Luneville 165 



on their humanity. This induced me to refuse the oblig- 

 ing wishes of both the Messrs. Lazowskis, Monsieur Pompone, 

 and also of a pretty and agreeable American lady I met at 

 the house of the latter. Her history is singular, and yet 

 very natural. She was Miss Blake, of New York; what 

 carried her to Dominica I know not ; but the sun did not spoil 

 her complexion: a French officer, Monsieur Tibalie. on taking 

 the island, made her his captive, and himself became her own, 

 fell in love, and manned her; brought his prize to France and 

 settled her in his native town of Luneville. The regiment, 

 of which he is major, being quartered in a distant province, she 

 complained of seeing her husband not more than for six months 

 in two years. She has been four years at Luneville; and having 

 the society of three children, is reconciled to a scene of life new 

 to her. Monsieur Pompone, who, she assured me, is one of the 

 best men in the world, has parties every day at his house, not 

 more to his own satisfaction than to her comfort. — This gentle- 

 man is another instance, as well as the major, of attachment to 

 the place of nativity ; he was bom at Luneville ; attended King 

 Stanislaus in some respectable office, near his person; has liv'ed 

 much at Paris and with the great, and had first ministers of 

 state for his intimate friends; but the love of the natale solum 

 brought him back to Luneville, where he has lived beloved and 

 respected for many years, surrounded by an elegant collection 

 of books, amongst which the poets are not forgotten, having 

 himself no inconsiderable talents in transfusing agreeable senti- 

 ments into pleasing verses. He has some couplets of his own 

 composition under the portraits of his friends which are pretty 

 and easy. It would have given me much pleasure to have spent 

 some days at Luneville; an agreeable opening was made for 

 me in two houses, where I should have met with a friendly and 

 agreeable reception: but the misfortunes of travelling are 

 sometimes the accidents that cross the moments prepared for 

 enjo>Tnent; and at others, the system of a journey inconsistent 

 with the plans of destined pleasure. 



18//?. To Haming, through an uninteresting countrv. — 28 

 miles. 



igih. To Savern,^ in Alsace: the country to Phalsbourg, a 

 small fortified town, on the frontiers, is much the same to the 

 eye as hitherto. The women in Alsace all wear straw hats as 

 large as those worn in England ; they shelter the face, and should 

 secure some pretty country girls, but I have seen none yet. 

 * The now historic Zabern. 



