1 84 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



devotion which compels her to quietly and modestly 

 withdraw. 



All this, Chateaubriand understood, and accepted 

 without protest, when he granted to the cat her 

 freedom, and proclaimed himself the least exacting 

 of her lovers. Even the mysterious nature of her 

 past history allured rather than repelled him. He 

 it is who tells us the fantastic story of Count Com- 

 bourg's wooden leg, which, three hundred years 

 after its owner's death, was wont to walk abroad 

 on its own account, accompanied by a great black 

 cat. When the moon waned, and sleepers woke 

 trembling with the terrors of the night, they heard 

 this leg hop slowly down the winding turret stairs, 

 and they knew that, stealing before it in the dark- 

 ness, crept the cat, with tail erect, and eyes of lam- 

 bent flame. It would not have been a pleasant 

 thing to meet that little phantom, guarding its imp- 

 ish prize. 



The " Memoires d'outre Tombe " contain some 

 charming allusions to the many cats whom Chateau- 

 briand loved and lost. Through all the vicissitudes 

 of his changeful life, they were his solace, his diver- 

 sion, his delight. The dreary days of his English 

 exile were brightened and softened by the com- 

 panionship of two beautiful pussies, " white as 

 ermines, with black tips to their tails ; " — pussies 

 who possessed — or so at least the desolate French- 



