Life of Count Rumford. 551 



passionately fond of music, though his lady haa no pre- 

 dilection for it. Perhaps, as the daughter suggests, if 

 her father had gone on his intended tour with his wife, 

 which the war prevented, changes of scene and compan- 

 ionship might have averted the result which was to 

 follow. 



Some interesting particulars relating to political affairs 

 are given in the other of these two letters, dated Paris, 

 January 15, 1806. The Count tells his daughter that 

 the Elector was crowned King on the first of the month, 

 and that the nuptials of the Princess Augusta with Prince 

 Eugene, Viceroy of Italy, will be celebrated on this, 

 the fifteenth day. The Emperor and Empress of France 

 are still at Munich, but are shortly expected at Paris. 



After specifying some of the new partitions of ter- 

 ritory resulting from the treaty of peace with Austria, 

 proclaimed at Paris on the date of his writing, the 

 Count proceeds : 



" The newspapers will acquaint you with the other particu- 

 lars of this Peace, which will occasion a great change in the 

 political state of Germany, as, in fact, of all Europe. I hope 

 that I shall not, and I do not think that I shall, lose by any of 

 these changes. At all events, the Elector, or rather the new- 

 King, has just written me a very kind letter, giving me hopes, 

 rather than suggesting fears of anything of a disagreeable nature. 

 But dependencies like mine can never be otherwise than uncer- 

 tain, as I feel it, notwithstanding my marriage. I may make a 

 change, after all, but never certainly to the disadvantage of any 

 one. Between you and myself, as a family secret, I am not at all 

 sure that two certain persons were not wholly mistaken, in their 

 marriage, as to each other's characters. Time will show. But 

 two months barely expired, I forebode difficulties. Already I 

 am obliged to send my good Germans home, a great discomfort 

 to me and wrong to them," 



