s days in bed for lack of fuel. In England, he wrote his "Essai sur
les Revolutions," in which he compared the recent rising in France to that
of the English Commonwealth. On the fall of the Directorate he returned to
France, and became one of the editors of Fontaine's "Mercure de France." At
the opening of the Nineteenth Century he published "Atala," an episode of
his epic poem "Les Natchez," treating of the suicide of an Indian virgin,
who sought death rather than violate a solemn vow of chastity given to her
mother. In 1802 appeared the second episode, "Rene," a subjective story
treating of the hapless love of a sister for her brother, full of a French
form of _maladie du monde_ akin to Goethe's _Weltschmerz_ in the "Sorrows
of Werther." During the same year, Chateaubriand brought out his famous
"Genius of Christianity, or the Beauties of the Christian Religion," which
achieved an immense success. It won the approbation even of Napoleon, who
appointed Chateaubriand to diplomatic posts at Rome and Vallis. The
execution of the Duc d'Enghien was so horrifying to Chateaubriand that he
forthwith resigned his appointments. After extensive travels through
Greece, Egypt and the Holy Land, Chateaubriand went to Spain, where he
found inspiration at the Alhambra to write "Le dernier des Abencerrages."
There, too, he wrote his story of "The Martyrs, or the Triumph of the
Christian Religion," brought out in Paris in 1809. Less successful was his
tragedy "Moses." In 1810, Chateaubriand published the famous political
pamphlet "La Monarchie selon la Charte," which was made the basis of the
subsequent royal constitution of France. On the restoration of the Bourbons
he wrote another political pamphlet, directed against Bonaparte, which sent
him into exile together with Louis XVIII. during the Hundred Days. On the
return of Louis XVIII. he was made a member of State, a peer of France, and
member of the French Academy. In 1820 he was sent as ambassador to Berlin
and then to London, from where he was recalled into the Cabinet. Crowded
out of the Cabinet by Villele, he became one of the leaders of the
opposition. In 1828, he went on another diplomatic mission to Rome. The
rest of his life was uneventful. Shortly before his death he brought out
his complete works, including his latest "Etudes Historiques." A posthumous
work was his "Memoires d'Outre-Tombe," containing the famous comparison
between the characters of George Washington and Napole