GEORGE SAND. 549 "It is to the singer of Fontenoy that the .daughter of Marshal de Saxe addresses herself" in order to obtain bread," wrote the Countess. "... I have thought that he who has immortalized the victories of the father would be interested in the misfortunes of the daughter. To him it- belongs to adopt the children of heroes, and to be my support, as he is that of the daughter of the great Cor- neil'le." " Madame," the aged poet replied, " I shall go very soon to rejoin the hero your father, and I shall inform him with indignation of the condition in which his daughter now is." He then advised her to appeal to his particular friend, the Duchess de Choiseul, wife of the prime minister, "whose soul is just, noble, and benefi- cent." "Doubtless," he concluded, "you did me too much honor when you thought a sick old man, persecuted and withdrawn from the world, could be so happy as to serve the daughter of Marshal de Saxe. But you have done me justice in not doubting the lively interest I take in the daughter of so great a man." This letter, which she hastened to show to the Duchess de Choiseul, procured her the relief of which she stood in need, and shortly afterward she married again. Her second husband, M. Dupin, died after ten years of wedded life, leaving to his widow the care of their only child, Maurice. Madame Dupin, with what the Revolution had left to her of her husband's property, then purchased the country estate of Nohant, in Berri, since made famous through the genius of George Sand, and went there to live with her son. He, when twenty-six years of age, contracted a secret marriage with Sophie Yictorie Dela- borde, a Swiss milliner, the daughter of a dealer in song birds. Mademoiselle Delaborde, four years older than Maurice
