We had secured an apartment in the little Hôtel de Villette, in the Cul-de-Sac Férou, Faubourg Saint-Germain. I hastened in search of my first friends. I saw the men of letters with whom I had had some acquaintance. Among new faces I noticed those of the learned Abbé Barthélemy[14] and the poet Saint-Ange[15]. The abbé modelled the _gynecœa_ of Athens too closely upon the drawing-rooms at Chanteloup. The translator of Ovid was not a man without talent; talent is a gift, an isolated thing: it can come together with other mental faculties, it can be separated from them. Saint-Ange supplied a proof of this; he made the greatest efforts not to be stupid, but was unable to prevent himself. A man whose pencil I admired and still admire, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre[16], was lacking in intelligence, and unfortunately his character was on a level with his intelligence. How many pictures in the _Études de la nature_ are spoilt by the writer's limited mind and want of elevation of soul. Rulhière had died suddenly, in 1791[17], before my departure for America. I have since seen his little house at Saint-Denis, with the fountain and the pretty statue of Love, at the foot of which one reads these verses: D'Egmont avec l'Amour visita cette rive: Une image de sa beauté Se peignit un moment sur l'onde fugitive: D'Egmont a disparu; l'Amour seul est resté[18]. When I left France the theatres of Paris were still ringing with the _Réveil d'Épiménide_[19], and with this stanza: J'aime la vertu guerrière De nos braves défenseurs, Mais d'un peuple sanguinaire Je déteste les fureurs. À l'Europe redoutables, Soyons libres à jamais, Mais soyons toujours aimables Et gardons l'esprit français[20]. When I returned, the _Réveil d'Épiménide_ had been forgotten; and, if the stanza had been sung, the author would have been badly handled. _Charles IX._ was now the rage. The popularity of this piece depended principally upon the circumstances of the time: the tocsin, a nation armed with poniards, the hatred of the kings and the priests, all these offered a reproduction between four walls of the tragedy which was being publicly enacted. Talma, still at the commencement of his career, was continuing his successes.