Part Eight

THE STRICKEN YEARS

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H E enormous grandeur of Paris always strikes anyone who,
after having left it, returns again from a large town like
Lyons, Brussels, etc. It is like Notre Dame compared to a village
church.’ So Proudhon expressed the effect o f returning. out of
exile, and in a long letter to Euphrasie he dilated on the improve­
ments o f French living since 1858 and extolled the Bois de
Boulogne and the walks at Passy, where he had gone to visit
Antoine Gauthier, now a resident of Paris. There had also been
gratifying reunions with other friends— Rolland and Beslay, Dari-
mon and Cretin and Chaudey, and Proudhon was already suggest­
ing that the family’s removal from Brussels might take place
sooner than he had anticipated.
Any indecision he may have had on this point was resolved by
the actions o f Lebeque, who was scared by the continued Press
campaigns against Proudhon in Belgium, and published a note in
UOffice de la Publicite renouncing any further collaboration be­
tween them. Upon hearing o f this, Proudhon resolved to remain
in France. ‘It is useless to turn back,’ he told Euphrasie. ‘Even
though I do not believe there will be any further outrage, I do
not wish to remain longer in Belgium. Either they would con­