had in fact by chance caught the aftermath of the insurrection of 1 Prairial
(20 May 1795) against the Thermidorians when they had arrived in the
capital, and were there when the six deputies sympathetic to Jacobinism
who had supported the insurgents were condemned to the guillotine.
Throughout June and July 1795 while his passion burned incandescent for Germaine,
or ‘Minette’ as he came to call her, she continued to say no. He was visited by Juste who
was looking for ways of being rehabilitated in Holland, and again wrote documents to
help him in his cause.^22 But French politics was now Constant’s obsession and he lost no
time in publishing three ‘letters to a Convention deputy’, Lettres à un député de la
Convention in Suard’s journal, the Nouvelles politiques, of 24, 25 and 26 June 1795,
denouncing the Convention for its recent actions.^23 The letters caused a considerable stir
and his father and friends feared that his rashness might put him in gaol. The Convention
was meanwhile busy drawing up a new Constitution to consolidate the Republic: there
was even talk in some quarters of reviving the monarchy in some form. This was indeed a
momentous and exciting time for Constant to be in Paris, but there was a price to pay. His
friend the former émigré Camille de Malarmey de Roussillon, brother of Pierre, visited
Constant and Germaine and reported what he had seen to Isabelle de Charrière on 11
July, perhaps with mocking echoes of Germaine’s way of speaking. He had been present
the previous evening at ‘the Delightful One’s home’, (‘chez la délicieuse’, i.e. Madame
de Staël) when a long and animated discussion had taken place between her and
Constant:
The love of liberty has not diminished in the Lover’s [Constant’s]
heart and he loves liberty to nearly the same extent that he loves his
adored Royalist divinity [Germaine], but whom he will not adore
for long—the dear young boy! (for he is truly lovable as long as he
is seen when he has a lot of other people with him....) The salon of
the Embassy [home of Germaine’s husband] suits him much better
than the little study at Colombier.... If he spent only two hours a
day in the salon, it would be an excellent study for him, but
unfortunately he spends eighteen hours a day there. All he does is
live in the salon, and the salon tires him, he can’t stand it any more.
His health is deteriorating and his body which was already
painfully thin is beginning to suffer. With that height of his he had
suddenly begun to look elegant, but once again he is beginning to
stoop in the manner that Mademoiselle Moula caught so well [in a
silhouette of him made in 1792]. His forehead is covered in
pimples. He says he’s thinking of withrawing from society
completely. He longs for the sweet solitude of Germany.^24On 24 July Constant wrote an article for Le Républicain français hostile to
the reactionary elements among the émigrés, urging all Frenchmen to rally
to the support of the Republic and to stand by the present government,
Benjamin constant 158