George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.

[255] once when nobody but De Humboldt was there, I was positively bewitched with her conversation. One evening she made a delightful party for the Duchess of Devonshire, of only five or six persons, —my old friend the Viscount de Senonnes, Humboldt, Forbin, and two or three ladies; and Chateaubriand read a little romance on the Zegri and Abencerrages of Granada, full of descriptions glowing with poetry, like those of the environs of Naples in ‘The Martyrs.’. . . . Between four and six o'clock every day her door was open to a few persons, and this was the time all most liked to see her¹ . . . .

The Countess Pastoret's was, too, an ultra house, for her husband is entirely of the Bourbon party, and takes a good deal of interest in politics; but, in general, the political tone did not prevail, for he is a member of the Institute, and a man of considerable learning. . . . Mad. de Pastoret asked me to three little dinners, and once, when Camille Jourdain, Cuvier, and La Place were there. These parties were extremely simple, rational, and pleasant. This, in fact, is exactly Mad. de Pastoret's character. She has natural talent, and has cultivated herself highly. . . . I have seldom seen a better balanced mind, or feelings more justly regulated. . . . I have talked with many persons who have passed through the horrors of the Revolution, but no descriptions I have received have produced such an effect on my feelings, as those given by Mad. de Pastoret's simple and unpretending, but touching eloquence. It reminded me of La Roche Jacquelin. . . . . Since the death of her son, Mad. de Pastoret has never been into the world, and therefore is at home every evening, and sees only those who will not exact a formal return of visit for visit. Among those who came there most frequently was the old Due de Crillon, the representative of Henry IV.'s Crillon,. . . . and such men as Cuvier and La Place, who, like Count Pastoret himself, belong, by their age and character, to an elder state of society, and by their political situation take a deep interest in the affairs of the day.

One of the stories that Mad. de Pastoret told me was indeed touching² . . . . . During the worst period of the Revolution, she livedas she did when I knew her, and I believe as she always did—in a luxurious hotel on the Place Louis XV. She was, in fact, for some