YALE AND EUROPE -1850-1857 37 



boise, and Angers, the tombs of the Angevine kings at 

 Fontevrault, and the stone cottage of Louis XI at Clery. 

 Visiting the grave of Chateaubriand at St. Malo, we met 

 a little old gentleman, bent with age, but very brisk and 

 chatty. He was standing with a party of friends on one 

 side of the tomb, while we stood on the other. Presently, 

 one of the gentlemen in his company came over and asked 

 our names, saying that his aged companion was a great 

 admirer of Chateaubriand, and was anxious to know some- 

 thing of his fellow pilgrims. To this I made answer, when 

 my interlocutor informed me that the old gentleman was 

 the Prince de Rohan-Soubise. Shortly afterward the old 

 gentleman came round to us and began conversation, and 

 on my making answer in a way which showed that I knew 

 his title, he turned rather sharply on me and said, "How 

 do you know that?" To this I made answer that even 

 in America we had heard the verse : 



" Roi, je ne puis, 

 Prince ne daigne, 

 Rohan je suis." 



At this he seemed greatly pleased, grasped my hand, and 

 launched at once into extended conversation. His great 

 anxiety was to know who was to be the future king of 

 our Republic, and he asked especially whether Washington 

 had left any direct descendants. On my answering in the 

 negative, he insisted that we would have to find some de- 

 scendant in the collateral line, "for," said he, "you can't 

 escape it; no nation can get along for any considerable 

 time without a monarch. ' ' 



Returning to Paris I resumed my studies, and, at the 

 request of Mr. Randall, the biographer of Jefferson, 

 made some search in the French archives for correspon- 

 dence between Jefferson and Robespierre, search made 

 rather to put an end to calumny than for any other 

 purpose. 



At the close of this stay in France, by the kindness of 



