To judge from my parchments, it would but rest with myself if I inherited the infatuation of my father and brother, and believed myself to represent a younger branch of the Dukes of Brittany, descending from Thiern, grandson of Alan III. [Sidenote: Royal alliances.] These Chateaubriands aforesaid had twice mixed their blood with the Blood Royal of England, Geoffrey IV. of Chateaubriand having married as his second wife Agnes of Laval, grand-daughter of the Count of Anjou and of Maud, daughter of Henry I., while Margaret of Lusignan, widow of the King of England and grand-daughter of Louis the Fat[20], married Geoffrey V., twelfth Baron of Chateaubriand. With respect to the Royal House of Spain, we find Brien, a younger brother of the ninth Baron of Chateaubriand, who would seem to have married Joan, daughter of Alphonsus, King of Aragon. It is stated, moreover, in so far as the great families of France are concerned, that Edward of Rohan took Margaret of Chateaubriand to wife; and again that a Croï married Charlotte of Chateaubriand. Tinténiac, the victor of the Battle of the Thirty[21], and Du Guesclin, the Constable, allied themselves with our three branches. Tiphaine Du Guesclin, grand-daughter of Bertrand's brother, made over the property of the Plessis-Bertrand to Brien of Chateaubriand, her cousin and heir. In treaties, Chateaubriands are given as sureties for the peace to the Kings of France, to Clisson[22], to the Baron of Vitré. The Dukes of Brittany send records of their assizes to the Chateaubriands. The Chateaubriands become grand officers of the Crown and _illustres_ in the Court of Nantes; they receive commissions to defend the safety of their province against the English. Brien I. is present at the Battle of Hastings: he was the son of Eudon, Count of Penthièvre. Guy of Chateaubriand is one of the lords whom Arthur of Brittany appoints to accompany his son upon his embassy to the Pope in 1309. I should never come to an end if I finished stating all that of which I intended to give only a brief summary: the note[23] which I have at last determined to write, from consideration for my two nephews, who doubtless do not hold these bygone trifles as cheaply as I do, will supply the place of my omissions in the text. Still, nowadays we go too much to the other extreme; it has become the custom to declare that one comes of a stock liable to villain service, that one has the honour to be the son of a man bound to the soil. Are these declarations as proud as they are philosophical? Is it not taking the side of the strongest? Are the marquises, the counts, the barons of the present day, who have neither privileges nor furrows, three-fourths of whom are starving, blackening one another, refusing to recognize each other, mutually contesting each other's birth: are these nobles, whose very names are denied them or only allowed with reserve, able to inspire any fear?