“Three months passed in the enchantments of a passion by which Madame Recamier was profoundly touched, if she did not share it.  Everything conspired to favor Prince Augustus.  The imagination of Madame de Stael, easily seduced by anything poetical and singular, made her an eloquent auxiliary of the Prince.  The place itself, those beautiful shores of Lake Geneva, peopled by romantic phantoms, had a tendency to bewilder the judgment.  Madame Recamier was moved.  For a moment she welcomed an offer of marriage which was not only a proof of the passion, but of the esteem of a prince of a royal house, deeply impressed by the weight of its own prerogatives and the greatness of its rank.  Vows were exchanged.  The tie which united the beautiful Juliette to Monsieur Recamier was one which the Catholic Church itself proclaimed null.  Yielding to the sentiment with which she inspired the Prince, Juliette wrote to Monsieur Recamier, requesting the rupture of their union.  He replied that he would consent to a divorce, if it was her wish, but he made an appeal to her feelings.  He recalled the affection he had shown her from childhood.  He even expressed regret at having respected her susceptibilities and repugnances, thus preventing a closer bond of union, which would have made all thoughts of a separation impossible.  Finally he requested, that, if Madame Recamier persisted in her project, the divorce should not take place in Paris, but out of France, where he would join her to arrange matters.”

This letter had the desired effect.  Madame Recamier concluded not to abandon her husband, and returned to Paris, but without undeceiving the Prince, who started for Berlin.  According to her biographer, Madame Recamier trusted that absence would soften the disappointment she had in store for him; but, if this was the case, the means she took to accomplish it were very inadequate.  She sent him her portrait soon after her return to Paris, which the Prince acknowledged in a letter, of which the following is an extract:—­

    “April 24th, 1808.

“I hope that my letter of the 31st has already been received.  I could only very feebly express to you the happiness I felt on the receipt of your last, but it will give you some idea of my sensations when reading it, and in receiving your portrait.  For whole hours I looked at this enchanting picture, dreaming of a happiness which must surpass the most delicious reveries of imagination.  What fate can be compared to that of the man whom you love?”

When Madame Recamier subsequently wrote to him more candidly, the Prince was astonished.  “Your letter was a thunderbolt,” he replied; but he would not accept her decision, and claimed the right of seeing her again.  Three years passed in uncertainty, and in 1811 Madame Recamier consented to meet him at Schaffhausen; but she did not fulfil her engagement, giving the sentence of exile which had just been passed