THE MEMOIRS OF FRANÇOIS RENÉ
VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND
SOMETIME AMBASSADOR TO ENGLAND
BEING A TRANSLATION BY ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS
OF THE MÉMOIRES D'OUTRE-TOMBE WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM CONTEMPORARY SOURCES. In 6 Volumes. Vol. II
"NOTRE SANG A TEINT
LA BANNIÈRE DE FRANCE"
LONDON: PUBLISHED BY FREEMANTLE
AND CO. AT 217 PICCADILLY MDCCCCII
[Illustration: Napoléon Bonaparte.]
CONTENTS
VOLUME II
BOOK VII
I go to see my mother--Saint-Malo--Progress of the Revolution
--My marriage--Paris--Old acquaintances and new--The Abbé
Barthélemy--Saint-Ange--The theatres--Changes in Paris--The
Club des Cordeliers--Marat--Danton--Camille Desmoulins--Fabre
d'Églantine--M. de Malesherbes' opinion on the emigration--I play
and lose--Adventure of the hackney-coach--Madame Roland--Barère at
the Hermitage--Second Federation of the 14th of July--Preparations
for the emigration--I emigrate with my brother--Adventure of
Saint-Louis--We cross the frontier--Brussels--Dinner at the Baron
de Breteuil's--Rivarol--Departure for the army of the Princes--The
journey--I meet the Prussian army--I arrive at Trèves--The Army of the
Princes--A Roman amphitheatre--_Atala_--The shirts of Henry IV.--A
soldier's life--Last appearance of old military France--Commencement
of the siege of Thionville--The Chevalier de La Baronnais--Continuation
of the siege--A contrast--Saints in the woods--Battle of Bouvines--A
patrol--An unexpected encounter--Effects of a cannon-ball and a
shell--Market in camp--Night amid piled arms--The Dutch dog--A
recollection of the _Martyrs_--The nature of my company--With the
outposts--Eudora--Ulysses--Passage of the Moselle--A fight--Libba, the
deaf and dumb girl--Assault of Thionville--The siege is raised--We
enter Verdun--The Prussian evil--The retreat--Smallpox--The
Ardennes--The Prince de Ligne's baggage-wagons--The women of Namur--I
meet my brother at Brussels--Our last farewell--Ostend--I take
passage for Jersey--I land at Guernsey--The pilot's wife--Jersey--My
uncle de Bedée and his family--Description of the island--The Duc de
Berry--Lost friends and relations--The misfortune of growing old--I go
to England--Last meeting with Gesril
BOOK VIII
The Literary Fund--My garret in Holborn--Decline in health--Visit
to the doctors--Emigrants in London--Peltier--Literary labours--My
friendship with Hingant--Our excursions--A night in Westminster
Abbey--Distress--Unexpected succour--Lodging overlooking a
cemetery--New companions in misfortune--Our pleasures--My cousin
de La Boüétardais--A sumptuous rout--I come to the end of my forty
crowns--Renewed distress--Table d'hôte--Bishops-Dinner at the London
Tavern--The Camden Manuscripts--My work in the country--Death of
my brother--Misfortunes of my family--Two Frances--Letters from
Hingant--Charlotte--I return to London--An extraordinary meeting--A
defect in my character--The _Essai historique sur les révolutions_--Its
effect--Letter from Lemierre, nephew to the poet--Fontanes--Cléry
BOOK IX
Death of my mother--I return to religion--The _Génie du
Christianisme_--Letter from the Chevalier de Panat--My uncle, M. de
Bedée: his eldest daughter--English literature--Decline of the old
school--Historians--Poets--Publicists--Shakespeare--Old novels--New
novels--Richardson--Sir Walter Scott--New poetry--Beattie--Lord
Byron--England from Richmond to Greenwich--A trip with
Peltier--Blenheim--Stowe--Hampton Court--Oxford--Eton College--Private
manners--Political manners--Fox--Pitt--Burke--George III.--Return
of the emigrants to France--The Prussian Minister gives me a false
passport in the name of La Sagne, a resident of Neuchâtel in
Switzerland--Death of Lord Londonderry--End of my career as a soldier
and traveller--I land at Calais
PART THE SECOND
1800-1814
BOOK I
My stay at Dieppe--Two phases of society--The position of my
Memoirs--The year 1800--Aspect of France--I arrive in Paris--Changes in
society--The year 1801--The _Mercure_--_Atala_--Madame de Beaumont and
her circle--Summer at Savigny--The year 1802--Talma--The year 1803--The
_Génie du Christianisme_--Failure prophesied--Cause of its final
success--Defects in the work