received in a number of houses; notably that of lieutenant-general
the Comte de Schomberg, the inspector-general of cavalry, who,
recognising my father's worth, had him posted to his regiment of
dragoons as captain, and took him as his aide-de-camp.

On the death of my grandfather my father was still unmarried, and
his fortune, as well as his place in the Royal Bodyguard, put him in
a position to choose a wife, without the likelihood of being refused.

There lived at that time, in the Château de Laval de Cère, about
a league from Larivière, a family of noble rank but without much
money, named de Certain. The head of this house was stricken by gout
and so his affairs were managed by Madame de Certain, an admirable
woman, who came from the noble family of de Verdal, who claim to have
Saint Roch amongst the kinsfolk of their ancestors on the distaff
side, a Verdal, so they say, having married a sister of the Saint at
Montpellier. I do not know how much truth there is in this claim,
but before the Revolution of 1789, there was, at the gateway of the
old château of Gruniac, owned by the de Verdals, a stone bench, which
was greatly venerated by the inhabitants of the nearby mountains,
because, according to tradition, St. Roch, when he came to visit his
sister, used to sit on this bench, from where one can view the
countryside, which one cannot do from the château, which is a sort of
fortress of the gloomiest kind.

The de Certains had three sons and a daughter, and as was the
custom at that time they added to their family name that of some
estate. Thus the eldest son was given the name Canrobert: this
eldest son was, at the time of which I write, Chevalier de St. Louis
and a captain in the infantry regiment of Penthièvre; the second son