J52 COUNT EUMFORD. 



Pierre Bonaparte. Here, towards the end of 1811, the 

 Count was 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 conversa- 

 tions with her the source of his bitterness appears. ' I 

 have not,' he says, 6 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 abund- 

 ance, 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 father, 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 Gruizot 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. Rumford became 

 her guest at a time when he enjoyed in public 'a splendid 

 scientific popularity. His spirit was lofty, his conversa- 

 tion 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. 



