536 



The Review of Reviews. 



yellowish nial.-rial tli:il looked liUo sail-clolli. I siw the boards 

 fastened inlo ihe wall above each bed, the small stere, the heap 

 of coal in a corner, a few yellowish earthenware bowls and jugs 

 and blunt Unives on a rickety table. I saw the walls covered 

 with tar, vermin crawling about the cracks and hollows in the 

 slabs, around the little puddles of muddy, evil-smelling water, 

 the rough-hewn, uneven joists of the dark ceiling, from which 

 hung thick webs. 



The Madame Steinheil, to whose salon le tout Paris 

 had flocked, who made and unmade Ministers and 

 judges, had become No. 16170, or 61 for short, at the 

 mercy of the brutal methods of the examining 

 magistrates, and never free from the sounds of the 

 lowest of prison neighbours. How her memory must 

 have been her solace, her only safeguard from insanity ! 

 And thinking of those 353 days, we do not wonder 

 that during the eleven days of her trial she always 

 remained standing until requested by the judge to be 

 seated, so that she might hear him address her as 

 " Madame " ! So grateful was she for this crumb of 

 respect, she who had feasted with the great and who 

 had for months be;n the uncrowned ruler of France ! 

 -She was tried: she was acquitted : the mystery of the 

 slaughter of Madame Steinheil's mother and husband 

 was left unsoh-ed ; but to Madame Steinheil had been 

 revealed that greatest of all mysteries to all of us, the 

 past — that dim, nebulous vista into the unknown 

 regions of childhood. These memoirs are a human 

 document of great value, a psychological result for 

 which there are to be found few parallels. In this 

 review we propose to leave absolutely on one side 

 that part of the book which, fit .subject for a 

 Ciaboriau or a Wilkie Collins, deals with the crime 

 of the Impasse Ronsin. 



HER EARLY LIFE. 



Passing rapidly over the chikiliood of Madame Stein- 

 heil. we note only that she was born in 1869 at Beau- 

 <ort,near the German frontier, and that while her father 

 was of good fainily, her mother was the daughter of 

 an innkeeper. It is undoubtedly from this peasant 

 parent that came the dogged courage and refusal to 

 suct-umb which astounded everyone during the trial. 

 The girl received an excellent education, her father 

 ilc\oting himself to the task : — 



.My father began to teach mc the violin when I was four, 

 and the piano and the organ the following year. lie had his 

 iwn ideas on the education of girls, but .ajiplied them to nie 

 mly. When I was a mere child he taught me to bow, to 

 arrange flowers, and to recognise and appreciate things beauti- 

 ful, ancient, or rare — old furniture, old tapestries, old china, 

 old pewter. He showed me the hall-marks on silver, he made 

 me caress cameos and enamel-work, and touch embroideries and 

 old lace reverently. He made inc go up and down a staircase 

 ten, twenty times in succession ; " Vou see, darling, anyone 

 can go downstairs without being ridiculous, but to go up a 

 -i.iircase, that's another matter," 



A FIRST LOVE AFFAIR. 



There was much company, and, after her dShul at 

 the age of seventeen. Mile. Japy was sought by many 

 in marriage. .\ first love affair with a lieutenant 

 I amc to nothing, because " I was too }oung, he was 

 loo poor." After the ending o( this romance the 



lieutenant disappeared from her life until the trial, 

 when he came to give witness. Madame Steinheil 

 thus describes this tragic return : — 



Then there enters a man with military bearing, whom I can 

 hardly recognise, but whose voice, when he takes the oath, 

 sends a thrill through my broken frame. I recognise him 

 now. . . It is ShelTer, the friend of my youth, my fiance for a 

 few months, my first love . . . over twenty years ago I Tears 

 come into my eyes, and I hide my head between my hands. . . 

 Beaucort ! . . . My beloved father. . . The avenue of chestnut 

 trees . . . our meetings . . . our charming, innocent idyll. M. 

 Sheffer, softly, sadly, tells the story of our beautiful, our sweet 

 romance. . . 1 was eighteen then, and the happiest girl on earth, 

 with a devoted mother and the best of all fathers. . . And the 

 young lieutenant loved me, and I loved him. . . Life was beau- 

 tiful, and the future smiled on me. . . And there stands my 

 fiance ... I have not seen him for over twenty years. 



MARRIAGE. 



Afterwards there came into her life M. Steinheil. 

 a young artist, nephew of Meissonier, and the acquaint- 

 ance culminated in a marriage, little distinguished by 

 affection on either side. A move was made to Paris, 

 where the early days of the married couple were 

 embittered by the presence of M. Steinheil's sister, 

 who ruled the household. A daughter was born, to 

 the joy of Madame Steinheil, and shortly after, 

 abandoning her first idea of divorce, the menace 

 continued on a basis of mutual tolerance, all con- 

 tentious questions being dealt with by letters ! 



MADAME steinheil's SALON. 



Now began the brilliant period of Madame Steinheil's 

 life, when she possessed a salon and knew what is 

 usually called le tout Paris : — 



I entertained a great deal, gave parties, concerts, dinners. 

 I held a reception once a week, and between two and 

 seven, three to four hundred persons would pass through 

 the salons of the villa in the Impasse Ronsin. There came 

 statesmen and diplomatists, famous authors and famous com- 

 posers, generals and admirals, scientists and officials, busines-; 

 magnates and great financiers, state councillors, explorers, men 

 with historic names, men who were making names for themselves, 

 and judges — a whole body of judges . . . The Parisian life, 

 brilliant and exhausting, strenuous and artificial, was above all 

 intoxicating, and I needed such intoxication . . . The wit, 

 the culture, the taste, the flights of fancv of so many men and 

 women around me, their enthusiasms, their sympathy, their 

 conversations, their qualities, and even their defects, became 

 necessary to mc. 



I took a p.issionate interest in people, in things, in events ; 

 I studied music, art, even politics, and my life from that time 

 belonged to my daughter and to society, 



WHY THE SALON SUCCEEDED. 



The .success of the salo}t was not only based upon 

 the attraction of Madame Steinheil, but upon her 

 encouragement of the ideas and ideals of all who 

 came : — 



Many foreigners came to the Impasse Uonsin, but I fouml 

 that the French had the most enthusiasin, sponl.aneity, and 

 nriginalily of thought. My fiiiiids said wdiat they meant and 

 meant what they said, and what is more, they had ideas 

 and knew how to think things out and express themselves. I 

 cn,-;our.aged the explorer to speak of his travels, the ofiicer of 

 the army of his men, the artist of art, the Lawyer to talk of 

 interesting cases, the scientist to describe his latest researches or 

 discoveries. 



From the President of the Re|)ublic to Camille 



