Gautier de Tournes (1755–1828), by coincidence a relative of Madame de Staël.^16 The
sect, which followed the writings of Madame Guyon (1648–1717), the French mystic,
rejected religious dogmas and sought peace of mind through bringing the believer into
harmony with God’s wishes. Constant took an interest in the circle, to which his cousin
Lisette, Samuel’s daughter, belonged, both on account of his still uncompleted book on
religion, but also because of the Gelassenheit or tranquility of mind (akin to that of the
German mystics), the calm fatalism, passivity and openness to the will of God it
encouraged in its members. Here indeed, to use one of Constant’s favourite images, one
could ‘sleep sound in one’s boat in the middle of a storm’. No doubt because he came
across it at this particular troubled moment in his life, the philosophy touched a chord in
his heart, and in years to come his interest in the Mystiques or Ames intérieures was to
deepen, as the so-called ‘quietistic episode’ in Cécile makes clear.^17 On 21 August, after
talking to Langalerie, he noted in his diary ‘I am very struck by this new way of
thinking’.^18 Although he was never in any sense ‘converted’, he could write to his aunt
Anne de Nassau on 20 April 1813, on learning that Langalerie was ill again:
I’m really sorry to hear about the Chevalier de Langalerie’s relapse.
It’s one intelligent man less in the world—or it will be; a man who
had very original ideas on interesting subjects and a very
persuasive way of expressing them. In the last analysis his system
of belief is something each individual alone must judge for himself;
but it has a comforting side to it and, at certain moments, does
one’s soul good.^19Indeed in September 1815, during another crisis in his life caused by his
love for Madame Récamier, he was to know comparable moments of
mystical exaltation under the guidance of the Russian Madame de
Krüdener.
Charlotte’s continued absence in Germany left Constant with the ever more possessive
Madame de Staël demanding—and getting, it seems—conjugal rights once more.
Constant remarks somewhat pathetically in his diary on 13 October: The life I lead here
[at Coppet] and the enforced extra 1 [ = sex] will end up killing me or driving me mad.’^20
(The next day he adds: ‘I must have grown older, I never felt this tired before’.^21 ) He
began to worry about Charlotte’s safety in Germany after Prosper de Barante arrived
bringing horrific stories from the battlefields of Europe where he had spent some time as
an observer, all of which confirmed Constant in his detestation of ‘the monster’, that is
Napoleon. Perhaps to maintain some link with Germany, he began a major literary
project in September 1807, a verse translation/adaptation of Schiller’s long drama
Wallenstein, a task with which he persevered until November, giving readings from it and
feeling justly proud of his achievement.^22 Yet still he longed for Charlotte and felt guilty
whether he stayed or contemplated leaving Coppet. He put the contrast succinctly in his
journal on 6 October 1807:
Italiam 199