A DIGRESSION*. 123 



ing contrast to a crowd of real traitors, who, under 

 the mask of friendship, beset the door of an honest 

 man, only the better to deceive him ; to those 

 serpents I have fostered in my bosom, only to feel 

 their sting ! The} 7 are yet alive ; but, alas ! my 

 beautiful and pleasant companion is no more. After 

 several days of suffering, during which I never left 

 her, her eyes, constantly fixed on me, closed, never 

 again to open my tears flowed they now flow. 

 Feeling minds will pardon this digression, caused 

 by grief and gratitude." 



The curiosity of the reader is probably excited 

 to know who were the enemies so vehemently de- 

 nounced by our impetuous naturalist ? After re- 

 maining some time in Egypt, and travelling subse- 

 quently in Greece and Asia Minor, he returned to 

 France in the autumn of 1786, after an absence of 

 rather more than three j'ears, and hastened to pay 

 a visit to his father and the home of his boyhood. 

 He met with a very different reception from what 

 he had anticipated. An absence of several years 

 had been taken advantage of by the prodigality and 

 cupidity of his relatives, who endeavoured to de- 

 prive him of his patrimony. After a vexatious 

 series of litigation, Sonnini recovered a portion of 

 the estate at Manoncourt, where he built a manor- 

 house, and employed himself in the improvement 

 of agriculture ; introducing several valuable exotic 



