Page:Daughters of Genius.djvu/286

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278 MADAME DE STA£L AND NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. in doing it. The spoiled sheets were sold to a paper- maker, and the proceeds of the sale — about one hundred and twenty dollars — were brought to the publisher ; and this was the only compensation he ever received. The author, in the meantime, was ordered to leave France within twenty-four hours. "Twenty-four hours!" It was the time allowed to conscripts to prepare for march- ing. Having with her neither money nor vehicle, she wrote to the minister asking for eight days. The request was granted ; but, in granting it, the minister of police filled his letter with polite insolence. He told her that, in his opinion, the air of France did not agree with her, and that the French people were not reduced to seek for models among the people she had held up to admiration in her work upon Germany. He was sorry for the publisher's loss ; but "It was not possible to let the work appear." At the same time, he forbade her to repair to any of the northern seaports, whence she could escape into England. It cost her nearly two years of effort before she succeeded in reaching England, so completely was Napo- leon master of the continent. After the expulsion of the tyrant she hastened to Paris, where she remained during the Hundred Days unmolested. She spent the closing years of her busy life in Switzerland, her native country, where she was secretly married to a young officer. She veiled this second marriage in secrecy because she was unwilling to change a name to which her works and her persecutions had given celebrity. Her first marriage — to the Swedish ambassador, Baron de Stael-Holstein — occurred when she was twenty. It was a marriage of convenience, not of affection, and gave her little happi- ness. Her tombstone bears a curious inscription : "HlC TANDEM QTJEISCIT QUAE NUNQUAM QUIEVIT." " Here rest3 one who never rested." She was among