I have been permitted to leave Dieppe, whither a police order had driven me, and to return to the Vallée-aux-Loups, where I continue my narrative. The soil trembles beneath the steps of the foreign soldier, who is invading my country at this very moment; I am writing, like the last of the Romans, to the sound of the Barbarian invasion. By day I compose pages as agitated as the events of the day[115]; at night, while the rolling of the distant cannon dies away in my woods, I return to the silence of years that sleep in the grave, to the peace of my youngest memories. How short and narrow is a man's past beside the vast present of the nations and their immeasurable future! * Mathematics, Greek, and Latin occupied all my winter at school. The time that was not devoted to study was given up to boyish sports, which are the same all over the world. The little Englishman, the little German, the little Italian, the little Spaniard, the little Iroquois, the little Bedouin, all trundle the hoop and throw the ball. Brothers of one great family, children do not lose their features of resemblance until they lose their innocence, everywhere the same. Then the passions, modified by climates, governments, and customs, make different nations; the human race ceases to speak and understand the same language: society is the real Tower of Babel. [Sidenote: The Abbé de Chateaubriand.] One morning I was taking very energetic part in a game of base in the playground, when I was told that I was wanted. I followed the servant to the front gate. There I found a stout, red-faced man, with abrupt and impatient manners and a fierce voice; he carried a stick in his hand, wore a black and ill-curled wig, a torn cassock with the ends tucked into his pockets, dusty shoes, and stockings with holes at the heels. "You little scamp," said he, "are not you the Chevalier de Chateaubriand de Combourg?" "Yes, monsieur," I replied, quite bewildered at his manner of addressing me. "And I," he retorted, almost foaming at the mouth, "am the last senior of your family; I am the Abbé de Chateaubriand de La Guerrande[116]: take a good look at me."