must be at once capable of inspiration and action-the onc conceives, the other executes. "Buonaparte saw me, and knew me I know not how. When he moved toward me, it was not known whom he sought. The crowd opened, every one hoped the First Consul would stop to converse with him; his air showed that he was irritated at these mistakes. I retired behind those around me. Buonaparte suddenly raised his voice, and called out, Monsieur de Chateaubriand!' I then remained alone, in front; for the crowd instantly retired, and re-formed, in a circle, around us. Buonaparte addressed me with simplicity, without questions, preamble, or compliments. He began speaking about Egypt and the Arabs, as if I had been his intimate friend, and he had only resumed a conversation already commenced betwixt us. I was always struck,' said he,' when I saw the Scheiks fall on their knees in the desert, turn toward the east, and touch the sand with their foreheads. What is that unknown thing which they adore in the east? Speedily, then, passing to another idea, he said, Christianity! the Idealogues wished to reduce it to a system of astronomy! Suppose it were so; do they suppose they would render Christianity little? Were Christianity only an allegory of the movement of the spheres, the geometry of the stars, the esprits forts would have little to say; despite themselves, they have left sufficient grandeur to l'Infame.** 66 Buonaparte immediately withdrew. Like Job in the night, I felt as if a spirit had passed before me; the hairs of my flesh stood up. I did not know its countenance; but I heard its voice like a little whisper. "My days have been an uninterrupted succession of visions. Hell and heaven continually have opened under my feet, or over my head, without my having had time to sound their depths or withstand their dazzling. I have met once, and once only, on the shores of the two worlds, the man of the last age, and the man of the new- -Washington and Napoleon-I conversed a few moments with each-both sent me back to solitude--the first by a kind wish, the second by an execrable crime. "I remarked, that, in moving through the crowd, Buonaparte cast on me looks more steady and penetrating than he had done before he addressed me. I followed him with my eyes. Who is that great man who cares not For conflagrations ?"-(Vol. iv. 118–121.) This passage conveys a just idea of Chateaubriand's Memoirs: his elevation of mind, his ardent imagination, his deplorable vanity. In justice to so eminent a man, however, we transcribe a passage in which the nobleness of his character appears in its true lustre, *Alluding to the name t'Infame, given by the King of Prussia, D'Alembert, and Diderot, in their correspondences, to the Christian religion. + Dante. untarnished by the weaknesses which so often disfigure the character of men of genius. We allude to his courageous throwing down the gauntlet to Napoleon, on occasion of the murder of the Duke d'Enghien: "Two days before the fatal 20th March, I dressed myself, before taking leave of Buonaparte, on my way to the Valais, to which I had received a diplomatic mission; I had not seen him since the time when he had spoken to me at the Tuileries. The gallery where the reception was going on was full; he was accompanied by Murat and his aid-de-camp. When he approached me, I was struck with an alteration in his countenance; his cheeks were fallen in, of a livid hue; his eyes stern; his color pale; his air sombre and terrible. The attraction which had formerly drawn me toward him was at an end; instead of awaiting, I fled his approach. He cast a look toward me, as if he sought to recognize me, moved a few steps toward me, turned, and disappeared. Returned to the Hotel de France, I said to several of my friends, Something strange, which I do not know, must have happened: Buonaparte could not have changed to such a degree unless he had been ill.' Two days after, at eleven in the forenoon, I heard a man cry in the streets- Sentence of the military commission convoked at Vincennes, which has condemned to the pain of DEATH Louis Antoine Heuri de Bourbon, born 2d August, 1772, at Chantilly.' That cry fell on me like a clap of thunder; it changed my life as it changed that of Napoleon. I returned home, and said to Madame de Chateaubriand, The Duke d'Enghien has just been shot.' I sat down to a table, and began to write my resignation-Madame de Chateaubriand made no opposition: she had a great deal of courage. She was fully aware of my danger: the trial of Moreau and Georges Cadoudal was going on; the lion had tasted blood; it was not the moment to irritate him."-(Vol. iv., 228–229.) After this honorable step, which happily passed without leading to Chateaubriand's being shot, he traveled to the East, where he visited Greece, Constantinople, the Holy Land, and Egypt, and collected the materials which have formed two of his most celebrated works, L'Itinéraire à Jerusalem, and Les Martyrs. He returned to France, but did not appear in public life till the Allies conquered Paris, in 1814, where he composed, with extraordinary rapidity, his famous pamphlet entitled Buonaparte and the Bourbons, which had so powerful an effect in bringing about the Restoration. The royalists were now in power, and Chateaubriand was too important a man to be overlooked. In 1821 he was sent as ambassador to London, the scene of his former penury and suffering; in 1823 he was made Minister of Foreign Af fairs, and, in that capacity, projected, and with the reflections of a mind of great successfully carried through, the expedition power, ardent imagination, and extensive to Spain which reseated Ferdinand on the erudition. His autobiography, or Mémoires throne of his ancestors; and he was after-d'Outre Tombe, as it is called, was accordward the plenipotentiary of France at the Congress of Verona, in 1824. He was too liberal a man to be employed by the administration of Charles X., but he exhibited an honorable constancy to misfortune on occasion of the revolution of 1830. He was offered the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, if he would abstain from opposition; but he refused the proposal, made a last noble and eloquent speech in favor of his dethroned sovereign, in the Chamber of Peers; and, withdrawing into privacy, lived in retirement, engaged in literary pursuits, and in the composition or revising of his numerous publications, till his death, which occurred in June, 1848. Such a life, of such a man, cannot be other than interesting, for it unites the greatest possible range and variety of events ingly looked for, with great interest, which has not been sensibly diminished by the revolution of 1848, which has brought a new set of political actors on the stage. Four volumes only have hitherto been published, but the rest may speedily be looked for, now that the military government of Prince Louis Napoleon has terminated that of anarchy in France. The three first volumes certainly disappointed us; chiefly from the perpetual and offensive vanity which they exhibited, and the number of details, many of them of a puerile or trifling character, which they contained. The fourth volume, however, from which the preceding extracts have been taken, exhibits Chateaubriand, in many places, in his original vigor; and, if the succeeding ones are of the same stamp, we propose to return to them. From the Literary Gazette. COME, KISS ME AND BE FRIENDS. I. LISETTE, put off that angry look, I cannot bear to see A cloud upon that face whereon sweet smiles were wont to be; II. Oh! think how many changing years have come and pass'd away, And thou! thou wilt not say me nay-Come, kiss me and be friends! III. The world is but a dreary place-a dreary place wherein A blighted heart will little find that's worth its pains to win; Its thraldom o'er the human heart—Come, kiss me and be friends! IV. How fair a sight is it to see (when summer days draw nigh) From Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. RECOLLECTIONS OF A POLICE-OFFICER. THE GAMING-HOUSE. A LITTLE more than a year after the period, when adverse circumstances-chiefly the result of my own reckless follies-compelled me to enter the ranks of the metropolitan police, as the sole means left me of procuring food and raiment, the attention of one of the principal chiefs of the force was attracted toward me by the ingenuity and boldness which I was supposed to have manifested in hitting upon and unraveling a clue which ultimately led to the detection and punishment of the perpetrators of an artisticallycontrived fraud upon an eminent tradesman of the west end of London. The chief sent for me; and after a somewhat lengthened conversation, not only expressed approbation of my conduct in the particular matter under discussion, but hinted that he might shortly need my services in other affairs requiring intelligence and resolution. "I think I have met you before," he remarked, with a meaning smile on dismissing me, "when you occupied a different position from your present one? Do not alarm yourself: I have no wish to pry unnecessarily into other men's secrets. Waters is a name common enough in all ranks of society, and I may, you know"-here the cold smile deepened in ironical expression-"be mistaken. At all events, the testimony of the gentleman whose recommendation obtained you admission to the force-I have looked into the matter since I heard of your behavior in the late business-is a sufficient guarantee that nothing more serious than imprudence and folly can be laid to your charge. I have neither right nor inclination to inquire further. To-morrow, in all probability, I shall send for you." I came to the conclusion, as I walked homeward, that the chief's intimation of having previously met me in another sphere of life was a random and unfounded one, as I had seldom visited London in my prosperous days, and still more rarely mingled in its society. My wife, however, to whom I of course related the substance of the conversation, reminded me that he had once been at Doncaster during the races; and suggested that he might possibly have seen and noticed me there. This was a sufficiently probable explanation of the hint; but whether the correct one or not, I cannot decide, as he never afterward alluded to the subject, and I had not the slightest wish to renew it. Three days elapsed before I received the expected summons. On waiting on him, I was agreeably startled to find that I was to be at once employed on a mission which the most sagacious and experienced of detectiveofficers would have felt honored to under take. "Here is a written description of the persons of this gang of blacklegs, swindlers, and forgers," concluded the commissioner, summing up his instructions. "It will be your object to discover their private haunts, and secure legal evidence of their nefarious practices. We have been hitherto baffled, principally, I think, through the too hasty zeal of the officers employed: you must especially avoid that error. They are practiced scoundrels; and it will require considerable patience, as well as acumen, to unkennel and bring them to justice. One of their more recent victims is young Mr. Merton, son, by a former marriage, of the Dowager Lady Everton. Her ladyship has applied to us for assistance in extricating him from the toils in which he is meshed. You will call on her at five o'clock this afternoon-in plain clothes of course-and obtain whatever information on the subject she may be able to afford. Remember to communicate directly with me; and any assistance you may require shall be promptly rendered." With these, and a few other minor directions, needless to recapitulate, I was dismissed to a task which, difficult and possibly perilous as it might prove, I hailed as a delightful relief from the wearing monotony and dull routine of ordinary duty. right robbery-had set in against him, and he had not only dissipated all the ready money which he had inherited, and the large sums which the foolish indulgence of his lady-mother had supplied h m with, but had involved himself in bonds, bills, and other obligations to a frightful amount. The principal agent in effecting this ruin was one Sandford-a man of fashionable and dashing exterior, and the presiding spirit of the knot of desperadoes whom I was commissioned to hunt out. Strange to say, Mr. Merton had the blindest reliance upon this man's honor; and even now-tricked, despoiled as he had been by him and his gang-relied upon his counsel and assistance for escape from the desperate position in which he was involved. The Everton estates had passed, in default of male issue, to a distant relative of the late I hastened home; and after dressing with great care the best part of my wardrobe had been fortunately saved by Emily from the wreck of my fortunes-I proceeded to Lady Everton's mansion. I was immediately marshaled to the drawing-room, where I found her ladyship and her daughter-a beautiful, fairy-looking girl-awaiting my ar-1 rd; so that ruin, absolute and irremediable, rival. Lady Everton appeared greatly surprised at my appearance, differing, as I dare say it altogether did, from her abstract idea of a policeman, however attired or disguised; and it was not till she had perused the note of which I was the bearer, that her haughty and incredulous stare became mitigated to a glance of lofty condescendent civility. 66 stared both the wretched dupe and his relatives in the face. Lady Everton's jointure was not a very large one, and her son had been permitted to squander sums which should have been devoted to the discharge of claims which were now pressed harshly against her. I listened with the deepest interest to Lady Everton's narrative. Repeatedly during the 'Be seated, Mr. Waters," said her lady-course of it, as she incidentally alluded to the ship, waving me to a chair. "This note informs me that you have been selected for the duty of endeavoring to extricate my son from the perilous entanglements in which he has unhappily involved himself." manners and appearance of Sandford, who I was about to reply-for I was silly enough to feel somewhat nettled at the noble lady's haughtiness of manner that I was engaged in the public service of extirpating a gang of swindlers with whom her son had involved himself, and was there to procure from her ladyship any information she might be possessed of likely to forward so desirable a result; but fortunately the remembrance of my actual position, spite of my gentleman's attire, flashed vividly upon my mind; and instead of permitting my glib tongue to wag irreverently in the presence of a right honorable, I bowed with deferential acquiescence. Her ladyship proceeded, and I in sub- "If it should be he!" thought I, as I stance obtained the following information :— emerged into the street. The bare suspicion Mr. Charles Merton, during the few months had sent the blood through my veins with which had elapsed since the attainment of his furious violence. "If this Sandford be, as I majority, had very literally "fallen amongst suspect, that villain Cardon, success will inthieves." A passion for gambling seemed deed be triumph-victory! Lady Everton to have taken entire possession of his being; need not in that case seek to animate my zeal and almost every day, as well as night, of by promises of money recompense. A blighthis haggard and feverish life was passed at ed existence, a young and gentle wife by his play. A run of ill-luck, according to his means cast down from opulence to sordid own belief-but in very truth a run of down-penury, would stimulate the dullest craven that ever crawled the earth to energy and Passgrove is dead!" interrupted my old action. Pray Heaven my suspicion prove acquaintance, eagerly jumping to a conclucorrect; and then, oh mine enemy, look well sion, "and you are his heir! I congratulate to yourself, for the avenger is at your heels!" you, my dear fellow. This is indeed a charmSandford, I had been instructed, wasing 'reverse of circumstances.' usually present at the Italian Opera during the ballet: the box he generally occupied was designated in the memoranda of the police and as I saw by the bills that a very successful piece was to be performed that evening, I determined on being present. "Yes; but mind I have given up the old game. No more dice-devilry for me. I have promised Emily never even to touch a card again." The cold, hard eye of the incarnate fiend-he was little else-gleamed mockingly as these "good intentions" of a practiced gamester fell upon his ear; but he only replied, "Very good; quite right, my dear boy. But come, let me introduce you to Mr. Merton, a By the by, Waters," he added, in a caressing, "Yes: do not forget. But allons, or the ballet will be over.' I entered the house a few minutes past ten o'clock, just after the commencement of the ballet, and looked eagerly round. The box in which I was instructed to seek my man was empty. The momentary disap-highly-connected personage, I assure you. pointment was soon repaid. Five minutes had not elapsed when Cardon, looking more insolently-triumphant than ever, entered armin-arm with a pale, aristocratic-looking young man, whom I had no difficulty, from his striking resemblance to a portrait in Lady Everton's drawing-room, in deciding to be Mr. Merton. My course of action was at I was introduced in due form to Mr. Meronce determined on. Pausing only to mas- ton as an old and esteemed friend, whom he ter the emotion which the sight of the glit--Sandford-had not seen for many months. tering reptile in whose poisonous folds I had been involved and crushed inspired, I passed to the opposite side of the house, and boldly entered the box. Cardon's back was toward me, and I tapped him lightly on the shoulder. He turned quickly round; and if a basilisk had confronted him, he could scarcely have exhibited greater terror and surprise. My aspect, nevertheless, was studiously bland and conciliating, and my outstretched hand seemed to invite a renewal of our old friendship. "Waters!" he at last stammered, feebly accepting my proffered grasp-" who would have thought of meeting you here?" "Not you, certainly, since you stare at an old friend as if he were some frightful goblin about to swallow you. Really-" "Hush! Let us speak together in the lobby. An old friend," he added, in answer to Mr. Merton's surprised stare. 'We will return in an instant.' 66 "Why, what is all this, Waters?" said Cardon, recovering his wonted sang froid the instant we were alone. "I understood you had retired from amongst us; were in factwhat shall I say?". "Ruined-done up! Nobody should know that better than you." "My good fellow, you do not imagine-" "I imagine nothing, my dear Cardon. I was very thoroughly done-done brown, as it is written in the vulgar tongue. But fortunately my kind old uncle-" At the conclusion of the ballet, Sandford proposed that we should adjourn to the European Coffee-house, nearly opposite. This was agreed to, and out we sallied. At the top of the staircase we jostled against the commissioner, who, like us, was leaving the house. He bowed slightly to Mr. Merton's apology, and his eye wandered briefly and coldly over our persons; but not the faintest sign of interest or recognition escaped him. I thought it possible he did not know me in my changed apparel; but looking back after descending a few steps, I was quickly undeceived. A sharp, swift glance, expressive both of encouragement and surprise, shot out from under his penthouse brows, and as swiftly vanished. He did not know how little I needed spurring to the goal we had both in view! We discussed two or three bottles of wine with much gayety and relish. Sandford especially was in exuberant spirits; brimming over with brilliant anecdote and sparkling badinage. He saw in me a fresh, rich prey, and his eager spirit reveled by anticipation in the victory which he nothing doubted to obtain over my "excellent intentions and wife-pledged virtue.' About half-past 12 o'clock he proposed to adjourn. This was eagerly assented to by Mr. Merton, who had for some time exhibited unmistakable symptoms of impatience and unrest. "You will accompany us, Waters ?" said |