id her devotion. He admired and perhaps loved her, as well as he was
capable of loving anybody but himself, but it was not until
disappointments had sobered him that he fully appreciated her worth. At
the time their intimacy commenced he was the pet and favorite of the
whole French nation. "The Genius of Christianity" had been received with
acclamations by a people just recovering from the wild skepticism of the
Revolution. The reaction had taken place, the Goddess of Reason was
dethroned, and the burning words and vivid eloquence of Chateaubriand
appealed at once to the heart and the imagination of his countrymen.
They did not criticise, they only admired. Politically he was also a
rising man. The world, or at least the French world, expected great
things from the writer of the pamphlet, "De Buonaparte et des Bourbons."
His manners were courtly and distinguished, and women especially
flattered and courted him. Their attentions fostered his natural vanity,
and his fancy, if not his heart, wandered from Madame Recamier, and she
knew it. The tables were turned: she who had been so passionately
beloved was now to feel some of the pangs she had all her life been
unconsciously inflicting. Wounded and jealous, she stooped to
reproaches. The following extracts from letters addressed to her by
Chateaubriand while he was ambassador at London clearly betray the state
of her mind.

"I will not ask you again for an explanation, since you will not
give it. I have written you by the last courier a letter which
ought to content you, if you still love me."

* * * * *

"Do not delude yourself with the idea that you can fly from me. I
will seek you everywhere. But if I go to the Congress, it will be
an occasion to put you to the proof. I shall see then if you keep
your promises."

* * * * *

"_Allons_,--I much prefer to understand your folly than to read
mysterious and angry notes. I comprehend now, or at least I think
I do. It is apparently that woman of whom the friend of the Queen
of Sweden has spoken to you. But, tell me, have I the means to
prevent Vernet, Mademoiselle Levert, who writes me declarations,
and thirty _artistes_, men and women, from coming to England in
order to get money? And if I have been culpable, do you think that
such fancies can do you the least injury, or take from you
anything whi