Benjamin Constant

and behaving like a mother (a role which of course befitted her years), and a possessive
mother at that. Isabelle’s tragedy was that, at her age and in the isolated backwater of
Colombier where she lived, she had come to need this brilliant young man and his letters
much more than he needed her. Constant, despite his air of fragility, was far tougher than
her in every sense: any contest between them was bound to be unequal. And there was
too an underlying psychological difficulty in Constant which made a clinging, stifling or
constraining relationship with a woman bring out his aggression.
The rift had now been mended and reopened several times between Constant and
Isabelle: each time resentment and hatred had surfaced in both of them. It is hardly
surprising that, whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation, Constant was ready for
something different, for a new friendship with Germaine de Staël and the new beginning
it seemed to offer. He told Isabelle in a bitter ending to a letter: ‘Even the mirage of
literary fame that you went out of your way to rid my mind of has now returned and
brightens the future for me’ (letter of 26 September 1794).^9 He went to Coppet on 26
September to see Germaine de Staël again: she had left but he caught up with her,
travelled in her coach to Nyon, and spent the next day and a half with her. He wrote to
Isabelle on 30 September:

I have watched her and above all listened to her carefully. It seems

to me that you judge her somewhat severely. I think she does too

much, is very imprudent and very talkative, but she is also kind,

trusting and genuinely open. Proof that she is not simply a talking

machine is to be found in the concern she shows for the people she

has known and who are suffering. She has just succeeded, after

three costly failed attempts, in saving from prison and smuggling

out of France a woman who had been her enemy in Paris.... That’s

more than just talk. I think all the things she involves herself in

satisfies a need in her as much as it is meritorious action. But she

puts that need to work in doing good for others.... I have no plans

to have a closer relationship with her: she is too surrounded by

people, too busy, too absorbed in her various activities for that. But

she is the most interesting acquaintance I’ve made in a long time....

It’s astonishing to hear Madame de Staehl [sic] saying exactly the

same things as you on politics, word for word.^10

During October Constant showed Germaine de Staël his work on religion,

the enterprise that he thought the most worthwhile thing in his life. She

praised him for it, telling her lover Ribbing on 22 October that she

considered Constant to have the talent of a Montesquieu.
11
His prodigious

erudition and ability to deal with complex metaphysical problems
impressed her enormously—and he made her laugh a great deal into the

bargain. But this was not enough for Constant who, by early October, was

head over heels in love with her and wanted Germaine to feel the same.

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