One of the most attractive salons in Paris at the beginning of the Monarchy of July was that of Countess Merlin, where all the celebrities met, especially the musicians.  Born in Havana, the young, beautiful, rich and talented Madame Merlin added to the poetic grace of a Spaniard the wit and distinction of a French woman.  General Merlin married her in Madrid in 1811, and brought her to Paris, where she created a sensation.  Being an accomplished musician, she gave delightful concerts, and though also gifted as a writer she was as simple and unpretentious as if she had been created to remain obscure.  In addition, she was so truly good that she had almost no enemies; her charity was inexhaustible, and she possessed one of those hearts which live only to do good and to love.

It was Balzac’s good fortune to be introduced into the salon.  He explained to Madame Hanska that he went there to play lansquenet in order to escape becoming insane!  He was anxious to have Madame Merlin present at the first presentation of his Quinola, where she wished to have Martinez de la Rosa with her, but the novelist dissuaded her from this.

Madame Merlin was a friend of Madame de Girardin, and ridiculed the Princesse Belgiojoso when these two were rival candidates for the presidency of the new Academy that was being formed.

During Madame Hanska’s secret visit to Paris in 1847, Balzac declined an invitation to dinner with Madame Merlin, excusing himself on the ground of lack of time, but promised to call upon her soon.  A few months before this (1846), he dedicated to her Les Marana, a short story written in 1832. Juana is inscribed to her also.

As has been seen, Balzac frequently depicted the features, lives, or peculiarities of various friends under altered names, but toward the close of Beatrix he laid aside all disguise in comparing the appearance of one of his famous women to the beauty of the Countess:  “Madame Schontz owed her fame as a beauty to the brilliancy and color of a warm, creamy complexion like a creole’s, a face full of original details, with the clean-cut, firm features, of which the Countess de Merlin was the most famous example and the most perennially young . . .”

In 1846, Balzac dedicated Un Drame au Bord de la Mer, written several years before, to Madame La Princesse Caroline Galitzin de Genthod, nee Comtesse Walewska.  Balzac doubtless met her while visiting Madame Hanska in Geneva in 1834, as she was living at Genthod.  He met a Princesse Sophie Galitzin, whom he considered far more attractive, and later met another Princesse Galitzin.  One of these ladies evidently aroused the suspicions of Madame Hanska, but the novelist assured her that there was no cause for her anxiety.