IRVING PLACE [ed. note: Washington Irving visited Alabama in 1832 when he took the mail stage from New Orleans to Mobile, Montgomery and points east.  Madame LeVert encountered Irving on another stagecoach ride between Saratoga and New York City. Their conversation resulted in Irving encouraging her to write down her ideas. Irving is quoted as saying of Madame LeVert, "But one such woman is born in the course of an empire."
This link tells the story of how young Octavia Walton (Levert) met Washington Irving. https://books.google.com/books?id=1o5BAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&dq=%22washington+irving%22+%22madame+levert%22&source=bl&ots=d28ep3sVNI&sig=uwAff3-5RfRgt7LWB-UMDuYhS4c&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3mveCq4nLAhUB1CYKHYt6D1kQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=%22washington%20irving%22%20%22madame%20levert%22&f=false

A story about Madame Levert by Virginia Clay-Clopton:

"That visit to Mobile was my first flight into the beautiful world that lay beyond the horizon of my school life. In the enjoyments devised for me by my father in those few charmed days, I saw, if not clearly, at least prophetically, what of beauty and joy life might hold for me. Upon our arrival in the lovely little Bay city, my father, learning of a ball for which preparations were on foot, determined I should attend it. Guided perhaps in his choice of colour by the tints of health that lay in his little daughter's cheeks, he selected for me a gown of peach-blossom silk, which all my life I have remembered as the most beautiful of dresses, and one which transformed me heretofore confined to brown holland gowns by my prudent aunt, Mrs. Battle, as truly as Cinderella was changed into a princess.

        Upon the evening of that never-to-be-forgotten Boat Club Ball, blushing and happy, eager, with delightful

anticipations, yet timorous, too, for my guardians, the Battles, had disapproved of dancing and had rigorously excluded this and other worldly pleasures from their ward's accomplishments, I was conducted by my father to the ball. In my heart lay the fear that I would be, after all, a mere looker-on, or appear awkward if I should venture to dance as did the others; but neither of these misgivings proved to have been well founded.

        My father led me at once to Mme. Le Vert, then the reigning queen of every gathering at which she appeared, and in her safe hands every fear vanished. I had heard my elders speak frequently of her beauty, and somehow had imagined her tall. She was less so than I had pictured, but so winning and cordial to me, a timid child, that I at once capitulated before the charm she cast over everyone who came into conversation with her. I thought her face the sweetest I had ever seen. She had a grace and frankness which made everyone with whom she talked feel that he or she alone commanded her attention. I do not recall her making a single bon mot, but she was vivacious and smiling. Her charm, it seemed to me, lay in her lovely manners and person and her permeating intellectuality.

        I remember Mme. Le Vert's appearance on that occasion distinctly, though to describe it now seems garish. To see her then was bewildering, and all her colour was harmony. She wore a gown of golden satin, and on her hair a wreath of coral flowers, which her morocco shoes matched in hue. In the dance she moved like a bird on the wing. I can see her now in her shining robe, as she swayed and glided, holding the shimmering gown aside as she floated through the "ladies' chain." The first dance of my life was a quadrille, viz-à-vis with this renowned beauty, who took me under her protection and encouraged me from time to time.

         "Don't be afraid, my dear," she would sweetly say

"Do just as I do," and I glided after my wonderful instructress like one enchanted, with never a mishap.

        Mme. Le Vert, who in years to come became internationally celebrated, was a kinswoman of Clement Claiborne Clay, and in after times, when I became his wife, I often met her, but throughout my long life I have remembered that first meeting in Mobile, and her charm and grace have remained a prized picture in my memory. It was of this exquisite belle that Washington Irving remarked: "But one such woman is born in the course of an empire."