"Geoffroy-Louis de CHATEAUBRIAND." When this declaration was written, the dying man made them read it out to him; next, he insisted on reading it with his own eyes and then, calmly and with a peaceful mind, the author of the _Génie du Christianisme_ awaited the hour at which he was to appear before God. He drew his last breath on Tuesday the 4th of July. Only four persons were present: his spiritual director, the Abbé Deguerry[516], Rector of Saint-Eustache; his nephew; a sister of Charity; and Madame Récamier[517]. In a letter to the _Journal des Débats_, the Abbé Deguerry, the future martyr of the Commune, describes the great writer's last moments in these words: "PARIS, 4 _July_ 1848. "SIR, "France has lost one of her noblest children. "M. de Chateaubriand died this morning at a quarter past eight. We have gathered his last breath. He drew it in full consciousness. So beautiful an intellect was bound to prevail over death and to preserve a visible freedom in its embrace. "The death of Madame de Chateaubriand, which happened last year, struck M. de Chateaubriand so hard that he said to us at the time, laying his hand upon his breast: "'I have this moment felt life struck and withered at its source; it is now but a question of a few months.' "The death of M. Ballanche, which followed only too soon after, was the last blow for his old and illustrious friend. Since then, M. de Chateaubriand seemed no longer to be sinking, but rather rushing to the grave. "A few moments before his death, M. de Chateaubriand, who had received the Last Sacraments on Sunday last, once more pressed his lips to the cross with the emotion of a lively faith and a firm confidence. One of the sayings that he repeated most frequently during his last years was that the social problems that are harassing the nations to-day can never be resolved without the Gospel, without the spirit of Christ, whose doctrines and examples have called down a curse upon selfishness, that canker of all concord. Wherefore M. de Chateaubriand hailed Christ as the Saviour of the World from the social point of view and he loved to call Him his King as well as his God. "A priest, a sister of Charity knelt at the foot of M. de Chateaubriand's bed at the moment of his death. It was amid prayers and tears of that nature that the author of the _Génie du Christianisme_ was to deliver his soul into the hands of God. "I have the honour to be, etc. "DEGUERRY, "Rector of Saint-Eustache[518]." The Comte de Chambord, on the occasion of this death, wrote the following letter: