FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

attachments which had been planned since our childhood; our city being then quiet, we
enjoyed a peaceful home for some time, although the disorder surrounded us on all sides.
Finally anarchy reached its height, and the nobles were proscribed, he himself was
denounced, indicted and arrested in his own home. He would without doubt have been
guillotined, without the heroic courage of one of my brothers, who saved him from the
hands of Robespierre’s henchmen.
He fled to England where I soon had the joy of rejoining him. In 1795 he was again
exposed to new dangers in the unhappy expedition to Quiberon, where he served as
Commissioner of War in the Army commanded by Monsieur the Comte d'Artois [brother
of Louis XVI, who became the King Charles X]. He distinguished himself in every way,
especially in the service which his post allowed him to assist his companions in
misfortune, on the beach, at the fort, and in the complete disaster which was the result.
He owed his safety again to a miracle, for, wishing to save a young relative, wounded and
entrusted to his care, he spent so much time looking for him that he ran the greatest risk
of losing his life. Exiled then for several months to the little island of Houat, with what
had been saved of the army, they found themselves reduced, especially during the first
days, to all the horrors of necessity. He was soon able to re-establish order, and did so
much by his activity and his impartiality, that perhaps no-one with him lacked for
necessities. His attentions were naturally directed towards the wounded; he even gave
them the linens he was wearing, and managed to do without them for a long time.
Pardon me, Monsieur, for entering into such minute details. <strong>The</strong>y show so well the
beauty of his heart that I could not omit them. Believe me, however, that it was not from
him that I learned the facts. He was as modest as he was generous, and [never] boasted
of the good deeds he performed, even to his best friends.
Back again in England after having lost his men, his possessions, and above all the hope
of seeing peace re-established in his home land, he decided to use his talents to build a
good life for his family, and to devote himself totally to the education of youth. <strong>The</strong> well
being of his daughters was his aim, denying himself all the luxuries of life, he spared
nothing of what might bring out their talents, and make them that which he desired them
to be.
He followed and he himself guided their training with unshakeable sweetness and
patience. In his leisure moments he wrote, and as he did it with a truly surprising ease, in
English as in his own language, he would doubtless have had more works published, if
his excessive modesty had not often held him back. <strong>The</strong> field of literature to which he
confined himself (although his genius was universal) was History and Mathematics, he
having never any other idea than to make the work easier for his children and his
students; and his friends had to pressure him a good deal to get him to publish.
If nature had lavished her most precious gifts on him, fate was not kind to him. Too
honest a man to judge others unfavorably, he was always the victim of his overconfidence
in others, as he had never made a promise which he did not fulfill. He easily
consoled himself over his losses, and his natural gaiety was not troubled by them.
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