608 Life of Count Rumford. 



family were guests of Mr. Parker, and through him 

 acquainted with Rumford.* 



The Count's Bavarian pension was 1200, which 

 Bonaparte, as already stated, allowed him to receive, 

 with the privilege of remaining in France, on condition 

 of his living in retirement and taking no part in public 

 transactions. 



Davy had also obtained from Bonaparte, as a great 

 and especial favor granted to him as a man of science, 

 the privilege of coming into France. While in Paris, 

 Davy went with Underwood to visit and to dine with 

 the Count at Auteuil, on November 10, 1813. Of this 

 visit, Davy's biographer, Dr. Paris,f writes: "Rum- 

 ford showed his laboratory to Davy. This was exactly 

 eight months before the poor, broken-hearted Count 

 sank into the grave, the victim of domestic torment and 

 of the persecutions of the French savans, instigated by 

 his wife, the widow of the celebrated Lavoisier." 



That sad sentence must prepare us for such an ac- 

 count imperfect as it is as informs us of all that we 

 know of the last days and of the death of Rumford. 



The Countess has left among her private papers 

 several allusions to a notion or fancy of her own, 

 which she expressed freely in later years to her intimate 

 friends, to the effect that her father did not die when and 

 where it was represented to her and to others that his 

 life closed. This fancy of hers, whether suggested by 

 any mysterious and unexplained circumstances or man- 

 agement, or springing wholly from her own morbid 

 imaginings, seems almost to have brought her to be- 



* There is a fine description of Mr. Parker's estate at Draveil, written by the late 

 Mr. George R. Russell, of Boston, in the Memoirs of Harriet Preble, copied also in 

 the Genealogical Sketch of the Preble Family, p. 287, etc. 



f Life of Davy, p. 271. 



