If any part of this work has interested me more than another, it is that which relates to my youth, the least-known side of my life. There I have had to reveal to the world what was known to myself alone; in wandering among that vanished company I have met only remembrances and silence: of all the persons I have known, how many are alive today?
The inhabitants of Saint-Malo applied to me, on the 28th of August 1828, through the medium of their mayor, on the subject of a floating dock they wished to build. I hastened to reply, begging, in exchange for my good will, a concession of a few feet of ground, for my tomb, on the Grand-Bé[3]. This encountered some difficulty, owing to the opposition of the military engineering authorities. At last, on the 27th of October 1831, I received a letter from the mayor, M. Hovius. He said:
"The resting-place which you desire by the side of the sea, at a few steps from your birthplace, will be prepared by the filial piety of the Malouins. A sad thought is mingled with this task. Ah, may the monument remain long unoccupied! But honour and glory survive all that dies upon earth."
I quote these beautiful words of M. Hovius with gratitude; there is but one word too much: "glory."
I shall therefore rest on the shore of the sea which I have loved so well. If I die out of France, I hope that my body will not be brought back to the land of my birth until fifty years shall have been completed since my first burial. Let my remains be spared a sacrilegious autopsy; let not my chilled brain and my dead heart be searched for the mystery of my being. Death does not reveal the secrets of life. A corpse riding post fills me with horror; bones, bleached and light, are easily moved: they will be less fatigued by this last journey than when I dragged them hither and thither, laden with the burden of my cares.
Paris, 14 April, 1846.
Revised 28 July, 1846.
[1] 1848-1850.—T.
[2] "I am brought to nothing: as a wind thou hast taken away my desire: and my prosperity hath passed away like a cloud."—Job, xxx. 15.