--LA COMTESSE D'AGOULT.--GEORGE SAND.

"The Princess (Belgiojoso) is a woman much apart from other women,
not very attractive, twenty-nine years old, pale, black hair,
Italian-white complexion, thin, and playing the vampire. She has
the good fortune to displease me, though she is clever; but she
poses too much. I saw her first five years ago at Gerard's; she
came from Switzerland, where she had taken refuge."

The Princesse Belgiojoso had her early education entrusted to men of
broad learning whose political views were opposed to Austria. She was
reared in Milan in the home of her young step-father, who had been
connected with the _Conciliatore_. His home was the rendezvous of the
artistic and literary celebrities of the day; but beneath the surface
lay conspiracy. At the age of sixteen she was married to her fellow
townsman, the rich, handsome, pleasure-loving, musical Prince
Belgiojoso, but the union was an unhappy one. Extremely patriotic, she
plunged into conspiracy.

In 1831, she went to Paris, opened a salon and mingled in politics,
meeting the great men of the age, many of whom fell in love with her.
Her salon was filled with people famous for wit, learning and beauty,
equaling that of Madame Recamier; Balzac was among the number. If
Madame de Girardin was the Tenth Muse, the Princesse Belgiojoso was
the Romantic Muse. She was almost elected president of _Les Academies
de Femmes en France_ under the faction led by George Sand, the rival
party being led by Madame de Girardin.

Again becoming involved in Italian politics, and exiled from her home
and adopted country, she went to the Orient with her daughter Maria,