LAST VISIT TO COUERON 131 
scription officers of Napoleon would send him to the 
war if he remained. At that time Lieutenant Audubon 
and his wife issued jointly to their son and to Ferdinand 
Rozier a power of attorney for the conduct of their 
business affairs in America. Parts only of this punc- 
tilious document, which was written in French, have 
been preserved,® and these through the translation of a 
“notary public and sworn interpreter of foreign lan- 
guages for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, resi- 
dent in Philadelphia.” The names of the grantors, who 
signed this letter on October 21, 1805, were attested 
under the signature and seal of the mayor of Couéron; 
this official upon the same day declared that, in con- 
formity with the rigorous requirements of the laws of 
the State of Pennsylvania, since “no other act, not even 
a notarial instrument, can in any manner supply the 
same,” he had examined Anne Moynet Audubon apart, 
when she admitted that she perfectly understood the 
nature of the act, which she had “signed, sealed, and 
delivered of her own free will and accord, without being 
compelled thereto by her husband, either by threats, or 
by any other means of compulsion whatsoever.” The 
mayor’s signature was authenticated three days later 
by the subprefect of Savenay, and the formality was 
finally closed by the attestation of his signature by the 
prefect, on the 27th of November. 
It was during this last visit to his home in France 
that Audubon’s sister, Rosa,*° was married to Gabriel 
5 See Appendix I, Document No. 8. 
®The civil ceremony of Rosa Audubon’s marriage was performed 
at the mayor’s office in Couéron, on December 16, 1805 (le 26 frimaire, an 
14), when the bride was in her eighteenth year; the contract had been 
drawn on the 12th day of that month (le 22 frimaire, an 14) by notary 
Martin Daviais, who was mayor of Couéron in the following year, and the 
religious ceremony was conducted by the Bishop of Nantes. “The fol- 
lowing have assisted,” so reads in translation the Couéron record, “at 
