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I was strongly opposed to this course, and at last I prevailed upon my husband to abandon it by representing that he was being drawn into a snare, for no doubt M. Tremplier was only waiting for the attempt at violence he had provoked to get his victim seized and imprisoned, so as to be able ever after to stigmatize him with the terrible phrase, "C'est un homme qui a fait de la prison."
Seeing that his resolution was not to be shaken, he was asked what would satisfy him, and he answered, "An apology from M. Tremplier in the 'Autunois." And M. Tremplier had to submit to the orders of the all-powerful keepers of the purse-strings: he did it with a bad grace but he had to do it. One of the articles attributed to Mr.
Hamerton from seeking redress, by saying that "no one attached the slightest importance to such libels," "that he was too much above M. Tremplier to resent anything that came from his mercenary pen," "that his character was unimpeachable," etc.
Pickering, an English artist, and friend of ours, who happened to be at La Tuilerie, offered to assist my husband by keeping the ground clear while he administered the punishment for M. Tremplier, notwithstanding his bravado, deemed it prudent to surround himself with a bevy of officers, and was seldom to be met alone.
The first stabs dealt by the new pen were directed against notable residents, and being a good fencer and a good shot in fact, a sort of bravo M. Tremplier, the wielder of the pen, proclaimed loudly after every libel that he was ready to maintain what he advanced at the point of the sword, and to give a meeting to all adversaries. Unacquainted with the real social standing of Mr.
Monseigneur Perraud answered that my husband's character and literary talent were so much above question that he would never have given a thought to this affair had it not been that the "Autunois" was often called "Le Journal de l'Eveche," though in fact the Bishop had no more to do with it than with its editor, M. Tremplier, whom he had never consented to receive.
But this would not have satisfied the truculent M. Tremplier, and in the next number of his paper he expressed in arrogant terms an utter disbelief in Mr. Hamerton's denial, and venomously attacked him for his nationality, literary pretensions, etc., winding up his diatribe, as usual, by a challenge.
He was even warned that he had not the remotest chance of a verdict in his favor, because he could not prove that he was not the author of the objectionable articles. "I should have thought that M. Tremplier would be called upon to prove that I had written them," he answered. "Anyhow, if I can't count upon justice here, I will appeal to the court at Dijon."
Hamerton in Autun, but knowing that he was President Honoraire du Cercle National, a Liberal institution patronized by the Sous-Prefet and Republican Deputies, M. Tremplier thought it would be a master-stroke to defame his character by accusing him of being the author of some anonymous articles against the clergy which had appeared in "La Republique du Morvan."
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