Field-Marshal Macdonald, Duc de Tarante,
and his son-in-law, the Duc de Massa; Admiral de Rigny, Minister of
Marine; M. Barthe, Garde des Sceaux; and the Bouvards, father and son,
formed the party. After spending a most delightful and interesting day,
we drove to Paris in bright moonlight.

Our friends in Paris and at La Grange had been so kind to us that we
were very sad when we went to express our gratitude and take leave of
them. We only stayed two days at La Grange, and when we returned to
Paris, Somerville went home and my son joined us, when we made a rapid
tour in Switzerland, the only remarkable event of which was a singular
atmospheric phenomenon we saw on the top of the Grimsel. On the clouds
of vapour below us we saw our shadows projected, of giant proportions,
and each person saw his own shadow surrounded by a bright circle of
prismatic colours. It is not uncommon in mountain regions.

* * * * *

[General Lafayette and all his family were extremely kind to my
mother. He was her constant visitor, and we twice visited him at his
country house, La Grange. He wished to persuade my mother to go
there for some days, after our return from Switzerland, which we did
not accomplish. The General wrote the following letter to my father:--]

FROM LAFAYETTE TO DR. SOMERVILLE.

LA GRANGE, _31st October, 1833_.

MY DEAR SIR,

I waited to answer your kind letter, for the arrival of Mr.
Coke's[11] precious gift, which nobody could higher value, on every
account, than the grateful farmer on whom it has been bestowed. The
heifers and bull are beautiful; they have reached La Grange in the
best order, and shall be tenderly attended to.... It has been a
great disappointment not to see Mrs. Somerville and the young ladies
before their departure. Had we not depended on their kind visit, we
should have gone to take leave of them. They have had the goodness
to regret the impossibility to come before their departure. Be so
kind as to receive the affectionate friendship and good wishes of a
family who are happy in the ties of mutual attachment that bind us
to you and them.... Public interest is now fixed upon the Peninsula,
and while dynasties are at civil war, and despotic or _juste milieu_
cabinets seem to agree in the fear of a genuine development of
popular institutions, the matter for the friends of freedom is t