of this erst- 

 while ■' Queen of 

 Paris," later to 

 lie branded the 

 " Black Panther" 

 by that fierce old 

 hater, Rochefort, 

 confined for 

 nearly a year in 

 a cell of which 

 she gives this de- 

 scription of her 

 first impres- 

 sion : — 



I saw llic slabs of 

 llic floor, ihe dirl, 

 the iloor with Ihc 

 peephole, lliroiigli 

 which, .-xfler liftiiij; 

 a small \voo<len 

 shutter, people from 

 I he oulsiile coiiM see 

 what w.-iii ffimg on 

 ill the cell, the iron 

 liedsleail with the 

 iout;li straw mat- 

 itesses, the pillow 

 hlled with drietl 

 sen-weed, and the 

 sheets made of wine 



(//.irrii, l.ld. 



