198 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

to acquire a literary reputation, caused him to quit thearmy. He married a young widow of good birth andfortune, Marie Genevieve de Vassam, who had beenpreviously married to the marquis de Saulvebeuf. Hisdesire of shining in literature made him approach Paris,and he bought the estate of Bignon, not far from Ne-mours, and gave himself up to what he considered hisvocation. For many years the disturbances of his do-mestic life were confined under his own roof. Hehad a family of eleven children : he was passionatelyattached to his mother, whom he regarded with a filialveneration that belonged to the old school of mannersand piety. Fifteen years changed the scene ; quar-rels and litigations arose between him and his wife.She was violent and indiscreet ; he was tyrannical andunjust ; and conjugal infidelity rendered their separationfinal. Madame de Pailly, a young woman of greatbeauty, to whom he was attached, installed herself atBignon, and exercised a most powerful and sinisterinfluence over his conduct towards his family. Hiswife was indignant: he replied to her resentful re-presentations by the most odious acts of despotism,and conceived a violent hatred against the mother ofhis children. A scandalous lawsuit was the result ; thefortunes of both parties were irreparably injured ; andthe unfortunate offspring were in a worse situationthan orphans ; — hated by their father, — not daringto see their mother, who was shut up in a convent,— treated with the utmost severity on one hand, andwithout resource in maternal affection on the other.Added to his matrimonial dissensions were the attacksmade on him in his quality of author. “ LAmi desHommes,” as the marquis de Mirabeau was commonlycalled from his book, carried all the impetuosity, self-sufficiency, and haughtiness of his race into his literarycareer; and it may be supposed that that became asstormy as his father's had been on the field of battle.His confidence in his own talents and powers was un-bounded : he never attributed the misfortunes that