rants, and pass the
remainder of my life near you in perfect repose."[19]

M. de Chateaubriand was not called to enjoy this haughty vengeance, or
to exhibit such a demonstration of generosity. While he still dreamed of
it in the Pyrenees, whither he had repaired to rest from the labours of
the Conclave which gave Pius VIII. as successor to Leo X., the
Prince de Polignac, brought over from London by the King, arrived in
Paris on the 27th of July; and on the 9th of August, eight days after
the closing of the session, his Cabinet was officially announced in the
'Moniteur.' What course would he propose to himself? What measures would
he adopt? No one could tell; not even M. de Polignac and the King
themselves any more than the public. But Charles X. had hoisted upon the
Tuileries the flag of the Counter-Revolution.

Politics soon became the absorbing consideration of every mind. From all
quarters a fierce struggle was foreseen in the approaching session; all
parties hastened to congregate beforehand round the scene of action,
seeking to draw some anticipation as to what would occur, and how to
secure a place. On the 19th of October, 1829, the death of the learned
chemist, M. Vauquelin, left open a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, in
which he had represented the division of Lisieux and Pont-l'Eveque,
which formed the fourth electoral district in the department of
Calvados. Several influential persons of the country proposed to
substitute me in his place. I had never inhabited or even visited that
province. I had no property there of any kind. But since 1820, my
political writings and lectures had given popularity to my name. The
young portions of the community were everywhere favourably disposed
towards me. The Moderates and active Liberals mutually looked to me to
defend them, and their cause, should occasion arrive. As soon as the
proposition became known at Lisieux and Pont-l'Eveque, it was cordially
received. All the different shades of the Opposition, M. de La Fayette
and M. de Chateaubriand, M. Dupont de l'Eure and the Duke de Broglie,
M. Odillon Barrot and M. Bertin de Veaux, seconded my candidateship.
Absent, but supported by a strong display of opinion in the district, I
was elected on the 23rd of February, 1830, by a large majority.

At the same moment M. Berryer, whose age, as in my own case, had until
then excluded him from the Chamber of Deputies, was elected by the
department of the Higher Loire, where a seat