After the baptism of M. le Duc de Bordeaux[151], I was at last reinstated in my ministry of State: M. de Richelieu had taken it from me, M. de Richelieu restored it to me; the reparation gave me no more pleasure than the wrong had given me offense.

While I was looking forward to returning to see my crows, the cards were being shuffled: M. de Villèle resigned[152]. Loyal to my friendship and my political principles, I thought it my duty to retire into private life with him. I wrote to M. Pasquier:

"Paris, 30 July 1821.

"Monsieur le baron,

"When you were good enough to invite me to call on you, on the 14th of this month, it was to tell me that my presence was necessary in Berlin. I had the honour to reply that, as Messieurs de Corbière and de Villèle appeared to be retiring from office, it was my duty to follow them. In the practice of representative government, it is the usage that men of the same opinion should share the same fortune. What usage demands, monsieur le baron, honour commands of me, since it is a question, not of a favour, but of a disgrace. In consequence, I now repeat to you in writing the offer which I made to you verbally of my resignation as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Berlin. I hope, monsieur le baron, that you will kindly lay it at the King's feet. I entreat His Majesty to accept its motives and to believe in my profound and respectful gratitude for the kindness with which he has deigned to honour me.

"I have the honour to be, etc.,

"Chateaubriand."

I announced to M. le Comte de Bernstorff the event which was breaking off our diplomatic relations; he wrote in reply:

"Monsieur le vicomte,

"Although I ought long to have expected the intelligence which you have been good enough to send me, I am none the less painfully affected by it. I know and respect the motives which, in this delicate circumstance, have determined your resolutions; but, while adding new claims to those which have in this country won for you an universal esteem, they also add to the regrets which are here felt at the certainty of a loss long dreaded and for ever irreparable. These sentiments are keenly shared by the King and the Royal Family, and I am only awaiting the moment of your recall to tell you so officially.

"Bear me kindly in your remembrance, I pray you, and accept the renewed expression of my inviolable devotion and of the high regard with which I have the honour to be, etc., etc.

"Bernstorff."

"Berlin, 25 August 1821.

I had hastened to express my friendship and my regrets to M. Ancillon: his very beautiful reply (leaving my praises on one side) deserves to be recorded here:

"Berlin, 22 September 1821.

"And so, monsieur and illustrious friend, you are irrevocably lost to us? I foresaw this misfortune, and yet it has affected me as though it had been unexpected. We deserved to keep you and to possess you, because at least we had the feeble merit of feeling, recognizing, admiring all your superiority. To tell you that the King, the Princes, the Court and the Town regret you is to sound their praises rather than yours; to tell you that I rejoice in these regrets, that I am proud of them for the sake of my country and that I acutely share them would be to fall far short of the truth and to give you a very imperfect idea of what I feel. Permit me to believe that you know me well enough to read my heart. If that heart accuses you, my mind not only absolves you, but more, does homage to your noble proceeding and to the principles which dictated it. You owed France a great lesson and a fine example; you have given her both by refusing to serve a ministry which is unable to judge its situation and which has not the mental courage necessary to extricate itself from it. In a representative monarchy, the ministers and those whom they employ in the first places must form an homogeneous whole, all the parts of which are jointly and severally responsible one to the other. There, less than anywhere else, should a man separate himself from his friends; he maintains himself and rises with them, he descends and falls in the same way. You have proved the truth of this maxim to France by resigning with Messieurs de Villèle and Corbière. You have taught her at the same time that fortune does not enter into consideration where principles are concerned; and certainly, if yours had not had reason, conscience and the experience of all the centuries on their side, the sacrifice which they dictate to a man like yourself would be sufficient to establish a powerful presumption in their favour in the eyes of all who know anything of dignity.

"I impatiently await the result of the coming elections to draw the horoscope of France. They will decide her future.

"Farewell, my illustrious friend; sometimes, from the heights on which you dwell, shed a few drops of dew on a heart which will cease to admire and love you only when it ceases to beat.

"Ancillon."

I resign the Berlin embassy.

Mindful of France's welfare, without occupying myself further with myself or my friends, I at that period submitted the following note to Monsieur: