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whom he was destined never more to behold, that fair young Italian lady, the Contessa Guiccioli; whose attachment to him had triumphed over every sentiment of prudence and interest, and by its devotion and constancy half redeemed its sin. But she, overwhelmed by grief at the sad parting, had been placed in a travelling carriage, while almost in a state of insensibility, and was journeying towards Bologna, little conscious that he whom she would have given all that she possessed to see once more, was looking on the chamber she had left, and the flowers she had loved; his mind filled with a presentiment that they should never meet again.

"Such is one of the bitter consequences resulting from the violation of ties, never severed without retribution.”*

But, one day, while these sweet and bitter fancies were presenting themselves to her imagination, she saw a young lady, an English girl, who resembled, in an extraordinary degree, Byron, accompanied by an elderly lady. That English girl was Ada, sole daughter of my house and heart;" and the elderly lady was her mother, the widow of Lord Byron. The City of Palaces had few attractions on this last visit for Lady Blessington.

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One episode more in the Italian journals is narrated, and we come to the concluding line ;-" We have bidden farewell to our old and well-remembered haunts at Genoa; and tomorrow we leave it, and perhaps for ever!"

Here ends the second phase in the career I have before referred to the Italian life of Lady Blessington.

*The Idler in Italy, vol. iii. p. 365.

CHAPTER VI.

RETURN TO PARIS, IN JUNE, 1828-RESIDENCE THEREDEATH OF LORD BLESSINGTON-DEPARTURE OF LADY

BLESSINGTON FOR ENGLAND, IN NOVEMBER, 1830.

IN June, 1828, the Blessingtons arrived in Paris, at the expiration of six years from the period of their former sojourn there. Their first visitors were the Duc and Duchesse de Guiche; the latter "radiant in health and beauty," the Duc looking, as he always did, "more distinguè than any one else the perfect beau ideal of a gentleman."

The Blessingtons took up their abode in the Hotel de Terasse, Rue de Rivoli. After some time, they rented the splendid mansion of the Marechal Ney, in the Rue de Bourbon, the principal apartments of which looked on the Seine, and commanded a delightful view of the Tuillerie Gardens. This hotel was a type of the splendour that marked the dwellings of the Imperial Noblesse.

The rent of this hotel was enormously high, and the expense which the new inmates went to, in adding to the splendour of its decorations and furniture, was on a scale of magnificence more commensurate with the income of a prince, of some vielle cour, than with that of an Irish landlord.

With the aid of "those magicians," the French upholsterers, the Hotel Ney soon assumed a wonderful aspect of renewed splendour. The principal drawing-room had a carpet of dark crimson, with a gold-coloured border, with wreaths of flowers of brightest hues. The curtains were of crimson

satin, with embossed borders of gold-colour, and the sofas, bergeres, fauteuils, and chairs, were richly carved and gilt, and covered with satin, to correspond with the curtains. Gilt consoles, and chiffonieres, on which marble tops were placed wherever they could be disposed; large mirrors, gorgeous buhl cabinets, costly pendules of bronze, magnificent candelabras, abounded in the long suite of salons, boudoirs, and sitting-rooms. The furniture of the bed-room was kept a secret by Lord Blessington till quite completed, in order to give a surprise to her Ladyship-when its surpassing splendour was to burst upon her all at once-at the first view of this apartment. "The only complaint I ever have to make of his taste," observes her Ladyship, "is its too great splendour..........We feel like children with a new plaything in our beautiful house; but how, after it, shall we ever be able to reconcile ourselves to the comparatively dingy rooms in St. James's Square? which no furniture or decoration could render anything like the Hotel Ney.'

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At length, "the scheme laid by Lord Blessington" to surprise his Lady—" for he delighted in such plans”—was revealed, on the doors of the chambre a coucher and dressing

room being thrown open. "The whole fitting up," says Lady Blessington, " is in exquisite taste; and, as usual, when my most gallant of all gallant husbands, that it ever fell to the happy lot of woman to possess, interferes, no expense has been spared. The bed, which is silvered instead of gilt, rests on the backs of two large silver swans, so exquisitely sculptured that every feather is in alto-relievo, and looks as fleecy as those of the living bird. The recess in which it is placed is lined with white-fluted silk, bordered with blue embossed lace; and from the columns that support the frieze of the recess, pale blue silk curtains, lined with white, are hung, which, when drawn, conceal the recess altogether.'

*The Idler in France, vol. i. p. 117.

In one of her letters she enlarges on this subject. "A silvered sofa has been made, to fit the side of the room opposite the fire-place, near to which stands a most inviting bergere. An escritoire occupies one panel, a bookstand the other, and a rich coffer for jewels forms a pendant to a similar one for lace or India shawls. A carpet of uncut pile, of a pale blue, a silver lamp, and a Psyche glass; the ornaments, silvered, to correspond with the decorations of the chamber, complete the furniture. The hangings of the dressing-room are of blue silk, covered with lace, and trimmed with rich frills of the same material, as are also the dressing stands and chaire longue, and the carpet and lamp are similar to those of the bed. A toilette-table stands before the window, and small jardinieres are placed in front of each panel of looking-glass, but so low, as not to impede a full view of the person dressing, in this beautiful little sanctuary. The salle de bain is draped with white muslin, trimmed with lace; and the sofa and the bergere are covered with the same. The bath is of marble, inserted in the floor, with which its surface is level. On the ceiling over is a painting of Flora, scattering flowers with one hand, while from the other is suspended an alabaster lamp, in the form of a lotus."

Poor Lady Blessington, summing up the wonderful effects of the various embellishments and decorations, the sensations produced by such luxuriant furniture, coffers for jewels and India shawls, gorgeous hangings, and glittering ornaments of every kind, observes: "The effect of the whole is chastely beautiful, and a queen could desire nothing better for her own private apartments."

The gilt frame-work of the bed, resting on the backs of the large silver swans, it does not do to think of, when visiting the Mountjoy Forest Estate, in Tyrone, that did belong to the late Earl of Blessington, when one enters the cabin of one of the now indigent peasantry, from the sweat of whose brow

the means were derived, that were squandered in luxury in foreign lands, luxury on a par with any oriental voluptuousness of which we read, in the adornment of palaces.

Lord Blessington, when fitting up the Hotel Ney in this sumptuous manner, was co-operating very largely indeed with others of his order-equally improvident and profuse-in laying the foundation of the Encumbered Estates' Court Jurisdiction, in Ireland.

We are reminded, by the preceding account of the fitting -up of the Hotel Ney for the Blessingtons, of the Imperial pomp of one of the palaces of Napoleon, a short time only before his downfall. At Fontainbleau, soon after the abdication of the Emperor, Haydon visited the palace, and thus describes the magnificence which was exhibited in the decoration and furniture of that recent sojourn of imperial great

ness:

"The château I found superb, beyond any palace near Paris. It was furnished with fine taste. Napoleon's bed hung with the richest Lyons green velvet, with painted roses, golden fringe a foot deep; a footstool of white satin, with golden stars; the top of the bed gilt, with casque and ostrich plumes, and a golden eagle in the centre grappling laurel. Inside the bed was a magnificent mirror, and the room and ceiling were one mass of golden splendour. The panels of the sides were decorated in chiaroscuro with the heads of the greatest men.

"No palace of any Sultan of Bagdad or monarch of India ever exceeded the voluptuous magnificence of these apartments."

Shortly after the arrival of the Blessingtons in Paris, a letter was received from Lord Rosslyn, urging the attendance of Lord Blessington in his place in parliament, and his support of the Emancipation Act.

Lord Blessington, on receipt of Lord Rosslyn's letter, im

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