You will be less surprised to know of my arrival in
Europe than I am to find myself here. I never supposed that I had preserved
sufficient energy or moral courage to put into effect my inclination to absent
myself from the République par
excellence. A residence of a few months in the Etats Unis would cure the most ferocious
Republican of the mania of Republics. We have security neither for our lives
nor our persons in America. I have been two months nearly in France, a period
of time which has passed very dully; I have found few of those persons whom I
knew and saw habitually five years ago. Death, time, and absence have left me
scarcely an acquaintance at Paris. If our friends do not die, their sentiments
change towards us so much, that really I know not which is most distressing, to
hear that they are gone to the other world, or that they have forgotten us in
this vale of tears, and have become strangers to us. I have met few persons who
possess the stability of friendship that I find in yourself. You are, in this
particular, as in most others, une personne
distinguée. My son is gone from Geneva to Italy, to
visit his relatives, and to see after a legacy, which the late Cardinal Fesch, his grand uncle, had the
goodness to leave to him. He wanted me to go to Geneva to see
| LONDON LIFE—1839. | 455 |
Madame Benjamin de Constant is an agreeable person; has had the goodness to recollect me. I dined yesterday at her house, en petit comité. I have myself grown fat, old, and dull,—all good reasons for people not to think me an intelligent hearer or listener. They mistake, however; I have exactly the talent to appreciate the high powers of all others, without being able to contribute much to the liveliness of conversation myself.
Have you no agreeable work to promise us?
The poor Duchess d’Abrantes, Madame Junot, made a sad end, the natural consequence of her prodigal expenditure. Her pecuniary difficulties, it is said, caused her death. I liked her very much, and I always felt pained at the misery which her want of judgment in the direction of her affairs had brought on her. I believe that her heart and feelings were generous and warm.
I wonder that you did not select Paris in preference to
London, for a permanent séjour.
I should much
| 456 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
I hope that Sir Charles Morgan still recollects me, and preserves for myself the friendship he formerly entertained for me.
Adieu, my dear Lady Morgan,
