Constant’s punishment was to be obliged to spend the summer with Germaine; only
then, after three months, could he return to his wife: those were Madame de Staël’s terms.
He would be forced to witness Germaine’s near-suicidal grief and fury while Charlotte
was required to withdraw as far away as possible, preferably back into the depths of
Germany. Yet again Germaine had achieved a kind of victory. All she had to do now was
quietly drop the idea of going to America and she could prolong her hold over Constant
indefinitely. But Charlotte had her pride too, and despite her husband’s pleading with her
to leave Switzerland for fear of angering Germaine still further, she stayed on at
Sécheron: Madame de Staël might be able to browbeat and bully Constant, but Charlotte
need have none of it. From 13 May 1809 Constant was resident at Coppet again, and
eventually Charlotte decided—but in her own good time—to return to Brevans. In early
June Madame de Staël left for Lyon to see the great Talma act in Hamlet: Constant
slipped away to see his wife in secret, but was then summoned to join Madame de Staël
in Lyon, and meekly left. The courageous Charlotte, unintimidated by la dame de
Coppet, her court or her renowned eloquence in vituperation, and never afraid of looking
ridiculous, arrived at the Hôtel du Parc where they were staying and asked for her
husband back—to the great embarrassment of that husband who immediately ordered her
to return to her lodgings. It seemed to Charlotte that she had lost him for good, and she
thereupon decided to take her own life the same day, 9 June 1809, sending him a letter
explaining why:
You have abandoned me; this did not come from your heart, your
heart is probably broken too by what you have done. I am more
sorry for you than for myself. I love you. I am, I think, the only
woman in the world who has ever really loved you. The woman
who has caused my death is hard, and only capable of feeling what
she calls humiliation. The only pain I feel now is my pain at
leaving you. Pray that God may forgive me. Before I die, I shall
pray for you, for my dear son, for the good Du Tertre who will
grieve when he learns of my death. Endure what you still have to
suffer on this earth.^40Constant and Germaine rushed across to Charlotte’s hotel and found her
writhing in pain, having probably taken poison. She recovered in a few
days and was sent to Paris. Constant accompanied her there but promised
to return to Coppet to serve out the rest of his three-month ‘sentence’
under the terms of the extraordinary agreement of 8–9 May. He had in any
case left his irreplaceable manuscripts at Coppet at the mercy of a possibly
vengeful woman. Thus, having arrived in Paris around 15 June 1809, he
was already on the road back to Switzerland by 24 June.
During Constant’s enforced residence at Coppet from late June to 19 October 1809 he
began surreptitiously sending his precious manuscripts off in batches for safe-keeping to
his aunt, Madame de Nassau. He knew an exceptionally turbulent period lay ahead of
him: Juste had informed the rest of the Constant clan of his son’s marriage. News of
Benjamin constant 204