Madame de Chateaubriand had been very ill during my travels; her friends had often given her up for lost. In some notes which M. de Clausel has written for his children, and which he has been good enough to permit me to look through, I find this passage: "M. de Chateaubriand left on his journey to Jerusalem in the month of July 1806: during his absence I went every day to Madame de Chateaubriand. Our traveller did me the kindness to write me a letter of several pages from Constantinople, which you will find in the drawer in our library at Coussergues. During the winter of 1806 to 1807, we knew that M. de Chateaubriand was at sea, on his way back to Europe; one day I had gone for a walk in the garden of the Tuileries with M. de Fontanes, in a terrible west wind; we had taken shelter on the terrace by the water-side. M. de Fontanes said to me: "Perhaps, at this minute, a blast of this horrible storm will wreck his ship.' "We learnt since that this presentiment was very nearly realized. I make a note of this to express the lively friendship; the interest in M. de Chateaubriand's literary fame, which was to increase by this voyage; the noble, the deep and rare sentiments which animated M. de Fontanes, an excellent man whom I, too, have to thank for great services, and whom I urge you to remember in your prayers to God." If I were destined to live, and if I could cause to live in my works all the persons who are dear to me, how gladly would I take with me all my friends! Full of hope, I brought home my handful of gleanings my period of repose did not last long.