1816: the Grandest Tour

Switzerland: Chapter 8

For a change of pace, Shelley and the girls planned a short trip to Chamonix to see the Mer de Glace glacier and Mont Blanc. To everyone's surprise (including their own), Hugh and Robert declared themselves bored of the lakeside and decided to join them. George found it an unusual act of initiative on his friends' part, but was glad to see it. If, for some reason, their group of four had to take diverging routes after Geneva (George was considering Germany, he had to admit), he hoped Hugh and Robert would have enough sense to make their own way for a while.

They saw them all off one morning, and suddenly it was just George and Tobias alone with Byron and the brooding Polidori. The young doctor's ankle was slow to mend, and his mood even slower. That afternoon the four gentlemen sat quietly in the parlor. Three of them were reading or writing letters, while Byron peered across the lake through a ship's telescope.

"I'll be rowing over to Chateau de Coppet this evening," he announced to the room, turning and collapsing the device. "Madame de Staël has invited me to her dinner and salon."

This made little impression on Polidori or Tobias, but George looked up in interest. Was this the Madame de Staël he'd heard mentioned so much in Paris? And by Beau Brummell as well, he recalled, though now that seemed an age ago. They said she'd written dozens of essays and books – was indeed the 'First Lady of European Letters' to her admirers. She'd spent years in forced exile from her beloved Paris, yet with Napoleon's fall she'd stayed only a year in the city, then gone back to Geneva. Since hearing of her George had very much hoped to one day meet the lady.

He knew it would be gauche, against all social etiquette, but he had to ask:

"Has Madame made any provision for you to bring, er – friends of your own?" said George, feeling his face grow red.

Byron cocked his head at him quizzically. George felt the bottom drop out of his stomach.

"As a matter of fact she has, since you ask."

And now George felt he was flying, straight up to the stratosphere.

"Why you don't both come? Just a short row across the lake. Madame's always got room – her whole life is devoted to entertaining."

Tobias looked up in surprise, but George nodded at him earnestly to accept the invitation.

"It sounds – excellent," Tobias stammered.

"But Polidori, you should stay off that leg. Best give it more rest," Byron said to his physician with a jaunty wink.

Polidori glared at him in silence. He clearly knew Byron was right, but resented being so quickly struck off the guest list.

A few hours later the three gentlemen assembled at the pier, dressed in their finest, to get in a little dingy.

"Yes, it's awkward at first in these clothes," Byron said, "but once we're rowing it won't take overlong."

Servants held the boat steady as each man stepped in. Then, with everything inside, they shoved off for the far side of the lake.

It was a milder night than most of the previous week and, blessedly, not raining. A setting light still shone over the expanse of water, and the gentle slap of Byron's oars was the only thing to disturb the scene.

"You'll enjoy the assembly I'm sure," said Byron with the usual mischief. "Little I can say will prepare you for it, ha! Ha!"

"I'm sure you're right," said George. "All the same though, I'm certainly eager to meet the lady. Could you tell us something about her? I'm afraid I know very little. Do you knew her well?"