THE MEMOIRS OF FRANÇOIS RENÉ VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND SOMETIME AMBASSADOR TO ENGLAND BEING A TRANSLATION BY ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS OF THE MÉMOIRES D'OUTRE-TOMBE WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM CONTEMPORARY SOURCES. In 6 Volumes NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY G. P PUTNAM'S SONS AND IN LONDON BY FREEMANTLE AND COMPANY MDCCCCII VOL. I "NOTRE SANG A TEINT LA BANNIÈRE DE FRANCE" [Illustration: Le Vicomte de Chateaubriand] CONTENTS The Translator's Note The Author's Preface The Author's Preface to the First Edition PART THE FIRST 1768-1800 BOOK I Birth of my brothers and sisters--My own birth--Plancoët--I am vowed--Combourg--My father's scheme of education for me--Villeneuve--Lucile--Mesdemoiselles Couppart--I am a bad pupil--The life led by my maternal grandmother and her sister at Plancoët--My uncle, the Comte de Bedée, at Monchoix--I am relieved from my nurse's vow--Holidays--Saint-Malo--Gesril--Hervine Magon--Fight with two ship's lads BOOK II A note from M. Pasquier--Dieppe--Change in my education--Spring in Brittany--An historic forest--Pelagian fields--The moon setting over the sea--Departure for Combourg--Description of the castle--Dol College--Mathematics and languages--An instance of memory--Holidays at Combourg--Life at a country-seat--Feudal customs--The inhabitants of Combourg--Second holidays at Combourg--The Conti Regiment--Camp at Saint-Malo--An abbey--A provincial theatre--Marriage of my two eldest sisters--Return to college--A revolution begins to take place in my ideas--Adventure of the magpie--Third holidays at Combourg--The quack--Return to college--Invasion of France--Games--The Abbé de Chateaubriand--My First Communion--I leave Dol College--A mission at Combourg--Rennes College--I meet Gesril--Moreau-Limoëlan--Marriage of my third sister--I am sent to Brest for my naval examination--The harbour of Brest--I once more meet Gesril--Lapeyrouse--I return to Combourg BOOK III At Montboissier--Reminiscences of Combourg--Dinan College--Broussais--I return home--Life at Combourg--Our days and evenings--My donjon--Change from childhood to manhood--Lucile--Last lines written at the Vallée-aux-Loups--Revelations concerning the mystery of my life--A phantom of love--Two years of delirium--Occupations and illusions--My autumn joys--Incantation--Temptation--Illness--I fear and decline to enter the ecclesiastical state--A moment in my native town--Recollection of Villeneuve and the tribulations of my childhood--I am called back to Combourg--Last interview with my father--I enter the service--I bid farewell to Combourg BOOK IV