THE EXILE
contempt for the ‘trashiness’ o f Pierre-Joseph’s taste in furniture;
‘Can a man do nothing to please a woman in household affairs ?’
he complained ruefully, and from his descriptions of the situation
one gains the impression that he was not so completely the
patriarchal master o f the home as his theories might lead one to
suppose. Euphrasie, who never read his books or took the least
interest in his intellectual life, had evidently attained, during the
years o f their marriage, a considerable independence in domestic
matters.
In other respects her attitude on reaching Brussels was better
than he had feared, for she was ‘pleased with the town, the
district and the apartment.’ A ll in all, Proudhon himself was
happier than he had been at any time since he left Paris, and it
was almost with glee that he described to his friends the chaos
o f moving into a new existence. ‘A ll my books in piles, my papers
pell mell, total anarchy!’ His satisfaction was complete when he
found, three hundred yards from his house, a school called the
Institution o f Fathers o f Families, to which he could send his
children without any fear o f the taint o f clerical influence.3
The re-establishment o f his household completed Proudhon’s
reconciliation to Brussels. ‘I think no more of leaving,’ he assured
Maurice comfortably in mid-December. ‘I am too old to run
about the world, and I stay where I am.’ But, though this situation
was at first a great stimulus to his plans, the beginning of 1859
brought new misfortunes in the form o f a revival o f his old
nervous ailment. For a fortnight he was unable to sleep; for
more than a month he had to spend his nights upright in a chair.
‘I am out o f luck, and the worst o f it is that I am running into
debt,’ he complained. Only in April could he resume work, and
then only very slowly.
Yet even at the height o f his illness he was acutely concerned
with the questions thrust upon him by the Italian war. He
recognised that Napoleon intended to enter the struggle
against Austria, not to serve Italian freedom, but to save his own
despotism from collapse. War was actually declared between
France and Austria at the end of April, 1859, anc^ Proudhon
nailed the appearance o f Napoleon III as the champion o f Italian