THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

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quered nations, all this did not prevent his eagle gaze from following Madame de Stael. The publication of “ Corinne ” was followed by a new decree of banishment. She buried her chagrin and vexation in literary work, for she was now writing her “ Germany.” When that work was ready for publication she submitted it to the imperial censors, who, after cutting out a few passages, consented to its publication. But the work was hardly out of press when an order was issued by Napoleon, or his minister of police, to destroy it, and the whole edition of ten thousand copies was lit­erally chopped into pieces, and the author was ordered to leave France within three days. The officer who brought her the message demanded the manuscript of the book. Her son, during the absence of the mother, with remarkable pres­ence of mind, gave to the officer a rough copy, which had fortunately been preserved, instead of the perfect one, and thus the work was saved to the world. Madame de Stael was nearly crushed by this blow. She wished to escape to America, but permission to leave was refused her by the minister of police, who, in handing the letter of refusal to her son, said: “ Does she think that after we have been fighting Germany eighteen years she can print a book without mentioning us? ” He added: “ The work deserved to be destroyed, and its author ought to be sent to the prison at Vincennes.”

Madame de Stael retired to Coppet, but persecutions did not cease. Friends who visited her were banished from France, among them Schlegel, Madame de Recamier and M. de Montmorency. She was forbidden to drive over two leagues from Coppet. The surveillance became unendurable. She resolved to flee to England. As every port was blockaded, she was obliged to make her escape through Russia, which Napo­leon was on the point of invading. She has given in her “ Ten Years of Exile” a vivid account of the secret departure of herself and family, and of the flight through Switzerland, Austria, Russia and Sweden. When she reached Moscow there w r as the most intense excitement, as they were daily expecting the arrival of Napoleon’s armies. She left Moscow, she says, “ while the din of war filled the air, and the whole empire seemed tremulous under the tread of armies.” After nearly a year’s journey she reached England, and she was received in London with great eclat.

In England she published her “ Germany,” having carried the precious manu­script with her in her flight through many lands. “In less than a year it appeared in German, French and English, from the presses of Heidelberg, Hanover, Bremen, Paris, London and Edinburgh.” It created great excitement in the literary world. All the great scholars in Europe acknowledged its power. Goethe says: “ It was a pow­erful engine which made a wide breach in the Chinese wall of prejudice which had divided Germany and P'rance.” The book was published safely in Paris, for Napoleon was no longer in power. The Russian campaign had failed, and Napoleon had abdi­cated, and Madame de Stael returned to her beloved Paris, which she had not seen for more than ten years. She was at Coppet when the defeat at Waterloo occurred, but she would not return to Paris at once. She did not wish, she says, “ to witness the second invasion, and Paris bristling with six hundred thousand foreign bayonets.”

The summer of 1816 was one of the most brilliant seasons at Coppet, and it was the last she spent there. The following, written by Stendal (Bayle), may give us an impression of the gatherings that made Coppet famous. This was written soon after her death:

“ There was here on the coast of Lake Geneva last autumn the most astonishing reunion. It was the states general of European opinion. The phenomenon rises even to political importance. There were here six hundred persons, the most distin­guished of Europe. Men of intellect, of wealth, of the greatest titles—all came here to seek pleasure in the salon of the illustrious woman for whom France weeps today.” The Review Politique , 1880, says: “ It was a parliament whence came forth political doctrines, a race of statesmen, a school of thinkers, which have filled with their com­bats, their triumphs or their defeats, more than half a century of our history.”

Probably no woman has ever had a more positive influence over political thought of her times than Madame de Stael.

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