rrupted her journey in order to paint portraits of persons who had
heard of her fame, and desired to have her pictures.

She reached Paris in 1801 and writes thus of her return: "I shall not
attempt to express my emotions when I was again upon the soil of France,
from which I had been absent twelve years. Fright, grief, joy possessed
me, each in turn, for all these entered into the thousand varying
sentiments which swept over my soul. I wept for the friends whom I had
lost upon the scaffold, but I was about to see again those who remained.
This France to which I returned had been the scene of atrocious crimes;
but this France was my Native Land!"

But the new regime was odious to the artist, and she found herself unable
to be at home, even in Paris. After a year she went to London, and
remained in England three years. She detested the climate and was not in
love with the people, but she found a compensation in the society of many
French families who had fled from France as she had done.

In 1804 Mme. Nigris was in Paris and her mother returned to see her. The
young woman was very beautiful and attractive, very fond of society,
entirely indifferent to her husband, and not always wise in the choice of
her companions. Mme. Le Brun, always hard at work and always having great
anxieties, at length found herself so broken in health, and so nervously
fatigued that she longed to be alone with Nature, and in 1808 she went to
Switzerland. Her letters written to the Countess Potocka at this time are
added to her "Souvenirs," and reveal the very best of her nature. Feeling
the need of continued repose, she bought a house at Louveciennes, where
she spent much time. In 1818 M. Le Brun died, and six years later the
deaths of her daughter and her brother left her with no near relative in
the world.

For a time she sought distractions in new scenes and visited the Touraine
and other parts of France, but though she still lived a score of years,
she spent them in Paris and Louveciennes. She had with her two nieces,
who cared for her more tenderly than any one had done before. One of
these ladies was a portrait painter and profited much by the advice of
Mme. Le Brun, who wrote of this period and these friends: "They made me
feel again the sentiments of a mother, and their tender devotion
diffused a great charm over my life. It is near these two dear ones and
some friends who remain to me that I hope to terminate peacefully a life
which