Page:Republican Court by Rufus Griswold.djvu/206

has been mentioned in a previous chapter, Mrs. Knox was "enormously large;" she and her husband were perhaps the largest couple in the city; and both were favorites, he for really brilliant conversation and unfailing good humor, and she as a lively and meddlesome but amiable leader of society, without whose coöperation it was believed, by many besides herself, that nothing could be properly done, in the drawing-room or the ball-room, or any place indeed where fashionable men and women sought enjoyment. The house of the Secretary of War was in Broadway, and it was the scene of a liberal and genial hospitality.

Mrs. Izard, of South Carolina, had been famous for her beauty and spirit, but was now passed her prime, though not older than Mrs. Adams. She was the grand-daughter of Etienne de Lanci, a Huguenot nobleman who came to this country in 1686. In 1767 she married Ralph Izard, of Charleston, a man of accomplishments and liberal fortune, who had been educated at the University of Cambridge, and after returning to America had passed his winters in South Carolina and his summers in New York. Four years after his marriage he went to London, where he lived several winters, in a brilliant society. Displeased with the conduct of the ministry toward the colonies, he visited the Continent, but becoming wearied of travel, went back to London, where he exerted his influence to avert the approaching war, without success, and in 1777 removed his family to Paris, and in a few months to Florence, being appointed Commissioner from Congress to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. His subsequent diplomatic services, and his personal relations with Franklin, Deane, and others, cannot here be stated. He was always accompanied by his wife, who was very handsome, witty, and fond of adventure. In London her portrait was painted by Gainsborough, and I was shown in Charleston, by her grandson, Mr. Manigault, one of Copley's finest pictures, a very large "family