The Vicomtesse de Chateaubriand.
The next day, he dictated the following lines to his nephew:
"I declare before God that I retract all that my writings may contain that is contrary to faith, morals and, generally, to the principles preservative of goodness.
"Paris, 3 July1848.
"Signed for my uncle François de Chateaubriand, whose hand was unable to sign, and in conformity with the wish which he expressed to me.
"Geoffroy-Louis de Chateaubriand."
When this declaration was written, the dying man made them read it out to him; next, he insisted on reading it with his own eyes and then, calmly and with a peaceful mind, the author of the Génie du Christianisme awaited the hour at which he was to appear before God. He drew his last breath on Tuesday the 4th of July. Only four persons were present: his spiritual director, the Abbé Deguerry[516], Rector of Saint-Eustache; his nephew; a sister of Charity; and Madame Récamier[517].
In a letter to the Journal des Débats, the Abbé Deguerry, the future martyr of the Commune, describes the great writer's last moments in these words:
"Paris, 4 July 1848.
"Sir,
"France has lost one of her noblest children.
"M. de Chateaubriand died this morning at a quarter past eight. We have gathered his last breath. He drew it in full consciousness. So beautiful an intellect was bound to prevail over death and to preserve a visible freedom in its embrace.
"The death of Madame de Chateaubriand, which happened last year, struck M. de Chateaubriand so hard that he said to us at the time, laying his hand upon his breast:
"'I have this moment felt life struck and withered at its source; it is now but a question of a few months.'
"The death of M. Ballanche, which followed only too soon after, was the last blow for his old and illustrious friend. Since then, M. de Chateaubriand seemed no longer to be sinking, but rather rushing to the grave.
"A few moments before his death, M. de Chateaubriand, who had received the Last Sacraments on Sunday last, once more pressed his lips to the cross with the emotion of a lively faith and a firm confidence. One of the sayings that he repeated most frequently during his last years was that the social problems that are harassing the nations to-day can never be resolved without the Gospel, without the spirit of Christ, whose doctrines and examples have called down a curse upon selfishness, that canker of all concord. Wherefore M. de Chateaubriand hailed Christ as the Saviour of the World from the social point of view and he loved to call Him his King as well as his God.
"A priest, a sister of Charity knelt at the foot of M. de Chateaubriand's bed at the moment of his death. It was amid prayers and tears of that nature that the author of the Génie du Christianisme was to deliver his soul into the hands of God.
"I have the honour to be, etc.
"Deguerry,
"Rector of Saint-Eustache[518]."
The Comte de Chambord, on the occasion of this death, wrote the following letter:
"Your letter, monsieur, was the first to bring me the news of the death of M. de Chateaubriand. I had in him a sincere friend, a faithful counsellor, whose opinions I was happy to receive, whose generous thoughts I was glad to search, in my exile. For several months I had grieved at seeing that fine genius approach the end of his career; this great loss is even more painful to me at the present moment, when my heart has so much to weep for in the sorrows of my country.
"How many misfortunes have I not to deplore! Those terrible battles which have stained the capital with blood; the death of so many honourable and distinguished men in the National Guard and the Army; the martyrdom of the Archbishop of Paris[519]; the wretchedness of the poor people; the ruin of our manufactures; the alarms of all France! I pray to God to stay their course.
"May the spectacle of these calamities and the dread of the evils that threaten the future not carry away men's minds from the great principles of justice and public liberty which in these days, more than ever, the friends of nations and kings ought to defend and maintain.
"I renew, monsieur, the assurance of my very sincere and constant affection.
"Henry.
"15 July 1848."
On Saturday, the 8th of July, a funeral service was celebrated in the church of the Foreign Missions, in the Rue du Bac, quite close to the house of the deceased; the body was next taken down into the vaults of the chapel, to be removed, from there, to Saint-Malo. The solemn obsequies took place in that town on the 18th of July. The Mass was celebrated by the Rector of Combourg. At the Elevation, by a touching inspiration, the musicians played the melody to which Chateaubriand wrote his well-known lines: