ary she should abdicate her throne. A
sentence of banishment condemned the brilliant lady to lay down the
sceptre. Exiled to Geneva, surrounded by friends, sharing her father's
lot, occupied with her daughter's education, she had, it may be
thought, plenty of objects: she was unquestionably the first literary
woman in Europe, too, and as such, Geneva was as her salon, where she
received the homage of royalty and talent. Yet, a true Frenchwoman,
unable to bear separation from the peculiar atmosphere in which she
had been reared, she pined after it--pined still more for the friends
who visited her only to be partakers of her exile; and so she passed
the whole period of the Napoleon dynasty.

Meanwhile, in the interval between the banishment of Mme de Stael and
her return, the most captivating mistress of a Paris salon appears to
have been Mme de Beaumont. She was the daughter of M. de Montmorin,
the minister of foreign affairs, who had immediately followed Necker.
She married early, and not happily. She lived with her father,
separated from her husband, and was intrusted to transcribe some of
the very important correspondence between Mirabeau and the court. In
the Reign of Terror, her father, and it is thought others of her
family, fell by the guillotine; but she herself was spared, even
against her will. She retired for awhile into the country, visiting
among her friends, who did all they could to console her. She was the
object of the strongest attachment on the part of Chateaubriand,
Joubert, Fontanes, Mole, and many others; and when, once more, quiet
and order were restored, even at the sacrifice of much of liberty, she
came to Paris again. Her old friends rallied about her, her spirits
seemed to revive for awhile, and her salon was for a year or two a
scene of remarkable enjoyment. One who truly appreciated her, and who
was worthy to be himself the centre of a social circle--M. Joubert,
the author of some beautiful thoughts on literature and divers other
subjects--thus tenderly commemorates the evenings to which we have
alluded: 'Peaceful society! where none of those disuniting pretensions
which spoil enjoyment could come; where acknowledged talent was not
divorced from good temper; where praise was given to whatever was
praiseworthy; where nothing was thought of but what was really
attractive. Peaceful society! whose scattered members can never unite
again without speaking of her who was the connecting link that bro