ate constitution. It was
his good fortune to be the husband of one of the finest, and most
amiable women in France, and the father of an affectionate, beautiful,
and accomplished family. His circumstances had been once splendid; they
were then respectable, but he had passed through events which threatened
his _all_. Those sufferings which generous souls sustain for the sake of
others, not for themselves, had alone destroyed the resemblance which
once existed between this excellent man and his admirable portrait,
which, at the further end of the room, presented the healthy glow, and
fine proportions of manly beauty. He expressed to me, in the most
charming manner, his regret, that indisposition confined him to the
country, and prevented him from receiving me in Paris suitable to his
own wishes, and to those claims which I had upon his attentions, by the
letters of introduction which I had brought to him; but added, that he
should furnish me with letters to some of his friends in town, who would
be happy to supply his absence, and to make Paris agreeable to me.
Monsieur O---- was as good as his word.

This amiable gentleman possessed a countenance of great genius, and a
mind full of intelligence.

After an elegant supper, when his lady and daughters had withdrawn, he
entered into a very interesting account of his country, of the
revolution, and of his flight for the salvation of himself and family. A
tolerably good opinion may be formed of the devastation which have been
produced by the late republican government, by the following
circumstance, which Monsieur O---- assured me, on the word of a man of
honour, was correct.

His section in Paris was composed of one thousand three hundred persons,
of rank and fortune, of whom only five had escaped the slaughter of the
guillotine!!

Madame O---- and her charming family, seemed wholly to occupy his heart
and affections.

He spoke of his lady with all the tender eulogium of a young lover.
Their union was entirely from attachment, and had been resisted on the
part of Madame O----, when he first addressed her, only because her
fortune was humble, compared with his. He informed me, and I must not
suppress the story, that in the time of blood, this amiable woman, who
is remarkable for the delicacy of her mind, and for the beauty and
majesty of her person, displayed a degree of coolness and courage,
which, in the field of battle, would have covered the hero with laurels.
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