On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    382 MADAME BECAMIER.

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    — : » • ' ¦ I '.' Madame Recamiee's Retu...

    notes which each courier brings . I have Been to Tenerani ; the bas-relief is charming , but you are more so a thousand times . In

    the midst of your sorrow you yet thought of me ; I shall try to recommence my historical researches to kill time which now kills

    me . I write before the post is in . Alas ! from you I must expect nothing . Do try to obtain my recal . "

    " 12 o ' clock . "My expectation has not deceived me , for there Is not a line from

    you . Do you remember when this thought came to you on post days ? The day after to-morrow you will have another letter from

    me . Since I have been at Konie I have written to you by every post , i . e . three times a week , and each time to say that to be here

    without you is like death . Either you must come , or I must go to you ; but rather let me return , for I am home-sick . "

    In May , 1829 , he returned and resumed his daily visits to the Abb aye au Bois . A few excursions Into the country alone

    diversified Madame Recamier ' s life , till , in the spring of 1830 , she closed the eyes of her husband . He had lived near her for years , and at

    his last moments begged to be moved to her rooms and to die there . It had been an ill-assorted marriageboth in character and age , but

    , their union had never known a jar or dissension , and their kindness of heart was a bond which covered all other dissimilarities . The

    revolution of July only affected Madame Hecamier through her friends . The short arrest of Chateaubriand , and his subsequent visits to

    Venice and London to _j ) ay his homage to the exiled prince , were the principal events which marked her quiet and uneventful life .

    In 1837 , her health failed visibly ; but in spite of fever , and cough , and sleeplessnessshe changed nothing- of her usual daily routine .

    , Her occupations , her other visits were all arranged so as iiot to interfere with M . de Chateaubriand ; he was truly the sun round

    which her other duties and affections moved , and the peace and rest -which she now found in their intercourse was her dearest

    reward and pleasure . Her illness continued , and she soon became totally blind , but she

    gave way to no repining , and even avoided allusions to her state or any marked evidence of her condition . In 1847 Madame de

    Chateaubriand died , and shortly after she lost the faithful Ballanche . His death-bed was attended by her to whom he had devoted his life ,

    and with calm resignation and sincere piety he passed away . By her visits to himand the tears she shed for his deathher last

    chance of recovering , her sight was lost . Chateaubriand was , anxious to close their lives and their friendship by marriage , but this she

    refused . She was able , at her age , to devote as much time and care to him as she desiredwithout exciting remarkand she

    declined to change her name . , She did indeed devote time , and care to him , and the last cares were soon needed ; he died in 1848 , and

    the , blow which released him struck at tlie last faint hold she-had

    382 Madame Becamier.

    382 MADAME BECAMIER _.

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1861, page 382, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021861/page/22/