In the meantime there assembled at Verona a Congress composed of nearly all the sovereigns of Europe, with their representatives,—­as brilliant an assemblage as that at Vienna a few years before.  It met not to put down a great conqueror, but to suppress revolutionary ideas and movements, which were beginning to break out in various countries in Europe, especially in Italy and Spain.  To this Congress was sent, as one of the representatives of France, Chateaubriand, who on its assembling was ambassador at London.  He was, however, weary of English life and society; he did not like the climate with its interminable fogs; he was not received by the higher aristocracy with the cordiality he expected, and seemed to be intimate with no one but Canning, whose conversion to liberal views had not then taken place.

In France, the ministry of the Duc de Richelieu had been succeeded by that of Villele as president of the Council, in which M. Matthieu de Montmorency was minister of foreign affairs,—­member of a most illustrious house, and one of the finest characters that ever adorned an exalted station.  Between Montmorency and Chateaubriand there existed the most intimate and affectionate friendship, and it was at the urgent solicitation of the former that Chateaubriand was recalled from London and sent with Montmorency to Verona, where he had a wider scope for his ambition.

Chateaubriand was most graciously received by the Czar Alexander and by Metternich, the latter at that time in the height of his power and glory.  Alexander flattered Chateaubriand as a hero of humanity and a religious philosopher; while Metternich received him as the apostle of conservatism.

The particular subject which occupied the attention of the Congress was, whether the great Powers should intervene in the internal affairs of Spain, then agitated by revolution.  King Ferdinand, who was restored to his throne after the forced abdication of Joseph Bonaparte, had broken the Constitution of 1812, which he had sworn to defend, and outraged his subjects by cruelties equalled only by those of that other Bourbon who reigned at Naples.  In consequence, his subjects had rebelled, and sought to secure their liberties.  This rebellion disturbed all Europe, and the great Powers, with the exception of England,—­ruled virtually by Canning, the foreign minister,—­resolved on an armed intervention to suppress the popular revolution.  Chateaubriand used all his influence in favor of intervention; and so did Montmorency.  They even exceeded the instructions of the king and Villele the prime minister, who wished to avoid a war with Spain; they acted as the representatives of the Holy Alliance rather than as ambassadors of France.  The Congress committed Russia, Austria, and Prussia to hostile interference, in case the king of France should be driven into war,—­a course which Wellington disapproved, and which he urged Louis XVIII. to refrain from.  In consequence,