Books: Portrait of a Lady

(2 of 2)

Envoy of Charm. When her husband lost his post as prefect in Brussels, she composed her charms and went to Napoleon. He "placed his beautifully shaped hand on my arm" and she went home with the prefecture of Amiens. Sitting on a sofa next to King William I of The Netherlands, she assiduously promoted the diplomatic career of a son-in-law. She knew Great Men in her time, from the Duke of Wellington to Alexander Hamilton, and she leaves a delicate but firm impression that none of them—kings and emperors included —was quite safe in her company.

After 1815, when the Memoirs end, Madame de La Tour du Pin trailed her diplomat-husband from The Hague to Turin. Even in old age, revolutionary ups and downs were the norms of their lives. When Aymar became involved in a plot to place the Due de Bordeaux on the throne in 1831, both parents spent time in prison out of sympathy, then joined him in exile.

Madame de La Tour du Pin died at 83 in Pisa with her autobiography almost 40 years in arrears. Still, the self-portrait is complete. It reveals a woman who took the worst blows a disorienting world had to offer (even by today's high standards of disorder) and remained amused, serene and whole.

Melvin Maddocks