Lives of Celebrated WomenGoodrich, Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold)
History
Lives of Celebrated Women
Goodrich, Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold)
Women -- Biography
Madame de Stael was at Coppet, passing the summer, when her father
published a work called "Last View of Politics and Finance." In this
he points out the progress which Bonaparte was making towards despotic
power. Irritated at this attack, the first consul forbade the return
of the daughter to Paris, from whence she had conveyed such false
impressions to her father.
But, much as she loved her father, she could not content herself away
from Paris. Genevese society contrasted sadly, in her estimation, with
the brilliant circle of her Parisian friends. Hoping, amidst the
excitements which attend the commencement of a war, to be overlooked,
she ventured, after the rupture of the peace of Amiens, to establish
herself at the distance of thirty miles from her beloved capital. The
first consul was informed that the road to her residence was crowded
with her visitants. She heard that she was to receive an order to
depart, and she sought to evade it by wandering from the house of one
friend to that of another. It was at length received, and the
intercession of Joseph Bonaparte, and other friends of the first
consul, was of no avail.
Loath to appear in disgrace among the Genevese, and hoping, amid new
scenes, to forget her griefs, she resolved to visit Germany. "Every
step of the horses," she tells us, as she left Paris, "was a pang;
and, when the postilions boasted that they had driven fast, I could
not help smiling at the sad service they did me."
The enjoyment which she derived from the attention and kindness with
which she was every where received, and from the vast field of
knowledge which opened itself to her, was interrupted by the sad news
of the illness of her father, followed quickly by intelligence of his
death. She at once set off for Coppet. Her feelings, during the
melancholy journey, are beautifully and naturally recorded in the "Ten
Years of Exile." This work, which was not published until after her
death, is the most interesting of her writings, and the best as it
respects style. It was commenced at Coppet, and feigned names and
false dates were substituted for the real, for the purpose of
misleading the government, whose perfect system of _espionage_ would
otherwise have rendered fruitless her most careful endeavors at
concealment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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