JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 139 
With all his courage and buoyancy, 
Audubon was subject to fits of depres- 
sion, probably the result largely of his 
enforced separation from his family. 
On one occasion in Edinburgh he speaks 
of these attacks, and refers pathetically 
to others he had had: ‘‘ But that was in 
beloved America, where the ocean did 
not roll between me and my wife and 
sons.’’ 
Never was amore patriotic American. 
He loved his adopted country above all 
other lands in which he had journeyed. 
Never was a more devoted husband, 
and never did wife more richly deserve 
such devotion than did Mrs. Audubon. 
He says of her: ‘‘She felt the pangs of 
our misfortune perhaps more heavily 
than I, but never for an hour lost her 
courage ; her brave and cheerful spirit 
accepted all, and no reproaches from her 
beloved lips ever wounded my heart. 
With her was I not always rich?’’ 
‘“‘The waiting time, my brother, is the 
hardest time of all.’’ 
