170 A PEACEFUL RETREAT.

was still a very interesting one, he paid little atten.
tion. Bound by his promise, his high sense of
honour would not let him make the proper use of
it; but at length he was induced to part with it
to M. de Buffon, who nobly exerted himself so
as to procure from Government a pension of 6000
livres for Dombey, and 60,000 livres to pay his
debts.”

Disheartened and exhausted with fatigue and
blighted hopes, Dombey now determined to seck
retirement in a peaceful retreat at the foot of Mont
Jura, where he had a friend devoted to the love
and cultivation of plants. He broke off all gcien-
tific correspondence except with M. Pavon, one of
his fellow-labourers in Peru, who had all along
been innocent of the malicious attacks against him.
He refused a place in the French Academie des
Sciences, as well as a large pecuniary offer from
the Empress of Russia for the duplicates of his
collection, saying, “he was not in want of money,
and had most pleasure in distributing his specimens
among his friends.” His only remaining happiness
was in deeds of benevolence; and he was sometimes
heard to say, ‘I am satisfied, for I have had it in
my power to-day to benefit a fellow-creature.”

On his way to Switzerland he took up his resi-
dence for some time at Lyons, and had the misfor-
tune to be present during the siege of that town.