Audubon and His Journals, Volume 1Audubon, John James
History
Audubon and His Journals, Volume 1
Audubon, John James
Audubon, John James, 1785-1851 -- Diaries; Birds -- North America; Naturalists -- United States -- Diaries
members of the Legion d'Honneur, and walked about admiring the fine
marble statues and the paintings. A gentleman soon came to me, and
asked if perchance my name was Audubon? I bowed, and he replied:
"Bless me, we thought that you had gone and left your portfolio; my
uncle has been waiting for you twenty minutes; pray, sir, follow me."
We passed through a file of bowing domestics, and a door being opened
I saw the Duke coming towards me, to whom I was introduced by the
nephew. Lucy, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama have furnished the
finest men in the world, as regards physical beauty; I have also seen
many a noble-looking Osage chief; but I do not recollect a
finer-looking man, in form, deportment, and manners, than this Duc
d'Orleans. He had my book brought up, and helped me to untie the
strings and arrange the table, and began by saying that he felt a
great pleasure in subscribing to the work of an American, for that he
had been most kindly treated in the United States, and should never
forget it. The portfolio was at last opened, and when I held up the
plate of the Baltimore Orioles, with a nest swinging amongst the
tender twigs of the yellow poplar, he said: "This surpasses all I have
seen, and I am not astonished now at the eulogiums of M. Redoute." He
spoke partly English, and partly French; spoke much of America, of
Pittsburgh, the Ohio, New Orleans, the Mississippi, steamboats, etc.,
etc., and added: "You are a great nation, a wonderful nation."
The Duke promised me to write to the Emperor of Austria, King of
Sweden, and other crowned heads, and asked me to write to-day to the
Minister of the Interior. I remained talking with him more than an
hour; I showed him my list of English subscribers, many of whom he
knew. I asked him for his own signature; he took my list and with a
smile wrote, in very large and legible characters, "Le Duc d'Orleans."
I now felt to remain longer would be an intrusion, and thanking him
respectfully I bowed, shook hands with him, and retired. He wished to
keep the set I had shown him, but it was soiled, and to such a good
man a good set must go. At the door I asked the fat porter if he would
tell me again his master was out. He tried in vain to blush.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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