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«¦ The Father Of Madame Recamier Was Jea...
de Lavaland Henri de Montmorency his son . "Us n ' en mouraient _, tousmais tous etaient frappes" said the Due de Laval .
pas Adrien , de Montmorency , Due de , Laval , was at this time about thirty-three years of age , clever , witty , and interesting ; a good
talkera _poj ) ular man of the world , and an honest , yet successful dilomatist , . His admiration for Madame Recamier was sudden
and p devotedand it was not destined to fade away . Years passed _, changes of , all sorts occurred , but she could always count on his
sincere and earnest friendship . His son Henri , many years later , offered to Madame . Recamier a boyish devotion , but died before it
could be tested as his father ' s had been . But Matthieu Jean _Felicite Due de Montmorency was one of the
three dearest friends whom Madame Recamier ever possessed , —and in some respects must have had a more peculiar and stronger claim
upon her than any other . His admiration and tenderness for her did not make him blind to the dangers of her position , or the faults
to which she had a tendency . He watched over her like a most tender fathercounselled her as a prudent confessor , advised her as
a disinterested , friend , and yet dedicated his heart to her service with a fidelity and truth which had in it something of the days of
chivalry and romance . Born of one of the first houses of France he was nevertheless
seized when very young with a passionate enthusiasm for the most ultra liberal viewsand it was he who as deputy to the Etats
Generaux brought forward , the motion for the abolition of the privileges of the nobility . He had not only entered into the political ideas
of the day , but had _j ) _lunged into worldly excesses and _dissijDations with equal zest . During his absence in Switzerlandhowever , his
, brotherthe Abbe de _Layal , was executed , and this blow not only sobered , him at once and for everbut filled him with remorse and
sorrow at the recollection of having , ever advocated those doctrines and supported that party which were now guilty of his brother's
blood . Through a terrible struggle he passed , and emerged with the
traces of it on his countenance , and the impression , never to be effaced , on his heart . the service of
All his aspirations , all his efforts , were directed to God and his suffering fellow-creatures . A tinge of melancholy , and a stern self-denial were not the only traces of his past life \
he had learnt from it a constant charity for those who were subject to the failings he had known , and his zealous and earnest interest
for the spiritual welfare of all whom he loved , made up a character which was indeed so noble , so upright , so generous and so faithful ,
that we can but consider his attachment to Madame Recamier as the one of all others which she may have been proud to have inspired
and retained . The faultsso natural in her position as to be almost inevitable ,
were too great , an attraction for amusements , a disposition , partly
