History of California
Contents Chapter I. The Land and the Name II. The Story of the Indians III. "The Secret of the Strait" IV. The Cross of Santa Fe V. Pastoral Days VI. The Footsteps of the Stranger VII. At the Touch of King Midas VIII. The Great Stampede IX. The Birth of the Golden Baby X. The Signal Gun and the Steel Trail XI. That Which Followed After XII. "The Groves Were God's First Temples" XIII. To All that Sow the Time of Harvest Should be Given XIV. The Golden Apples of the Hesperides XV. California's Other Contributions to the World's Bill of Fare
The only person now living who preserves any recollection of the
incident, and whom I catechised to be informed of what few words
Madame de Stael had let drop, could with difficulty recall these words
spoken by the Baroness as describing Lambert, "He is a real seer."
Louis failed to justify in the eyes of the world the high hopes he had
inspired in his protectress. The transient favor she showed him was
regarded as a feminine caprice, one of the fancies characteristic of
artist souls. Madame de Stael determined to save Louis Lambert alike
from serving the Emperor or the Church, and to preserve him for the
glorious destiny which, she thought, awaited him; for she made him out
to be a second Moses snatched from the waters. Before her departure
she instructed a friend of hers, Monsieur de Corbigny, to send her
Moses in due course to the High School at Vendome; then she probably
forgot him.
Having entered this college at the age of fourteen, early in 1811,
Lambert would leave it at the end of 1814, when he had finished the
course of Philosophy. I doubt whether during the whole time he ever
heard a word of his benefactress--if indeed it was the act of a
benefactress to pay for a lad's schooling for three years without a
thought of his future prospects, after diverting him from a career in
which he might have found happiness. The circumstances of the time,
and Louis Lambert's character, may to a great extent absolve Madame de
Contents Chapter I. The Land and the Name II. The Story of the Indians III. "The Secret of the Strait" IV. The Cross of Santa Fe V. Pastoral Days VI. The Footsteps of the Stranger VII. At the Touch of King Midas VIII. The Great Stampede IX. The Birth of the Golden Baby X. The Signal Gun and the Steel Trail XI. That Which Followed After XII. "The Groves Were God's First Temples" XIII. To All that Sow the Time of Harvest Should be Given XIV. The Golden Apples of the Hesperides XV. California's Other Contributions to the World's Bill of Fare