70 CASTLE COPFET AND MADAME DK STAEL. 



very contemptible opinion, as, with an extraordinary degree of criti- 

 cal acumen and of rare instruction, she observed to an astonished 

 literary character of our land, " that the gloom of his poetical coun- 

 tryman, Milton, was undoubtedly due to his frequent perusal of 

 Ossian." The mighty bard, had he been present, might have reason- 

 ably adopted the expedient she relates in her " Allemagne," of the 

 German who, in despair of inspiriting himself by other means, threw 

 himself out of a two pair of stairs window pour se faire vifa 

 Swiss stricture on Teutonic dulness. Madame de Stael was, how- 

 ever, a brilliant exception to Helvetic stolidity of spirit ; and often, 

 as I have heard, successfully handled the foils with the wittiest 

 diplomatist and most diplomatic wit of his age. It is true that, not 

 content with the admiration accorded to her genius, she depended on 

 her personal attractions for a softer impression on those she sought 

 to win, although they were scarcely adapted to the effect she desired 

 to produce. It was at the felicitous epoch of the ambassador's 

 nuptials that she hazarded the question " Whether, if they both fell 



into the water, he would save her or Madame T ?" "Why, 



Madam, you are, probably, the better swimmer of the two !" was the 

 adroit reply that, if unsatisfactory to the lady's self-love, had some- 

 w r hat of charity for its apology. The unsusceptibility of the minis- 

 ter's soul, in refusing to accede to the protocols and conferences of 

 the god of love, but led the deity to aim his shafts at a higher mark ; 

 and, it is said, that she strove to influence the destinies of France and 

 the happiness of Josephine, by uniting sentiment to talent in her 

 endeavour to sway the feelings of the First Consul of the Republic. 

 The dictatorial tone of her conversation, her unqualified temerity 

 in discourse, her utter distaste of all feminine grace of manner, and 

 the want of personal charms to redeem those faults, operated on 

 Buonaparte as they did on Lord Byron, and proved more than an 

 antidote to admiration. It must have been amusing to behold the 

 impatient peer, in the recess of the window, looking on the blue 

 waters of the lake, and listening to one more blue. Her tenacity of 

 purpose, in assuring herself the attention of Buonaparte by evil 

 report, when good had failed her, at length tended to irritate him ; 

 and " the signs of the times" were not unobserved by those by whom 

 he was surrounded, and friends fell from her. " It is said that rats 

 will timely abandon a falling house," was her observation ; " if it be 



true, my disgrace is certain as Monsieur de T has bid me adieu 



sans relour !" Disappointed in the first objects of her ambition, and 

 having but excited distaste where she purposed to offend, she called 

 fancy to her aid, and invented proposed persecutions, which existed 

 but in her imagination ; and relying rather upon the presumed im- 

 portance of her writings than on their real effect or imperial con- 

 sideration of them, she resolved to abandon Switzerland, and seek 

 safety in England. If even the affectation of fear in woman can 

 amuse, there would be much of the ridiculous in the gratuitous me- 

 naces, the hypothetical treasons, and unreal dangers which attended 

 her flight ; but she was somewhat recompensed by the increase of 

 interest they conferred on her character ; and, armed with a due 

 quantum of eulogy on Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, Habeas 



