Reluctantly they separated in May, Pauline returning to Wittmold with more luggage than she brought from there, namely, a large box of clothes from America, a present from George de la Fayette to the emigrs at Wittmold, and a trunk full of clothes belonging to M. de Beaune, which Mme. de la Fayette had found and brought from Auvergne, and which, though they were somewhat old-fashioned, he was delighted to get.
They were to start at midnight, and it was quite time they did so.The hot weather she used to spend at some house [137] she took or had lent to her in the country near St. Petersburg.But, except in cases of absolute political necessity and at the entreaty of him, who was now not only her uncle and adopted father, but her king, the Duchesse dAngoulme would receive no one who had in any way injured her mother. She would have nothing to do with Mme. de Stael, and would not even receive Mme. Campan, because she did not believe she had been always thoroughly loyal to her; though in that many people said she was mistaken. Mme. Campan, in her memoirs, professes the greatest affection and respect for her royal mistress, and during the Empire, she always kept in her room a bust of the Queen.To the peasant girl declared to be the most virtuous and obedient to her parents.You will see, said Rivarol, that these haughty Romans whom M. Louis David has brought into fashion with his cold, hard painting, will bring us [285] through a period of Cato and Brutus. It is the law of contrast. After the solemn airs of Louis XIV., the orgies of Louis XV.; after the suppers of Sardanapalus-Pompadour, the milk and water breakfasts of TitusLouis XVI. The French nation had too much esprit, they are now going to saturate themselves with stupidity.