to, the house Washington carefully thanked the boys for their services. It was his first interview with the French officers, and it is supposed that in the Vernon House he sketched, with Rochambeau, the plan of an attack upon New York.

Associated with this visit of Washington, the name of one of the belles of those days has attained a greater immortality than even French courtesy had secured. This was the beautiful Miss Champlin, a Newport maiden famed no less for her charm of manner than her lovely person. During Washington's visit the citizens of the town gave a ball in honor of the event to the Commander-in-chief and his French host, in the Assembly-room in Church Street. The General was summoned to open the ball, and he selected Miss Champlin for his partner, and requested her to name the dance. She chose " 'A' successful Campaign," a dance then in the highest favor. As Washington led out his partner upon the floor, the French officers, with the most graceful courtesy, took the instruments from the hands of the musicians, and played while the couple stepped through the minuet. There is a chivalric strain in that old gallantry which the belated spectator might contemplate the nightly dances of the "Atlantic," the "Ocean," and the "Bellevue," without immediately perceiving.

ping ashore at Newport, fresh from the beauties of all the world, stopped in the street as she passed, involuntarily removed their hats in homage, and gazed after her, enchanted, long after she was gone. She married Christopher G. Champlin, brother of Washington's partner in "A successful Campaign." Men who were boys in Newport thirty and forty years ago, remember a grave and gracious old lady pouring wine and eggs and sugar into a pan, stepping down into the yard where the cow was feeding, and returning with a creamy, foamy, whipped syllabub. It was the beautiful Redwood, the toast of the flower of France.

The Duc de Lauzun-the Duc de Biron of the Vendée-the most famous gallant of his time, whose amours were endless, and whose affair with the beautiful Lady Sarah Bunbury (whom, as Lady Sarah Lenox, George III. seriously wished to marry), and with the Polish princess Czartorisky, who proved to the catholic Duke que sans être jolie on pouvait être charmante, are historical-arrived in Newport in July, 1780, with Rochambeau, after a passage of seventy-two days from Brest. He says that if the English had immediately attacked them, the French would have been lost. Admiral Rodney's fleet, with others, constantly appeared off the island, and frightened them; but no attack was made. Lauzun recommended himself to Washington by not declining to serve under Lafayette, who was yet at school when Lauzun was a colonel in the army. The Duc spoke English, which with Frenchmen is always a rare accomplishment. They can not even spell the names of places correctly. Upon their pages Hartford is always Harford, New Bedford is Newbedfort; Seekonk masquerades as Selchoon; Mystic as Mistruck; the Tappan Zee as Tapyzay, &c. But this facility in English committed There were other belles, too, whose fame, the Duc de Lauzun to an infinity of details, like that of the fair Champlin, survives by mortellement ennuyeux," but necessary. He surer records than a diamond-scratched name was sent on all missions into the interior, whither upon a window. The daughters of William the schoolmaster had not yet carried French. Ellery, one of the Rhode Island signers This Sybarite of Marly goes to Lebanon, where of the Declaration of Independence, are not now the Sybarites of America congregate in sumforgotten by domestic tradition.

The heroine of this little romance lived with her parents in the house still standing at No. 119 Thames Street, where Washington took tea on the evening of the ball. It is now occupied by the grandson of the beautiful girl, and has been the home of five successive generations. Fortunately all memorial windows in Newport are not yet broken, and the name of Betsey Haliburton is still visible, scratched upon a pane in the room of this house where Washington took

tea.

One of them married William Channing, father of the son who made the name more famous, and her grand-daughter was the wife of Washington Allston.

The name of Miss Redwood also escapes to us from that group of Revolutionary belles. She was the daughter of the Abraham Redwood from whom the library takes its name. Tradition calls her " exceedingly beautiful," and tells of the Newport beauty a story like that told of the superb Duchess of Devonshire. "Ah! lady," said a London dustman to the Duchess, as she stepped, resplendent, into her carriage, "may I light my pipe at your eyes?" and of the beautiful Redwood it is told that sailors step

PURGATORY BLUFF.

mer.

"Siberia alone can be compared to Leba- | thing more, possibly, than the tender regrets of non," says the Duc de Lauzun in despair. the girls they left behind them.

In Newport he is charmed by the society, and makes especial mention of the family of Dr. Hunter. The doctor was no longer living at the time of the Duc de Lauzun's visit; but he says, "Madame Hunter, a widow of some thirty-six years of age, had two charming daughters, whom she had perfectly well educated. They lived in a very retired manner, and saw scarcely any one. Chance introduced me to Madame upon my arrival in Rhode Island. She received me into her friendship, and I was presently regarded as one of the family. I really lived there; and when I was taken seriously ill, she had me brought to her house, and lavished upon me the most touching attentions. I was not in love with the Misses Hunter; but had they been my sisters I could not have loved them more, especially the eldest, who is one of the most amiable persons I have ever met." These ladies went to Europe soon after the peace. The elder married Count de Cardignan; the younger, Mr. Falconet, a banker of Naples.

But in 1782-3, a year after the departure of the French army, came the Prince de Broglie and a party of friends to console them. "I arrived in Newport, that charming spot regretted by all the army." He had no more pressing business, he says, than to make acquaintance with its society, and was immediately presented to Monsieur Champlin, celebrated for his wealth, but better known in the army by the lovely face of his daughter. This was the partner of Washington's minuet. The Prince, having no more pressing duty than visiting, fortunately had also the time to observe, the taste to criticise, and the talent to record his observations. Miss Champlin, in his portrait of her, had beautiful eyes, a sweet mouth, a perfectly shaped face, fine figure, pretty foot, and an air altogether attractive. She was dressed and coiffed with taste; "that is to say," says this penetrant critic, “à la Française," and she understood and spoke French. The Prince de Broglie, and his friend M. de Vauban, instantly paid ample homage of admiration and respect to Miss Champlin; and then hurried to see the Misses Hunter, "her rivals in beauty and reputation," of whom the Duc de Lauzun had already spoken. The eldest, who had so charmed Lauzun, the Prince finds to be not regularly beautiful; but she has a noble as

The Duc de Lauzun speaks of Washington's visit to Newport as by no means so agreeable as thirty boys with torches, the army drawn up in line, a ball given by the citizens, and a minuet danced with the beautiful Miss Champlin, while the French officers played "A successful Campaign," would lead us to suppose. When, some-pect, and the air of high breeding, with a spiritual time afterward, Rochambeau sent de Lauzun with a letter informing Washington that arrangements had been made different from those they had stipulated together, the Duc says that Washington was so angry that he did not wish to answer, but finally sent a cold reply, stating that he was still of the same opinion, but that Count Rochambeau was of course his own mas

ter.

The gay and gallant de Lauzun remained in service to the end of the campaign and of the war. He returned to France after the peace of 1783. His name appears in the tumultuous history of his country during the subsequent period, as member of the States General, co-embassador with Talleyrand and Chauvelin to London, as General of the Army of the Rhine, of the Maritime Alps, and of the Vendée; and for the last time, on the 1st of January, 1794, when he was condemned for an alleged conspiracy against the Republic, and the head which had been caressed by all the famous beauties of a famous age fell under the guillotine.

face and grace of movement. "She dresses at least as well as Miss Champlin," says this true Frenchman; "not quite so freshly, perhaps." Miss Nancy, the younger sister, had not so lofty an air, it seems; "but she is a rose in person." Her character was gay, her face always smiling, and "her teeth charming, which is a very rare thing in America," says this audacious critic. Yet Callender speaks of defective teeth among the people of the island, and Roger Williams says that the Narragansett Indians complained much of toothache.

After this brilliant beginning they returned home, and de Vauban-as in an Arabian talepromised the Prince "still better things for tomorrow!" Accordingly, the next day they proceeded to a house where a serious and silent old gentleman received them without raising his hat, asked them to be seated without compliment, and answered their questions in monosyllables. Their host was evidently a Quaker; and while they were sitting amused with their reception,

66

suddenly we beheld the Goddess of grace and The belles of Newport doubtless thought Amer- of beauty, Minerva in person, having exchanged ican liberty dearly purchased by the departure of her sterner attributes for pastoral charms. It the French army-the "small, keen-looking" Ro- was the daughter of the Quaker, Polly Lawton" chambeau. "not handsome as was his son"-the (the name was then pronounced, and is spelt by Count de Noailles-"the resplendent beauty of de Broglie and Segur, Leighton or Leyton). The the two Viosminels," youths of whom an eye-appreciative Frenchman continues: "In accordwitness says: "wport never saw any thing so handsome as these two young brothers." The Duc de Lauzun, de Vauban, de Champceretz, the Marquis de Chastellux, de Chabanes, Bozon de Talleyrand, could not leave for other posts and other conquests without taking with them some

ance with the customs of her sect she addressed us familiarly (nous parla en nous tutoyant), but with a simplicity and grace which I can only compare to that of her toilet. It was a kind of English dress, fitting the figure closely, and was white as milk, a muslin apron of the same color,

resembled a nymph rather than a woman enter the apartment. So much beauty, so much simplicity, so much elegance, and so much modesty, were perhaps never combined in the same person. It was Polly Leighton (Lawton). Her gown was white, like herself (de Broglie likens it to milk); while her ample muslin handkerchief, and the envious cambric of her cap, which scarcely allowed me to see her light-colored hair, and the modest attire, in short, of a pious virgin, seemed vainly to endeavor to conceal the most graceful figure and the most beautiful form imaginable. Her eyes appeared to reflect, as in a mirror, the meekness and purity of her mind, and the goodness of her heart. She received us with an open ingenuity which delighted me, and the use of the familiar word thou,' which the rules of her sect prescribed, gave to our acquaintance the appearance of an old friendship."

and a large handkerchief gathered close around | been the last, "had not I seen the door of the the neck. Her coiffure, composed of a simple drawing-room suddenly open, and a being which little cap of baptiste with round plaits, and permitting only a half inch of hair to be perceived, completed the virgin attire of Polly Lawton." It is easy to fancy the refreshment of this vision of beautiful simplicity to a Prince surfeited with courtly splendors. Polly Lawton had no misgiving about her charms. She said simple and polite things with the freedom and thee-and-thou familiarity of a Quaker. The Prince de Broglie kindles with the remembrance: "She enchanted us all; and although evidently a little conscious of it, was not at all sorry to please those whom she graciously called her friends." "I confess," he finally exclaims with ecstasy, "that this seductive Lawton appeared to me to be the chef d'œuvre of Nature; and whenever I recall her image, I am tempted to write a great book against the finery, the factitious graces, and the coquetry of many ladies whom the world admires." "There was no time," he adds, "when Polly was present, to observe a pretty younger sister." Miss Sprindley (probably Brinley), Miss Sylven, and others, succeeded in convincing the Prince that there was more than one rose in Newport. All the belles regretted the departure of the French "What could I reply to that angel?" asks the army. They confessed that there were no more bewildered Count; "for in truth I was tempted amusements, no balls and fêtes, since the French to believe that she was a celestial being. Cerwent away.' ." The gallant Prince and his com-tain it is, that if I had not been married and happanions were touched by the tender complaint, py, I should, while coming to defend the liberty and resolved to give a ball to these " amiable de- of the Americans, have lost my own at the feet serted ones." The Count de Segur, de Vauban, of Polly Leighton." He confesses that she drew and de Broglie found neither refusal nor diffi- his mind from the gay frivolities of society more, culty when they spoke of dancing. Twenty perhaps, than Madame la Comtesse de Segur, charming women assembled. They were dressed with whom he was so happy, might have apà merveille. They seemed to enjoy themselves. proved; but he entered with great gayety into We drank toasts at supper. All passed off most the project of the ball which de Broglie describes, delightfully." and calls it one of the prettiest fêtes he ever saw. Yet his heart is true to "that angel." After praising the ball, he exclaims, "But Polly Leighton could not be present; and I can not deny that this circumstance occasionally cast a gloom over my spirits."

Newport was a brief and pleasant episode in de Broglie's tour. The day but one after the little ball he left the town; "but not without kissing the hand of Polly Leighton."

His friend and companion, Count de Segur, has left a pendant to his picture. His account of Newport in 1782, and of his first sight of the beautiful Lawton, is almost the same as that of de Broglie.

De Segur is charmed with her conversation. The fair Quakeress reproached him, according to the strict rule of her faith, for coming to make war, and to obey the king against the command of God.

His Countess was probably not at all sorry that Rochambeau insisted upon the immediate return to their posts of these fascinated gentlemen, who had exceeded by a few days their leave of absence.

The peerless Polly Lawton lived in the house at the corner of Touro Street and the Square. It is reported that she was afterward persuaded by some less discriminating admirers than the Frenchmen, to exchange her Quaker simplicity of attire for the fashions of the world's people. But te harmony between the character of her manner and beauty and the simplicity of the Friends' costume, was too exquisite not to be injured by brilliant toilets. The beautiful Polly was not the only Quakeress seduced by such splendors. La Rochefoucault-Liancourt, speaking of society

"Other parts of America," says de Segur, in commencing his description with his best bow and gracious compliment, as if addressing himself to the incomparable Lawton-" were only beautiful by anticipation; but the prosperity of Rhode Island was already complete. . . . Newport, well and regularly built, contained a numerous population, whose happiness was indicated by its prosperity. It offered delightful circles, composed of enlightened men and modest and handsome women, whose talents heightened their personal attractions. All the French officers who knew them recollect the names and beauty of Miss Champlin, the two Misses Hunter, and sev-in Philadelphia in 1797–8, says, quietly: "The eral others." He also saw "the silent, serious old man" of de Broglie, "who very seldom bared his thoughts, and never bared his head;" but he confesses that the first interview would have

Quakers live retired and among themselves, but ribbons please young Quakeresses as well as others, and are the great enemies of the sect "

Until the close of the century, the French

Why Annm fe

OLD FORT, DUMPLING ROCKS.

trasted with the picture of its prosperity and gayety, which we have been contemplating. "The solitude which reigns here, and which is only interrupted by groups of idlers who stand listlessly at the street corners, the general dilapidation of the houses, the wretched look of the shops, which offer for sale nothing but bunches of matches and baskets of apples, or other articles of little value, the grass growing in the Square opposite the Court-house, the muddy and illpaved streets, the rags at the windows, or which cover either hideous women (!), lean children, or pale, wan men, with deep eyes and sinister looks, making the observer very uncomfortable, all proclaim misery, the reign of bad faith, and the influence of a bad government!"

Ichabod Ichabod! sings Brissot de Warville, Citoyen Français.

44

travelers are still the best historians of Newport. It was the fate of Brissot de Warville, or J. P. Brissot, Citoyen Français, not to visit the town until 1788. In 1784, the Newporters had organized themselves as a city, but it was useless. It was a decaying place; and, in 1787, they relapsed into the old town form.* The population had He goes to the market. "Great Heaven! decreased during the war by nearly eight thou- how different from those of Boston or Philadelsand persons, two thirds of the population of phia. A few pieces of poor meat awaited its prime. The glory of Newport was gone: purchasers who did not come!" He asked a trade was paralyzed; its society was scattered; citizen, who was well informed in such matters, many of the old families had emigrated to Prov- the reason of this spectacle, and learned that idence at the time of the British occupation, most of the inhabitants lived on fish, which they and had laid the foundation of the prosperity of caught themselves, and upon potatoes and other that flourishing and beautiful city, which a mis- vegetables, which they raised with difficulty in sionary clergyman, the Rev. Jacob Bailey, A.M., their gardens. Paper-money was the pest of remarks in 1754, just a century since, "is a the country, according to Brissot and his inmost beautiful place. . . The northeast side is formant, and was the principal cause of this built with two streets of painted houses, above misery. Newport," continues the gloomy which lies a most delightful hill, gradually as- Citoyen, "seemed to me like a tomb where cending to a great distance, all cut into gardens, living corpses dispute about a few roots. It reorchards, pleasant fields, and beautiful inclosures, called to me the picture that Volney paints of which strike the eye with agreeable surprise... Egypt. I seemed to behold a city in which Providence is a growing and flourishing place, pestilence and fire had destroyed the inhabitants and the finest in New England," says the rever- and their houses." He then invites his friend end chronicler; but proceeds, per contra, "The to compare it to a city in which general misery inhabitants of the place in general are very im- produces famine, swindling, and impudence, and moral, licentious, and profane, and exceedingly" you will have an image of Newport." Two famous for contempt of the Sabbath. Gaming, gunning, horse-racing, and the like, are as common on that day as on any other. Persons of all professions countenance such practices." If not emigrated to Providence as patriots, nor flown as refugees to Nova Scotia, nor retired with the British army at their evacuation, the chief families remained broken in fortune and in spirit. Trinity Church was without a pastor, and the seat of bitter feuds. The Redwood Library was dispersed and neglected. The beautiful women told tender tales, regretfully, of their French campaign, and looked mournfully upon the town, still stunned by its sudden and entire prostration.

Citizen Brissot left Providence at eleven o'clock in the morning, and sailed the thirty miles to Newport by half past six in the evening. His description of it is sad enough, when con

*It became a city again in 1853.

miles from the town he sees the remains of the magnificent mansion of Colonel Godfrey Malbone, destroyed by fire, and observes that what fire had done to that house, paper-money had done to the country. Brissot confesses that he had heard the flourishing accounts of earlier travelers, but that he did not find what they had described. Other causes helped papermoney to increase the public misery, or rather resulted from that misery-" there are no public schools, no instruction by newspapers, and scarcely any public worship...... How can there be, when good faith is universally repudiated?" And the unblushing Frenchman continues, "If there is no morality among the men, what becomes of the virtue of the women?" "In Newport, there is no restraint, no religion, no morality, no law, no respected magistrates, no troops." Fortunately he heard an alarm of fire, and went out to study the people. The fire was not extinguished according to rule, but the engines arrived promptly,