In the same year in which I was undergoing my military apprenticeship at Cambrai, we heard of the death of Frederic II.[197]; I am now ambassador to that great King's nephew[198], and am writing this portion of my Memoirs in Berlin. Upon that piece of important public news followed sorrowful news for me: Lucile wrote to me that my father had been carried off by a fit of apoplexy two days after the Angevin Fair, one of the delights of my childhood.
Among the authentic documents which I keep for consultation I find the death-certificates of my parents. As these documents also in a special manner mark the death of a century, I place them on record here as constituting a page of history.
"Extract from the death-register of the parish of Combourg, for 1786, upon which is written as follows, page 8, verso:
"The body of the high and mighty Messire René de Chateaubriand, knight, Count of Combourg, Lord of Gaugres, the Plessis-l'Épine, Boulet, Malestroit in Dol, and other places, husband of the high and mighty Dame Appoline Jeanne Suzanne de Bedée de La Bouëtardais, Lady Countess of Combourg, aged about sixty-nine years, who died in his castle of Combourg, on the sixth of September, about eight o'clock of the evening, was interred on the eighth, in the vault of the said lordship, situated in the crypt of our church of Combourg, in presence of messieurs the undersigned noblemen, officers of the jurisdiction, and other notable burgesses. Signed in the register: Comte de Petitbois, de Monlouët, de Chateaudassy, Delaunay, Morault, Noury de Mauny, advocate; Hermer, procurator; Petit, advocate and procurator-fiscal; Robion, Portal, le Donarin, de Trevelec, Rector and Dean of Dingé; Sévin, rector."
In the "collated copy" delivered in 1812 by M. Lodin, Mayor of Combourg, the nineteen words giving the titles "high and mighty Messire" &c., are struck out.
"Extract from the death-register of the town of Saint-Servan, first arrondissement of the Department of Ille-et-Vilaine, for the Year VI. of the Republic, page 35, recto, upon which is written as follows:
"On the twelfth of Prairial Year Six of the French Republic, before me, Jacques Bourdasse, municipal officer of the commune of Saint-Servan, elected to public office on the fourth of Floréal last, have appeared Jean Baslé, gardener, and Joseph Boulin, day-labourer, who have declared to me that Appoline Jeanne Suzanne de Bedée, widow of René Auguste de Chateaubriand, died this day, at one o'clock after noon, at the house of Citizeness Gouyon, situated at the Ballue, in this commune. After which declaration, of the truth of which I have made sure, I have drawn up the present deed, which Jean Baslé alone has signed with me, Joseph Boulin declaring that he did not know how, after question put.
"Done at the communal house on the said day and year. Signed: Jean Baslé and Bourdasse."
In the first extract, the old society exists: M. de Chateaubriand is a "high and mighty lord," &c., &c.; the witnesses are "noblemen" and "notable burgesses"; among the signatories I find the Marquis de Monlouët, who used to stop at Combourg Castle in the winter, the Curé Sévin, who had so much difficulty in believing me to be the author of the Génie du Christianisme: faithful guests of my father even at his last abode. But my father did riot sleep long in his shroud: he was cast out of it when Old France was cast into the common sewer.
In the mortuary extract of my mother, the earth revolves upon another axis: a new world, a new era; even the computation of the years and the names of the months are changed. Madame de Chateaubriand is nothing more than a poor woman who departs this life at the residence of "Citizeness" Gouyon; a gardener and a day-labourer, who does not know how to sign his name, alone testify to my mother's death: of friends and relations there are none; no funeral state; sole by-stander, the Revolution[199].
*
Death of my father.