LAST VISIT TO COUERON 131 



scription officers of Napoleon would send him to the 

 war if he remained. At that time Lieutenant Audubon 

 and his wife issued jointly to their son and to Ferdinand 

 Rozier a power of attorney for the conduct of their 

 business affairs in America. Parts only of this punc- 

 tilious document, which was written in French, have 

 been preserved, 5 and these through the translation of a 

 "notary public and sworn interpreter of foreign lan- 

 guages for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, resi- 

 dent in Philadelphia." The names of the grantors, who 

 signed this letter on October 21, 1805, were attested 

 under the signature and seal of the mayor of Coueron; 

 this official upon the same day declared that, in con- 

 formity with the rfgorous requirements of the laws of 

 the State of Pennsylvania, since "no other act, not even 

 a notarial instrument, can in any manner supply the 

 same," he had examined Anne Moynet Audubon apart, 

 when she admitted that she perfectly understood the 

 nature of the act, which she had "signed, sealed, and 

 delivered of her own free will and accord, without being 

 compelled thereto by her husband, either by threats, or 

 by any other means of compulsion whatsoever." The 

 mayor's signature was authenticated three days later 

 by the subprefect of Savenay, and the formality was 

 finally closed by the attestation of his signature by the 

 prefect, on the 27th of November. 



It was during this last visit to his home in France 

 that Audubon's sister, Rosa, 6 was married to Gabriel 



5 See Appendix I, Document No. 8. 



6 The civil ceremony of Rosa Audubon's marriage was performed 

 at the mayor's office in Coueron, on December 16, 1805 (le 26 frimaire, an 

 14), when the bride was in her eighteenth year; the contract had been 

 drawn on the 12th day of that month (le 22 frimaire, an 14) by notary 

 Martin Daviais, who was mayor of Coueron in the following year, and the 

 religious ceremony was conducted by the Bishop of Nantes. "The fol- 

 lowing have assisted," so reads in translation the Coueron record, "at 



