152 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP.XI 



Napoleon allows such a publication in his Empire. I am 

 very much pleased, as you will guess, by his romantic 

 marriage, and his declaration of his parvenuism. His 

 speeches argue him a man so much more clever than I 

 thought him, 1 that I must ever distrust my judgment, or he 

 must have learnt immensely in his prison, and in his strange 

 and varying life. . . . 



This is the last letter from Jessie Sismondi in the Maer 

 collection. Her heart begun to fail on the ;28th February, 

 1853, and she died on the 3rd March. Dr Dyster gave the 

 following account of her last moments. She was giving 

 directions to both her sisters about her last wishes; then 

 she waited a little, and said quite quietly, " I think 

 that is all," a pause, and then like a flash, " Sismondi, 

 I'm coming," and she looked up as if she saw him there 

 present before her, and died. Dr Dyster said he had never 

 known consciousness so absolutely retained till the last 

 moment. 2 



Her loss must have been deeply felt by my mother. Years 

 after this time Fanny Allen sent her a photograph of Jessie 

 taken from some picture. " I am very glad indeed to have 

 the photograph of my dear aunt Jessie," she wrote in answer. 

 ' It is not a strong likeness, but the look of her sweet eyes 

 is there and the dress looks like her. It is a thing I shall 

 always regret that I did not make an effort to get to Tenby 

 to see her once more." I am often sorry that I never knew 

 how close and how tender was their affection. Reading 

 these old letters is a kind of bringing to judgment of ah 1 the 

 blindnesses and errors of one's youth. Now it is easy to 

 realise how much there is we should like to know. 



Fanny Allen to her niece Elizabeth Wedgwood. 



April 24th [1853]. 



. . . There is no melancholy in this place that I wish to 

 shun, that I can no longer see her here is sad. I long for 

 her image, as I saw it not three months back, walking round 



She liad known him during his youth at Geneva, and used to 

 say she considered him a pupil of Sismondi. 



This account was given me by Mr W. Osborn B. Allen, who had 

 it from Dr Dyster of Tenby. 



