Note 24 — BOOK V
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
This reply to the swallow was written long before 1833. The Comte de Marcellus relates, in Chateaubriand et son temps, how, in the summer of 1822, he was walking with the Ambassador in Kensington Gardens. Chateaubriand told him how, early that same morning, he had imagined that he heard a swallow twittering outside his window. He looked and saw a smoke and soot-blackened sparrow which might almost be mistaken for a swallow; and he set himself to hold an imaginary conversation with the swallow disguised as a sparrow. He handed Marcellus a paper covered with the words which he had addressed to it and which he had written down so soon as the light permitted. They correspond literally with the above speech.
Marcellus goes on to say that he clapped his hands with delight at reading this inspiration in the manner of the ancients, until, at the end of the paper and as though at the end of his enthusiasm, he began to smile:
"'What is it?' asked the poet, alarmed. 'Some slip?'
'Oh no,' I replied; 'only that "I live on little" troubles me, although it suits the passage so admirably.'
"'Well?' asked M. de Chateaubriand, with a certain animation.
"'Why, have you so soon forgotten that the Duke of York is dining with you to-night and that yesterday we drew up together, under the dictation of our famous Montmirel, the fabric of the most splendid banquet that ever perfumed the kitchens and honoured the annals of diplomacy?'
"M. de Chateaubriand replied:
"'Ah, you are right; I did not think of that this morning.'"—B.