The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England, Volume 2 (of 6): Mémoires d'outre-tombe, volume 2Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de
History
The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England, Volume 2 (of 6): Mémoires d'outre-tombe, volume 2
Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de
Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de, 1768-1848
Although my travels in America had made a less insignificant personage
of me, I was unable to rise to so great a height of principle and
eloquence. Fontanes was in danger through his former connection
with the Société Monarchique. My brother was a member of a club of
_enragés._ The Prussians were marching by virtue of a convention
between the Cabinets of Vienna and Berlin; a rather fierce engagement
had already taken place between the French and Austrians near Mons. It
was more than time for me to take a decision.
[Sidenote: My brother and I emigrate.]
My brother and I procured false passports for Lille: we were two
wine-merchants and national guards of Paris, wearing the uniform
and proposing to tender for the army supplies. My brother's valet,
Louis Poullain, known as Saint-Louis, travelled under his own name;
he came from Lamballe, in Lower Brittany, but was going to see his
family in Flanders. The day of our emigration was settled for the
15th of July, the day after the second Federation. We spent the 14th
in the Tivoli garden, with the Rosanbo family, my sisters and my
wife. Tivoli belonged to M. Boutin[63], whose daughter had married
M. de Malesherbes[64]. Towards the end of the day we saw a good many
federates wandering about after disbanding; on their hats was written
in chalk, "Pétion or death!" Tivoli, the starting-point of my exile,
was to become a centre of amusements and fêtes. Our relations took
leave of us without sadness; they were persuaded that we were going on
a pleasure-trip. My recovered fifteen hundred francs seemed a treasure
sufficient to bring me back in triumph to Paris.
On the 10th of July, at six o'clock in the morning, we climbed into the
diligence: we had booked our seats in the front part, by the guard;
the valet, whom we were supposed not to know, stuffed himself into the
inside with the other passengers. Saint-Louis walked in his sleep; in
Paris he used to go looking for his master at night, with his eyes
open, but quite asleep. He used to undress my brother and put him to
bed, sleeping all the time, answering, "I know, I know," to all that
was said to him during his attacks, and waking only when cold water was
thrown in his face: he was a man of about forty, nearly six feet high,
and as ugly as he was tall. This poor fellow, who was very respectful
by nature, had never served any master except my brother; he was quite
confused when he had to sit down to table with us at supper. The
passengers, great patriots all, talking of hanging the aristocrats from
the lanterns, increased his dismay. The thought that, at the end of all
this, he would be obliged to pass through the Austrian Army, in order
to fight in the Army of the Princes, completely turned his brain. He
drank heavily and climbed into the diligence again; we went back to the
coupé.
In the middle of the night we heard the passengers shouting, with their
heads out of the windows:
"Stop, postilion, stop!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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