Word: talleyrand
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...fermented juice, such working sessions have been as much a part of diplomacy as the formal conference. Thanks largely to his wit and disarming manner at parties, Benjamin Franklin coaxed 55 million livres out of a nearly bankrupt French government during American Revolution. Bound for the Congress of Vienna, Talleyrand told King Louis XVIII, "Sire, I have more need of casseroles than of written instructions," and his success in softening the terms imposed on his defeated nation in 1815 was due in no small part to the superb table laid by his chef...
...scene of hell, Dante and Virgil. The painting was viciously attacked by some of the critics, but the government of France bought it all the same-a purchase so out of character for bureaucratic establishments as to inspire a generally accepted conjecture that Delacroix was the illegitimate son of Talleyrand, the French foreign minister...
Exotic and Erotic. Throughout the history of art there have been such painters of intellect, but there have always been, too, those who paint only with passion. Had Delacroix not been the illegitimate son of the influential Talleyrand, he might not have had so easy a time getting his work shown, and even so, he shocked as well as awed. Battles intrigued him, massacres fascinated him, the combination of blood and splendor, of luxury and pain, seemed to inspire him. In his mind, he traveled over India and the Near East, filling it full of glittering jewels, gilded swords, muscular...
...Bartlett is wrong. In 1797 a secret agent from Talleyrand told Pinckney that the American Commissioners sent to Paris to protest French attacks on U.S. shipping would be received only if they paid a ?50,000 bribe and made a large loan to the French government. Pinckney's words at this point, according to his own story, were, "Not a sixpence...
...task for Talleyrand, the job involved Kemper in global negotiations with staff officers to get clearance to see generals to allow soldiers to speak to scholars-if they could or would. Result: twelve sound monographs produced by a 500-man team under command of a major general who, in the words of Historian Baxter, "treasured John Kemper as one would a jewel...