M. Arago told me that David, the sculptor, wished to make a medallion of me; so he came and sat an hour with me, and pleased me by his intelligent conversation and his enthusiasm for art. A day was fixed, and he took my profile on slate with pink wax, in a wonderfully short time. He made me a present of a medallion in bronze, nicely framed, and two plaster casts for my daughters.
I frequently went to hear the debates in the Chambers, and occasionally took my girls, as I thought it was an excellent lesson in French. As party spirit ran very high, the scenes that occurred were very amusing. A member, in the course of his speech, happening to mention the word "liberté," the President Dupin rang the bell, called out "Stop, à propos de liberté," ... jumped down from his seat, sprung into the tribune, pushed out the deputy, and made a long speech himself.
The weather being fine, we made excursions in the neighbourhood. At Sèvres I saw two pieces of china; on one of them was a gnu, on the other a zebra. Somerville had told me that soon after his return from his African expedition, he had given the original drawings to M. Brongniart then director of the manufactory.
Baron Louis invited me to spend a day with him and his niece, Mademoiselle de Rigny, at his country house, not far from Paris. I went with Madame de la Place, and we set out early, to be in time for breakfast. The road lay through the Forest of Vincennes. The Baron's park, which was close to the village of Petit-Brie, was very large, and richly wooded; there were gardens, hot-houses, and all the luxuries of an English nobleman's residence. The house was handsome, with a magnificent library; I remarked on the table the last numbers of the "Edinburgh" and "Quarterly" Reviews. Both the Baron and his niece were simple and kind. I was greatly taken with both; the Baron had all the quiet elegance of the old school, and his niece had great learning and the manners of a woman of fashion. She lived in perfect retirement, having suffered much in the time of the Revolution. They had both eventful lives; for Baron Louis, who had been in orders, and Talleyrand officiated at the Champs de Mars when Louis the Sixteenth took the oath to maintain the constitution. Field-Marshal Macdonald, Duc de Tarante, and his son-in-law, the Duc de Massa; Admiral de Rigny, Minister of Marine; M. Barthe, Garde des Sceaux; and the Bouvards, father and son, formed the party. After spending a most delightful and interesting day, we drove to Paris in bright moonlight.
Our friends in Paris and at La Grange had been so kind to us that we were very sad when we went to express our gratitude and take leave of them. We only stayed two days at La Grange, and when we returned to Paris, Somerville went home and my son joined us, when we made a rapid tour in Switzerland, the only remarkable event of which was a singular atmospheric phenomenon we saw on the top of the Grimsel. On the clouds of vapour below us we saw our shadows projected, of giant proportions, and each person saw his own shadow surrounded by a bright circle of prismatic colours. It is not uncommon in mountain regions.
General Lafayette and all his family were extremely kind to my mother. He was her constant visitor, and we twice visited him at his country house, La Grange. He wished to persuade my mother to go there for some days, after our return from Switzerland, which we did not accomplish. The General wrote the following letter to my father:—
FROM LAFAYETTE TO DR. SOMERVILLE.
La Grange, 31st October, 1833.