The Generale Junot had a great influence over Balzac; she enlightened
him also about women, painting them not as they should be, but as they
are.[*]

[*] M. Joseph Turquain states that when the correspondence of Madame
d'Abrantes and Balzac, to which he has had access, is published,
one will be able to determine exactly the role she has played in
the formation of the talent of the writer, and in the development
of his character. His admirable work has been very helpful in the
preparation of this study of Madame d'Abrantes.

During the last years of the life of Madame d'Abrantes, a somber tint
spread over her gatherings, which gradually became less numerous. Her
financial condition excited little sympathy, and her friends became
estranged from her as the result of her poverty. Under her gaiety and
in spite of her courage, this distress became more apparent with time.
Her health became impaired; yet she continued to write when unable to
sit up, so great was her need for money. From her high rank she had
fallen to the depth of misery! When evicted from her poverty-stricken
home by the bailiff, her maid at first conveyed her to a hospital in
the rue de Chaillot, but there payment was demanded in advance. That
being impossible, the poor Duchess, ill and abandoned by all her
friends, was again cast into the street. Finally, a more charitable
hospital in the rue des Batailles took her in. Thus, by ironical fate,
the widow of the great _Batailleur de Junot_, who had done little else
during the past fifteen years than battle for life, was destined to
end her days in the rue des Batailles.


LA PRINCESSE BELGIOJOSO.--MADAME MARBOUTY.