[214] Françoise Comtesse de Chateaubriand (1475-1537), daughter of Jean de Foix, Vicomte de Narbonne, and sister of the Vicomte de Lautrec and the Maréchal de Foix. She inspired a passion in François I., but after a year was supplanted by the Duchesse d'Étampes (vide infra), and remained the victim of the jealousy of her husband, who has been accused of hastening her death.—T.
[215] Anne de Pisseleu, Duchesse d'Étampes (circa 1508-circa 1576), first known as Mademoiselle d'Heilly, maid-of-honour to the Comtesse d'Angoulême, mother of François I. She became the King's mistress at the age of eighteen; he married her to a certain Jean de Brosse, and gave her the county of Étampes, first raising it to a duchy. She practically governed France for two-and-twenty years, until the King's death in 1547, when she retired into obscurity and solaced her solitude by embracing the Reformation.—T.
[216] The Mémorial historique de la Noblesse has printed a hitherto unpublished document, annotated in the King's hand, taken from the Archives of the Kingdom, register M 813 and portfolio M 814; it contains the "Entrances." My own name and my brother's appear in it: this shows that my memory has not been at fruit as regards dates.—Author's Note (Paris, 1840).
[217] This idyll appears in the Almanack des Muses for 1790, p. 205, under the title: L'Amour de la campagne and the signature: "By the Chevalier de C***." Chateaubriand included it in his Complete Works.—B.
[BOOK V][218]
Stay in Brittany—In garrison at Dieppe—I return to Paris with Lucile and Julie—Delisle de Sales—Men of letters—Portraits—The Rosanbo family—M. de Malesherbes—His predilection for Lucile—Appearance and change of my sylph—Early political disturbances in Brittany—A glance at the history of the monarchy—Constitution of the States of Brittany—The holding of the States—The King's revenue in Brittany—Private revenue of the province—Hearth-money—I am present for the first time at a political meeting—A scene—My mother moves to Saint-Malo—I receive the tonsure—The country round Saint-Malo—The ghost—The sick man—The States of Brittany in 1789—Riots—Saint-Riveul, my schoolfellow, is killed—The year 1789—Journey from Brittany to Paris—Movement on the road—Appearance of Paris—Dismissal of M. Necker—Versailles—Delight of the Royal Family—General insurrection—Capture of the Bastille—Effect of the capture of the Bastille on the Court—The heads of Foullon and Bertier—Recall of M. Necker—Sitting of the 4th of August 1789—The day's work of the 5th of October—The King is taken to Paris—The Constituent Assembly—Mirabeau—Sittings of the National Assembly—Robespierre—Society-Aspect of Paris—What I did amidst all this turmoil—My solitary days—Mademoiselle Monet—I draw up with M. de Malesherbes the plan of my journey in America—Bonaparte and I both unknown subalterns—The Marquis de La Rouërie—I embark at Saint-Malo—Last thoughts on leaving my native land.
All that has been read in the previous chapter was written in Berlin. I have returned to Paris for the christening of the Duc de Bordeaux[219], and have resigned my embassy through political fidelity to M. de Villèle[220], who has left the Cabinet. Restored to leisure, let me write. The more these Memoirs become filled with my years that have passed, the more do they remind me of the lower bulb of an hour-glass which marks what has fallen from my life: when all the sand shall have passed through, I would not turn over my glass clock, if God gave me power to do so.
*