Born 1752.--Died 1817.
Incompleteness of the biography of celebrated men--Born at Paris
of an illustrious family--His passion for the fine arts--Taste
for literature--Falls in love--Marries--Adopts the profession
of arms--Obtains the rank of colonel--Sails for Greece--His
enthusiasm for antiquity--Visits the Grecian Isles--Occupies
himself in drawing--Grotto of Antiparos--Opinions respecting
its construction--Proceeds to Lemnos, Rhodes, &c.--Ruins of
Telmissus--River Mæander, Ephesus, Smyrna, and Troy--Homer--Trojan
territories--Rivers Simois and Scamander--Remarkable spots in
the neighbourhood of Troy--Tombs of Ilus and Patroclus--Camp of
the Greeks--Returns to France--Arranges the materials of his
travels--Flattering reception--Patriotism--Modern Greeks--Elected
member of the French Academy--Celebrated discourse on the death
of D’Alembert--Delille’s poem entitled “Imagination”--Extract
applied to Choiseul-Gouffier--Appointed ambassador to the
Ottoman Porte--Acquires the confidence of Halil Pasha, and of
Prince Mauro Cordato--Attempts to introduce civilization among
the Turks--Turkish ship-of-war--Obtains the release of the
Russian ambassador--Prevents the imprisonment of the Austrian
internuncio--Protects the Russian and Austrian prisoners--Revisits
the Troad--Despatches artists to Syria and Egypt--Appointed
ambassador to the court of London--Anecdote of the Count de
Cobentzel--Emperor Paul of Russia--Returns to France--Rose harvest
of Adrianople--Personal existence of Homer--Is seized with an
apoplectic fit--Dies 154