This intellectual suppleness was again apparent in matters of secondary importance. I was good at chess, handy at billiards, a good shot, an expert swordsman; I drew tolerably; I should have sung well, if my voice had been trained. All this, added to the manner in which I was brought up and to the life I led as a soldier and traveller, produced the result that I have never played the prig nor displayed the stupid self-sufficiency, the awkwardness, the slovenly habits of the men of letters of former days, still less the conceited assurance, the jealousy and the blustering vanity of the new authors. I spent two years at Rennes College; Gesril left eighteen months before I did. He entered the navy. Julie, my third sister, was married in the course of these two years; she gave her hand to the Comte de Farcy[135], a captain in the Condé Regiment, and settled with her husband at Fougères, where my two eldest sisters, Mesdames de Marigny and de Québriac were already living. Julie's wedding took place at Combourg, and I was present at it. I there met the Comtesse de Tronjoli[136], who distinguished herself by her courage on the scaffold: she was the cousin and close friend of the Marquis de La Rouërie, and was implicated in his conspiracy. I had never yet seen beauty except in my own family; I was confused on perceiving it in the face of a strange woman. Each step in life opened out a new perspective before me; I heard the distant and alluring voice of the passions which were coming to me; I hastened towards those sirens, attracted by an unknown harmony. It appeared that, like the High Priest of Eleusis, I had a different incense for each divinity. But could the hymns which I sang while burning that incense be called "balsams," like the poems of the hierophant[137]? * After Julie's marriage, I set out for Brest. On leaving the great College of Rennes, I did not feel the same regret that I had experienced on bidding farewell to the little College of Dol; perhaps I had lost the bud of innocence which turns everything into a charm for us; time was beginning to open it. My mentor in my new position was one of my maternal uncles, Vice-Admiral the Comte Ravenel de Boisteilleul[138], one of whose sons[139], a very distinguished artillery-officer in the armies of Bonaparte, married the only daughter[140] of my sister the Comtesse de Farcy. [Sidenote: My life at Brest.] On my arrival at Brest, I did not find my cadet's commission awaiting me; some accident had delayed it. I remained what was called an "aspirant," and, as such, was exempt from following the regular studies. My uncle put me to board in the Rue de Siam, at a cadets' ordinary, and introduced me to the naval commander, the Comte d'Hector[141]. Left for the first time to my own resources, instead of becoming intimate with my future messmates, I indulged in my instinct for solitude. My usual society was confined to my fencing-master, my drawing-master, and my mathematical tutor.