546 Life of Count Rumford. 



" Give my best compliments to Colonel Baldwin and to all 

 my old friends. I do not yet despair of seeing America once 

 more. Adieu, my dear Sally. 



" Ever Yours most affectionately, 



" R." 



The Countess, of course, asks aid from Colonel 

 Baldwin. 



" BOSTON, September 18, 1804. 



" DEAR SIR, My father has written to me to desire me 

 to get of the town clerk of Woburn certificates of his birth 

 and the death of his father, and has sent a form by which he 

 would wish to have them drawn up. I should take it as a 

 particular favor if you will procure for me two certificates of 

 each from the town clerk, couched in the same terms, or as 

 nearly as possible in the same terms, and properly signed. I 

 wish two, as I am to send duplicates, for fear one set might be 

 lost. 



" It seems there is now a regulation in France which makes 

 certificates of a like nature necessary, as likewise the consent 

 of parents, if living, in order to render a marriage legal. A 

 vessel is shortly expected to sail for France, and, if possible, I 

 should be very glad to procure these certificates and forward 

 them to my father by this conveyance. 



" Yours, &c. in haste, 



"S. RUMFORD. 



" Please to obtain a certificate of my paternal grandfather's 

 death, in the following form : 



" I, , Town Clerk of Woburn, in the State of Massachu- 

 setts, do hereby certify that Thompson, of this place, 



Father of Benjamin Thompson, Esq., formerly of this place, 



now Count of the Holy Roman Empire, was buried , as 



appears by the public records." 



The certificates undoubtedly were duly sent as de- 

 sired. The acquaintance between the Count and the 



