rom the barbarism and desolation in
which the Turkish rule had so long condemned it to linger. Under the
prudent and energetic management of the Aga Assaki, "The Moldavian Bee"
and "The Gleaner" announced the resurrection of liberal thought and the
patriotic sentiment in literary articles, nearly all signed by Moldavian
names and written in the national language.

In the young Princess Morosi, the daughter of the Aga Assaki, afterwards
married to Edgar Quinet, Madame de Hell learned to know and love a
charming wit and a rare beautiful nature. She studied the French poets
with assiduity, and her great ambition was to visit France, little
thinking that she would one day become French by her marriage with the
illustrious French writer.

In the Caucasian steppes our traveller's life had been singularly calm
and serene; in Moldavia it was agitated and disturbed by mundane
occupations, by official receptions, balls, concerts, dinners, the
theatre, and the thousand and one responsibilities of social life. Worn
and weary with the monotonous round of pretended pleasures, she
frequently looked back with regret to the solitudes of the Caspian. Yet
the event which delivered her from it was one that caused her a very
keen anxiety. Her husband was attacked by one of the malarious fevers of
the Danube, and in order to recover his health was compelled to throw up
his engagement and return to France, after some years of almost constant
travel and exploration.

On their arrival they were received with the welcome earned by their
patience of investigation and strenuous pursuit of knowledge. While the
young and already celebrated engineer was rewarded with the Cross of the
Legion of Honour, his wife, who had shared his labours and his perils,
and co-operated with him in the production of his fine work on the
Steppes, was honoured with the special attention of M. Villemain, then
Minister of State. Shortly after her return she gave to the world a
volume of poetry, entitled "Reveries of a Traveller," a work strongly
written, thoughtful, and emotional, which has never obtained the
reputation it fully deserves.

In 1846 the two travellers departed on a second expedition to the East,
which was cut short by the premature death of M. de Hell. His widow
returned to Paris towards the close of 1848, so crushed beneath the
calamity that had overthrown her household gods, that, as she has since
acknowledged, she never slept without the hope that he