442 Professor Tyndall [May 3, 10, and 17, 



1870, the young journalist Victor Noir was shot dead by Prince Pierre 

 Bonaparte. Here, towards the end of 1811, the count w^as joined by 

 his daughter. They found pleasure in each other's company, but the 

 affection between them does not appear to have been intense. In his 

 conversations with her the source of his bitterness apf>ears. " I have 

 not," he says, " deserved to have so many enemies ; but it is all from 

 coming into France, and forming this horrible connection. I believe 

 that woman was born to be the torment of my life." The house and 

 gardens were beautiful ; tufted woods, winding paths, grapes in 

 abundance, and fifty kinds of roses. Notwithstanding his hostility to 

 his wife, he permitted her to visit him on apparently amicable terms. 

 The daughter paints her character as admirable, ascribing their 

 differences to individual independence arising from having been accus- 

 tomed to rule in their respective ways : " It was a fine match, could 

 they but have agreed." One day in driving out with her ftither, she 

 remarked to him how odd it was that he and his wife could not get on 

 together, when they seemed so friendly to each other, adding that it 

 struck her that Madame de Rumford could not be in her right mind. 

 He replied bitterly, " Her mind is, as it has ever been, to act differently 

 from what she appears." 



The statesman Guizot was one of Madame de Rumford's most 

 intimate friends, and his account of her and her house is certainly 

 calculated to modify the account of both given by her husband. 

 Eumford became her guest at a time when he enjoyed in public 

 " a splendid scientific popularity. His spirit was lofty, his con- 

 versation was full of interest, and his manners were marked by 

 gentle kindness. He made himself agreeable to Madame Lavoisier. 

 He accorded with her habits, her tastes, one might almost say with 

 her reminiscences She married him, hajjpy to offer to a dis- 

 tinguished man a great fortune and a most agreeable existence." 

 Guizot goes on to state that their characters and temperaments were 

 incompatible. They had both grown to maturity accustomed to inde- 

 pendence, which it is not always easy even for tender affection to 

 stifle. The lady had stipulated, on her second marriage, that she 

 should be permitted to retain the name of Lavoisier, calling herself 

 Madame Lavoisier de Rumford. This proved disagreeable to the 

 Count, but she was not to be moved from her determination to 

 retain the name. " I have," she says, " at the bottom of my heart 

 a profound conviction that M. de Rumford will not disapprove of me 

 for it, and that on taking time for reflection, he will permit me to 

 continue to fulfil a duty which I regard as sacred." Guizot adds that 

 the hope proved deceptive, and that " after some domestic agitations, 

 which M. de Rumford, with more of tact, might have kept from 

 becoming so notorious, a separation became necessary." Guizot 

 describes her dinners and receptions during the remaining twenty- 

 seven years of her life as delightful. Cultivated intellects, piquant 

 and serious conversation, excellent music, freedom of mind and tongue, 

 without personal antagonism or political bias, "licence of thought 



