394 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



capital levied by the Terrorist Government. But he died practi- 

 cally insolvent, and his sons were advised to refuse to take up the 

 succession. His wife's income, however, would seem to have 

 recovered to some extent after the annexation of Geneva by 

 France, and we find her property at her death eighteen years later, 

 when it had no doubt further regained in value, estimated at a 

 very considerable sum. She was apparently able next year to 

 reside in the townhouse, for we hear of her receiving a visit from 

 Napoleon on his way to the war in Italy in May 1800. From a 

 letter written by her sister-in-law, Mile, de Saussure, we gather 

 that the First Consul had been cordial and sympathetic, and had 

 expressed his readiness to grant any personal requests she might 

 wish to put forward. 1 



Madame de Saussure gives the following account of herself at a 

 later date : 



' I, my good sister, go out where I shall meet my sisters and my 

 husband's old friends, but I prefer solitude. My sorrow is always 

 there as lively and as deep as last year, every day that passes and 

 adds to the length of this terrible loss makes me feel the weight of 

 it more. In the evening I can sometimes pass a few hours in society : 

 but as I recall having blamed those who bring their own sorrows 

 into the hours devoted to the distractions of which every one has 

 need at the present moment, I remain by my chimney corner when 

 I cannot conceal mine.' 



Madame de Saussure died hi 1817, at the age of seventy-two. 

 Her younger sisters both survived her. The last glimpse we have 

 of them is as two old ladies with kindly, smiling faces starting 

 in their landau from the portal of the great house in the Rue de 



1 On this occasion Napoleon stayed three days at Geneva with his staff. In 

 order to conceal his intention of passing the Alps by the Great St. Bernard, he 

 had hired a villa, and expressed his intention of taking a cure of asses' milk. 

 He was at pains to explain to the Genevese the advantages they would gain by 

 annexation to France. He gave a dinner and held a reception at the Prefet's 

 house, at which he entertained the local savants and asked to be^shown the 

 Genevese ladies, fifty of whom were presented to him. This is the description 

 of the scene given by an eye-witness : ' II se fait un grand silence a son entree ; 

 il fixe les femmes sans leur parler et recoit ensuite la cour que les homines 

 s'empressent de lui faire . . . il est petit, habille en general de division, cheveux 

 noirs sans poudre et ne frisanb point, teint jaune, maladif, figure expressive, 

 regard terrible ; il reste deux heures debout au milieu de la salle causant chimie, 

 mathematiques et autres sciences avec les hommes qui 1'abordent.' Papiers de 

 Picot, quoted in Borgeaud's UAcadimie de Calvin. 



