170 A PEACEFUL RETREAT. 



was still a very interesting one, he paid little atten- 

 tion. Bound by his promise, his high sense of 

 honour would not let him make the proper use of 

 it ; but at length he was induced to part with it 

 to M. de Buffon, who nobly exerted himself so 

 as to procure from Government a pension of 6000 

 livres for Doinbey, and 60,000 livres to pay his 

 debts." 



Disheartened and exhausted with fatigue and 

 blighted hopes, Dombey now determined to seek 

 retirement in a peaceful retreat at the foot of Mont 

 Jura, where he had a friend devoted to the love 

 and cultivation of plants. He broke off all scien- 

 tific correspondence except with M. Pavon, one of 

 his fellow-labourers in Peru, who had all along 

 been innocent of the malicious attacks against him. 

 He refused a place in the French Academic des 

 Sciences, as well as a large pecuniary offer from 

 the Empress of Eussia for the duplicates of his 

 collection, saying, " he was not in want of money, 

 and had most pleasure in distributing his specimens 

 among his friends." His only remaining happiness 

 was in deeds of benevolence ; and he was sometimes 

 heard to say, " I am satisfied, for I have had it in 

 my power to-day to benefit a fellow-creature." 



On his way to Switzerland he took up his resi- 

 dence for some time at Lyons, and had the misfor- 

 tune to be present during the siege of that town. 



