Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Tuesday, 17 August 1875

I dreamed of the Fronde. I had just entered the service of Anne of Austria! She mistrusted me, but I led her into the midst of the rebellious people, crying "Long live the Queen!" and the people cried after me "Long live the Queen!" We return to the palace and by a ladder placed at the window all the people begin to climb; one fears the palace will fall; and at that moment I see a golden carriage harnessed to magnificent horses, and they say that all of it is nothing but a play, and the carriage and the horses are from the theatre. Then I am on the stage, a ballet is being danced.
And finally I see Girofla's face quite clearly, and to finish Fiouloulou passes and greets me with his usual smile.
These baths at twenty-four degrees Réaumur are too hot for me. I shall take them no more. It is so hot here, especially today.
I am bored and grumbling. Towards five o'clock I go for a walk with Machenka, but in these lovely paths one encounters only two and a half German women.
If one could form a proper crowd, one could live quite calmly here — but alone!
Maman has had another attack, caused by a letter from Russia. Paul is going to enlist as a soldier — voluntarily. The Zankovskys are pushing him into it; he has become infatuated with the younger daughter, who behaves badly. The mother, a thoroughly depraved person, wins at cards — she always wins — and the daughter procures young men for her to fleece. Before Paul, they had one of our neighbours, a Monsieur Doublansky.
The beauty's brother is a dreadful scoundrel. This whole gang has seized hold of the unfortunate Bashkirtseff, who — in order to be in the same regiment as the brother of his beloved — is making himself a soldier.
But Alexandre intends to prevent all of this.

Notes

The Fronde (1648–1653) was a series of French civil wars during the minority of Louis XIV, when Anne of Austria (1601–1666) served as Queen Regent. The conflict pitted the royal government against the Parlement of Paris and powerful nobles. Marie likely encountered this history through Alexandre Dumas's Musketeers novels, which are set partly in this period. ↩
The Réaumur scale (water freezes at 0°, boils at 80°) was still in common use at German spas in the 1870s. Twenty-four degrees Réaumur equals 30°C (86°F). ↩
Bataclan is Marie's characteristic word for the lively social circle she requires. She uses it throughout the diary from 1873 onwards; it means roughly a fashionable entourage or animated social group. ↩