COUNT BUM FORD 



47 



reside in France and draw his Bavarian and his English pensions, 

 during the turbulent times of the empire. His reception in Paris 

 delighted him. Parties were given him daily. The new elector of 

 Bavaria wished to make him minister of state, but Rumford preferred 

 to remain in Paris where were centered all that charmed him. His 

 name was known everywhere, and the elector wrote him congratulating 

 him on the cordiality extended to him by the French. 



He soon married Madame Lavoisier, widow of the illustrious 

 chemist who had perished, under the guillotine, a victim of the cruel 

 Robespierre. They lived in rue d'Anjou, in the finest part of Paris. 

 The salon of Madame Rumford was the last of the eighteenth century. 

 Lagrange, Laplace, Guizot, Cuvier and Arago were frequent visitors. 

 But the union of Count and Madame Rumford proved unhappy. Their 

 characters and temperaments were incompatible, and after some do- 

 mestic agitation a separation took place. 



Rumford now leased a charming villa at Auteuil, which had been 

 the abode of the celebrated Madame Helvetius, who had made it one 

 of the chief literary centers of Paris, where our own Franklin was 

 a favored guest. Two acres of gardens surrounded the house. It is 

 said that N~apoleon, when at St. Helena, recalled a remark made to 



Drawing of Experiment with Gunpowder. 



