Journal.
September 2.—This morning I left
Paris, and I have not left any city with so little regret.
A few friends, indeed, I have left there, to whom I owe many favors and much genuine kindness; but I never knew so many people, and knew them so long, where I found so much occasion to be familiar, and so little to be intimate; where there was so much to amuse, and so little to attach my affections.
Two of those who have seemed to take the most interest in me, and whose kindness I shall never forget,—the
Duke de Broglie and
Auguste de Stael,—proposed to me to accompany them to
La Grange, where they were to visit
General Lafayette, without company.
The General had often invited me to visit him, and as his chateau is not far from the route I was to follow to
Switzerland I accompanied them.
I was much touched this morning by the
Duke's kindness, in having asked
M. Sismondi to meet me at breakfast, he having arrived last evening only, from
Geneva, and whom I could not otherwise have seen.
He is about fifty, a plain man in his manners and in his conversation, not affecting the appearance of a
petit maitre, nor the reputation of a wit, like the
Paris men of letters.
We had a pleasant drive of five hours, and arrived in the afternoon at
La Grange, near Rosoy, in the department of the Seine-et-Marne.
It is the most venerable castle I have seen in
France.
The sweet little
Duchess de Broglie was already there; more interesting than ever from her affliction,
1 which, from her perfect openness of
