The following year, 1793, longing for a change from these dreadful times, she visited England, and received much attention from prominent persons, among them Fanny Burny, the author of Evelina, who owned “that she had never heard conversation before.  The most animated eloquence, the keenest observation, the most sparkling wit, the most courtly grace, were united to charm her.”

On Jan. 21 of this year, the unfortunate King had met his death on the scaffold before an immense throng of people.  Six men bound him to the plank, and then his head was severed from his body amid the shouts and waving of hats of the blood-thirsty crowd.  Necker had begged to go before the Convention and plead for his king, but was refused.  Madame de Stael wrote a vigorous appeal to the nation in behalf of the beautiful and tenderhearted Marie Antoinette; but on Sept. 16, 1793, at four o’clock in the morning, in an open cart, in the midst of thirty thousand troops and a noisy rabble, she, too, was borne to the scaffold; and when her pale face was held up bleeding before the crowd, they jeered and shouted themselves hoarse.

The next year 1794, Madame Necker died at Coppet, whispering to her husband, “We shall see each other in Heaven.”  “She looked heavenward,” said Necker in a most affecting manner, “listening while I prayed; then, in dying, raised the finger of her left hand, which wore the ring I had given her, to remind me of the pledge engraved upon it, to love her forever.”  His devotion to her was beautiful.  “No language,” says his daughter, “can give any adequate idea of it.  Exhausted by wakefulness at night, she slept often in the daytime, resting her head on his arm.  I have seen him remain immovable, for hours together, standing in the same position for fear of awakening her by the least movement.  Absent from her during a few hours of sleep, he inquired, on his return, of her attendant, if she had asked for him?  She could no longer speak, but made an effort to say ‘yes, yes.’”

When the Revolution was over, and France had become a republic, Sweden sent back her ambassador, Baron de Stael, and his wife returned to him at Paris.  Again her salon became the centre for the great men of the time.  She loved liberty, and believed in the republican form of government.  She had written her book upon the Influence of the Passions on the Happiness of Individuals and Nations, prompted by the horrors of the Revolution, and it was considered “irresistible in energy and dazzling in thought.”

She was also devoting much time to her child, Auguste, developing him without punishment, thinking that there had been too much rigor in her own childhood.  He well repaid her for her gentleness and trust, and was inseparable from her through life, becoming a noble Christian man, and the helper of all good causes.  Meantime Madame de Stael saw with alarm the growing influence of the young Corsican officer, Bonaparte.