[3] I have forgotten to inscribe M. de Laville, author of Folliculaire and of Une Journée d'Élections, among the number of the signers of that petition, which I have cited in another part of these Memoirs. One of these signatories, who survives the others, has pointed out my error to me and I here repair it.
[4] TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.—Littré defines un tour de faveur as the decision of a theatrical committee or manager by virtue of which a piece is given precedence over others received earlier.
[CHAPTER VI]
Chateaubriand ceases to be a peer of France—He leaves the country—Béranger's song thereupon—Chateaubriand as versifier—First night of Charles VII.—Delafosse's vizor—Yaqoub and Frédérick-Lemaître—The Reine d'Espagne—M. Henri de Latouche—His works, talent and character—Interlude of The Reine d'Espagne—Preface of the play—Reports of the pit collected by the author
People were very full at this time of the resignation and exile of Chateaubriand, both of which were voluntary acts. The previous government had caused his dismissal from the French peerage, by reason of its abolition of heredity in the peerage. The author of the Martyrs exiled himself because the uproar caused by his opposition became daily less evident and he feared that it would die away altogether.
"Do you know, madame, that Chateaubriand is growing deaf?" I said once to Madame O'Donnel, a witty woman, the sister and daughter of witty women.
"Indeed!" she replied, "then it is since people have stopped talking about him."