A DIGRESSION, 123

ing contrast to a crowd of real traitors, who, under
the mask of friendship, beset the door of an honest
man, only the better to deceive him > to those
serpents I have fostered in my bosom, only to feel
their sting! They are yet alive; but, alas! my
beautiful and pleasant companion isno more. After
several days of suffering, during which I never left
her, her eyes, constantly fixed on me, closed, never
again to open—my tears flowed—they now flow.
Feeling minds will pardon this digression, caused
by grief and gratitude.”

The curiosity of the reader is probably excited
to know who were the enemies so vehemently de-
nounced by our impetuous naturalist? After re-
maining some time in Hgypt, and travelling subse-
quently in Greece and Asia Minor, he returned to
France in the autumn of 1786, after an absence of
rather more than three years, and hastened to pay
a visit to his father and the home of his boyhood.
He met with a very different reception from what
he had anticipated. An absence of several years
had been taken advantage of by the prodigality and
cupidity of his relatives, who endeavoured to de-
prive him of his patrimony. After a vexatious
series of litigation, Sonnini recovered a portion of
the estate at Manoncourt, where he built a manor-
house, and employed himself in the improvement
of agriculture, introducing several valuable exotic