The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England, Volume 1

1768-1800

Birth of my brothers and sisters—My own birth-Plancoët—I am vowed—Combourg—My father’s scheme of education for me—Villeneuve—Lucile—Mesdemoiselles Couppart—I am a bad pupil—The life led by my maternal grandmother and her sister at Plancoët—My uncle, the Comte de Bedée, at Monchoix—I am relieved from my nurse’s vow—Holidays—Saint-Malo—Gesril—Hervine Magon—Fight with two ship’s lads.

Four years ago, on my return from the Holy Land, I purchased near the little village of Aulnay, in the neighbourhood of Sceaux and Châtenay, a small country-house, lying hidden among wooded hills. The sandy and uneven ground attached to this house consisted of a sort of wild orchard, at the end of which was a ravine and a coppice of chestnut-trees. This narrow space seemed to me fitted to contain my long hopes: spatio brevi spem longam reseces. The trees which I have planted here are thriving. They are still so small that I can shade them by placing myself between them and the sun. One day they will give me shade and protect my old age as I have protected their youth. I have selected them, in so far as I could, from the different climes in which I have wandered; they recall my travels and foster other illusions in my heart.