32 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



Les Sons Amis (1775-6), and Le Comte d'Artois 

 (1777-8). 



Captain Audubon was married on August 24, 1772, 

 at Paimboeuf, to Anne Moynet, 7 a widow of some prop- 

 erty, who had been born at Nantes in 1735 and was thus 

 nine years his senior. Her married name was Ricordel. 

 She possessed several houses at Paimboeuf, and acquired 

 one in 1777, which was rented to the Administration at 

 the time of the Revolution (see Vol. I, p. 80), as well as 

 a dwelling at Nantes, where she lived while her roving 

 sailor of a husband was in Santo Domingo or the United 

 States. Madame Audubon was a woman of simple 

 tastes, devoted to culture, and, as we shall see, possessed 

 of a kind heart. 



When Captain Audubon left Les Cayes, Santo 

 Domingo, on his last trading voyage, in the spring of 

 1779, bound for Nantes with a valuable cargo, his ship, 

 Le Comte d'Artois, was attacked by four British cor- 

 sairs and two galleys. With the odds overwhelmingly 

 against him, he fought until his crew were nearly all 

 killed or disabled, and after an abortive attempt to 

 blow up his vessel, tried to escape in his shallop. For 

 the second time he was made a prisoner by the English, 

 who in this instance took him to New York, then in the 

 possession of British troops. He was landed in that 

 city on May 12, 1779, and was held there as a prisoner 

 of war for thirteen months. If our inference be correct, 

 he finally owed his release to the efforts of the French 

 Ambassador, Monsieur de la Luzerne, the same, we 

 believe, who had been a Governor of Santo Domingo, 

 and who in 1790 became its Minister of Marine. As 



7 As signed by herself, but variously spelled "Moinet," or "Moynette" 

 in family documents of the period. On August 28, four days after their 

 marriage, they drew up and signed a mutual contract regarding the 

 disposition of their property in case children should be born to them. 



