book I

. chap. 7: _De la communion._--T.

[120]

"The bread I offer for your taking Is that which the angels eat; It is bread of God's own baking From the first fruits of his wheat."--T.

[121] Charles Rollin (1661-1741), a famous French professor and theologian.--T.

[122] The French Naval Guard (_Garde marine_) was a body of nobles from which the naval officers were appointed.--T.

[123] The name of a celebrated Oratorian college, near Meaux, suppressed by the Revolution of 1789.--T.

[124] Julien Louis Geoffroy (1743-1814), a distinguished dramatic critic. He originated the literary _feuilleton_ in the _Journal des Débats._--T.

[125] Pierre Louis Ginguené (1748-1815), Ambassador to Turin under the Directory, and author of the _Histoire littéraire d'Italie_ and some poems, mostly imitated from the Italian.--T.

[126] The famous college on the Montagne Sainte-Généviève in Paris, founded by Jean Hubert in 1430.--T.

[127] Évariste Désiré Desforges, Chevalier de Parny (1753-1814), the author of a number of elegies and love-poems, which earned for him the name of "the French Tibullus."--T.

[128] Rennes College was one of the most important in France. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1607. When they left it, in 1762, a communal college was established in the same buildings. These are now occupied by the Lycée de Rennes, which, however, is greatly diminished in size.--B.

[129]

"Listen to the vows we offer, O Terpsichore, Polyhymnia! Reason herself her prayers doth proffer."--T.

[130] André François Jean du Rocher de Saint-Riveul (1772-1789), son of Henri du Rocher, Comte de Saint-Riveul.--B. The Manuscript of 1826 mentions that he was killed in the street at Rennes, as he was going with his father to the Chamber of Nobles.--T.

[131] Jean Desmarets, advocate-general to the Parliament of Paris, beheaded in 1382 for his failure to suppress the revolt of the Maillotins.--T.

[132] Jean Victor Moreau (1763-1813), one of the greatest generals of the Revolution, and the victor of the Battles of Hochstädt and Hohenlinden. He subsequently entered into relations with the Royalist Generals Pichegru and Cadoudal, was tried and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, a sentence commuted to exile in the United States. Here he received offers from the Tsar Alexander to join the army of the Allies, which he eventually accepted; but was killed by a cannon-ball immediately after reaching the head-quarters of the Allied Army outside Dresden.--T.

[133] Joseph Pierre Picot de Limoëlan de Clorivière (1768-1826) entered the army, espoused the Royalist cause, and refused to accept the pacification of 1799. He returned to Paris, and was on the eve of marrying a charming young lady of Versailles, Mademoiselle Julie d'Albert, when the explosion of the infernal machine took place in the Rue Saint-Nicaise (24 December 1799). Limoëlan was one of the principal agents in the plot. Thanks to the devotion of his betrothed, he escaped to America, and upon his arrival in New York wrote to Mademoiselle d'Albert to come out to him and be married there. The reply came as a shock to him. Mademoiselle d'Albert had taken a vow to devote herself to God, if her lover succeeded in making good his escape. She besought him to forget the past and to think only of his eternal future. In 1808 the young officer entered the seminary at Baltimore. He commenced a new life, changed his name to Clorivière, was ordained priest in 1812, and received a curacy at Charleston. He returned to France in 1815 to collect what remained of his fortune, the whole of which he devoted to pious works in America, including the re-endowment of the Convent of the Visitation at Georgetown, founded by Miss Alice Lalor in 1805. Mademoiselle d'Albert survived Father de Clorivière for many years. She kept her vow of celibacy, but did not take the veil, for want of a vocation. At the age of fifty she was relieved by Pope Gregory XVI. from her vow. She died at Versailles, advanced in years, after a life devoted entirely to works of piety and charity.--B.

[134] I omit a short anecdote.--T.

[135] Annibal Pierre François de Farcy de Montavallon. The wedding took place in 1782.--B.

[136] Thérèse Josèphe de Moëlien (1759-1793), daughter of Sébastien Marie Hyacinthe de Moëlien, Chevalier, Seigneur de Trojolif (not Tronjoli), Kermoisan, Kerguelenet, &c. She was twenty-three years of age when Chateaubriand saw her at Combourg, and when writing his Memoirs he must have recalled her with his school-boy eyes; for contemporary evidence declares that she was not beautiful, nor even pretty. The words "and close friend of the Marquis de La Rouërie" do not occur in the Manuscript of 1826. Thérèse de Moëlien was in love, not with La Rouërie, but with Major Chafner, an American officer, whom she was to have married if she outlived the plot in which they were both engaged. She was guillotined, however, in Paris on the 18th of June 1793. Major Chafner was in London at the time of the discovery of the so-called Breton Conspiracy. He returned to Brittany, and perished at Nantes, after fighting on the side of the Vendeans to revenge the death of Mademoiselle de Moëlien.--B.

[137] An allusion to the mystical hymns of Orpheus, which were called "perfumes" (αρώματα).--B.

[138] Jean Baptiste Joseph Eugène de Ravenel du Boisteilleul (1738-1815), first cousin of Chateaubriand's mother, and therefore uncle in the manner of Brittany of the great writer.--B.

[139] Hyacinthe Eugène Pierre de Ravenel du Boisteilleul (1784-1868), a captain of artillery, and decorated on the battle-field at Smolensk, 17 August 1812.--B.

[140] Pauline Zoé Marie de Farcy de Montavallon (1784-1850) married Hyacinthe de Ravenel du Boisteilleul, 16 November 1814.--B.

[141] Vice-Admiral Charles Jean Comte d'Hector (1722-1808), commander of the port of Brest from 1780 to 1791. He joined the Princes' Army at Coblentz, and was made colonel of a regiment consisting exclusively of naval officers. He died at Reading in Berkshire at the age of eighty-six.--B.

[142] The Peace of Versailles, 1783.--T.

[143] Pierre André de Suffren-Saint-Tropez (1726-1788), known as the Bailli de Suffren, had fought the English in India by sea and land in the war of 1782.--T.

[144] Comte de Lamotte-Piquet (1720-1791), lieutenant-general of the French Navy. Between 1737 and 1783 he took part in twenty-eight campaigns, and distinguished himself especially in America.--T.

[145] Charles Hector Comte d'Estaing (1720-1794), admiral in command of the combined fleets at Cadiz on the signature of the treaty of peace. He embraced the principles of the Revolution, and served in the Republican army and naval forces; but was guillotined in 1794.--T.

[146] Jean François Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse (1741-1788[?]) set out on a voyage of discovery in 1785. He was known to have visited Japan and New Holland when, in 1788, all traces of him were lost. In 1827, Captain Dillon discovered the wrecks of his ships, the _Boussole_ and the _Astrolabe_, off the coast of Vanikoro, since called the Pérouse, one of the Santa Cruz group, between the Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides.--T.

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