322 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



Jean Antoine Deluc. But Deluc was on the spot and ' Reader 

 to the Queen ' ! 



In July 1777 de Saussure was called on by the Emperor 

 Joseph n. of Austria, who passed through Geneva on his way 

 home from Paris. The prospect of receiving an imperial guest had 

 greatly fluttered the local authorities. They appointed a Com- 

 mittee of Reception ; they arranged for his lodging in the house of 

 a wealthy citizen, and resolved to send a distinguished and discreet 

 deputation to welcome him. On the 15th July the Register of the 

 Senate records that the Count de Falkenstein (the Emperor's 

 incognito) had arrived on the previous day at the hotel at 

 S6cheron, that two of the Syndics had gone there and, through 

 one of the Emperor's bankers, had conveyed a message that they 

 desired to pay their respects to him, but that the Emperor had 

 replied that while thanking them he must decline all formal and 

 complimentary visits. The Syndics further reported that the 

 Emperor had that morning driven into Geneva in a hired carriage, 

 visited the Public Library and M. de Saussure's cabinet, and 

 returned by boat, and that he proposed to leave next day. 



The dry official record can be supplemented by letters of the 

 date . They tell us that the Emperor had ordered rooms at the Hotel 

 des Balances in the town, but changed his intention on finding the 

 crowd that had collected, and drove on to the inn at Secheron, 1 which 

 had the advantage of being outside the gates. Even at Secheron 

 the road and adjoining terraces that commanded any view of his 

 apartment were thronged with a crowd in carriages and on foot. 



De Saussure's friend, Trembley, describes the Emperor's 

 appearance : 



' I saw the Emperor ; he has, in my opinion, a mediocre figure 

 which indicates a mediocre man. He seemed somewhat cold and un- 

 appreciative. He would not see our Syndics. We must find out 

 what M. de Saussure, who had a talk with him, thinks of him.' 



Unfortunately, de Saussure's impression is not on record, but we 

 find an account a remarkable one for a child of eleven in his 

 daughter Albertine's diary : 



' At last he has come ! He is a little man, well made, with a some- 

 what lofty air, a small face, a large aquiline nose, and extraordinarily 



1 This was the inn where Byron and Shelley afterwards stayed. Turner 

 made a drawing of Geneva and the lake from a spot near it. 



