During the seven years
in which the paper amused Paris and annoyed the republican
government, as its editor Harden-Hickey was involved in forty-two
lawsuits, for different editorial indiscretions, fined three hundred
thousand francs, and was a principal in countless duels.
To his brother editors his standing interrogation was: "Would you
prefer to meet me upon the editorial page, or in the Bois de
Boulogne?" Among those who met him in the Bois were Aurelien
Scholl, H. Lavenbryon, M. Taine, M. de Cyon, Philippe Du Bois,
Jean Moreas.
In 1888, either because, his patron the Count de Chambord having
died, there was no more money to pay the fines, or because the
patience of the government was exhausted, _Triboulet_ ceased to
exist, and Harden-Hickey, claiming the paper had been suppressed
and he himself exiled, crossed to London.
From there he embarked upon a voyage around the world, which
lasted two years, and in the course of which he discovered the
island kingdom of which he was to be the first and last king.
Previous to his departure, having been divorced from the Countess
de Saint-Pery, he placed his boy and girl in the care of a
fellow-journalist and very dear friend, the Count de la Boissiere, of
whom later we shall hear more.
Harden-Hickey started around the world on the _Astoria_, a British
merchant vessel bound for India by way of Cape Horn, Captain
Jackson commanding.
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