The _Correspondance_ of the Abbé Galiani, of Mme. Du Deffand, of Rahel Varnhagen, and of Schiller; the _Memoirs_ of Marmontel, of Mme. D’Arblay, of Mme. de Rémusat, of Mme. d’Abrantè, of Bourrienne, and of the Comte de Montlosier; Ticknor’s _Letters_; Châteaubriand’s _Mémoires d’Outre Tombe_; De Goncourt’s _Histoire de la Société Française pendant la Révolution_, and _Histoire de la Société Française pendant le Directoire_; Lacretelle’s _Dix Années d’Épreuve_; Michelet’s _Le Directoire_, _Le Dix-huit Brumaire_, and _Jusqu’à Waterloo_; _Le Salon de Madame Necker_, by Vicomte d’Haussonville; _Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy_, by Vernon Lee; Byron’s _Letters_; Benjamin Constant’s _Letters to Mme. Récamier_; _Coppet and Weimar_; _Les Correspondants de Joubert_, by Paul Raynal; _Les Causeries du Lundi_, and other studies by Ste. Beuve; Droz’ _Histoire du Règne de Louis XVI._; Villemain’s _Cours de Littérature Française_; the fragments from Constant’s _Journals_, recently published in the _Revue Internationale_; Sismondi’s _Journals_ and _letters_; and sundry old articles in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_; besides various other volumes, of which the list would be long and wearisome to detail. BELLA DUFFY. CONTENTS. Chap. Page. I.—THE MOTHER 1 II.—GERMAINE 9 III.—GIRLHOOD AND MARRIAGE 20 IV.—NECKER’S SHORT-LIVED TRIUMPH 34 V.—MADAME DE STAËL IS COURAGEOUS FOR HER FRIENDS 51 VI.—RETURNS TO COPPET 69 VII.—THE TRANSFORMED CAPITAL 78 VIII.—MADAME DE STAËL MEETS NAPOLEON 93 IX.—NEW FACES AT COPPET 108 X.—MADAME DE STAËL VISITS GERMANY 127 XI.—MADAME DE STAËL AND AUGUSTE SCHLEGEL AT ROME 141 XII.—MADAME DE STAËL’S SECOND MARRIAGE 162 XIII.—ENGLAND AGAIN 180 XIV.—CLOSING SCENES 196 XV.—HER WORKS 207 MADAME DE STAËL. CHAPTER I. THE MOTHER. “My dear friend having the same tastes as myself, would certainly wish always for my chair, and, like his little daughter, would beat me to make me give it up to him. To keep peace between our hearts, I send a chair for him also. The two are of suitable height and their lightness renders them easy to carry. They are made of the most simple material, and were bought at the sale of Philemon and Baucis.” Thus wrote Madame Geoffrin to Madame Necker when the intimacy between them had reached such a pitch as to warrant the introduction into the Necker salons of the only sort of chair in which the little old lady cared to sit.