rather shabbily on occasion in the process, now had a clearly identifiable
enemy and the solid conviction of having right on his side. The Tribunate
was his natural element: like an actor who has found exactly the right role,
he was in character at last. And that role brought out the very best in him,
both in eloquence and bravery. He wrote to his uncle Samuel on 20
January 1800: ‘Whatever fate may have in store for us, we must serve the
cause of freedom to the very end.... To follow one’s conscience and be
answerable to it alone is the only way not to be eaten up by uncertainty.’
94
He was visited during early March at the Tribunate by Isabelle de
Charrière’s nephew, the Dutchman Willem-René van Tuyll van
Serooskerken, who reported back to her favourably. Her reply to him on 8
June 1800 was stern as well as being perceptive:
Constant was fine when you saw him, from the little you saw of
him, but elsewhere than in Paris, here, with me, you would see him
as he really was. He is a true chameleon, without ever wishing to
be one—although he is not without being aware of the fact, because
he is surprised when he notices he’s changed his position, having
completely forgotten what he was like just a few days before. That
is how he has often forgotten both me and Colombier when he was
with Madame de Staël.^95Constant no longer needed to put up with the habitual sniping of Madame
de Charrière, now in her sixtieth year: he had the backing not only of
Germaine but also of a truly sympathetic friend, Julie Talma, who wrote to
him on 6 March 1800:
Each time I read a new work by you, I have the feeling that your
remarkable talent has found in my own heart everything that it
expresses so well. That is because it is the natural vehicle of
expression for every truly republican heart. I consider you to be the
voice and mind of the Republic.... Having read your work
carefully, and seeing all the friends and all the enemies it will make
for you, I think you very fortunate.^96The work Julie was now reading in manuscript was the Principes de
politique (Principles of Politics), a summa of Constant’s political thought
up to this point in his life on which he worked from early 1800 to April
- 97
The political climate was meanwhile growing consistently more antipathetic to all of
Constant’s most cherished ideals. By the military victory of Marengo (14 June 1800)
Benjamin constant 172