If her welfare still ye prize,
Give to Freedom life once more.
Say, shall tyrants—say, shall slaves,
Trample o’er your sacred graves?
No! your ghosts to war’s alarms
Let e’en thraldom’s name excite!
Stretch, vindictive, forth your arms
From the breast of endless Night!
Count de Fersen, who was so well known afterwards for his attempts to save the unfortunate Marie Antoinette,[[119]] and Count de Staël, who married Mademoiselle Necker, were of the King’s suite. It is well known that Gustavus was warmly hostile to the French revolution, which he was preparing to oppose in the most active manner when he was assassinated.
Travellers of all nations were to be met at Rome, and, what is usually called the best society not being very extensive, it was more easy to form acquaintances, and even intimacies, than in most other great cities. We knew almost all the English, and many of the foreigners. Amongst the latter was a Knight of Malta, the Commander de Dolomieu. He was a man of good family, from Dauphiny, and very agreeable in society. He had studied mineralogy and chemistry with great success, and had written a highly esteemed work on the great earthquake in Calabria.