The greater part of my feelings have remained buried in the recesses of my soul, or are displayed in my works only as applied to imaginary beings. To-day, while I still regret, without pursuing, my illusions, I will reascend the acclivity of my happier years: these Memoirs shall be a shrine erected to the clearness of my remembrances. [Sidenote: My birth and ancestry.] Let us commence, then, and speak first of my family. This is essential, because the character of my father depended in a great measure upon his position and, in its turn, exercised a great influence upon the nature of my ideas, by determining the manner of my education[8]. * I am of noble birth. In my opinion I have improved the hazard of my cradle and retained that firmer love of liberty which belongs principally to the aristocracy whose last hour has struck. Aristocracy has three ages: the age of superiority, the age of privilege, the age of vanity; issuing from the first, it degenerates in the second to become extinguished in the third. He who is curious for information concerning my family may consult Moréri's[9] Dictionary, the different Histories of Brittany by d'Argentré[10], Dom Lobineau[11], Dom Morice, Père Du Paz' _Histoire généalogique de plusieurs maisons illustres de Bretagne_, Toussaint de Saint-Luc, Le Borgne, and lastly Père Anselme's _Histoire des grands officiers de la Couronne._[12] My proofs of descent were made out by Chérin[13], for the admission of my sister Lucile as a canoness of the Chapter of the Argentière, whence she was to be transferred to that of Remiremont. They were reproduced for my presentation to Louis XVI., again for my affiliation to the Order of Malta, and lastly, when my brother was presented to the same unfortunate Louis XVI. My name was first written "Brien," and then "Briant" and "Briand," following the invasion of French spelling. Guillaume le Breton says "Castrum-Briani." There is not a French name that does not present these literal variations. What is the spelling of Du Guesclin? About the commencement of the eleventh century, the Briens gave their name to an important Breton castle, and this castle became the burgh of the Barony of Chateaubriand. The Chateaubriand arms at first consisted of fir-cones with the motto, _Je sème l'or._ Geoffrey Baron of Chateaubriand accompanied St Louis to Palestine. He was taken prisoner at the battle of the Mansourah[14], but returned, and his wife Sybil died of joy and surprise at seeing him. St. Louis, in reward for his services, granted to him and his heirs, in lieu of his old arms, an escutcheon gules, strewn with fleur-de-lis or: "_Cui et ejus hæredibus_" a cartulary of the Priory of Bérée bears witness, "_sanctus Ludovicus turn Francorum rex, propter ejus probitatem in armis, flores lilii auri, loco pomorum pini auri, contulit._" [Sidenote: My proofs of nobility.]