Life of Count Rumford. 571 



actions discover an ardent zeal for the prosperity of the nation 

 he is born to govern. His Father loves him very much, en- 

 courages me to give full answers to all his questions, and you 

 may suppose I did so when I tell you that in a letter in reply to 

 his there were thirty-three pages of close writing. It is flatter- 

 ing to me to have acquired the confidence of the Princes of 

 Bavaria to the third generation. 



" By what a strange series of events have I been torn by 

 Providence from a situation in which I most unfortunately fixed 

 myself, as I thought, for life ! " 



" MUNICH, 24*. h October, 1810. 



" MY DEAR SALLY, You will perceive that this is the 

 anniversary of my marriage. I am happy to call it to mind, 

 that I may compare my present situation with the three and a 

 half horrible years I was living with that tyrannical, avaricious, 

 unfeeling woman. You can have no idea, my dear Sally, what 

 I had to suffer during the last fourteen months, indeed during 

 the whole three years and a half I lived in that house ; but the 

 closing six months was a purgatory sufficiently painful to do 

 away the sins of a thousand years. 



"The Prince Royal was married on the 12 th , and we have 

 had continued fetes and rejoicings. The English Garden is in 

 high beauty ; no expence is spared upon it. I am allowed to 

 dine with the King pretty much as often as I wish, but to- 

 morrow I take leave of him, of Munich, and the rest of my 

 friends ; so you will soon, my dear Sally, see me at Auteuil. 

 My plan was to have made quite a detour, in search of a fine 

 climate. I meant to go from hence to Milan through the Tyrol, 

 and after paying my respects there to the Vice-Queen, the King 

 of Bavaria's daughter, to go to Turin, and from thence across 

 the mountains directly to Nice. From thence by Toulon, 

 Marseilles, Montpelier, Avignon, and Lyons. I will take you 

 some time, perhaps, by that route. 



" But adieu, my dear Sally, I shall soon be with you. 



" RUMFORD." 



