for their domestic virtues,
as well as for high intellectual cultivation. The part the Duke took in
politics is so well known, that I need not allude to it here.

At some of these parties I met with Madame Charles Dupin, whom I liked
much. When I went to return her visit, she received us in her bedroom.
She was a fashionable and rather elegant woman, with perfect manners.
She invited us to dinner to meet her brother-in-law, the President of
the Chamber of Deputies. He was animated and witty, very fat, and more
ugly than his brother, but both were clever and agreeable. The President
invited me to a very brilliant ball he gave, but as it was on a Sunday I
could not accept the invitation. We went one evening with Madame Charles
Dupin to be introduced to Madame de Rumford. Her first husband,
Lavoisier, the chemist, had been guillotined at the Revolution, and she
was now a widow, but had lived long separated from her second husband.
She was enormously rich, and had a magnificent palace, garden, and
conservatory, in which she gave balls and concerts. At all the evening
parties in Paris the best bedroom was lighted up for reception like the
other rooms. Madame de Rumford was capricious and ill-tempered; however,
she received me very well, and invited me to meet a very large party at
dinner. Mr. Fenimore Cooper, the American novelist, with his wife and
daughter, were among the guests. I found him extremely amiable and
agreeable, which surprised me, for when I knew him in England he was so
touchy that it was difficult to converse with him without giving him
offence. He was introduced to Sir Walter Scott by Sir James Mackintosh,
who said, in presenting him, "Mr. Cooper, allow me to introduce you to
your great forefather in the art of fiction"; "Sir," said Cooper, with
great asperity, "I have no forefather." Now, though his manners were
rough, they were quite changed. We saw a great deal of him, and I was
frequently in his house, and found him perfectly liberal; so much so,
that he told us the faults of his country with the greatest frankness,
yet he was the champion of America, and hated England.

None were kinder to us than Lord and Lady Granville. Lady Granville
invited us to all her parties; and when Somerville was obliged to return
to England, she assured him that in case of any disturbance, we should
find a refuge in the Embassy. I went to some balls at the Tuileries with
Madame de Lafayette Lasteyrie and her sister. The Que