BOOK I

Birth of my brothers and sisters--My own birth--Plancoët--I am vowed--Combourg--My father's scheme of education for me--Villeneuve--Lucile--Mesdemoiselles Couppart--I am a bad pupil--The life led by my maternal grandmother and her sister at Plancoët--My uncle, the Comte de Bedée, at Monchoix--I am relieved from my nurse's vow--Holidays--Saint-Malo--Gesril--Hervine Magon--Fight with two ship's lads