[378] "Both through his virtues and his charms
To be their father he deserved." —T.
[379] Étienne Gaspard Robertson (1762-1837), a professor of physics who perfected or improved the Archimedean mirror, the magic-lantern, and the parachute.—T.
[380] Now the Quai Malaquais.—T.
[381] The Theatines, or "Regular Clerks," a very strict congregation, founded in 1524 by St. Cajetan and Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, Bishop of Chieti, or Theate, from which the Order takes its name.—T.
[382] The Requisition was a sort of levy in mass decreed by the Committee of Public Safety on the 23rd of August 1793, and produced 1,400,000 men. It was the immediate forerunner of the Conscription.—T.
[383] The title of this letter was Lettre à M. de Fontanes sur la deuxième édition de l'ouvrage de Mme. de Staël (De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec la morale, etc.), and it was signed, l'Auteur du Génie du Christianisme. It was printed in the Mercure of 1 Nivoise Year IX. (22 December 1800), and now figures in all the editions of the Génie du Christianisme. It is one of Chateaubriand's most eloquent writings.—B.
[384] The letter appeared in the Journal des Débats of 10 Germinal Year IX. (31 March 1801).—B.
[385] The volume is announced as "just out" in the Journal des Débats of 27 Germinal (17 April). It was a small duodecimo, of XXIV. +210 pages, with the title Atala, ou les Amours de deux sauvages dans le désert.—B.
[386] Marie Marguerite Marquise de Brinvilliers (1630-1676), née Dreux d'Avray, a famous poisoner, who with her lover, Gaudin de Sainte-Croix, poisoned the marquise's father, sister, and two brothers. The crimes were discovered on the death of Sainte-Croix in 1670. The Brinvilliers took to flight, but was captured at Liège, brought back to Paris, and tried and executed in 1676.—T.
[387] A waxwork show established in the Palais-Royal and on the Boulevard du Temple in 1770 by a German who called himself Curtius. The establishment on the Boulevard du Temple remained open until the end of the reign of Louis-Philippe. The figures are still sometimes met with at village fairs.—B.