I arrived here yesterday evening, and found all the Montmorency family assembled with a M. de Roothe, an old man of seventy-eight, son of the last wife of Marshal Richelieu.
The only subject of discussion yesterday evening in the drawing-room was the case of Madame Lafarge. Here, as everywhere, very opposite opinions prevail concerning her. Those who think her innocent say that her husband did not die of poisoning, but from taking cantharides as a tonic for nervous debility, and that the rapid change in his wife's behaviour is to be attributed to his recovery from this failing, and also the pleasure with which she saw him enter her room by the window when he did not come in by the door. Those who persist in thinking Madame Lafarge guilty say that the first experts should be believed, who performed their analysis after the first post-mortem, rather than the second, who went to work when putrefaction had set in. They also emphasise the evil tendencies, established by yesterday's evidence, of the accused: her habits of lying and playing a part; her evil reputation from her youth; the haste with which her family attempted to get rid of her by marriage, even going so far as to apply to a matrimonial agency. She is the granddaughter of a certain Madame Collard, who before her marriage bore the sole name of Hermine; she was brought up by Madame de Genlis, and was generally supposed to be her daughter and the daughter of the Duc d'Orléans, father of the present King of France. This ancestry of hers is supposed to account for the keen interest taken in her case at the Tuileries. The accusation concerning the diamonds is differently regarded in different circles. Mdmes. de Léautaud, de Montbreton, and the Nicolai, belonging to the Faubourg Saint-Germain and that clique, think her capable of theft and poisoning; the democracy, who are delighted to find a society lady guilty, regard the fable which Madame Lafarge invented about Madame Léautaud as true. Party spirit appears in everything and destroys all feelings of equity and justice.
I have just received a letter from the Duchesse d'Albuféra, of which the following is an extract: "I was at Auteuil with Madame Thiers the evening of the day before yesterday. Considerable uneasiness prevailed about current events; these are moving rapidly and becoming very complicated. The decision to fortify Paris had thrown the Stock Exchange into excitement; it is a measure which will be enormously expensive to carry out, and will rouse much apprehension. M. Thiers said that all his efforts were intended to gain time to finish his preparations; he added that if we could prolong the matter until April next we should be in a state of defence, and he said that no one could be more keenly interested in the question than the King and Queen. As regards Spain, he seems very uneasy and doubtful of the result; he receives telegrams every day. On the 7th the Queen-Regent was still at Valencia, but he thinks that she will perhaps have to fight a battle to return to her capital. The Town Council of Madrid appoint fresh Ministers every day, and anarchy there seems complete."