I obtained a furlough. M. d'Andrezel, promoted to Lieutenant-colonel of the Picardy Regiment, was leaving Paris: I served as his courier. I passed through Paris, where I refused to stop for a quarter of an hour; I set eyes upon the moors of my Brittany with more joy than that with which a Neapolitan, banished to our climes, would gaze again upon the shores of Portici, the champaign of Sorrento. My family came together; we settled the division of the property; when that was done, we dispersed, as birds fly away from the paternal nest. My brother, who had come from Paris, returned there; my mother established herself at Saint-Malo; Lucile accompanied Julie; I spent a part of my time with Mesdames de Marigny, de Chateaubourg and de Farcy. Marigny[202], my eldest sister's country-seat, is pleasantly situated, three leagues from Fougères, between two lakes, and amidst woods, rocks and meadows. I stayed there peacefully for some months; a letter from Paris came to disturb my repose. [Sidenote: Ambitious projects.] At the moment of entering the service and marrying Mademoiselle de Rosanbo, my brother had not yet quitted the long robe; for this reason he was unable to obtain the privilege of riding in the King's coaches. His eager ambition suggested to him to make me enjoy Court honors in order to prepare the way for his own rise. Our proofs of nobility had been made out for Lucile when she was received into the Chapter of the Argentière, so that everything was ready; the Marshal de Duras was to be my sponsor. My brother wrote to me that I was on the high-road to fortune; that already I was to obtain the rank of a cavalry captain, an honorary and courtesy rank; that it would be easy to secure my admission to the Order of Malta, by means of which I should enjoy fat benefices. This letter came upon me like a thunder-bolt: to return to Paris, to be presented at Court, I who almost swooned away when I met three or four strangers in a drawing-room! To imbue me with ambition, who only dreamt of living forgotten! My first impulse was to reply to my brother that it was his duty, as the eldest, to keep up his name; that, as for me, a plain Breton younger son, I would not give up the service, as there was a chance of war; but that, though the King might have need of a soldier in his army, he had no need of a poor gentleman at his Court. I hastened to read this romantic reply to Madame de Marigny, who uttered loud cries; she sent for Madame de Farcy, who laughed at me; Lucile would have supported me, but she dared not contend with her sisters. They tore my letter from me, and, weak as always where I myself am concerned, I informed my brother that I was ready to go. I did go; I went to be presented at the first Court in Europe, to make the most brilliant start in life; and I looked like a man who is being dragged to the galleys or expecting a sentence of death. *