Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 3

[574] for an old university.¹ The favorite resort of the people is the Promenade du Peyrou, an extensive terrace planted with limetrees, decorated with a triumphal arch, an equestrian statue of Louis XIV., and the Chateau d'eau, and commanding a view of the Mediterranean and the Cevennes. The way from the modern quarter, where the hotels are situated, to the Promenade was in 1859, and even twenty years later, by the market through narrow and devious ways; but a wide street with new buildings now connects the two points. Sumner took lodgings at the Hotel Nevet (named from its proprietor, who had once been a courier for English travellers). Here he remained more than three months, attending faithfully to the medical directions, and passing eighteen hours a day on bed or lounge. He could not have been more secluded from old associations, for he saw no one whom he had ever seen before, except M. Chevalier, who happened to be in the city for a day, and Mrs. Kuhn (daughter of Charles Francis Adams) and her husband, tourists on their way through the south of France. With these two there was a full talk one evening, at his rooms, of Boston and old friends. But Sumner found much that was enjoyable in his seclusion, and made friendships which lasted for life. His physician, Dr. A. Crouzet, to whom he was commended by Dr.. Brown-Sequard, conceived such an admiration for his patient that he refused compensation for his services, and twenty-five years after spoke with enthusiasm of him as ‘aussi admirable au physique qua au morale.’ He was introduced also by letter to Charles Martins,² a distinguished naturalist, then director of the Jardin des Plantes. There was then living at Montpellier Captain J. R. Gordon,³ a retired English soldier who had served under Wellington, and who had become intimate with French officers-Valliant, Cavaignac, and Lamoriciere— who were from time to time in garrison at Montpellier. With these two families, connected by the marriage of Gordon's son Richard to the daughter of Martins, Sumner was in daily association.