un corps piqué, * a quilted corset

1. 35. un Caton, 'a Cato.' Cato the Elder or the Censor (234- 145 b.c.) was the Roman type of uprightness and austerity.

Page 13. 1. 3. la faute de langue, à qui should be que, but que would make the mètre wrong.

1. 8. achore. Chateaubriand gives the word as it should be spelt. It is a French version of the Greek word «x«»p- It means ' scurf.'

1. 13. le mont Saint-Michel is a rocky island 242 feet high in

the Bay of Saint Michel in Normandy. It rises precipitously from the sands of the bay and ia crowned by the famous Bénédictine monastery and church which hâve been recently restored by the French government. Hère, in the Salle des Chevaliers, a chapter of the order which had been founded at Amboise in 1469 by Louis XI met annually on Michaelmas Eve. After having been a State prison, it was restored to ecclesiastical uses in 1863, and finally reappropriated by the State in 1874 and declared a monument historicité.

1. 25. où sera mon tombeau. Chateaubriand's wish was realized. Through the intervention of his friends and the Municipal Council of St. Malo, permission was obtained during his lifetime for the burial of his remains on the little islandof Grand- Bé — a barren rock close to the ramparts of his native town. During the summer months children play and tourists wander round Chateaubriand's romantic grave which is easily reached at low water across a narrow strip of sand. It consista of a single slab of stone surrounded by an iron railing, almost eaten through by the spray of the Atlantic rollers.

Page 14. 1. 4. afin d'être relevée du vœu de ma nourrice, ' in order to be released from the vow of my foster-mother.' Chateaubriand had presumably been dedicated by his foster-mother to the Virgin in case she succeeded in rearing him. A description of this ritual is given on p. 17.