After the performance there was a general promenade
in the galleries, which were lighted up brilliantly.
I lay claim to two good ideas, which came to me during
the evening. The first was to plague the King
and the ministers to such an extent, after the act
out of Robert le Diable, that Meyerbeer, whom I fetched,
was then and there nominated an officer of the Legion
of Honour, a commonplace distinction enough nowadays,
but which at that time was very exceptional.
The second was to ask the King, also, if he would
graciously permit the artists who had taken part in
the performance to join the guests in the promenade
in the galleries. Of this permission I was myself
the bearer, and I naturally extended it to the corps
de ballet. When all these young ladies in their
morning dress, and many of them bandbox in hand, appeared
walking about amongst the gaily bedizened folk, some
of the fine ladies turned up their noses. But
the medley was a charming one, nevertheless.
1837-1838
After the wedding festivities I went back to sea,
a lieutenant still, on board the Hercule, 100 guns—Captain
Casy. Captain, petty officers, crew, all hands
in fact save a few officers, were Provencal. Before
a week was out I caught myself talking with their
accent!
We were bound for South America Gibraltar was our
first port, and our reception by the governor, Sir
Alexander Woodford, Lady Woodford, and their charming
children was of the kindest. I have a recollection
of it which I treasure all the more in that later
in the day I had to do with another governor with
whom I had no cause at all to be satisfied. From
Gibraltar we went to Tangier, the Moorish town I was
to bombard some years afterwards, but where on this
occasion I fought with wild boars only under the guidance
of that first-class sportsman, Mr. Drummond Hay.
The beauty of the eyes and colouring and the originality
of the costume of the Jewish girls at Tangier delighted
me, but not to the extent of chasing a certain melancholy
from my heart, which had clung about it ever since
the beginning of my cruise, through the long night
watches, and even amidst the amusements of our stays
in port. I was thinking of her! There
always is a her when one is only twenty!
After Tangier the ship stopped at Santa Cruz in Teneriffe,
to take in water, and during this operation I organized
a scientific expedition to the famous Peak of Teneriffe,
which is nearly twelve thousand feet high, and from
which my professor M. Pouillet had asked me to take
some scientific observations. My brother officer,
Rigaud de Genouilly, one of the ship’s lieutenants,
accompanied me. After two days climbing and bivouacking
for one night at a great height, we were only about
five or six hundred feet or so from the summit, when
we were caught up by a messenger bringing us the captain’s
orders to get back as fast as we could. A despatch
