Life of Count Rumford. 45 



time for fashionable array, including the offices of tailor 

 and hair-dresser. Of course the color of his garments 

 was his own favorite scarlet, ominous of the ill esteem 

 into which he was soon to fall as too friendly to those 

 whose military garb was of that hue. Tradition re- 

 ports, that as the pair, not yet married, were on their 

 homeward way, the lady ordered the curricle to stop 

 at the door of Mrs. Pierce's house, the mother of her 

 companion. That mother, being as yet ignorant of the 

 change that had come over the fortunes of her son, was 

 amazed at the apparition at her humble doorway, and 

 especially at the gorgeous and extravagant array of her 

 son, the village schoolmaster, and the not idle, but 

 unprofitably busy experimenter. She is reported to 

 have given vent to her surprise in the rebuking ques- 

 tion, "Why, Ben ! my son, how could you go and 

 lay out all your winter's earnings in finery ? " The 

 tradition continues that the mother, hesitating some- 

 what about the character of her son's female com- 

 panion and the explanation given by her, was finally, 

 through the intervention of Dr. Hay, made to under- 

 stand the circumstances of the case. She still wished 

 time to think upon it, but on the next day gave her 

 consent. (See Appendix.) 



Thompson said that he was married " at the age of 

 nineteen." Here, again, the loss of the minister's 

 almanac leaves us in ignorance of a date. Benjamin 

 Thompson and Mrs. Sarah Walker Rolfe were mar- 

 ried previously to January 18, 1773. Their daughter, 

 and only child, Sarah, late Countess of Rumford, was 

 born October 18, 1774, in the Rolfe mansion. I have 

 found one date given for the marriage as "about No- 

 vember, 1772," and it probably did take place then, or 



