I Suffered Much From The Cold During This Adventure,
And Did Not Sleep Well, Having Fallen Into A Train Of Thought Which
Prevented Me From So Doing; And I Could Not Help Bringing To My
Recollection The Adventure Of Raymond In The Forest Near Strassburg, In The
Romance Of The Monk.
Nothing worthy of note occurred during the rest of
the journey; but this adventure obliged me to remain one day at Compiegne
to wait for the next diligence.
PARIS, April 8th, 1816.
I delivered my letters to the Wardle family and am very much pleased with
them. I meet a very agreeable society at their house. Col Wardle is quite a
republican and very rigid in his principles.[60] His daughter is a young
lady of first rate talents and has already distinguished herself by some
poetical compositions. I met at their house Mrs Wallis, the sister of Sir
R. Wilson.[61] She is an enthusiastic Napoleonist, and wears at times a
tricolored scarf and a gold chain with a medal of Napoleon's head attached
to it; this head she sometimes, to amuse herself, compels the old emigrants
she meets with in society to kiss. The trial of her brother is now going on
for aiding and abetting the escape of Lavalette. I sincerely hope he will
escape any severity of punishment, but I more fear the effects of Tory
vengeance against him in England, in the shape of depriving him of his
commission, than I do the sentence of any French court. Yet tho' I wish him
well, I cannot help feeling the remains of a little grudge against him for
his calumny against Napoleon in accusing him of poisoning the sick of his
own army before the walls of St Jean d'Acre. I have always vindicated the
character of Napoleon from this most unjust and unfounded aspersion,
because having been in Egypt with Abercrombie's army and having had daily
intercourse with Belliard's division of the French army, after the
capitulation of Cairo, and during our joint march on the left bank of the
Nile to Rosetta, I knew that there was not a syllable of truth in the
story. Mrs Wallis, however, tells me that her brother has expressed deep
regret that he ever gave credence and currency to such a report; and that
he acknowledges that he was himself deceived. But he did Napoleon an
irreparable injury, and his work on the Egyptian campaign contributed in a
very great degree to excite the hatred of the English people against
Napoleon, as well as to flatter the passions and prejudices of the Tories.
In the affair however of Lavalette Wilson has nobly retrieved his character
and obliterated all recollection of his former error. It is amazing the
popularity he and his two gallant associates have acquired in France by
this generous and chevaleresque enterprise.
I meet at Col Wardle's a very pleasant French society: conversation, music
and singing fill up the evening.
April 15th.
I have been presented to a very agreeable lady, Madame Esther Fournier, who
holds a conversazione at her house in the Rue St Honore every Wednesday
evening. Here there is either a concert, a ball or private theatricals;
while in a separate room play goes forward and crebs, a game of dice
similar to hazard, is the fashionable game. Refreshments are handed round
and at twelve o'clock the company break up. Mme Fournier is a lady of very
distinguished talent and always acts a principal role herself in the
dramatic performances given at her private theatricals.
I have become acquainted too with a very pleasant family, M. and Mme
Vanderberg, who are the proprietors of a large house and magnificent garden
in the Faubourg du Roule. M. Vanderberg is a man of very large fortune.[62]
He has three daughters, handsome and highly accomplished, and one son; one
of them was married to General R - - , but is since divorced; the second is
married to a young colonel of Hussars, and the third is still unmarried;
but being very young, handsome, accomplished and rich, there will be no
lack of suitors whenever she is disposed to accept the connubial chain. I
have dined several times with this family. There is an excellent table. The
choicest old wines are handed about during dinner, and afterwards we
adjourn to another room to take coffee and liqueurs.
If there is no evening party, the company retire, some for the theatre,
some for other houses, where they have to pass the evening; if the family
remain at home you have the option of retiring or remaining with them, and
the evening is filled up with music or petits jeux. I meet with several
agreeable and distinguished people at this house, among whom are M. Anglas,
Mme Duthon from the Canton de Vaud, a lady of great vivacity and talent,
and General Guilleminot and his lady. Col. Paulet, who married M.
Vanderberg's second daughter, was on the staff of General Guilleminot at
the battle of Waterloo and suffered much from a fever and ague that he
caught on the night bivouacs.
I have attended a seance of the Institution of the Sourds-Muets founded
by the famous Abbe de l'Epee, and continued with equal success by his
successor the Abbe S[icard],[63] who delivered the lecture and exhibited
the talent and proficiency of his pupils. The eldest pupil, Massieu,
himself deaf and dumb, is an extraordinary genius and he may be said in
some measure to direct all the others. Massieu, who has a very interesting
and even handsome countenance, and manners extremely prepossessing,
conducts the examination of the pupils by means of signs, and writing on a
slate or paper; and it is wonderful to observe the progress made by these
interesting young persons, who have been so harshly treated by Nature. The
definitions they give of substances and qualities are so just and happy;
and in their situation, definition is everything, for they cannot learn by
rote, as other boys often do, who, in the study of philology, acquire only
words and not things or meanings.
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