in his hand, ready to examine any insect or blade of grass that
might come under observation.

One more great service he rendered to his country. Prince Bismarck,
alarmed by the state of things in France, showed symptoms of intending
to seize Belfort, that fortress in the Vosges which had never
surrendered to the Germans, and which France had been permitted to
retain. Thiers induced Russia to intervene, and went to Switzerland
to thank Prince Gortschakoff personally for his services on the
occasion.

Thiers died at Saint-Germains four years after his downfall, at
the age of eighty-two. His last earthly lodging was in the Pavilion
Henri IV. (now an hotel), where Louis XIV. was born.

By his will he left the State, not only all his collections, which
so far as possible he had restored, but the numerous historical
materials which he had gathered for his works, as well as his house,
after his wife's death, in the Place Saint-Georges. The collections
are there as he left them; the historical documents have been removed
to the Archives.

To Marseilles, his native city, he left his water-color copies of
the chief works of the great masters in Italy.

Thiers was childless. Whatever may have been the personal relations
in which he stood to his wife, no woman was ever more truly devoted
to the interests of her husband. She seems to have lived but for
him.

People in society laughed at her plain dressing and her careful
housekeeping; but "her heart dilated with gladness when she felt
that the eyes of the world were fixed with admiration on M. Thiers."
Her manner to him was that of a careful and idolizing nurse, his
to her too often that of a petulant child. She always called him
M. Thiers, he always addressed her as Madame Thiers,--indeed, he
is almost unknown by his name of Adolphe, nor do men often speak
of him simply as Thiers. "Monsieur Thiers" he was and will always
be in history, whose tribunal he said he was not afraid to face.
Even his cards were, contrary to French custom, always printed
"Monsieur Thiers."

Both M. and Madame Thiers were very early risers, and both had an
inconvenient habit of falling asleep at inopportune times.

To the last, Madame Thiers took a loving interest in Belfort, because
her husband had saved it from the Germans. Its poor were objects
of her especial solicitude. Only an hour before her death, hearing
that the Maire of Belfort had called, she expressed a wish to see
him, and endeav