Life of Count Rumford. 593 



come quite reconciled to give over any wish that he 

 might previously have entertained to hold toward her 

 the protective authority of a husband, he regarded her 

 as needing some influence to overrule her own volatile in- 

 clinations. He was himself at the time very ill, and also 

 engrossed in his sympathies by the illness of relatives 

 very dear to him. His magnanimity and generosity 

 of spirit are quite observable in that, while alienated 

 from the father and a rejected suitor of the daughter, 

 he exhibits such a sincere anxiety and interest in her 

 behalf amid the risks of the metropolis. I have been 

 informed by an intimate friend of the Countess, that 

 she herself in confidence avowed that, before she re- 

 turned to America from her first European visit, she 

 would willingly have married Sir Charles, but as he 

 was poor, and her father was unable to give her an 

 establishment suited to her rank and his wishes, he 

 withstood her inclinations. 



I have found among the papers of the late Mr. James 

 F. Baldwin the following interesting letters, in the first 

 of which the Countess informs him of her voyage and 

 of her having reached her father's house. 



" AUTEUIL, December 7, 1811. 



" MY FRIEND, I arrived here about a week ago in perfect 

 health, after a journey of six months and some days. It was 

 very long, to be sure, but very fortunate. I must say I found 

 friends everywhere, and not half so many difficulties as I was 

 led to expect from the difficulty of the times. 



" We sailed from New York the 24th July, and had a very 

 agreeable, fine passage ; but the 24th August were taken just 

 off Bordeaux, and the 5th of September we arrived in Plymouth, 

 where I stayed till the 14th, then went up to London. I was 

 not at all sorry to be taken, for I had a charming visit in Lon- 

 38 



