THE ENIGMA OF AUDUBON'S LIFE 263 



1816, he added the provision that in case his "disposi- 

 tions in favor of Jean Rabain and Rose Bouffard, wife 

 of Loyen du Puigaudeau, should be attacked and an- 

 nulled," he bequeathed his entire estate, without excep- 

 tion, to his wife, Anne Moynet, for her sole use. His 

 fears, as already intimated, were well grounded, and 

 his will was immediately contested by four nieces, 

 Mme. Lejeune de Vaugeon of Nantes, Mme. Jean 

 Louis Lissabe, whose husband was a pilot, and Anne 

 and Domenica Audubon, seamstresses at Bayonne. 3 

 This trial dragged on in the courts for a long time, and 

 served further to impoverish Madame Audubon, who 

 was obliged to dispose of most of her valuable effects, 

 but it was finaly settled by a compromise in 1820. In 

 that year, at the age of eighty-five, she left "La Ger- 

 betiere" to live with her daughter and son-in-law at 

 "Les Tourterelles" close by, where she remained until 

 her death on October 18, 1821. 



It seems incredible that Audubon should not have 

 heard of the death of his foster mother, since he had been 

 devotedly attached to her in his youth and was moreover 

 a beneficiary under her will. Yet on August 6, 1826, 

 he wrote in his journal: "My plans now are to go to 

 Manchester, to Derbyshire to visit Lord Stanley, Bir- 

 mingham, London for three weeks, Edinburgh, back to 

 London, and then to France, Paris, Nantes, to see my 

 venerable stepmother, Brussels, and return to Eng- 

 land." On September 30 of the same year he wrote 

 from Liverpool: "I long to enter my old garden on 

 the Loire and with rapid steps reach my mother, — yes, 

 my mother! the only one I truly remember; and no son 



3 See Note 4, Vol. I, p. 27. The suit brought by these plaintiffs was based 

 upon a French law, which at that time debarred a natural child from 

 inheriting property. 



