"As for hostilities with England, if they were ever to

commence, we should have either to throw twenty-five thousand

more men into the Morea, or promptly recall our troops and

our fleet. Give up squadron formation, disperse your ships

singly over all the seas, give orders that all prizes are

to be sunk after the crews have been removed, multiply your

letters of marque in the ports of the four quarters of the

globe, and soon Great Britain, forced by the bankruptcies and

outcries of her trade, will sue for the restoration of peace.

Did we not see her, in 1814, capitulate before the Navy of

the United States, notwithstanding that this consists to-day

of only nine frigates and eleven ships?

"Considered in the two-fold respect of the general interests

of society and of our own interests, the war of Russia

against the Porte should give us no umbrage. On the principle

of the higher civilization, the human race can only gain

by the destruction of the Ottoman Empire: it is a thousand

times better for the nations that the Cross should hold

sway in Constantinople than the Crescent. All the elements

of morality and of political society are at the root of

Christianity, all the germs of social destruction are in

the religion of Mahomet. They say that the present Sultan

has taken steps towards civilization: is this because he

has tried, with the assistance of a few French renegades,

of a few English and Austrian officers, to submit his

irregular hordes to regular exercises? And since when has the

mechanical apprenticeship of arms constituted civilization?

It is an enormous mistake, it is almost a crime, to have

initiated the Turks into the science of our tactics; we must

baptize the soldiers whom we discipline, unless we wish

purposely to educate destroyers of society.

"The want of foresight is great: Austria, which applauds

herself for organizing the Ottoman Armies, would be the

first to bear the penalty of her joy; if the Turks beat the

Russians they would be all the more capable of measuring

their strength with the Imperials their neighbours. This

time, Vienna would not escape the Grand Vizier. Would the

rest of Europe, which thinks it has nothing to fear from the

Porte, be in greater safety? Passionate and short-sighted

men want Turkey to be a regular military Power, to enter

into the common right of peace and war of civilized nations,

all in order to maintain some balance or other, of which

the mere word, void of sense, dispenses those men from

having any idea: what would be the consequences were those

wishes realized? Whenever it pleased the Sultan, under any

pretext, to attack a Christian government, a well-manœuvred

Constantinopolitan fleet, augmented by the fleet of the Pasha

of Egypt and the naval contingent of the Barbary Powers,

would declare the coasts of Spain or Italy in a state of

blockade and land fifty thousand men at Carthagena or Naples.

You do not wish to plant the Cross on St. Sophia: continue to

discipline the hordes of Turks, Albanians, Negroes and Arabs,

and, in less than twenty years, perhaps, the Crescent will

gleam on the dome of St. Peter's. Will you then summon Europe

to a crusade against infidels armed with the plague, slavery

and the Koran? It will be too late.

"The general interests of society would therefore benefit by

the success of the arms of the Emperor Nicholas.

"As to France's own interests, I have proved sufficiently

that these lie in an alliance with Russia, and that they may

be singularly favoured by the very war which that Power is

to-day waging in the East."

[Sidenote: Summary.]

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND REFLECTIONS

"To sum up:

"1. If Turkey were to consent to treat on the basis of the

treaty of the 6th of July, nothing would yet be decided,

since peace has not been made between Turkey and Russia; the

chances of the war in the Balkan Passes would at every moment

change the _data_ and the position of the plenipotentiaries

occupied with the emancipation of Greece.

"2. The probable conditions of peace between the Emperor

Nicholas and Sultan Mahmud are open to the greatest

objections.

"3. Russia can defy the union of England and Austria, a union

more formidable in appearance than in reality.

"4. It is probable that Prussia would join hands with the

Emperor Nicholas, the son-in-law of Frederic William III.,

rather than with the Emperor's enemies.

"5. France would have everything to lose and nothing to gain

by allying herself with England and Austria against Russia.

"6. The independence of Europe would not be at all threatened

by Russia's conquests in the East. It is tolerably absurd,

it is to ignore every obstacle, to imagine the Russians

hastening from the Bosphorus to lay their yoke upon Germany

and France: every empire weakens itself by extension. As

to the balance of power, this has long been shattered for

France; she has lost her colonies, she has shrunk back within

her old boundaries, while England, Prussia, Russia and

Austria have prodigiously enlarged theirs.

"7. If France were obliged to emerge from her neutrality, to

take up arms for one side or the other, the general interests

of civilization, as well as the particular interests of our

country, must make us enter by preference into the Russian

Alliance. By this means we could obtain the course of the

Rhine as our frontier, and colonies in the Archipelago,

advantages which the Cabinets of St. James and Vienna will

never grant us.

"That is the summary of this Note. I have been able to

reason only hypothetically; I do not know what England,

Austria and Russia are proposing, or have proposed, at the

moment of writing; there may be a piece of information or a

dispatch which reduces the truths here set forth to useless

generalities: that is the drawback of distances and of

conjectural politics. Nevertheless, it remains certain that

France holds a strong position and that the Government is

so placed as to be able to make the very utmost of events,

if it thoroughly realizes what it requires, if it allows no

one to intimidate it, if to firmness of language it adds

vigour in action. We have a revered King, an Heir to the

Throne who, with three hundred thousand men, would increase,

on the banks of the Rhine, the glory which he has reaped in

Spain; our Morean Expedition is making us play a part filled

with honour; our political institutions are excellent; our

finances are in a state of prosperity unequalled in Europe:

with that one can walk with one's head raised. What a fine

country is that which possesses genius, courage, men and

money!

"For the rest, I do not pretend to have said everything, to

have foreseen everything; I have not the presumption to put

forward my system as the best; I know that there is something

mysterious, something indiscernible, in human affairs. If

it be true that one can fairly well prophesy the last and

general results of a revolution, it is no less true that

one deceives one's self as to the details, that particular

events are often modified in an unexpected manner and that,

while seeing the end, one reaches it by roads whose very

existence one did not suspect. It is certain, for instance,

that the Turks will be driven from Europe; but when and how?

Will the war now waging deliver the civilized world from

that scourge? Are the obstacles to peace to which I have

pointed insurmountable? Yes, if we confine ourselves to

analogous arguments; no, if we bring into our calculations

circumstances foreign to those which have occasioned the

resort to arms.

"Scarcely anything to-day resembles what it has been; outside

religion and morality, the majority of truths have altered,

if not in their essence, at least in their relations to men

and things. D'Ossat[687] survives as an able negociator;

Grotius[688] as a publicist of genius; Pufendorf[689] as a

judicious mind; but we could not apply the rules of their

diplomacy to our times, nor go back, in political law,

to the Treaty of Westphalia[690]. Nowadays, the peoples

take a part in their affairs, conducted formerly by the

governments alone. Those peoples no longer feel things as

they used to feel them; they are no longer affected by

the same events; they no longer see objects from the same

point of view; reason has made progress with them at the

cost of imagination; facts carry the day over exaltation

and passionate determinations; a certain reason prevails on

every hand. On most of the thrones and in the majority of

the Cabinets of Europe are seated men weary of revolutions,

surfeited with war and opposed to any spirit of adventure;

those are causes of hope for peaceful arrangements. Also it

is possible that nations may have internal troubles which

would dispose them towards conciliatory measures.

[Sidenote: Conclusions.]

"The death of the Dowager Empress of Russia[691] may develop

seeds of disturbance which were not wholly stifled. This

Princess took little part in foreign politics, but she was a

link between her sons; she is supposed to have exercised a

great influence over the transactions which gave the crown to

the Emperor Nicholas[692]. Nevertheless, it must be confessed

that, if Nicholas began again to be afraid, this would be a

reason the more for him to push on his soldiers from their

native soil and to seek safety in victory.

"England, independently of her debt, which hampers her

movements, is embarrassed with affairs in Ireland. Whether

Catholic Emancipation pass through Parliament or not, it will

be an immense event. King George's health is breaking down,

that of his immediate successor is no better; if the accident

foreseen were to happen soon, there would be a new parliament

summoned, perhaps a change of ministers, and capable men are

rare in England to-day; a long regency might perhaps come.

In this precarious and critical position, it is possible

that England sincerely desires peace and that she is afraid

to throw herself into the chances of a great war, in the

midst of which she might find herself surprised by internal

catastrophes.

"Lastly, to come to ourselves, in spite of our genuine

and incontrovertible prosperity, although we could make a

glorious appearance on a field of battle, if called to it:

are we quite prepared to figure on one? Are our fortresses in

a state of repair? Have we the stores necessary for a large

army? Is that army even on a complete peace footing? If we

were suddenly aroused by a declaration of war from England,

Prussia and the Netherlands, could we make an effective

opposition against a third invasion? The Napoleonic wars have

divulged a fatal secret: that it is possible to reach Paris

in a few days after a successful engagement; that Paris does

not defend itself; that this same Paris is much too near the

frontier. The capital of France will not be safe until we

possess the left bank of the Rhine. We may therefore require

some time to prepare ourselves.

"Add to all this that the vices and virtues of the

sovereigns, their moral strength and weakness, their

character, their passions, their very habits are causes

of acts and of facts which defy calculation and which

enter into no political formula: the most petty influence

sometimes decides the greatest event in a sense opposed to

the likelihood of things; a slave can cause a peace to be

signed in Constantinople which all Europe, coalesced or on

its knees, would not obtain.

"If, then, one of those reasons, placed outside the limits

of human foresight, should, in the course of this winter,

produce demands for negociations, ought they to be rejected,

if they did not agree with the principles of this Note? No,

doubtless: to gain time is a great thing, when one is not

ready. One can know what would be best and be content with

what is least bad; political truths, above all, are relative;

the absolute, in matters of State, has grave disadvantages.

It would be a good thing for the human race that the Turks

should be thrown into the Bosphorus; but we are not charged

with the expedition, and the hour of Mohammedanism has

perhaps not struck: hatred must be enlightened in order

not to commit follies. Nothing, therefore, should prevent

France from entering into negociations, while taking care to

reconcile them as far as possible with the spirit in which

this Note is drawn up. It is for the men at the helm of

empires to steer them according to the winds and avoid the

foul places.

"Certainly, if the powerful Sovereign of the North consented

to reduce the terms of peace to the fulfilment of the

Treaty of Akerman and the emancipation of Greece, it would

be possible to make the Porte listen to reason; but what

likelihood is there that Russia will confine herself to

terms which she might have obtained without firing a gun?

How could she abandon claims so loudly and so publicly

expressed? One means alone, if there be one, would present

itself: to propose a general congress at which the Emperor

Nicholas would yield, or appear to yield, to the wishes of

Christian Europe. A means of success with men is to save

their self-esteem, to supply them with a reason to withdraw

their word and issue from a bad plight with honour.

[Sidenote: And reflections.]

"The greatest obstacle to this plan of a congress would

come from the unexpected success of the Ottoman arms during

the winter. If, owing to the rigour of the season, the

want of provisions, the insufficiency of the troops, or

any other cause, the Russians were obliged to abandon the

Siege of Silistria, if Varna, which, however, is hardly

probable, were to fall again into the hands of the Turks,

the Emperor Nicholas would find himself in a position which

would no longer permit him to listen to any proposal, under

the penalty of descending to the lowest rank of monarchs:

then the war would continue and we should come back to the

eventualities inferred in this Note. If Russia lost her rank

as a military power, if Turkey replaced her in this quality,

Europe would only have changed one peril for another. Now,

the danger which would come upon us through the scimitar

of Mahmud would be of a much more formidable nature than

that with which we should be threatened by the sword of the

Emperor Nicholas. If fortune, by chance, seat a remarkable

prince upon the Throne of the Sultans, he cannot live long

enough to change the laws and manners, even if he had the

intention to do so. Mahmud will die: to whom will he leave

the Empire, with its disciplined, fanatical soldiers, with

its ulemas holding in their hands, thanks to the initiation

of modern tactics, a new means of conquest for the Koran?

"While Austria, at last terrified by those false

calculations, would be obliged to guard herself on

frontiers where the janissaries gave her nothing to fear,

a new military insurrection, a possible result of the

humiliation of the Emperor Nicholas, would perhaps break

out in St. Petersburg, spread from place to place, and set

fire to the north of Germany. That is what the men do not

perceive who, in politics, confine themselves to vulgar

terrors and commonplaces. Petty dispatches, petty intrigues

are the barriers which Austria designs to oppose to an

all--threatening movement. If France and England adopted a

course worthy of themselves, if they notified the Porte that,

in case the Sultan should close his ears to all proposals of

peace, he would find them on the battle-field in the spring,

that resolution would soon have put an end to the anxiety of

Europe."

The existence of this Memorandum, having transpired in the diplomatic

world, attracted to me a certain consideration which I did not decline,

but which I did not either aspire to. I do not too clearly see what

there was to surprise the "practical" men. My Spanish War was a very

"practical" thing. The incessant work of the general revolution

operating in the old society, while bringing about among ourselves

the fall of the Legitimacy, has upset calculations subordinate to the

permanence of facts as they existed in 1828.

Do you wish to convince yourselves of the enormous difference of merit

and glory between a great writer and a great politician? My works as

a diplomatist have been hallowed by what is recognised as the supreme

ability, _success._ And, still, whosoever may at any time read this

Memorandum will no doubt skip it close-legged, and I should do as much

in the reader's place[693]. Well, suppose that, instead of this little

diplomatic master-piece, we were to find in this writing some episode

after the manner of Homer or Virgil, if Heaven had granted me their

genius: do you think we should be tempted to skip the loves of Dido at

Carthage or the tears of Priam in Achilles' tent?

TO MADAME RÉCAMIER

"ROME, _Wednesday_, 10 _December_ 1828.

"I have been to the Tiberine Academy, of which I have the

honour to be a member. I have heard very witty speeches and

very fine verses. What an amount of wasted intelligence!

To-night I have my great _ricevimento_; I am terrified of it

as I write to you."

[Sidenote: A reception at the Embassy.]

"11 _December._

"The great _ricevimento_ passed off admirably. Madame de

Chateaubriand is delighted, because we had all the cardinals

on the face of the earth. All Europe in Rome was there with

Rome. Since I am condemned for some days to this business, I

prefer to do it as well as another ambassador. The enemies

dislike any kind of success, even the most miserable, and it

is punishing them to succeed in a field where they believe

themselves unequalled. Next Saturday, I transform myself into

a canon of St. John Lateran, and on Sunday I give a dinner

to my colleagues. An assembly more to my taste is that which

takes place this evening: I dine at Guérin's with all the

artists and we shall settle _your_ monument to Poussin. A

young pupil full of talent, M. Desprez[694], will make the

bas-relief, taken from a picture by the great painter, and

M. Lemoyne[695] will make the bust. We must have only French

hands here.

"To complete my History of Rome, Madame de Castries has

arrived. She again is one of those little girls who have sat

on my knee, like Césarine (Madame de Barante)[696]. The poor

woman is very much changed; her eyes filled with tears when I

reminded her of her childhood at Lormois. It seems to me that

the new arrival is no longer under the spell of enchantment.

What an isolation! And for whom? I tell you, the best thing

for me to do is to go to see you again as soon as possible.

If my _Moses_[697] comes down safely from the mountain, I

will borrow one of his rays, to reappear before your eyes

quite brilliant and youthful."

"_Saturday_, 13.

"My dinner at the Academy went off admirably. The young men

were pleased: it was the first time an ambassador had dined

'with them.' I announced the Poussin Monument to them; it was

as though I were already honouring their ashes."

_Thursday_, 18 _December_ 1828.

"Instead of wasting my time and yours in telling you the

doings of my life, I prefer to send them to you all written

down in the Roman newspaper. Here are another twelve months

that have fallen on my head. When shall I have rest? When

shall I cease to waste on the high-roads the days that were

given me to make a better use of? I have spent with my eyes

shut while I was rich; I thought the treasure inexhaustible.

Now, when I see how it has diminished and how little time is

left to me to lay at your feet, I feel a pain at my heart.

But is there not a long existence after that on earth? A

poor, humble Christian, I tremble before Michael Angelo's

_Last Judgment_; I know not where I shall go, but, wherever

you are not, I shall be very unhappy. I have a hundred times

acquainted you with my plans and my future. Ruins, health,

the loss of all illusion, all say to me, 'Go away, retire,

have done.' I find nothing at the end of my day's journey

but you. You wished me to mark my stay in Rome, it is done:

Poussin's tomb will remain. It will bear this inscription:

F. A. DE CH. TO NICOLAS POUSSIN,

FOR THE GLORY OF ART AND THE HONOUR OF FRANCE[698].

"What more have I to do here now? Nothing, especially after

subscribing your name for the sum of one hundred ducats to

the monument of the man whom you say you love best 'after

myself:' Tasso."

"ROME, _Saturday_, 3 _January_ 1829.

"I am recommencing my good wishes for the New Year: may

Heaven grant you health and a long life! Do not forget me; I

have hopes, for, indeed, you remember M. de Montmorency and

Madame de Staël: your memory is as good as your heart. I was

saying yesterday to Madame Salvage[699] that I knew nothing

in the world so beautiful as yourself or better.

[Sidenote: An hour with Leo XII.]

"I spent an hour yesterday with the Pope. We spoke of

everything, including the loftiest and gravest topics. He is

a very distinguished and enlightened man and a Prince full

of dignity. The adventures of my political life needed only

that I should be in relations with a sovereign pontiff; that

completes my career.

"Would you like to know exactly what I do? I rise at

half-past five, I breakfast at seven o'clock; at eight

o'clock, I go back to my study, I write to you, or do some

business, when there is any to do (the detail-work in

connection with the French establishments and the French poor

is pretty considerable); at mid-day, I go to wander for two

or three hours among the ruins, or to St. Peter's, or to the

Vatican. Sometimes I pay a necessary visit before or after my

walk; at five o'clock, I come home; I dress for the evening;

I dine at six o'clock; at half-past seven, I go to a party

with Madame de Chateaubriand, or I receive a few people at

home. At eleven, I go to bed, or else I go back once more to

the _campagna_, in spite of the robbers and the _malaria._

What do I do there? Nothing: I listen to the silence and

watch my shadow passing from portico to portico along the

moonlit aqueducts.

"The Romans are so accustomed to my 'methodical' life that

they reckon the hours by me. They must be quick about it; I

shall soon have been round the clock."

"ROME, _Thursday_, 8 _January_ 1828.

"I am very unhappy; the finest weather in the world has

changed into rain, so that I am no longer able to take my

walks. And yet that is the only pleasant moment of my day.

I used to go thinking of you to these deserted _campagne_;

they linked the past and the future in my sentiments, for

formerly I used to take the same walks. Once or twice a week,

I go to the place where the English girl was drowned: who

now remembers that poor young woman, Miss Bathurst[700]? Her

fellow-countrymen and women gallop along the river-side

without thinking of her. The Tiber, which has seen many other

things, does not trouble about her at all. Besides, its

waters have been renewed: they are as pale and still as when

they passed over that creature full of hope, beauty and life.

"I have fallen into a very lofty strain without knowing it.

Forgive a poor hare imprisoned and steeped in his form. I

must tell you a little story of my last 'Tuesday.' There was

an immense crowd at the Embassy; I was standing with my back

against a marble table, bowing to the people arriving and

leaving. An Englishwoman, of whom I knew neither the name nor

the appearance, came up to me, looked me straight in the face

and said, with the famous accent:

"'Monsieur de Chateaubriand, you are very unhappy!'

"Astonished at this apostrophe and at this manner of entering

into conversation, I asked her what she meant. She replied:

"'I mean to say that I pity you.'

"So saying, she linked her arm into that of another

Englishwoman, was lost in the crowd, and I did not see her

again during the rest of the evening. That eccentric stranger

was neither young nor pretty: I feel grateful to her,

nevertheless, for her mysterious words.

"Your newspapers continue to say the same things about me. I

don't know what has possessed them. I ought to believe myself

as forgotten as I wish to be.

"I am writing to M. Thierry by this post. He is at Hyères and

very ill. Not a word of reply from M. de La Bouillerie[701]."

TO M. THIERRY[702]

"ROME, 8 _January_ 1829.

"I was much touched, monsieur, to receive the new edition of

your Letters, with a line which proves that you have thought

of me. If that line had been in your own hand, I should have

hoped for the sake of my country that your eyes would reopen

to the studies which your talent turns to such wonderful

account. I am greedily reading, or rather re-reading, this

too short work. I am making dog's ears to every page, in

order the better to mark the passages upon which I wish to

rely. I shall quote you very frequently, monsieur, in the

work which I have been so many years preparing, on the two

first dynasties. I shall shelter my ideas and my researches

behind your authority; I shall often adopt your reforms in

nomenclature; lastly, I shall have the good fortune to be

almost invariably of your opinion, while departing, much

despite of myself, no doubt, from the system put forth by

M. Guizot; but I cannot, in common with that illustrious

writer, overthrow the most authentic monuments, turn all the

Franks into 'nobles' and 'free-men,' and all the Roman-Gauls

into 'slaves of the Franks.' The Salic Law and the Ripuarian

Law have a multitude of articles based on the difference of

condition among the Franks:

"'_St quis ingenuus ingenuum ripuarium extra solum

vendiderit, etc., etc._'

[Sidenote: Letter to Augustin Thierry.]

"You know, monsieur, how eagerly I wished for you in Rome.

We should have sat down on some ruins: there you would have

taught me history; I, an old disciple, would have listened

to my young master with the sole regret that I no longer had

enough years before me to profit by his lessons:

Tel est le sort de l'homme: il s'instruit avec l'âge.

Mais que sert être sage,

Quand le terme est si près[703]?

"Those lines are from an unpublished ode, written by a man

who is no more, by my good and old friend, Fontanes. Thus,

monsieur, does everything remind me, among the remains of

Rome, of all that I have lost, of the short time that still

remains to me and of the brevity of those hopes which seemed

so long to me in former days: _spem longam._

"Believe, monsieur, that no one admires you more, or is more

devoted to you than your servant."

DISPATCH TO M. LE COMTE DE LA FERRONAYS

"ROME, 12 _January_ 1829.

"MONSIEUR LE COMTE,

"I saw the Pope on the 2nd of this month; he was good enough

to keep me with him in private audience for an hour and a

half. I must report to you the conversation which I had with

His Holiness.

"We first spoke of France. The Pope began with the most

sincere praise of the King.

"'At no time,' he said, 'has the Royal Family of France

displayed so complete a harmony of good qualities and

virtues. Now calm has been restored among the clergy; the

bishops have made their submission.'

"'That submission,' I replied, 'is, in part, due to the

sagacity and moderation of Your Holiness.'

"'I advised what seemed reasonable to me to be done,'

answered the Pope. 'There were no spiritual matters involved

in the ordinances[704]; the bishops would have done better to

leave their first letter unwritten; but, after saying, "_Non

possutnus_," it was difficult for them to withdraw. They

tried to display as little contradiction as possible between

their actions and their language at the moment of their

adhesion: we must forgive them for it. They are pious men,

firmly attached to the King and the Monarchy; they have their

weaknesses in common with all men.'

"All this, monsieur le comte, was said in very clear and

excellent French.

"After thanking the Holy Father for the confidence which he

showed me, I spoke to him in terms of consideration of the

Cardinal Secretary of State:

"'I chose him,' he said, 'because he has travelled, because

he knows the general affairs of Europe and because he seemed

to me to possess the sort of capacity which his post demands.

He has written, with respect to your two ordinances, only

what I thought and what I recommended him to write.'

"'Might I venture to give Your Holiness,' I resumed, 'my

opinion of the religious situation in France?'

"'You will be doing me a great pleasure,' replied the Pope.

"I suppress a few compliments which His Holiness was good

enough to address to me.

"'I think then, Most Holy Father, that the mischief arose

in the first place from a mistake of the clergy: instead of

supporting the new institutions, or at least keeping silence

respecting those institutions, they allowed words of blame,

to say no more, to escape in their charges and sermons.

Irreligious persons, who were at a loss with what to reproach

saintly ministers, seized upon those words and made a weapon

of them; they cried that Catholicism was incompatible with

the establishment of public liberty, that it was war to the

death between the Charter and the priests. By holding the

opposite conduct, our ecclesiastics would have obtained all

they wanted from the nation. There is a great ground-work of

religion in France and a visible inclination to forget our

old misfortunes at the foot of the altars; but also there is

a real attachment to the institutions introduced by the sons

of St. Louis. It would be impossible to calculate the measure

of power to which the clergy might have attained, if they had

shown themselves at the same time friends to the King and

the Charter. I have never ceased to preach this policy in my

writings and in my speeches; but the passions of the moment

refused me a hearing and took me for an enemy.'

"The Pope had listened to me with the greatest attention.

"'I enter into your ideas,' he said, after a moment's

pause. 'Jesus Christ made no pronouncement as to the

form of governments. "Render to Cæsar the things that

are Cæsar's[705]" means only, "Obey the established

authorities." The Catholic religion has prospered in the

midst of republics as in the bosom of monarchies; it has made

immense progress in the United States; it reigns alone in

Spanish America.'

"These words are very remarkable, monsieur le comte, at the

very moment when the Court of Rome is strongly inclining to

establish the bishops nominated by Bolivar[706].

"The Pope resumed:

"'You see how great is the influx of Protestant strangers

to Rome: their presence does good to the country; but it is

also good in another respect: the English come here with

strange notions regarding the Pope and the Papacy, the

fanaticism of the clergy, the slavery of the people in this

country; they have not stayed here two months before they

are quite changed. They see that I am only a bishop like any

other bishop, that the Roman clergy are neither ignorant nor

persecuting, and that my subjects are not beasts of burden!'

"Encouraged by this sort of effusion of the heart, and

seeking to widen the scope of the conversation, I said to the

Sovereign Pontiff:

"'Does not Your Holiness think that the moment is

favourable for the recomposition of Catholic unity, for

the reconciliation of the dissenting sects, by some slight

concessions of discipline? The prejudices against the Court

of Rome are vanishing in every quarter and, in a century

which was still ardent, the work of reunion had already been

attempted by Leibnitz[707] and Bossuet.'

"'This is a great matter,' said the Pope; 'but I must await

the moment fixed by Providence. I agree that the prejudices

are vanishing; the division of the sects in Germany has

brought about the lassitude of those sects. In Saxony, where

I resided for three years, I was the first to establish a

foundling hospital and to obtain that this hospital should

be served by Catholics. A general outcry arose against me at

the time among the Protestants; to-day those same Protestants

are the first to praise and endow the institution. The number

of Catholics is increasing in Great Britain; it is true that

they include many foreigners.'

"The Pope pausing for a moment, I took occasion to introduce

the question of the Irish Catholics:

"'If the emancipation takes place,' I said, 'the Catholic

religion will increase still more in Great Britain.'

[Sidenote: Pope Leo XII. on Ireland.]

"'That is true on one side,' replied His Holiness, 'but

on the other there are disadvantages. The Irish Catholics

are very ardent and very incautious. Has not O'Connell, in

other respects a man of merit, gone so far as to say that

a concordat had been proposed between the Holy See and the

British Government? There is not a word of truth in this

assertion; I cannot contradict it publicly; and it has given

me great pain. And so, for the union of the dissenters, it

is necessary that things should be ripe and that God Himself

should complete His work. The popes can only wait.'

"This was not my opinion, monsieur le comte; but my business

was to inform the King of the Holy Father's opinion on so

serious a subject, not to combat it.

"'What will your newspapers say?' asked the Pope, with a sort

of gaiety. 'They talk a great deal! Those of the Netherlands

still more; but I am told that, in your country, nobody

thinks of their articles an hour after they have read them.'

"'That is absolutely true, Most Holy Father: you see how

the _Gazette de France_ deals with me,'--for I know that

His Holiness reads all our newspapers, not excepting the

_Courrier_--'and still the Sovereign Pontiff treats me with

extreme kindness; I have reason to believe, therefore, that

the _Gazette_ does not make a great impression on him.'--The

Pope laughed and shook his head.--'Well, Most Holy Father,

there are others like Your Holiness; when the paper tells

the truth, the good it says remains; if it lies, it is as

though it had said nothing at all. The Pope must expect some

speeches during this session: the Extreme Right will maintain

that M. le Cardinal Bernetti is not a priest and that his

letters on the ordinances are not articles of faith; the

Extreme Left will declare that we need not have taken our

orders from Rome. The majority will commend the deference of

the Privy Council and will loudly praise the spirit of peace

and wisdom of Your Holiness.'

"This little explanation appeared to charm the Holy Father,

who was pleased to meet with some one acquainted with the

workings of our constitutional machine. Finally, monsieur le

comte, thinking that the King and his Council would like to

know the views of the Pope on the present state of affairs

in the East, I repeated some news out of the papers, not

being authorized to communicate to the Holy See the positive

facts of which you informed me in your dispatch of the 18th

December touching the recall of our expedition to the Morea.

"The Pope did not hesitate to reply; he appeared to me to

be alarmed at the imprudence of instructing the Turks in

military discipline. I give his own words:

"'If the Turks are already capable of resisting Russia, what

will their power be when they have obtained a glorious peace?

Who will prevent them, after four or five years spent in rest

and in perfecting their new tactics, from hurling themselves

upon Italy?'

"I will confess, monsieur le comte, that, when I recognised

these ideas and these anxieties in the mind of the Sovereign

most exposed to the effects of the consequence of the

enormous error that has been committed, I congratulated

myself on having displayed to you in fuller detail, in

my Note on Eastern Affairs, the same ideas and the same

anxieties.

"'Nothing,' added the Pope, 'except a firm resolution on the

part of the Allied Powers, can put an end to a misfortune

which threatens the future. France and England are still

in time to stop everything; but, if a new campaign open,

it can set Europe on fire, and then it will be too late to

extinguish it.'

"'That reflection is the more just,' I answered, 'seeing

that, if Europe were to become divided, which God forbid, the

presence of fifty thousand Frenchmen would stir up the whole

question again.'

"The Pope made no reply; only it appeared to me that the

idea of seeing the French in Italy filled him with no sort

of fear. Every one is weary of the inquisition of the Court

of Vienna, of its cavilling, of its continual encroachments

and of its little plots to unite the peoples which detest the

Austrian yoke into a confederation against France.

"This, monsieur le comte, is a summary of my long

conversation with His Holiness. I do not know that any one

has ever been in a position to know more thoroughly the inner

sentiments of the Pope, that any one has ever heard a prince

who governs the Christian world express himself so plainly on

subjects so vast and so far removed from the narrow circle

of diplomatic commonplaces. Here there was no intermediary

between the Sovereign Pontiff and myself and it was easy to

see that Leo XII., thanks to his candid character and the

impulse of a familiar conversation, dissimulated nothing and

in no way sought to deceive.

"The leanings and wishes of the Pope are evidently towards

France: when he assumed the Keys of St. Peter, he belonged

to the faction of the _zelanti_; to-day he has sought his

strength in moderation: that is what the habit of power

always teaches. For this reason he is not beloved by the

faction of cardinals which he has quitted. Finding no man

of talent in the secular clergy, he has chosen his chief

advisers among the regular clergy; hence it comes that the

monks are on his side, while the prelates and the simple

priests make a sort of opposition to him. The latter, when I

arrived in Rome, all had their minds more or less infected

with the lies of our congregation; they are now infinitely

more reasonable; they all, generally speaking, blame the

rising in arms of our clergy. It is curious to remark that

the Jesuits have as many enemies here as in France: they have

as their special adversaries the other religious and the

heads of Orders. They had formed a plan by means of which

they would have seized upon the public instruction in Rome to

the exclusion of the others: the Dominicans have foiled that

plan. The Pope is not very popular, because he administers

well. His little army consists of old soldiers of Bonaparte,

who have a very military bearing and keep excellent order on

the high-roads. If material Rome has lost in picturesqueness,

it has gained in cleanliness and healthiness. His Holiness

plants trees and arrests hermits and beggars: another subject

of complaint for the populace. Leo XII. is a great worker;

he sleeps little and eats scarcely at all. Only one taste

remains to him of his youth, that of sport, an exercise

necessary to his health, which, for that matter, seems

to be improving. He has a few shots with a fowling-piece

in the vast enclosure of the Gardens of the Vatican. The

_zelanti_ find it very difficult to forgive him this innocent

diversion. The Pope is reproached with the weakness and

inconstancy of his affections.

"The radical vice of the political constitution of this

country is easily seized upon: it is old men who appoint as

sovereign an old man like themselves. This old man, when

he becomes the master, in his turn appoints old men as

cardinals. Turning in this vicious circle, the enervated

supreme power is in this way always at the edge of the tomb.

The prince never occupies the throne for a long enough

period to execute the plans of improvement which he may

have conceived. A pope ought to have sufficient resolution

suddenly to promote a number of young cardinals, in such

a way as to ensure at the next election the majority of a

young pope. But the rules of Sixtus V.[708], which give the

hat to palace employments, the empire of custom and habit,

the interests of the people, who receive gratifications at

each change of the tiara, the individual ambition of the

cardinals, who wish for short reigns in order to multiply

their chances of the papacy, these and a thousand other

obstacles too long to narrate are opposed to the rejuvenation

of the Sacred College.

"The conclusion of this dispatch, monsieur le comte, is that,

in the present condition of affairs, the King can reckon

entirely on the Court of Rome.

"Cautious as I am in my manner of seeing and feeling, if I

have anything with which to reproach myself in the report

which I have the honour to send you, it is that I have

weakened rather than exaggerated the expression of His

Holiness' words. My memory is very safe; I wrote down the

conversation on leaving the Vatican and my private secretary

has simply copied it word for word from my minutes. The

latter, rapidly jotted down, were hardly legible to myself.

You would never have been able to decipher them[709].

"I have the honour to be, etc."

TO MADAME RÉCAMIER

"ROME, _Tuesday_, 13 _January_ 1829.

"Yesterday evening, at eight o'clock, I wrote you the letter

which M. Du Viviers[710] is bringing you; this morning, on

waking, I am writing to you again by the ordinary post, which

leaves at noon. You know the poor ladies of Saint-Denis:

they have been much neglected since the arrival of the great

ladies of the Trinità-del-Monte; without being the enemy of

the latter, I have taken the side of the former with Madame

de Ch. For the last month, the ladies of Saint-Denis have

been wishing to give a fête in honour of 'M. the Ambassador'

and 'Madame the Ambassadress:' it took place yesterday at

mid-day. Imagine a theatre arranged in a sort of sacristy

with a platform giving on to the church; as actors, a dozen

young girls from eight years to fourteen, who played the

_Machabées._ They had themselves made their helmets and

cloaks. They spoke their French lines with an enthusiasm

and an Italian accent which were the funniest things in the

world; they stamped their feet at energetic moments: there

was a niece of Pius VII., a daughter of Thorwaldsen, and

another daughter of Chauvin[711] the painter. They were

incredibly pretty in their paper finery. The one who played

the High Priest had a great black beard which delighted

her but pricked her, and which she was constantly obliged

to put right with a little thirteen-year-old white hand.

As spectators, ourselves, a few mothers, the nuns, Madame

Salvage, two or three priests and a further score of little

school-girls, all in white, with veils. We had had cakes

and ices brought from the Embassy. They played the piano

between the acts. Imagine the hopes and joys which, must have

preceded this fête at the convent, and the memories which

will follow it! The whole ended with _Vivat in æternum_, sung

by three nuns in the church."

"ROME, _January_ 1829.

"Yours again! Last night we had wind and rain as in France:

I imagined them beating against your little window; I found

myself transported to your little room, I saw your harp,

your piano, your birds; you played me my favourite air, or

Shakspeare's: and I was in Rome, far away from you! Four

hundred leagues and the Alps separate us!

[Sidenote: Amateur theatricals.]

"I have received a letter from that witty lady who used

sometimes to come to see me at the Foreign Office; you can

judge how well she courts me: she is a furious Turcophile;

Mahmud is a great man, who is in advance of his nation!

"This Rome, in whose midst I live, ought to teach me to

despise politics. Here liberty and tyranny have both

perished: I see the huddled ruins of the Roman Republic and

the Empire of Tiberius; what is all this to-day blended

in the same dust? Does not the Capuchin who sweeps that

dust with his gown as he goes by seem to make the vanity

of so many vanities even more perceptible? Nevertheless, I

come back, in spite of myself, to the destinies of my poor

country. I would wish it religion, glory and liberty, without

thinking of my powerlessness to deck it with that triple

crown."

"ROME, _Thursday_, 5 _February_ 1829.

"Torre Vergata is a domain of monks situated at about a

league from Nero's Tomb, on the left as you come from Rome,

in the most beautiful and deserted spot: there is an immense

number of ruins level with the ground covered with grass

and thistle. I began an excavation there two days ago, on

Tuesday, just after I had written to you. I was accompanied

by Hyacinthe and by Visconti[712], who is directing the

excavation. The weather was the loveliest in the world. A

dozen men armed with spades and pickaxes, digging up tombs

and ruins of houses and palaces amid profound solitude,

offered a spectacle worthy of you. I uttered but one wish:

that you might be there. I would gladly consent to live with

you in a tent amid those ruins.

"I myself put my hand to the work; I discovered fragments of

marble: the clues are excellent and I hope to find something

to compensate me for the money wasted in this lottery of the

dead; already I have a block of Greek marble large enough

to make Poussin's bust. This excavation will become the

object of my walks; I shall go and sit everyday in the midst

of these remains. To which century, to which men did they

belong? We are perhaps removing the most illustrious dust

without knowing it. Perhaps an inscription will come to throw

light upon some historic fact, to destroy some error, to

establish some truth. And then, when I have gone away with my

twelve half-naked peasants, all will fall back into oblivion

and silence. Do you picture to yourself all the passions,

all the interests which once bestirred themselves in these

abandoned spots? There were masters and slaves, happy people

and unhappy, beautiful persons who were beloved and ambitious

people who wanted to be ministers. There remain a few birds

and I, for but a very short time longer; soon we shall fly

away. Tell me, do you think it worth while to be one of the

members of the council of a little king of the Gauls, for me,

an Armorican barbarian, a traveller among savages of a world

unknown to the Romans and ambassador to the priests whom

they used to throw to the lions? When I called to Leonidas

at Lacedæmon, he did not answer: the sound of my footsteps

at Torre Vergata will have roused nobody. And when I, in my

turn, am in my grave, I shall not hear even the sound of your

voice. I must therefore hurry to come closer to you and to

put an end to all these idle fancies of the life of men.

There is nothing good save retirement, nothing true save an

attachment like yours."

"ROME, 7 _February_ 1829.

"I have received a long letter from General Guilleminot[713];

he gives me a lamentable account of what he suffered during

his journeys on the coasts of Greece: and yet Guilleminot

was an ambassador; he had large ships and an army under his

orders. To go, after our soldiers have left, to a country

in which not a house nor a corn-field remains, among a few

scattered men, driven by poverty to become brigands, is an

impossible project for a woman[714].

[Sidenote: My excavations.]

"I shall go to my excavation this morning: yesterday we found

the skeleton of a Gothic soldier and the arm of a female

statue. It was as though one had come upon the destroyer

together with the ruin he had made; we have great hopes of

finding the statue this morning. If the architectural remains

which I am uncovering are worth the trouble, I shall not

break them up to sell the bricks, as is usually done: I shall

leave them standing, and they will bear my name. They belong

to the time of Domitian. We have an inscription which shows

this: it is the good time of the Roman arts."

DISPATCHES TO M. LE COMTE PORTALIS

"ROME, _Monday_, 9 _February_ 1829.

"MONSIEUR LE COMTE,

"His Holiness had a sudden attack this morning of the

disorder to which he is subject; his life is in the most

imminent danger. The order has been given to close all the

theatres. I have just left the Cardinal Secretary of State,

who is himself ill and who despairs of the Pope's life. The

loss of this enlightened and modern Sovereign Pontiff would,

at the present moment, be a real calamity for Christianity

and especially for France. I thought it important, monsieur

le comte, that His Majesty's Government should be warned

of this probable event, so that it may be enabled to take

such measures beforehand as it shall consider necessary.

Consequently, I have dispatched a mounted courier to Lyons.

This courier carries a letter which I am writing to Monsieur

the Prefect of the Rhône, with a telegraphic dispatch which

he will forward to you, and another letter which I am asking

him to send you by express. If we have the misfortune to lose

His Holiness, a fresh courier will bring you all the details

to Paris.

"I have the honour to be, etc."

"_Eight o'clock in the evening._

"The congregation of Cardinals already assembled has

forbidden the Cardinal Secretary of State to give permits

for post-horses. My courier will not be able to leave until

after the departure of the courier of the Sacred College,

in case of the Pope's death. I have tried to send a man

to carry my dispatches to the Tuscan frontier. The bad

roads and the absence of livery-horses have made this plan

impracticable. Obliged to wait in Rome, which has become a

kind of closed prison, I still hope that the news will reach

you by telegraph a few hours before it is known to the other

governments beyond the Alps. It might nevertheless happen

that the courier sent to the Nuncio, who will necessarily

leave before mine, will himself, when passing through Lyons,

give you the news by telegraph."

[Sidenote: Death of Leo XII.]

"_Tuesday_, 10 _February, nine o'clock in the morning._

"_The Pope is dead_; my courier is leaving. In a few hours he

will be followed by M. le Comte de Montebello[715], attaché

to the Embassy."

ROME, 10 _February_ 1829.

"MONSIEUR LE COMTE,

I dispatched to Lyons, about two hours ago, the special

mounted courier who will forward to you the unexpected

and deplorable news of the death of His Holiness. Now I

am sending off M. le Comte de Montebello, attaché to the

Embassy, to convey to you some necessary details.

"The Pope died of the hemorrhoidal affection to which he

was subject. The blood being extravasated into the bladder

occasioned a retention, which an attempt was made to relieve

by means of a sound. His Holiness is believed to have been

wounded in the course of the operation. In any case, after

four days' suffering, Leo XII. expired this morning at nine

o'clock, as I came to the Vatican, where an agent of the

Embassy had passed the night. The letter sent by my first

courier informs you, monsieur le comte, of my useless efforts

to obtain a permit for post-horses before the Pope's death.

"Yesterday I called on the Cardinal Secretary of State, who

was still very ill with a violent attack of gout; I had a

rather long conversation with him on the consequences of

the misfortune with which we were threatened. I lamented

the death of a Prince whose moderate sentiments and whose

knowledge of European affairs were so useful to the repose of

Christianity.

"'It is not only a great misfortune for France,' answered the

Secretary of State, 'but a greater misfortune for the Roman

States than you imagine. Discontent and poverty are great

in our provinces and, if the cardinals think fit to adopt a

different system from that of Leo XII., they will find their

work cut out for them. As for myself, my functions cease with

the death of the Pope and I have nothing to reproach myself

with.'

"This morning I again saw Cardinal Bernetti, who has, in

fact, laid down his functions as Secretary of State: he

spoke to me to the same effect as on the preceding day. I

asked him to let me meet him before he secluded himself in

the Conclave. We agreed that we should talk of electing

a sovereign pontiff who should continue the system of

moderation of Leo XII. I shall have the honour to communicate

to you all the information that I may gather.

"It is probable that the death of the Pope and the fall

of Cardinal Bernetti will delight the enemies of the

ordinances[716], they will proclaim this unhappy event a

punishment from Heaven. It is easy already to read that

thought on certain French faces in Rome.

"I regret the Pope for more than one reason; I had had the

good fortune to gain his confidence: the prejudices which had

been carefully instilled into his mind against me, before my

arrival, had become dispelled and he did me the honour, on

all occasions, to bear witness, publicly and aloud, to the

esteem in which he was good enough to hold me.

"Now, monsieur le comte, permit me to enter into the

explanation of a few facts.

"I was Minister for Foreign Affairs at the time of the death

of Pius VII. You will find in the boxes at the Office, if you

think it advisable to look into the matter, the continuous

account of my relations with M. le Duc de Laval. The custom

is, on the death of a Pope, to send an extraordinary

ambassador, or to accredit the resident ambassador through

new letters to the Sacred College. The latter is the course

which I proposed to His late Majesty, Louis XVIII., to

follow. The King will do what he thinks best for his service.

Four French cardinals came to Rome for the election of Leo

XII. France to-day numbers five; a number of votes certainly

not to be despised in the Conclave. I shall, monsieur le

comte, await the King's orders. M. de Montebello, who is

instructed to hand you this dispatch, will remain at your

disposal.

"I have the honour to be, etc."

TO MADAME RÉCAMIER

"ROME, 10 _February_ 1829, _eleven d clock at night._

"I wished to write you a long letter; but the dispatch, which

I was obliged to write with my own hand, and the fatigue of

these last days have exhausted me.

"I regret the Pope; I had obtained his confidence. I am now

charged with an important mission; it is impossible for me to

know what the result will be, or what influence it will have

over my destiny.

[Sidenote: Conclave arrangements.]

"The conclaves generally last two months, which will at least

leave me free for Easter. I will soon talk to you thoroughly

of all that.

"Picture to yourself that they found that poor Pope, on

Thursday last, before he fell ill, writing his epitaph. They

tried to divert him from such sad thoughts:

"'No, no,' he said; 'it will be over in a few days.'"

"ROME, _Thursday_, 12 _February_ 1829.

"I read your newspapers. They often give me pain. I see in

the Globe that Monsieur le Comte Portalis is, according to

that journal, my declared enemy. Why? Do I ask his place? He

is taking too much pains; I do not so much as think of him.

I wish him all possible prosperity; but yet, if it were true

that he wanted war, he would find me there. People seem to

me to be talking nonsense about everything, both about the

immortal Mahmud and the evacuation of the Morea.

"In the most probable event, this evacuation will put back

Greece under the yoke of the Turks, with the loss to us of

our honour and forty millions. There is a prodigious amount

of wit in France, but we lack judgment and common-sense; two

phrases make us drunk, we are led with words, and what is

worse is that we are always ready to disparage our friends

and exalt our enemies. Besides, is it not curious that they

should make the King, in his Speech[717], use my own language

on 'the agreement of the public liberties and the Royalty,'

and that they should have found such fault with me for using

that language? And the men who make the Crown speak thus were

once the warmest partizans of the censorship! For the rest,

I am going to see the election of the Head of Christianity;

this spectacle is the last great spectacle that I shall

witness in my life[718]; it will close my career.

"Now that pleasures have ceased in Rome, business is

commencing. I shall be obliged, on the one hand, to write

of all that happens to the Government and, on the other, to

fulfil the duties of my new position. I must compliment the

Sacred College and attend the funeral of the Holy Father,

to whom I had become attached because he was but little

loved, and the more so in that, fearing that I should find

an enemy in him, I found a friend who, from the chair of St.

Peter, formally gave the lie to my 'Christian' calumniators.

Then the French cardinals are going to come down upon me. I

have written to make representations at least touching the

Archbishop of Toulouse[719].

"In the midst of all this stir, the Poussin monument is being

executed; the excavation is successful; I have found three

fine heads, a draped female torso, a funeral inscription by a

brother to a young sister, which touched me.

"Talking of inscriptions, I told you that the poor Pope had

made his on the day before that on which he was taken ill,

predicting that he was soon going to die. He has left a

writing in which he recommends his indigent family to the

Roman Government: only those who have loved much have such

great virtues."

[Footnote 500: This book was written in Rome in 1828 and 1829, and

revised in February 1845.--T.]

[Footnote 501: In re-reading those manuscripts, I have merely added

a few passages from works published subsequently to the date of my

embassy to Rome.--_Author's Note._]

[Footnote 502: Æn., IV. 23.--B.]

[Footnote 503: Formerly the residence of the Comtesse de Beaumont.--T.]

[Footnote 504: Madame de Duras died at Nice in January 1829.--B.]

[Footnote 505:

"Great-hearted Clara, noble, faithful friend,

Thy memory is no longer in the land;

Thy very grave by men's cold eyes is bann'd;

The world forgets thee, and thy name doth end."--T.

]

[Footnote 506: All the foregoing, from the words "which overtook her

at Nice," was added afterwards to Chateaubriand's diary of the road.

Manifestly he could not insert in his journal, on the 25th of September

1828, a note from the Duchesse de Duras written on the 14th of November

1828; nor could he speak of the death of Madame de Duras and of her

tomb, seeing that she died only in 1829.--B.]

[Footnote 507: St. Charles Cardinal Count Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan

(1538-1584), was born at Arona on the Lago Maggiore, where a colossal

statue, 70 feet high, was erected to his memory in 1697. St. Charles is

buried in Milan Cathedral. He was canonized in 1610 and is honoured on

the 4th of November.--T.]

[Footnote 508: If Chateaubriand did not see Marie-Louise in 1828, when

passing through Parma, he had dined with her, some years before, at

Verona, where she had gone to see her father, during the sitting of the

Congress.

"We at first," he writes, "refused an invitation from the Archduchess

of Parma. She insisted, and we went. We found her very gay; the

universe having made it its business to remember Napoleon, she no

longer had the trouble of thinking of him. She spoke a few careless

words, and as it were casually, about the King of Rome: she was

pregnant. Her Court had a certain air of dilapidation and decay,

excepting M. de Neipperg, a man of good manners. There was nothing

out of the common except ourselves dining at Marie-Louise's table and

the bracelets, made out of the stone of Juliet's sarcophagus, worn by

Napoleon's widow. As we crossed the Po, at Piacenza, a single bark,

newly painted, carrying a sort of imperial ensign, attracted our eyes.

Two or three dragoons, in shell-jackets and forage-caps, were watering

their horses; we were entering the States of Marie-Louise; that was

all that remained of the power of the man who clove the rocks of the

Simplon, planted his banners on the capitals of Europe, and raised

Italy which had lain prostrate for so many centuries."

When speaking to Marie-Louise, Chateaubriand told her that he had met

her soldiers at Piacenza, but that that little troop was nothing beside

the great imperial armies of former days. She answered drily:

"I never think of that now." (_Congrès de Vérone_, Vol. I. p. 69.)--B.]

[Footnote 509: Charles Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Lucca, later Charles

II. Duke of Parma (1799-1883), son of Maria Louisa of Spain, ex-Queen

of Etruria, and heir, by the terms of an arrangement concluded in

Paris in 1817, to the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza on the death of

Marie-Louise. This occurred in 1847, when Charles became Duke of Parma;

but he abdicated, in March 1849, in favour of his son, Charles III.,

who was assassinated in 1854. Charles III. was succeeded by his son,

the present Duke Robert I., then a child of six years of age, who was

dethroned in 1860, and his duchy annexed to Sardinia by Victor Emmanuel

II.--B.]

[Footnote 510: Lodovico Carracci (1555-1619), the founder of the

Bolognese School, and his two cousins and pupils, Agostino Carracci

(1558-1602) and his brother Annibale Carracci (1560-1609).--T.]

[Footnote 511: Pius VII. became Bishop of Tivoli in 1780, Bishop of

Imola and a cardinal in 1785, and Pope in 1800.--T.]

[Footnote 512: _Purgatorio_, Canto XVI. 65-66.--B.]

[Footnote 513: Beatrice de' Bardi (1266-1290), _née_ Portinari,

celebrated by Dante in his _Vita Nuova_ and _Divina Commedia._--T.]

[Footnote 514: DANTE, _Vita Nuova_, Canto III. 78.--T.]

[Footnote 515: Theodore Martin's DANTE, _Vita Nuova_, Canto III., the

closing stanza.--T.]

[Footnote 516: Cary's DANTE: _Purgatory_, XXX. 23-28.--T.]

[Footnote 517:

"Quando nel mondo ad ora adora

M'insegnavate come l'uom s'eterna."

_Inferno_, Canto XV. 84-85.--B.]

[Footnote 518: Teresa Contessa Guiccioli, later Marquise de Boissy

(1801-1873), _née_ Gamba. She lived with Lord Byron between 1819 and

1823. She married Hilaire Étienne Octave Rouillé, Marquis de Boissy, in

1851.--T.]

[Footnote 519: The octagonal basilica of San Vitale does, in fact,

recall Constantinople, because it was built, under Justinian, in

imitation of St. Sophia. Charlemagne caused it to be copied for the

Church of Aix-la-Chapelle.--B.]

[Footnote 520: The Church of San Apollinare, erected under Theodoric at

the commencement of the sixth century, also presents the Byzantine type

in all its oriental brilliancy. The twenty-four columns of Greek marble

which divide the church into three aisles were brought to Ravenna from

Constantinople.--T.]

[Footnote 521: Honorius Flavius Emperor of the West (384-423). His love

for a hen called Roma forms an anecdote related by Procopius.--B.]

[Footnote 522: Galla Placidia (_circa_ 388-450 or 451), daughter of

Theodosius the Great, sister of Honorius and mother of Valentinian

III. Her adventures indeed form the strangest of romances. Born at

Constantinople, she was taken prisoner at the siege of Rome by Alaric

and carried off in captivity. Atawulf, Alaric's brother-in-law,

became smitten with her and married her. After his death, she married

Constantius, one of Honorius' generals, who soon assumed the title of

Constantius III. After being first the slave and then the Queen of the

Visigoths, she governed the Western Empire in the name of her infant

son. Her tomb is at Ravenna.--B.]

[Footnote 523: Theodoric the Great (_circa_ 454-526), King of the

Ostrogoths and, after 493, sole ruler of Italy.--T.]

[Footnote 524: Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (_circa_ 475--_circa_

524), a Roman philosopher, author of _De Consolatione Philosophiæ._

He was put to death by Theodoric, without trial, on the charge of

treason and magic.--T.]

[Footnote 525: Amalasontha (498-535), daughter of Theodoric the

Great, and Regent during the minority of her son Athalric King of the

Ostrogoths (526). Athalric died in 534, and Amalasontha divided the

authority with her cousin Theodatus, whom she married, and who ordered

her to be strangled in 535.--T.]

[Footnote 526: Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus (_circa_ 468--_circa_ 560),

a wise administrative officer under Odoacer, Theodoric and Amalasontha.

He retired to a monastery in Calabria in 538, where he wrote his

History of the Goths and other works.--T.]

[Footnote 527: The Exarchate of Ravenna was instituted in 568, after

the conquest of the Ostrogothic Kingdom by the Byzantines. It at first

comprised all Italy, but was soon confined to the district round

Ravenna and, in 755, was taken from the Lombards by Pepin the Short,

and granted to Rome.--T.]

[Footnote 528: Astolf King of the Lombards (_d._ 756). His conquest of

the Exarchate of Ravenna (752) was wrested from him by Pepin the Short

in 755.--T.]

[Footnote 529: Ravenna finally passed to the Papal States in 1509.--T.]

[Footnote 530: Giuliano della Rovere, Pope Julius II. (1443-1513),

elected to the Papacy in 1503.--T.]

[Footnote 531: Giovanni Cardinal de' Medici, later Pope Leo X.

(1475-1521), was created a cardinal at the age of thirteen, fought for

Pope Julius II. at Ravenna, in 1512, where he was taken prisoner, and

was elected successor to Julius on his death in the following year.--T.]

[Footnote 532: Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), the celebrated Italian

poet and author of _Orlando Furioso._--T.]

[Footnote 533: Pierre du Terrail, Seigneur de Bayard (1476-1524), the

_Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche._--T.]

[Footnote 534: Gaston de Foix, Maréchal Duc de Nemours (1489-1512),

defeated the Papal and Spanish forces at the celebrated Battle of

Ravenna, on the 11th of April 1512, but was killed while pursuing the

beaten enemy.--T.]

[Footnote 535: Caterina Sforza (_d._ 1460), natural daughter of

Galeazzo Maria Sforza, and widow of Girolamo Riario, Lord of Imola and

Forli, sustained a siege at Forli against Cæsar Borgia, and was

captured in the breach with her son Ottaviano. Louis XII. caused her to

be set at liberty. She had taken a Medici for her second husband, and

died at Florence.--T.]

[Footnote 536: _Inferno_, Canto VII. 75.--B.]

[Footnote 537: Annibale della Genga, Pope Leo XII. (1760-1829), elected

to the Papacy in 1823.--T.]

[Footnote 538: Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, Roman Emperor (_circa_ 53-117),

succeeded the Emperor Nerva in 98. The Arch of Trajan was erected

at Ancona in 112; it is of white marble, stands at the end of the

break-water, and is perhaps the best-proportioned of all the Roman

triumphal arches.--T.]

[Footnote 539: Donato d'Agnolo Bramante (1444-1514), the celebrated

Italian architect and predecessor of Michael Angelo.--T.]

[Footnote 540: The Chiesa della Santa Casa, which contains the famous

pilgrimage shrine of the veritable House of Our Lady, transported by

angels from Nazareth and miraculously set down in Italy on the 10th of

December 1294.--T.]

[Footnote 541: Léonore de Montaigne, later Vicomtesse de Gamaches. The

reference occurs in Montaigne's _Journey into Italy._--T.]

[Footnote 542: The Treaty of Tolentino was signed on the 19th of

February 1797, between General Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII.--T.]

[Footnote 543: The Battle of Lake Trasimenus (217 B.C.) at which

Hannibal routed the Romans. Fifteen thousand of the latter were killed

or driven into the lake and drowned; six thousand were taken prisoners;

and ten thousand saved themselves by dispersion and flight.--T.]

[Footnote 544: Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), the French historical and

landscape painter.--T.]

[Footnote 545: _Cf._ LORD BYRON, _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_, Canto

IV., stanzas 66 _et seq._--T.]

[Footnote 546: Leo XII. was born at Genga, near Spoleto, in 1766.--T.]

[Footnote 547: Spoleto repulsed the victorious enemy after the Battle

of Trasimenus in 217 B.C.--T.]

[Footnote 548: Fra Filippo Lippi (_circa_ 1402-1469) was placed by his

aunt in a Carmelite convent. He left it when about twenty and, during

an excursion at sea, was taken captive by some Moorish pirates. He

purchased his liberty by drawing a full-length portrait of his master

in charcoal on a white wall. He died at Spoleto, said to have been

poisoned, on the 9th of October 1469.--T.]

[Footnote 549: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616), the author

of _Don Quixote de la Mancha_, was captured on returning to Spain,

four years after the Battle of Lepanto, in 1575, and passed five years

in captivity in Algiers. He was ransomed by his family and religious

charity in 1580.--T.]

[Footnote 550: Lucrezia Buti sat to Filippo Lippi for the Madonna at

Prato, where he was painting an altar-piece for the nuns of Santa

Margherita. He became enamoured of her, and finally ran off with

her.--T.]

[Footnote 551: Jan Count Potoçki (1761-1815), the Polish traveller,

archæologist and historian. He committed suicide on the 2nd of

December 1815.--T.]

[Footnote 552: St. Jerome (_circa_ 331-420), a father of the Church,

honoured on the 30th of September, the anniversary of his death.--T.]

[Footnote 553: The bridge of Spoleto is the highest in Europe.--T.]

[Footnote 554: GRAY, _Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College_,

51-54.--T.]

[Footnote 555: "Man's misery leads him back to God."--T.]

[Footnote 556: Tommaso Cardinal Bernetti (1779-1852), created a

cardinal in 1727, and Secretary of State from 1828 to 1836.--T.]

[Footnote 557: Pierre Narcisse Baron Guérin (1774-1833), a French

historical painter and pupil of Regnault. He gained the Prix de Rome in

1797, became an academician in 1815 and, in 1816, returned to Rome as

director of the French Academy in that city.--T.]

[Footnote 558: Chateaubriand here gives only the commencement of his

letter of 11th October. The other letters to Madame Récamier contained

in the present book have all been more or less modified by the author,

who sometimes curtails and sometimes adds to the original text. Madame

Lenormant, in the second volume of her _Souvenir de Madame Récamier_,

has reprinted the great writer's letters in their entirety, after the

originals in her possession.--B.]

[Footnote 559: Giacomo Antonio Cardinal Benvenuti (1665-1838), created

a cardinal in 1826 and Legate _a letere_ of the Marches in 1831.--B.]

[Footnote 560: Carlo Cardinal Oppizoni (1769-1855), Archbishop of

Bologna (1802) and a cardinal (1804).--B.]

[Footnote 561: Agostino Cardinal Rivarola (1758-1842) had been Governor

of Rome.--B.]

[Footnote 562: Carlo Cardinal Odescalchi (1786-1841), created a

cardinal in 1823.--B.]

[Footnote 563: Pietro Cardinal Vidoni (1759-1830).--T.]

[Footnote 564: When I left Rome, he bought my calash and did me the

honour to die in it on his way to Ponte-Mole.--_Author's Note_ (Paris,

1836).]

[Footnote 565: Christian Karl Josias Baron von Bunsen (1791-1860), a

distinguished scholar and diplomatist. He was successively secretary

of Legation, _Chargé d'affaires_ and Minister to Rome (1818-1838),

Minister to Switzerland (1839-1841) and Minister to London (1841-1854),

and published a number of erudite historical works in the German

language.--T.]

[Footnote 566: Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1774-1831), a celebrated German

historian, philologist and critic, was born at Copenhagen and was in

the Danish Civil Service until 1806, when he entered that of Prussia.

He was Prussian Minister to Rome from 1816 to 1823, with Bunsen as his

secretary of Legation. Niebuhr's _Römische Geschichte_ (1811-1832)

revolutionized the study of Roman history.--T.]

[Footnote 567: Maria Antonovna Narischkine, wife of Alexander

Narischkine, a graceful and poetic Russian beauty, much admired by

Alexander I.--B.]

[Footnote 568: Pedro Gomez Kavelo, Marques de Labrador (1775-1850),

Spanish Minister to Florence in 1808, when the troubles burst out

at home by which Charles IV. and Ferdinand VII. were dethroned. He

followed his Princes to France and shared their exile until 1814. He

was sent as Plenipotentiary to the Congress of Vienna and subsequently

received the Naples Embassy, followed by the Rome Embassy.--B.]

[Footnote 569: Antoine Philippe Fiacre Ghislain Visscher, Comte de

Celles (1779-1841), a native of Brussels, took sides with the French

at the annexation of his country in 1795, became a town councillor

of Brussels in 1800, fought for the French at Austerlitz, was made

Prefect of the Loire Inférieure in 1806, a count in 1811, and Prefect

of the Zuyder Zee in 1811. From 1811 to 1813, he oppressed the Dutch in

Napoleon's name. After the formation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands,

Celles withdrew from public life until 1821, when he was elected to the

Second Chamber of the States-General. He was appointed Ambassador to

Rome in 1826, and held that post until 1829. He supported the Belgian

Revolution of 1830; but, in 1832, removed to Paris, where he took out

letters of naturalization.--T.]

[Footnote 570: The Comtesse de Celles, _née_ de Valence, daughter of

General Comte and the Comtesse de Valence, of whom the latter was the

daughter of Madame de Genlis.--B.]

[Footnote 571: Nicola Paganini (1782-1840), the great violinist of

those days.--T.]

[Footnote 572: Michael (Dom Miguel) I., King of Portugal (1802-1866),

had been declared King on the 30th of June 1828. His struggle against

his niece, Mary II. (Donna Maria de Gloria), failed, however, and he

was compelled to quit Portugal by the Convention of Evora Monte, 26 May

1834, and, by the law of 29 May following, he was deprived of his title

of Infant of Portugal, and he and his descendants were declared to have

forfeited all rights as Portuguese citizens. He was succeeded by his

son, Michael (Dom Miguel) II., the present _de jure_ King of Portugal

(MARQUIS DE RUVIGNY AND RAINEVAL, _The Legitimist Kalendar for 1895_,

p. 33).--T.]

[Footnote 573: Ottavio Principe Lancellotti married Prince Massimo's

daughter in 1818.--T.]

[Footnote 574: Giuseppina Principessa Lancelotti (_b._ 1799), _née_

Massimo d'Arsoli.--T.]

[Footnote 575: Camillo Massimihano Massimo, Principe d'Arsoli (_d._

1840).--T.]

[Footnote 576: Canova died at Venice on the 13th of October 1822.--T.]

[Footnote 577: Jean Goujon (_circa_ 1515-1572), a celebrated sculptor

of the French Renascence period. He was a Calvinist, and is supposed to

have been shot on his scaffold in the court-yard of the Louvre during

the massacre of St. Bartholomew (23-24 August 1652).--T.]

[Footnote 578: Tiziano Vicelli (1477-1576), known as Titian. He was

first called to Bologna by Charles V. in 1532; in 1547 he was summoned

to Augsburg; and the Emperor's favour lasted until his death, and was

followed by that of Philip II.--T.]

[Footnote 579: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) went to France in 1516 by

invitation of Francis I., and died there, at the Château de Cloux, near

Amboise, on the 2nd of May 1519.--T.]

[Footnote 580: Cosmo I. de' Medici, the Great, first Grand-duke of

Tuscany (1519-1574). Michael Angelo was a native of Caprese, near

Florence, and is buried in the Santa Croce in the Tuscan capital.--T.]

[Footnote 581: Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velasquez (1599-1660) visited

Italy in 1629 and again in 1649.--T.]

[Footnote 582: Bartolomé Estéban Murillo (1617-1683), Velasquez'

pupil.--T.]

[Footnote 583: Giulio di Pietro di Filippo de' Giannuzzi (1492-1546),

known as Giulio Romano, a painter and architect, one of Raphael's

principal pupils.--T.]

[Footnote 584: This school was founded by Friedrich Johann Overbeck

(1789-1869), who visited Rome in 1810 and there formed a Pre-Raphaelite

Brotherhood, became converted to Catholicism, in 1813, and devoted

himself to painting, and encouraging painting, after the method of

Perugino. The leading members of this New-old Raphaelite or Nazarene

School were Philipp Veit (1793-1877), Wilhelm Friedrich von Schadow

(1789-1862), Karl Eggers (1787-1863), Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

(1794-1872), Joseph Führich (1800-1876), Eduard Steinle (1810-1886)

and Peter Cornelius (1783-1867), perhaps the most noteworthy of this

company of remarkable artists (_cf._ RICHARD MUTHER, _History of Modern

Painting_, Vol. I. chap. VI.: _The Nazarenes_).--T.]

[Footnote 585: Pietro Vannucci (1446-1524), known as Perugino, from

Perugia, his birth-place, a famous painter of the Umbrian School and

the master of Raphael.--T.]

[Footnote 586: St. Luke the Evangelist is the patron saint of artists.

The Church honours him on the 18th of October.--T.]

[Footnote 587: Jean Victor Schnetz (1787-1870), a native of Paris.

The reference is to his best-known picture, the _Vow to the Madonna._

Schnetz became Director of the French School in Rome in 1840.--T.]

[Footnote 588: Louis Leopold Robert (1794-1835), a well-known French

painter of Neapolitan landscapes. After 1830, he was sent for to

Florence to give lessons to the Princess Charlotte Bonaparte, daughter

of King Joseph, and wife, soon to become widow, of her cousin, Charles

Napoleon Louis, second son of the ex-King of Holland. He became

violently enamoured of her, and his hopeless passion drove him to

commit suicide, at Venice, on the 20th of March 1835.--B.]

[Footnote 589: Émile Jean Horace Vernet (1789-1863), Director of

the French School in Rome from 1827 to 1839. He painted mostly

battle-pictures up to 1836; after that year, his works represented

mainly scenes of Arab life.--T.]

[Footnote 590: Jacques Édouard Quecq (1796-1873). His _Death of

Vitellius_ was exhibited in Rome in 1830.--T.]

[Footnote 591: Gianmaria de' Medici, or del Monte, or Giocchi, Pope

Julius III. (1487-1555). Pope in 1550.--T.]

[Footnote 592: Giacomo Barrocchio, or Barozzi (1507-1573), known

as Vignola, after his birth-place, a noted Italian architect, who

succeeded Michael Angelo as architect of St. Peter's.--T.]

[Footnote 593: Taddeo Zuccaro (1529-1566), the painter.--T.]

[Footnote 594: Bartolomeo Pinelli, a celebrated Roman engraver. His

works include a _Raccolta di cinquante costumi pittoreschi incisi

all'acqua forte_ (1809) and a _Nuova raccolta di cinquante costumi

pittoreschi incisi all'acqua forte_ (1815), 100 folio plates in all. It

was doubtless out of this collection that he promised "twelve scenes"

to Chateaubriand.--B.]

[Footnote 595: Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen or Thorwaldsen (1770-1844),

the famous Danish sculptor. He lived in Rome from 1797 to 1838 and from

1841 to 1843.--T.]

[Footnote 596: Vicenzo Camuccini (1775-1844), an Italian historical

painter, Inspector-general of the Papal Museums and Keeper of the

Vatican Collections.--B.]

[Footnote 597: Claude Gelée (1600-1682), known as Lorraine, after his

native province. The house which he inhabited in Rome still stands at

the angle of the Vie Sistina and Gregoriana. He lived in Rome from 1619

to 1625 and from 1627 to his death.--T.]

[Footnote 598: Poussin and Claude Lorraine both died in Rome: the

former on the 19th of November 1665, the latter on the 21st of November

1682. Claude Lorraine was buried in the Church of Trinità-del-Monte,

and an inscription was placed on his tomb by his nephews. We shall see

later that Chateaubriand erected a monument to Nicolas Poussin in the

Church of San-Lorenzo-in-Lucina.--B.]

[Footnote 599: Charles Président de Brosses (1709-1777), author of the

_Lettres historiques et critiques écrites d'Italie_, visited Rome in

1739 and there met King James III., known also as the Pretender, Prince

James Edward, Chevalier de Saint Georges.--B.]

[Footnote 600: Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, _de jure_ James

III. King of England (1688-1766), retired to Rome soon after the

unsuccessful rising of 1715 and spent the last fifty years of his life

there.--T.]

[Footnote 601: François Rabelais (1595-1533), Curé of Meudon and author

of _Gargantua and Pantagruel_, from the latter of which the extracts

are taken.--T.]

[Footnote 602: Jean Cardinal du Bellay (1492-1560), Bishop of Bayonne

(1526), Archbishop of Paris (1533), and a cardinal (1535). He is noted

as a man of letters and the patron of Rabelais.--T.]

[Footnote 603: Hazlitt's MONTAIGNE, _Journey into Italy._--T.]

[Footnote 604: Urquhart and Motteux' RABELAIS, _Pantagruel_, Book V.

chap. I.: _How Pantagruel arrived at the Ringing Island and of the

noise that we heard._--T.]

[Footnote 605: Florio's MONTAIGNE, Booke II. chap. XII.: _An Apologie

of Raymond Sebond._--T.]

[Footnote 606: Hazlitt's MONTAIGNE, _Journey into Italy._--T.]

[Footnote 607: _Cf._ Florio's MONTAIGNE, Booke III. chap. IX.: _Of

Vanitie._ "Amongst her vaine favours I have none doth so much please my

fond self-pleasing conceit as an authenticke bull, charter or patent of

denizenship or borgeouship of Rome, which at my last being there, was

granted me by the whole Senate of that citie--garish and trimly adorned

with goodly seales, and written in faire golden letters--bestowed upon

me with all gracious and free liberalitie."--T.]

[Footnote 608: Hazlitt's** MONTAIGNE, _Journey into Italy._--T.]

[Footnote 609: Torquato Tasso.--T.]

[Footnote 610: Florio's MONTAIGNE: Booke II. chap. XII.: _An Apologie

of Raymond Sebond._--T.]

[Footnote 611: Leonora Baroni (1611-1670), esteemed by her

contemporaries one of the finest singers of the world. Milton heard her

at Cardinal Barberini's concerts. She married, in 1640, Giulio Cesare

Castellani, who died in 1662.--T.]

[Footnote 612: _Cf._ MILTON, _Epigrammatum: Liber VI. Ad Leonoram

Romæ canentem_; VII. _Ad Eandem_; VIII. _Ad Eandem._ Milton has left

no written account of his journey to Rome.--T.]

[Footnote 613: Françoise Dame de Motteville (_circa_ 1621-1689), _née_

Bertaud, married in 1639 to Nicolas Langlois, Sieur de Motteville, who

died two years later. She is the author of the _Mémoires pour servir

à l'histoire d'Anne d'Autriche_, first published in 1723, in which

Leonora Baroni is mentioned.--T.]

[Footnote 614: Jules Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661), Prime Minister of

France after the death of Richelieu.--T.]

[Footnote 615: Antoine Arnauld (1616-1698), author of some agreeable

Memoirs.--B.]

[Footnote 616: Henri II. de Lorraine, fifth Duc de Guise (1614-1664), a

famous general and adventurer. He took part in the Neapolitan rebellion

of 1647, defeated the Spanish troops and placed himself at the head of

the government. But his exploits in gallantry turned the nobles against

him; they opened the gates of the town to the enemy, and the duke was

captured and kept a prisoner in Spain until 1652. In 1654, he was

appointed Grand Chamberlain of France.--T.]

[Footnote 617: Louis Deshayes, Baron de Courmenin (_d._ 1632), had been

charged with various missions by Louis XIII. to the Levant, Denmark,

Persia and Muscovy. He entered into a conspiracy against the Cardinal

de Richelieu and was beheaded, at Béziers, in 1632.--T.]

[Footnote 618: Philippe Emmanuel Marquis de Coulanges (_circa_

1631-1716), first cousin to Madame de Sévigné, whose letters to him are

printed at the end of his Memoirs, first published in 1820.--T.]

[Footnote 619: Jacques Spon (1647-1685), a French Protestant physician

and antiquary, visited Italy, Greece and the Levant, about 1675, and

left a record of his travels, besides other works. He left France at

the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), and died soon after at

Vevey.--T.]

[Footnote 620: François Maximilien Misson (_d._ 1722), another

Protestant writer, took refuge in England, in 1685, and there had

charge of the education of a young nobleman with whom he had been

travelling in Germany and Italy. His _Nouveau voyage en Italie_

(1691-1698) is on the _Index._ A later edition (1722) is enriched with

notes by Addison.--T.]

[Footnote 621: Jean Dumont, Baron von Carlskron (_circa_ 1660-1726), a

distinguished publicist, travelled all over Europe. The work from which

the following quotation is taken is his _Voyages en France, en Italie,

en Allemagne, à Malte et en Turquie_ (1699). The Emperor of Germany

made him his historiographer and a baron.--T.]

[Footnote 622: Joseph Addison (1672-1719) prepared himself for the

diplomatic service by travel and study on the Continent (1699-1703).

His works included a _Letter from Italy_ in verse, written as he was

crossing the Alps in 1701 and published in 1703, and _Remarks on

several Parts of Italy_ (1705). His tragedy of _Cato_ was also written

in Italy.--T.]

[Footnote 623: Now in the Louvre in Paris.--T.]

[Footnote 624: Now in the Capitoline Museum, Rome.--T.]

[Footnote 625: Now in the Vatican.--T.]

[Footnote 626: Now in the Atrio Quadrato, leading out of the Belvedere

Gallery.--T.]

[Footnote 627: _Anglicè_ in the original.--T.]

[Footnote 628: Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711), the famous French

poet and academician (1684).--T.]

[Footnote 629: Jean Baptiste Labat (1663-1738), a Dominican friar, was

sent by his Order to Martinique, in 1693, and remained stationed in the

Antilles till 1705. He visited Rome in 1706. His many works include a

_Voyage en Espagne et en Italie_ (1730).--T.]

[Footnote 630: The coast of Senegambia was visited, in the fourteenth

century, by Dieppe and Rouen merchants, who established markets

there.--T.]

[Footnote 631: PROP. I. ii.; _Ad Cynthiam_, I.--T.]

[Footnote 632: CHATEAUBRIAND, _Martyrs_, Book X.--T.]

[Footnote 633: Pauline Borghese died on the 9th of June 1825.--T.]

[Footnote 634: Charles Edward Louis Philip Casimir Stuart, Prince of

Wales, later Charles III., _de jure_ King of England (1720-1788), known

as the Young Pretender or the Young Chevalier.--T.]

[Footnote 635: Henry Benedict Maria Clement Cardinal Duke of York,

later Henry IX., _de jure_ King of England (1725-1807), created a

cardinal in 1747.--T.]

[Footnote 636: 1734---T.]

[Footnote 637: Prince Charles returned to Rome after the failure of the

rising of 1745; his father died in 1788.--T.]

[Footnote 638: Louise Marie Caroline of Stolberg-Gedern, _de jure_

Louise Queen of England (1753-1824), known as the Countess of Albany

after Charles's death, when she secretly married the poet Alfieri, in

whom she had long inspired a lively passion. Alfieri died in 1803,

and Louise is said to have contracted a second _liaison_ and a third

marriage with François Xavier Pascal Fabre, the French historical

painter.--T.]

[Footnote 639: Charles Victor de Bonstetten (1745-1822), a celebrated

Swiss philosophical writer.--T.]

[Footnote 640: The Countess of Albany was nineteen years of age when

she married Prince Charles in 1772.--T.]

[Footnote 641: _Memoirs of Victor Alfieri_, Vol. II., chap. V.: _I

become at length susceptible of a sincere and durable attachment._--T.]

[Footnote 642: Xavier Fabre, _supra._--T.]

[Footnote 643: Henry IX. was the last of the Stuarts in the male line.

At his death the "_hereditary right_ to these realms passed to (IV.)

Charles Emmanuel, sometime (1796 to 1802) King of Sardinia, he being

son and heir of Victor Amadeus III., King of Sardinia (1773 to 1796),

who was son and heir of Charles Emmanuel III., King of Sardinia (1730

to 1773), who was son and heir of Victor Amadeus (_of Savoy_), King

of Sardinia, by Anna Maria, the only child (that left issue) of her

mother, Henrietta Anne, first wife of Philip (_of Bourbon_), Duke of

Orleans, the said Henrietta being the only child whose issue then

(1807) remained of Charles I., King of England. This Charles Emmanuel

was by _hereditary right_ KING CHARLES IV. OF ENGLAND (1807 to 1819),

and died _s.p._ October 6, 1819, being succeeded by his brother (V.)

Victor Emmanuel I., sometime (1802 to 1821) King of Sardinia, who by

hereditary right was KING VICTOR I. OF ENGLAND (1819 to 1824). He died

without male issue January 10, 1824 (the Kingdom of Sardinia having

previously devolved on his distant cousin and heir male), and was

succeeded as to the hereditary right to these realms by (VI.) Mary

Beatrice, his eldest daughter and heir of line, wife of Francis IV.,

Duke of Modena, which Lady, according to such right, was QUEEN MARY

II. OF ENGLAND (1824 to 1840). On her death, September 15, 1840 (VII.)

Francis, her son and heir, afterwards (1846) Duke of Modena, became,

according to such right, KING FRANCIS I. OF ENGLAND (1840 to 1875).

He died _s.p._ November 20, 1875, and was succeeded in such right,

by (VIII.) Maria Theresa, his niece and heiress, daughter and sole

heir of his only brother, Ferdinand Charles Victor of Modena. This

Lady, who was born July 2, 1849, and who married, February 20, 1868,

Louis, Prince of Bavaria, became by such hereditary right QUEEN MARY

III. OF ENGLAND in 1875, being thus 8th titular (_jure hereditario_)

sovereign, just as QUEEN VICTORIA is the 8th actual (_de facto et de

lege_) sovereign since the Revolution of 1688."--(Note to the _Seize

Quartiers of the Kings and Queens of England_, by G. E. C.--_i.e._ G.

E. COKAYNE, Clarenceux King-of-Arms. _The Genealogist_, N.S., Vol.

VIII., p. 46.) Those, and they are practically the whole number of the

modern Legitimists, who reckon Mary Queen of Scots as Mary II. Queen of

England speak of the Princess Louis of Bavaria as Mary IV. _de jure_

Queen of England.--T.]

[Footnote 644: Henrietta Maria of France, Queen of England (1609-1669),

married to King Charles I. in 1625. She finally left England for France

in 1644, five years before the King's death.--T.]

[Footnote 645: Louis XV. ordered Prince Charles Edward to leave France

after the failure of the Forty-five.--T.]

[Footnote 646: Joseph Jérôme Le Français de Lalande (1732-1807), a

distinguished but eccentric astronomer. The singularity of his taste

displayed itself in the consumption of spiders and caterpillars;

that of his opinions in his love for proclaiming himself an atheist.

Lalande's _Voyage dun Français en Italie_ was published in 1769.--T.]

[Footnote 647: Duclos (_see_ Vol. I., p. 74, n. 1) visited Italy in

1766 and wrote his _Considérations sur l'Italie_, which were not

published till 1791, nineteen years after his death.--B.]

[Footnote 648: Charles Marguerite Jean Baptiste Mercier Dupaty

(1746-1788), an eminent French jurist, a president of the Parliament

of Bordeaux and author of _Réflexions historiques sur les lois

criminelles: Lettres sur l'Italie in 1785_ (1788), a superficial,

turgid, but not unsuccessful work, promptly placed on the _Index._--T.]

[Footnote 649: DUPATY, _Travels through Italy_, Letter 79.--T.]

[Footnote 650: _Ibid._, Letter 87.--T.]

[Footnote 651: _Ibid._, Letter 55.--T.]

[Footnote 652: Charles Dupaty (1771-1825), the president's eldest son,

studied in Rome and became a sculptor of merit. His Venus Genitrix is

one of his best-known works.--B.]

[Footnote 653: Goethe visited Italy in 1786.--T]

[Footnote 654: Byron visited Rome in 1817.--T.]

[Footnote 655: _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_, Canto IV. stanza 79.--T.]

[Footnote 656: The fourth canto of _Childe Harold_ was published in

1818; Byron died at Missolonghi in 1823.--T.]

[Footnote 657: I invite the perusal of two articles by M. Jean

Jacques Ampère in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ of the 1st and 15th of

July 1835, entitled, _Portraits de Rome à différents ages._ Those

curious documents will complete a picture of which I here give only a

sketch.--_Author's Note_ (Paris, 1837).]

[Footnote 658: Vittoria Principessa Altieri (1799-1840), _née_

Boncompagni-Ludovisi degli Principi di Piombino.--T.]

[Footnote 659: The Principessa Barberini-Colonna di Palestrina.--T.]

[Footnote 660: Margherita Principessa Rospigliosi, Duchessa di Zagarolo

(1786-1864), _née_ Gioeni-Colonna.--T.]

[Footnote 661: Teresa Principessa Del Drago (1801-1858), _née_

Massimo.--T.]

[Footnote 662: Maria Duchessa di Lante Monfeltrio delle Rovere

(1799-1840), _née_ Colonna.--T.]

[Footnote 663: Not Mellini, as the earlier editions have it. It was at

the Villa Millini that General Alexandre Berthier, the future Prince of

Neuchâtel, on the 11th of February 1798, received the lawyers, bankers

and artists who were to constitute the new Roman Republic.--B.]

[Footnote 664: Apollodorus (117-138), the architect who designed the

Forum and Column of Trajan.--T.]

[Footnote 665: Hazlitt's MONTAIGNE, _Journey into Italy._--T.]

[Footnote 666: Philippe Camille Marcelin Comte de Tournon (1778-1833),

Prefect of Rome under the Empire (1809-1814), a peer of France under

the Restoration (1824) and author of _Études statistiques sur Rome et

les États romains_ (1831).--T.]

[Footnote 667: Louis Simond (1767-1831), author of a _Voyage d'un

Français en Angleterre_ (1810-1811), _Voyage en Italie et en Sicilie_

(1827-1828), etc. Simond ended by settling at Geneva and being

naturalized a Swiss.--T.]

[Footnote 668: _Cf._ Monsignore NICOLA MARIA NICOLAÏ, _Memorie, leggi

ed osservazioni sulle campagne e sull' annona di Roma_ (Rome, 1803), at

that time accepted as the leading authority on economic matters.--B.]

[Footnote 669: Villemain was then preparing his History of Gregory

VII., a work which was celebrated before its appearance and fell into

oblivion so soon as it had appeared, which was not until 1873, three

years after the author's death.--B.]

[Footnote 670: Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry (1795-1856), a noted

French historian. In 1826, he became completely broken down in health,

and was left blind and paralyzed. The remainder of his work was done

through the medium of secretaries. With their help he published

his _Dix ans d'études historiques_ (1834), his _Récits des temps

mérovingiens_ (1840), and an _Essai sur l'histoire de la formation et

du progrès du tiers-état_ ( 1853). His famous _Histoire de la conquête

de l'Angleterre par les Normands_ had been published in 1825.--T.]

[Footnote 671: Thanks to God, M. Thierry has been restored to life and

has resumed his fine and important work with renewed strength; he works

at night, but like the chrysalis:

La nymphe s'enferme avec joie

Dans ce tombeau d'or et de soie

Qui la dérobe à tous les yeux.

--_Author's Note._

"The nymph herself doth gladly hide

That tomb of gold and silk inside

Which conceals her from every eye."--T.

]

[Footnote 672: The Russians took Varna on the 11th of October 1828.--B.]

[Footnote 673: Giovanni Torlonia, Duca di Bracciano (_d._ 1829), the

famous Roman banker, created Duca di Bracciano and a Roman prince, in

1809, by Pope Pius VII.--T.]

[Footnote 674: The Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi was signed between Russia

and Turkey on the 8th of June 1833 and was a treaty of defensive

and offensive alliance concluded for eight years. A secret clause

eventually closed the Dardanelles to the European Powers, while

leaving both that passage and the Bosphorus open to Russia and Russia

alone.--B.]

[Footnote 675: Mehemet Ali, Viceroy of Egypt (_circa_ 1769-1849),

appointed Governor of Egypt in 1805, massacred the Mamelukes in 1811;

conquered Nubia, Sennaar, and Kordofan (1820-1822); assisted the Turks

in the War of Greek Independence (1827); conquered Syria (1831-1832);

defeated Turkey (1839); and was obliged to give up Syria in 1841. From

then until 1847, when he lost his reason, he devoted himself to the

improvement of his vice-realm.--T.]

[Footnote 676: The Treaty of London, signed on the 6th of July 1827, by

which England, France and Russia agreed to compel Turkey and Greece to

accept their mediation with a view to restoring peace in the East. The

offer of mediation was rejected by Turkey, with the result that armed

intervention ensued.--T.]

[Footnote 677: The _Note sur la Grèce_ appeared in 1825.--B.]

[Footnote 678: The victory of Navarino (20 October 1827) had not

succeeded in delivering Greece from the Ottoman yoke. On the 27th of

August 1828, twelve French regiments, commanded by General Maison, were

landed on the Morea. Within a few weeks, the French had driven the

Turkish garrisons from the towns and strongholds of the peninsula. The

Morea and the Cyclades were placed under the general protection of the

Powers and General Maison, promoted to Marshal, returned to France,

leaving two brigades to aid the Greeks in organizing the government of

their territory.--B.]

[Footnote 679: The Russians captured Silistria in 1829.--T.]

[Footnote 680: General Ivan Paskevitch, later Field-marshal Prince

of Warsaw (1782-1856), captured Kars in 1828 and Erzeroum in 1829;

as Commander-in-Chief in Poland, he took Warsaw, in 1831, and became

Governor of Poland, executing the Organic Statute.--T.]

[Footnote 681: Mahmud II. Sultan of Turkey (1785-1839), brother to

Mustapha IV., whom he succeeded.--T.]

[Footnote 682: By the Convention of Akerman, concluded on the 6th of

October 1826, Russia obtained the right of navigating the Black Sea and

various agreements were entered into regarding Moldavia, Wallachia and

Servia. The non-fulfilment of this treaty by Turkey led to the War of

1828-1829 now under discussion.--T.]

[Footnote 683: By the Treaty of Jassy (1792), the frontiers of Russia

were extended to the Dniester.--T.]

[Footnote 684: Vice-Admiral Lodewijk Sigismund Vincent Gustaaf Count

van Heiden, G.C.B. (1772-1850), entered the Dutch Navy as a boy, was

promoted to lieutenant in 1789 and, in 1795, took the Stadtholder

William V. to England in a fishing-smack. He was tried and imprisoned

and, on recovering his liberty, entered the Russian service, where he

was promoted to rear-admiral in 1817, to vice-admiral in 1827, after

the Battle of Navarino, in which he took a brilliant part, and to

full admiral in 1850. He received the Grand Cross of the Bath after

Navarino, as well as the Orders of St. Louis of France and St. George

of Russia.--T.]

[Footnote 685: Alexander II. Tsar of all the Russias (1818-1881),

succeeded in 1855, assassinated 13 March 1881.--T.]

[Footnote 686: Peter I., the Great, Tsar of Russia (1672-1725).--T.]

[Footnote 687: Arnaud Cardinal d'Ossat (1536-1604), Bishop of Rennes,

later of Bayeux, Ambassador to Rome from Henry III. and Henry IV. He

obtained the papal absolution for Henry IV. and received the cardinal's

hat and the See of Bayeux as his reward (1599). His Letters (1624) are

regarded as a classic among diplomatists.--T.]

[Footnote 688: Hugo de Groot (1583-1645), known as Grotius, the famous

Dutch jurist and founder of the science of international law. His

principal work. _De Jure belli et pacis_, was published in 1625.--T.]

[Footnote 689: Samuel Baron von Pufendorf (1632-1692), a noted German

jurist and publicist. His _De Jure naturæ et gentium_ was published

in 1672.--T.]

[Footnote 690: The Treaties of Munster and Osnabrück, culminating in

the general Peace signed at Munster on the 24th of October 1648, which

ended the Thirty Years' War.--T.]

[Footnote 691: Maria (Sophia) Feodorowna of Wurtemberg-Mümpelgard,

Empress of Russia (1759-1828), widow of Paul I. and mother of Alexander

I. and Nicholas I. She died in the night of 4-5 November 1828.--B.]

[Footnote 692: Nicholas, the third son of Paul I., succeeded his

brother Alexander in 1825, the second son, Constantine, having

renounced his right of succession. The first year of his reign was

marked by a military revolt which was immediately suppressed.--T.]

[Footnote 693: I am inclined here to echo a footnote by M. Edmond Biré,

who says:

"The readers, I hope, will not skip a line of this

Memorandum, a master-piece of logic and patriotism and, which

is no detriment, a master-piece of style. Chateaubriand has

written no pages that do him more honour."

]

[Footnote 694: Louis Desprez (_b._ 1799), a young sculptor, had won

the Prix de Rome in 1826. The bas-relief which he carved for Poussin's

tomb, copying the Arcadian Shepherds, is one of his finest works.--T.]

[Footnote 695: Paul Lemoyne (1784--_circa_ 1860), known as

Lemoyne-Saint-Paul, a French sculptor of some merit.--T.]

[Footnote 696: The Baronne de Barante, was a daughter of General César

Ange de Houdetot, grand-daughter of Madame de Houdetot, Rousseau's

friend, and married to Aimable Guillaume Prosper Brugière, Baron de

Barante, author of the _Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne._--B.]

[Footnote 697: Chateaubriand's tragedy of _Moïse_ was first published

in his Complete Works (1826-1831), and has never been performed.--T.]

[Footnote 698: The costly monument to Nicolas Poussin, in the Church

of San Lorenzo-in-Lucina, was erected entirely at Chateaubriand's

expense and was not fully completed until 1831, when Chateaubriand had

again renounced all titles and emoluments and was once more penniless.

It took him four years, from 1831 to 1834, to clear his debt to the

artist, who was not much richer than himself.--B.]

[Footnote 699: Madame Salvage de Faverolles, daughter of M. Dumorey,

the French Consul at Cività-Vecchia, and a devoted friend to Madame

Récamier. Subsequently, she attached herself to the Duchesse de

Saint-Leu (Queen Hortense of Holland), with whom she lived till her

death, and acted as her testamentary executrix.--B.]

[Footnote 700: This incident, to which Chateaubriand has already

referred when speaking of Earl Bathurst, took place in March 1824. Miss

Bathurst while riding in the Tiber Woods with a numerous and brilliant

company of friends, was thrown into the river by a false step of her

horse and drowned. She was seventeen years of age and remarkably

pretty.--B.]

[Footnote 701: François Marie Pierre Roullet, Baron de La Bouillerie

(1764-1833), a peer of France and Steward of the Royal Household.--B.]

[Footnote 702: AUGUSTIN THIERRY, _Lettres sur l'histoire de France,

pour servir d'introduction à l'étude de cette histoire._ They had

appeared in the _Courrier français_, in 1820, and were first collected

and published in book form in 1827.--T.]

[Footnote 703:

"Such is the lot of man: his learning grows with age.

But what use to be sage,

When the end is So near?"--T.

]

[Footnote 704: The ordinances, or Orders in Council, of the 16th

of June 1828. The first declared that the establishments known as

secondary ecclesiastical schools and hitherto managed by persons

belonging to an unauthorized religious congregation should be subjected

to the control of the University of France. The second limited the

number of pupils who could be admitted into the seminaries to twenty

thousand and generally restricted the liberty of the seminaries,

especially in the matter of the conferring of degrees.--B.]

[Footnote 705: MATT. XXII. 17.--T.]

[Footnote 706: Simon Bolivar (1783-1830), the "Liberator of South

America." He became Dictator of Venezuela in 1817, united Venezuela

and New Granada into the Republic of Colombia and became its president

in 1819, added Ecuador to Colombia in 1822, was made Dictator of Peru

in 1823 and Protector of the new Republic of Bolivia in 1825. Peru

declared against him, in 1826, and Bolivia soon followed; and, although

he remained President of the three countries forming Colombia until his

death, the republic created by him fell to pieces soon after.--T.]

[Footnote 707: Gottfried Wilhelm Baron von Leibnitz (1646-1716), the

universal genius, laboured first with Pellisson and Bossuet in an

endeavour to reunite the Catholic and Protestant religions; having

failed in this enterprise, he set himself to reconcile at least the

several Protestant sects, but met with as little success. Leibnitz

prompted the foundation and was made Perpetual President of the Berlin

Academy.--T.]

[Footnote 708: Felice Peretti, Pope Sixtus V. (1521-1590), elected Pope

in 1585, fixed the number of cardinals at seventy and reorganized the

whole public administration of the Papal States.--T.]

[Footnote 709: Shortly after the date of this letter, M. de La

Ferronnays, who was ill, started for Italy and left the Foreign Office

_ad interim_ in charge of M. Portalis.--_Author's Note._]

[Footnote 710: M. Du Viviers was one of the attachés to the Embassy.

He took with him to Paris the letter to Madame Récamier and also the

report of Chateaubriand's conversation with the Pope--B.]

[Footnote 711: Pierre Chauvin, the French landscape painter, lived in

Rome from 1809 to 1827.--T.]

[Footnote 712: Cavaliere Filippo Aureliano Visconti (1754-1831),

President of the Roman Academy of Arts.--B.]

[Footnote 713: General Armand Charles Comte Guilleminot (1774-1840)

served under Dumouriez and Pichegru, later under Moreau, became

a general in 1808, and a general of division in 1813. Under the

Restoration, he became director-general of the military depots (1816)

and, in 1823, drew up the plan of campaign of the Spanish War and

accompanied the Duc d'Angoulême as chief of staff. At the end of the

war, he was created a peer of France and, in 1824, sent as ambassador

to Constantinople, where he remained till 1831.--T.]

[Footnote 714: Madame Lenormant.--_Author's Note._

An expedition to the Morea from the point of view of science and art

had been organized by the French Government. M. Charles Lenormant was

to take part in it, and his wife, Madame Récamier's niece and adopted

daughter, was proposing to accompany him.--B.]

[Footnote 715: Napoléon Auguste Comte, later Duc de Montebello

(1801-1874), son of Marshal Lannes. He had been created a peer of

France in 1827, but did not take his seat in the Upper House until

after the Revolution of July. In 1836, he became French Ambassador to

Switzerland and, in 1838, Ambassador to Naples. He was subsequently

Minister of Marine (1847-1848), a senator (1864) and Ambassador to St.

Petersburg (1858-1866).--B.]

[Footnote 716: This again refers to the ordinances of the 16th of June

1828.--B.]

[Footnote 717: At the opening of the Chambers, 27 January 1829.--B.]

[Footnote 718: I was mistaken.--_Author's Note_ (1837).]

[Footnote 719: The Cardinal de Clermont-Tonnerre, who was on bad

terms with the King's Government. He had protested loudly against the

ordinance of the 16th of June 1828, touching the minor seminaries,

concluding his letter to Monseigneur Feutrier, the Minister of Public

Worship, with these words:

"My lord, the motto of my family, which it received from

Calixtus II., in 1120, is: _Etiamsi omnes, ego non._ It is

also that of my conscience.

"I have the honour to be, with the respectful consideration

due to the King's minister,

"† A. J. CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP OF TOULOUSE."

In consequence of this letter, the King ordered the prelate to be

prohibited from appearing at Court.]

END OF VOL. IV.