"I shall be in London in the first fortnight of November and I hope most eagerly that it will be possible for you to join me there; your presence with me will be of great use to me and will explain better than anything could the object of my journey. I shall be happy and proud to show by my side a man whose name is one of the glories of France and who has represented her so nobly in the country which I am about to visit. "Come, then, monsieur le vicomte, and be sure to believe in all my gratitude and in the pleasure which it will give me to express to you, by word of mouth, the feelings of high esteem and attachment of which I love to send you with this the renewed and most sincere assurance." Ill as he was and almost paralyzed with gout, the old man was moved to tears by the young Prince's invitation: "To such a letter as that," he said, "one answers by going in one's coffin, if necessary." He set out for England on the 22nd of November. The Prince was not to arrive in London until a week later, the 29th. On the 30th, a large number of French Royalists, with the Duc Jacques de Fitz-James[488] at their head, came to Chateaubriand to pay him their respects and thank him for coming. Suddenly the door opened and the Comte de Chambord appeared, accompanied by Berryer and the Duc de Valmy[489]: "Gentlemen," he said to the assembled company, "I heard that you were all at M. de Chateaubriand's and I decided to come here to pay you a visit... I am so happy to find myself surrounded by Frenchmen! I love France, because France is the land of my birth, and, if I have ever turned my thoughts towards the throne of my ancestors, it has been only in the hope that it might be possible for me to serve my country in the principles and sentiments which have been so gloriously proclaimed by M. de Chateaubriand and which are honoured, in addition, by so many and such noble defenders in your native land." This scene moved Chateaubriand deeply. On the same day, he wrote to Madame Récamier: "I have just received the reward of my whole life: the Prince has deigned to speak of me, in the midst of a crowd of Frenchmen, with an effusiveness worthy of his youth. If I were able to tell anything, I would tell you about this; but here I am crying like a fool. "Protect me with all your prayers." The Comte de Chambord had had an apartment reserved for him in his own house in Belgrave Square. Every morning, Chateaubriand would see the descendant of Louis XIV. come into his room, sit down familiarly on his bed and talk with him at length of the interest, liberties and future of France. During the day, the Prince came to take him for a drive in his carriage, so as to lose hardly an hour of his stay. When Chateaubriand was on the eve of departure, Henry of France wrote him the following letter: "LONDON, 4 _December_ 1843. "MONSIEUR LE VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND,