584 Life of Count Rumford. 



Countess of Rumford has a conspicuous position, and 

 is described with much vivacity and piquancy.* 



The Countess de Ba'ssanville says that Madame de 

 Rumford 



" Had the happiness of gathering around her men of all ranks 

 and of all kinds. The Count, her husband, a philanthropic 

 gentleman, was devoted to the culture of the sciences. He had 

 been natural philosopher, soldier, and ambassador, had traversed 

 the world for pleasure and enterprise, and thus knew a multi- 

 tude of things and a multitude of people. His conversation 

 was largely made up of his own experiences. His lady said he 

 4 was a veritable sample-card.' But she uttered this in an 

 undertone, for the Count, who had fought for the indepen- 

 dence of America (!), had brought home with him the most 

 absolute despotism. This theoretical liberal was in practice a 

 domestic tyrant. It happened that she was gracious to all, and 

 so to one living with her this cost little ; for she was the most 

 amiable woman in the world." 



The Count had once entertained the same opinion of 

 his lady. 



The authoress says that among the habituts of Madame 

 de Rumford's saloon was a certain Colonel Leroy, who 

 had been in the American war under Lafayette, "and 

 who was admitted solely on the ground of the happy 

 misfortune of being a widower. When the champagne 

 reached his head, he told great stories, though he was 

 held a little in check by Count Rumford's particular 

 and tenacious memory. After the Count's death the 

 Colonel had free scope alike for what he remembered 

 and what he invented." 



* Les Salons d'Autrefois. Souvenirs Intimes. Par Madame la Comtesse de 

 Bassanville. Preface de M. Louis Enault. Troisieme Edition. Paris, 1869. Some 

 of the other saloons described in this gossipy book are those of Madame la Pnnccsse 

 de Vaudement; Isabey } M. de Bourrienne; Madame Cam pan ; Cusimir Delavigne, &c. 



