600 Life of Count Rumford. 



most conducive to your happiness and to your satisfaction, with- 

 out any regard to any former arrangements you may have made 

 at my request. 



11 My health continues to be good, and I yet feel none of 

 those infirmities of age which sometimes render the evening of 

 life painful. I have the satisfaction to think that I have done 

 my duty through life, and that is a great consolation to me as I 

 approach the end of my course. I shall never cease to be, my 

 Dear Mother, your dutiful and affectionate child, 



"BENJAMIN." 



When the Count wrote that letter, it was long since 

 he had been addressed by the name of his childhood, 

 which brought him so near to his mother. It would 

 not have pleased us to have had that letter closed with 

 his noble title, even had it been nobler still. 



How should we have valued a letter from the mother 



1 



to her son, addressed to him by either of his names ! 



Sarah says that she quite delighted her father on her 

 arrival, and he thought she looked remarkably well. 

 She adds that she of course " was happy to meet him, 

 and to partake once more of his society and that of 

 his numerous agreeable acquaintances, and above all to 

 enjoy the quiet security of his paternal love and protec- 

 tion, of which she had been deprived for so many 

 years. For a time, as things went on, nothing could 

 be better." The Count gave her a sad rehearsal of the 

 melancholy and the annoyances which he had suffered 

 at intervals before her coming. He said: "I have not 

 deserved to have so many enemies as I find around 

 me. But it is all from coming into France and form- 

 ing this horrible connection. I believe that woman was 

 born to be the torment of my life. I would forgive 

 her for what is past, if I could be left in quiet now. 

 But I cannot, nor shall I be, this side the grave. I am 



