412 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



to say of American cities and rivers, and added: "You 

 are a great nation, a wonderful nation." The Duke 

 wrote his name in Audubon's subscription book, prom- 

 ised to try to enlist a number of the crowned heads of 

 Europe in his behalf, and gave him besides a number 

 of orders for pictures of animals. 



Audubon had already made friends with the veteran 

 painter of flowers, Pierre Joseph Redoute, and when 

 it was proposed that they should exchange works, the 

 "Raphael of Flowers" consented, gave Audubon at once 

 nine numbers of his Belles Fleurs, and promised to send 

 "Lea Roses" 



During this visit of eight weeks Parker painted por- 

 traits of both Cuvier and Redoute; Swainson worked 

 steadily at the Museum, where Isidore Geoffrey Saint- 

 Hilaire gave him the use of his private study; while 

 Audubon, for the most part, was driving from post to 

 pillar in his not altogether successful efforts to extend 

 his subscription list. As already intimated, his greatest 

 success in Paris was in winning the friendship and en- 

 dorsement of Cuvier, who reported upon his work at a 

 meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences held on 

 September 22. 21 Audubon has related how on this occa- 

 sion he had an appointment to meet the Baron in the 

 library of the Institute at precisely half past one 

 o'clock; he waited; the hall filled, and the clock ticked 

 on, but the great savant did not appear. Finally, said 

 Audubon, after an hour had passed, "all at once I heard 

 his voice, and saw him advancing, very warm and ap- 

 parently fatigued. He met me with many apologies, 

 and said, 'Come with me'; and as we walked along, he 

 explaining all the time why he had been late, while his 

 hand drove a pencil with great rapidity, and he told me 



21 See Vol. I, p. 3. 



