150 COUNT RUMFORD. 



lodge, and gave him orders, on his peril, not to let 

 any one in. Besides, I took away the keys. Madame 

 went down, and when the company arrived, she talked 

 with them, — she on one side, they on the other, of the 

 high brick wall. After that she goes and pours boiling 

 water on some of my beautiful flowers.' 



Six months later, the sounds of lamentation and 

 woe are continued. There was no alteration for the 

 better. He thought of separation, but the house and 

 garden in the Rue d'Anjou being a joint concern, legal 

 difficulties arose as to the division of it. ' I have suf- 

 fered,' he says to his daughter, ' more than you can 

 imagine for the last four weeks; but my rights are 

 incontestable, and I am determined to maintain them. 

 I have the misfortune to be married to one of the 

 most imperious, tyrannical, unfeeling women that ever 

 existed, and whose perseverance in pursuing an object 

 is equal to her profound cunning and wickedness in 

 framing it.' He purposed taking a house at Auteuil. 

 It would be unfortunate if, notwithstanding all the 

 bounties of the King of Bavaria, he could not live 

 more independently than with this unfeeling, cunning, 

 tyrannical woman. * Alas ! little do we know people 

 at first sight ! Do you preserve my letters ? You will 

 perceive that I have given very different accounts of 

 this woman, for lady I cannot call her.' He describes 

 his habitation as no longer the abode of peace. He 

 breakfasts alone in his apartment, while to his infinite 

 chagrin most of the visitors are his wife's determined 

 adherents. He is sometimes present at her tea-parties, 

 but finds little to amuse him. 'I have waited,' he 

 says (which we may doubt), ' with great, I may say 

 unexampled patience, for a return of reason and a 

 change of conduct, but I am firmly resolved not to be 

 driven from my ground, not even by disgust. A sepa- 



