and set
himself to restore what was lost. Foreign politics did not lose their
interest; on the contrary, the French Revolution of 1830 excited all
his ardour. At first, he was alarmed, anticipating fresh horrors; but
the welcome he gave to Louis-Philippe was most enthusiastic. Dr Arnold
describes him as being made quite happy by this turn of the page of
present life, and deeply indignant with the Bourbon ministers. His
ardour in this cause was indeed the immediate occasion of his fatal
illness; for while the French trials were pending, he would go every
evening, through severe cold, in the depth of winter, to the
news-rooms, and by this exposure caught the inflammatory cold of which
he died. On the evening of Christmas-day 1830, this formidable attack
began; and on the 1st of January 1831, the excellent man breathed his
last, fully conscious of his impending fate, and not less so of that
of his beloved partner, who had nursed him during the first two days,
but was afterwards too ill to leave her bed. When her husband was
informed of this, he turned his face to the wall, and was heard to
murmur: 'Hapless house! to lose father and mother at once!' Then,
'Pray to God, children; He alone can help us'--and his attendants saw
that he himself was seeking comfort in prayer. Poor Mme Niebuhr
survived him but nine days. She had her children with her, and tried
to give them counsel; but the shock had been too great for her broken
health; she rests in the same grave with him, not far from the
glorious river. The king of Prussia erected a monument to his honour.

Niebuhr was only a few months more than fifty-four. Mrs Austin, who
saw him in 1828, says: 'His person was diminutive, almost to meanness,
but his presence very imposing. His head and eye were grand, austere,
and commanding. He had all the authority of intelligence, and looked
and spoke like one not used to contradiction. He lived a life of study
and domestic seclusion, but he conversed freely and unreservedly.' His
habits, we are told by another writer, were temperate and regular. 'He
entered with earnest sympathy into all the little interests and
conventional jokes of his family and friends; and he writes with quite
as much eagerness about Marcus's learning great E; or Cornelia's
flowered frock for her birthday, as about consuls or cabinets.'
Niebuhr himself says: 'I shall teach little Amelia to write myself,
for her mother has no time for it; and the poor little thing m