The Portland daily press., 1893-01-07
DE LESSEPS AT HOME.
His Wife and Children shield Him From
News.

Paris Letter to the San Francisco Argonaut.7
The distance from the railway station
to the Chateau de la Chesnaye-where
the "Grand Francois lives whose name
is in all mouths today, by reason of the
great Panama scandals about four and
half miles, over which we drove few
days ago in dense November fog. The
chateau, where the De Lesseps family
has spent it's summers and autumns for
the last twenty-five years, is situated in
fat, open country three miles from the
little hamlet of Natau.
As we left the village 1 discerned
through the fog. standing out between
the buildings of the large farm attached
to the chateau and the woods of the
adjoining park, the two slender towers
of the antique residence of Agnes Sorel.
NJ. de Lesseps, as his young family in
creased, added new buildings to the for
mer old historical chateau, and thus
transformed it, little by little, into vast
phalanstery, where his thirteen children
the eldest of whom is ffty-two and the
youngest seven years OF age-and num-
Der of friends, for he is most hospitable
and always has his house full, have
passed happy seasons until these last few
dire weeks. Contrary to what Ovid's
proverb says, his friends have not de-
serted him in his misfortune, and when
we reached the chateau it was to find
about twenty there who had lately ar
rived to offer their assistance and SYM
pathy.
Those who have visited Paris since
some five or six years ago will remember
having seen the merry procession of
children and small ponies scampering
out to the Bots de Boulogne at break
neck speed, accompanied by their father,
the Comte de Lesseps, who was then
capital horseman, in spite of his years.
Of his remaining eleven children seven
are at home studying with two govern
esses and tutor. Of his three eldest
sons by his second marriage, one is at
Paris preparing to enter the military
school of Saint Cyr, the second, Ismail,
has enlisted in the crack regiment of the
Fourth ChasseurS and is at Saint Ger
main, and the eldest, Matthew de Les.
seps, is an officer in the regiment of Sem
galese Spahis, and is at present with the
army fighting in Africa. This last fact
adds much to the anxieties of the Com
Jesse de Lesseps, to whom the events of
the last two years, and especially of the
last two weeks, have been so distressing.
but whose courage in all her trials is
most admirable. Besides being the
great moral support of the family in
these sad days she is the Lady Bountiful
of the adjacent country, the Chateau de
vous for all the poor peasants in the
neighborhood, who are never sent empty
handed away. The state of her illustri-
Gus husbands health has cast upon her
shoulders all the heavy responsibilities
and cares OF her large family.
For three Years past the old mans
health has been gradually failing. The
Panama disaster has completely broken
him down. Public opinion is, even at
present, almost unanimous in the belief
that M. de Lesseps was ignorant of the
errors of this lamentable affair." But he
felt from the very beginning of the catas-
trophe that he-and he alone-would be
held responsible for them by an Him
formed public, and his courage, which
had never failed during all the trials of
the last thirty years, was completely
shipwrecked by the Panama affair.
On asking, when we arrived how M. de
Lesseps was, we were told that, having
caught cold, he had been obliged for
some days past to keep his room, and
that his doctor, who had come out from
Paris the day before to see him, had for
hidden him to continue the promenades
he had been in the habit of taking in the
park, sometimes on foot but oftener in
bath chair, and therefore it is needless
to say he will be unable to appear in
court tomorrow to answer to the grave
charge of gigantic swindling which is
brought against him.
About II clock, while we were wait
ing for the breakfast bell to ring, the
Comtesse de Lesseps to k us to see her