it good to have Macdonald watched, and There were other marshals besides he appears to have suspected at one time | Macdonald who had reasons to complain that the hero of Otricoli contemplated of Napoleon; Victor's hatred of him was taking service in the English army. That very lively, and arose out of a practical overtures were made to Macdonald from Pitt is very probable, but the truth of the matter can never be known, because there is no government that conducts negotiations of this sort with such perfect prudence and secrecy as the British besides which, we have had no revolution here to set all our public men by the ears flinging State archives at one another in party recrimination. Macdonald would have been more justified in returning to serve in the land of his fathers than Moreau was in taking service under Russia; but it was contrary to his nature ever to dream of such a thing. He knew that his gardener was a spy, but kept this knowledge to himself, and it was not till years afterwards, when he was grand chancellor of the Legion of Honor under the Bourbons, that the man's name coming before him to be gazetted as member of the order "for an act of civic courage,' he sent for him and put some questions to him. The man stammered some apologies for his former profession. Nay," said Macdonald kindly, "you did me good service if you sent in truthful reports; but I should like to know what you are doing now before I countersign your ap-in French, Bellune. It was not until pointment as a knight; after all, my friend, your business is not a chivalrous one." 66 joke. Victor was the vainest of men; he had entered Louis XVI.'s service at fif teen as a drummer, but when he became an officer under the republic he was weak enough to be ashamed of his humble origin and assumed his Christian name of Victor as a surname instead of his patronymic of Perrin. He might have pleaded, to be sure, that Victor was a name of happy augury to a soldier, but he does not appear to have behaved well towards his Perrin connections. He was a little man with a waist like a pumpkin, and a round, rosy, jolly face, which had caused him to be nicknamed Beau Soleil. A temperate fondness for red wine added occasionally to the lustre of his complexion. He was not a general of the first order, but brave and faithful in carrying out his master's plans; he had an honorable share in the victory of Friedland, and after this battle was promoted to the marshalate and to a dukedom. Now Victor would have liked to be made Duke of Marengo; * but Napoleon's sister Pauline suggested that his services in the two Italian wars could be commemorated as well by the title of Belluno pronounced after Napoleon had innocently acceded to this suggestion that he learnt his facetious sister had in choosing the title of Bellune (Belle Lune) played upon the sobriquet of Beau Soleil. He was at first highly displeased at this, but Victor himself took the joke so very badly that the emperor ended by joining in the laughter, and said that if the marshal did not like the title that had been given him, he should have no other. Wounds in vanity seldom heal, and Victor, as soon as he could safely exhibit his resentment, showed himself one of Napoleon's bitterest enemies. During the hundred days he accompanied Louis XVIII. to Ghent, and he figured in full uniform at the Te Deum celebrated in the cathedral of Saint Bavon in honor of Waterloo. In the upshot the ex-spy received a lump of money instead of the cross of honor an arrangement which probably suited him quite as well. Doubtless his reports about his old master had been truthful enough, for Macdonald was given a command at the battle of Wagram in 1809, and for his share of this victory got his bâton and the dukedom of Tarento. Napoleon, however, never forgave him from his heart, and could not forbear triumphing over him with an ill-natured allusion to Pami Moreau, after the latter had been killed in Alexander 1.'s service. Macdonald on his side felt absolved from all allegiance to Napoleon after the abdication at Fontainebleau, and he was not one of those who joined the emperor during the hundred days, although he had a personal interview with the emperor at the titles of them upon any of his soldiers, but he gave Lyons. * Mr. Fox, speaking on the disabilities of Roman Catholics, made use of this expression: "They have deprived us of men like General Macdonald, many of whom might return and place their talents at the king's service, if the stigma were removed from their religion." Napoleon regarded Marengo and Austerlitz as two victories specially his own, and he would never confer the name De Marengo to an officer named Capponi, who had fought heroically in that battle. Addressing the officer, who lay wounded on the field, Bonaparte asked him his name; and having heard it, exclaimed: Capponi (capon) is no name for a bird of your sort, you shall be called Marengo." This officer was invalided when he had reached the grade of colonel; but he has living descendants who bear the name that was given him on the battle-field. 1 Marshal Jourdan's dislike of Napoleon | can liberty cannot be remembered with was an old feeling which dated from the much sympathy, when it is borne in mind days of the republic. Jourdan was born that he subsequently became an impein 1762, and went out to America when rial marshal, a senator and count, then a quite a boy to serve under Lafayette. He peer of France under the restoration, and came back full of republican notions, and finally governor of the Invalides under was elected in 1791 to the colonelship of Louis Philippe. Jourdan served all gov a battalion of volunteers. He was an ernments without giving a heartfelt loyhonest, prosy, pushing man, with a large alty to any; he was one of those Frenchnose, which he stroked in conversation men- and they are too common - who fly till it glowed, for he was a long-winded principles inflated like big balloons when talker. His soldiers bore him more re- there is anything to be gained by the disspect than affection, for though he was play, but who cannot find enough of the lenient in his punishments, he would balloon silk to make a party cockade of, scold delinquents in long, pompous peri- when that cockade becomes compromisods till there was no spirit left in them. ing. He was one of those Frenchmen who A man like him in versatility, but not always prefaced their remarks by saying: in general character, was Augereau, Duc "Shall I tell you what I did, or am going de Castiglione. Augereau was of all the to do?" Walter Scott meeting such a marshals the one in whom there is least one, used to relate how he had got from to admire; yet he was for a time the most him a valuable recipe for weakening coffee popular among the marshals, having been that was too strong: "Voulez-vous que born in Paris and possessing the devilje vous dise ce que je fais quand mon may-care impudence of Parisians. He café est trop fort? . Eh bien! j'y was the son of a mason and of a street mets un peu d'eau." Official people hated fruit-vendor, and he began life as apprenJourdan because he had always reforms to tice to his father's trade; but he soon left propose - excellent, well-considered re-it to become a footman in the Marquis de forms, of which he carried all the details Bassompierre's household. Losing his carefully drafted on rolls of paper which situation for excess of gallantry towards bulged out of the tails of his coat. His his mistress's maid, he took service as a fingers were generally smeared with ink, waiter at the Café de Valois, one of the which made Murat say that he fought all gambling-houses of the Palais Royal; but his battles on paper, which was true in a here again he made too free with some manner, for he was a first-rate military damsel connected with the establishment, administrator, and never went into action and was literally kicked out. On the day without having thought of all the minutia when this misadventure befell him he enof war. There is a story of his going the listed, and soon proved a capital soldier; round of the cantinières' carts before the but his character was only good in the battle of Fleurus, and vexing the souls of military sense. Drinker, gamester, swag. those ladies by his inquisition into their gerer, swearer, puellis idoneus, a darkbarrels and bottles. One of them thought eyed jackanapes of a fellow, who cocked to mollify him by uncorking a bottle of his hat and twirled his moustache, he Chambertin in his honor; but he waved seemed to have nothing about him, except the insidious beverage away, and improved bravery, to mark him out for future disthe occasion by delivering an interminable tinction. He had that regard for truth harangue against luxury, saying that a which is shown by keeping at a respecful general ought to drink no better wine distance from it; and no Gascon ever than his soldiers. When he had finished, blew his own trumpet with such cool and a tall drum-major raised a laugh by ex- noisy persistency. He was thirty-two claiming: "Who is to drink the good when the Revolution broke out, and was wine then? Hand me the bottle." Jour- then wearing a sergeant's chevrons; in dan was elected to the Council of Five the following year he got a commission; in Hundred under the Directorate, and was 1793 he was a colonel; in 1795 a general. the originator of the law which regulated His rapid promotion was not won by valor the conscription, and which with occa- only, but by sending to the War Office sional modifications remained in force for bombastic despatches in which he magnimore than seventy years. He naturally fied every achievement of his twenty-fold, disapproved of Bonaparte's coup d'état and related it with a rigmarole of patriat the 18th Brumaire, which swept him otic sentiments and compliments to the from his seat in the Assembly; but his Convention. There is a story of General garrulous protests on behalf of republi- Wolfe dining with Pitt before he set out for Canada. After dinner, being excited | night to the house of his favorite Jew by wine, he drew his sword and stamped receiver in the Rue Quincampoix. The about the room, spouting in such Homeric Jew was out, but his wife sat at the re style that Pitt was dismayed, and began ceipt of custom, and she at once proto doubt whether he was fit to hold announced that the jewels on the robe were important command. Augereau's talk and sham. "Ah! ces brigands de prêtres !". manner when he had to deal with civil exclaimed the disgusted general. "I will commissioners, deputies, and such people, allow you ten louis for the lace," continwere even more exuberant than those of ued the Jewess, and a bargain was conHomer's heroes; but during the Revolu- cluded on those terms; but some months tionary period Frenchmen's minds were afterwards Augereau ascertained beyond attuned to brag, and for a long time doubt that the jewels had been genuine, Augereau's valuation of himself was ac- and he went off in fury to make the Jewcepted without discount. Madame Tal- ess disgorge; she did nothing of the sort, lien used to say that with the exception but looking hard at him said, “We'll of Murat none of the new generals could have the jewels appraised in a court of march into a drawing-room with such an justice, if you like." The hero slunk out air of victorious self-possession as Auge- in that state of mind defined by La reau. At one time he wore his hair Fontaine: "Honteux comme un renard dressed in the Hussar fashion, in plaited qu'une poule aurait pris." tails weighted with cadenettes of lead, which fell over his forehead and the sides of his face, and must have made him look like a savage. Writing a vile hand, and without any knowledge of spelling, he used to get his despatches indited for him by educated subalterns; but in conversa tion, being a Parisian, he never perpetrated such deplorable cuirs and solecisms as his friend Masséna, whose semi-Italian jargon came upon Parisian ears like a nutmeg-grater. There was one great point of resemblance between Augereau and Masséna: they were both inveterate looters. In 1798 when Masséna was sent to Rome to establish a republic, his own soldiers were disgusted by the shameless way in which he plundered palaces and churches, and he actually had to resign his com mand owing to their murmurs. Augereau was a more wily spoiler, for he gave his men a good share of what he took, and kept another share for Parisian museums, but he always reserved enough for himself to make his soldiering a very profitable business. To his eternal disgrace, he robbed the châteaux of Breton noblemen during his campaign in the Vendée, and he stripped some village churches of relics which were their pride; but he was so ignorant of the value of things which he took, that he sold pictures, jewelry, and silver plate to Jews for anything that was offered him in ready money. Upon one occasion he was finely caught. Returning from Spain, he brought with him a robe, all encrusted with diamonds and rubies, which had been stripped from a statue of the Blessed Virgin in a Biscayan church. Rolling up this precious garment under his cloak, he went with it by It was politic of Napoleon to make of Augereau a marshal-duke, for apart from the man's intrepidity which was unquestionable (though he was a poor general), the honors conferred upon him were a compliment to the whole class of Parisian ouvriers. Augereau's mother, the costerwoman, lived to see him in all his glory, and he was good to her, for once, at a state pageant, when he was wearing the plumed hat of a senator, and the purple velvet mantle with its semis of golden bees, he gave her his arm in public. This incident delighted all the market women of Paris, and helped to make Napoleon's court popular; but in general respects Augereau proved an unprofitable, ungrate ful servant. He was one of the first marshals to grumble against his master's repeated campaigns, and he deserted him in 1814 under circumstances which looked suspicious. Napoleon accused him of having let himself be purposely beaten by the Allies. After the escape from Elba, Augereau first pronounced himself vehemently against the "usurper;" then proffered him his services, which were contemptuously spurned. The Duc de Castiglione's career ended then, for he retired to his estate at Houssaye, and died a year afterwards, little regretted by anybody. Masséna, who had been born the year after Augereau, died the year after him in 1817. He too had enlisted very young, but finding he could get no promotion had asked his friends to buy his discharge, and during the five years that preceded the Revolution, he served as potman in his father's tavern at Leven. Re-enlisting in 1789 he became a general in less than four years. After Rivoli, Bonaparte dubbed him "the darling of victory:" | seemed to be clamped round it. For more but it was a curious feature in Masséna than half an hour they would not relax, that his talents only came out on the bat- and all this time, while the mud was being tlefield. Usually he was a dull dog with washed out of his eyes, his teeth were set no faculty for expressing his ideas, and as in lock-jaw. These symptoms of physhe wore a morose look. Napoleon said ical distress, like Nelson's tendency to that the noise of cannon cleared his sea-sickness, were never quite overcome, mind," endowing him with penetration but in time Brune was able to conceal the and gaiety at the same time. The din of outward signs of them. He also learned war had just the contrary effect upon to master a quick temper which in his Brune, who, but for his tragic death, would youth made him boil up like soupe au lait have remained the most obscure of the on the slightest provocation. Whilst he marshals, though he is conspicuous from was governor of the Hans Towns (1807), being almost the only one of the twenty- the burgomaster of Hamburg once had six who had no title of nobility. Brune audience of him to explain why certain was a notable example of what strong orders which he-the marshal — had will-power can do to conquer innate ner- issued were not being obeyed. The Ger vousness. He was the son of a barrister, man plodded on heavily in his explanaand having imbibed the hottest Revolu- tion, and every now and then Brune, withtionary principles, vapored them off by out saying a word, poured himself out turning journalist. He went to Paris, half a tumbler of water and drank it. At and was introduced to Danton, for whom last the burgomaster, pausing, stretched he conceived an enthusiastic admiration. out his hand to the decanter and said, He became the demagogue's disciple, let- "Will you allow me?" "Hold!" exter-writer, and boon companion, and it is claimed Brune, "we had better ring for a pretty certain that he would eventually fresh supply. I always pour down water have kept him company on the guillotine, when I feel a fire rising, which might exhad it not been for a lucky sneer from a plode!" Brune enjoyed the emperor's woman's lips which drove him into the esteem, but was no favorite of his; and he army. Brune had written a pamphlet on never got a dukedom because Napoleon, military operations and it was being talked remembering the extreme Terrorist opinof at Danton's table, when Mlle. Gerfault, ions which he had once professed, was an actress of the Palais Royal, better resolved that he should make application known as "Eglé," said mockingly: "Vous to be ennobled before such an honor were serez général quand on se battra avec des conferred upon him. This Brune would plumes." Stung to the quick Brune ap- never do; and it is probable that had a plied for a commission, was sent into the dukedom been tendered to him, he would army with the rank of major, and in about have declined it by way of showing that a year, through Danton's patronage, be- his republicanism was not extinct. On came a brigade-general; meanwhile poor this point, however, one need not feel too Eglé, having wagged her pert tongue at sure. During the hundred days Brune Robespierre, lost her head in conse- was put in command of the troops in the quence. Brune showed a splendid nerve south of France; and soon after Waterloo in action, but he suffered tortures in his he was massacred by a royalist mob at first battles, for the noise of cannonading Avignon. He had first been asked to cry and the sight of blood made him sick." Vive le roi!" and declined; he was Every time a field-piece was discharged near him, he felt a shock in the pit of the stomach which would have made him bend double with pain if he had not stiffened his legs in the stirrups and thrown his body rigidly back. To do this, however, it required such an amount of nervous tension, that sometimes his muscles remained as if paralyzed for hours. At the battle of Arcola, where his masterly command of a division helped to win the day, the rebound of a cannon-ball threw a clod of earth into his face and knocked him, blinded, off his horse. His sword got snapped as he fell, but he continued to grasp the hilt so tightly that his fingers * then called upon to cry "A bas l'empe- "To The marshal on whom ducal honors seemed to sit most queerly was François Lefèbvre, Duc de Dantzig. He was born Napoleon, but both were of noble birth. The former Marshals Pérignon and Grouchy got no titles from was a viscount and received a marquisate from the Bourbons. Grouchy was born heir to a marquisate. in 1755, the son of a miller, and was a ser- moirs" relates that the Duc d'Auerstadt, geant in the French Guards at the time of having some facial resemblance to Napo the Revolution. He had then just mar- leon, was fond of copying him in dress ried a vivandière. The anecdotes of and manners; but she adds that Napoleon Madame Lefebvre's incongruous sayings himself was very neat. This may be a at the consular and imperial courts are matter of opinion. The emperor took so many as to remind one of the proverb snuff which he carried loose in the right On ne prête qu'aux riches. Everything pocket of his white cashmere waistcoats, that could be imagined in the way of a so as not to be troubled with snuff-boxes, lapsus linguæ or a bull was attributed to but the arrangement caused his vest to be this good-natured Mrs. Malaprop, whose smeared with brown stains. He also had oddities amused Josephine, but not al- a superstition about wearing on great ocways Napoleon. At a state dinner, a foot-casions the particular gray overcoat and man upset a dish of asparagus over the hat in which he was dressed at Austerduchess's yellow satin lap. "Imbecile!" litz: consequently on the days when his exclaimed the lady, at the full pitch of her marshals looked their best, he, the emvoice; then perceiving the dismay of the peror, was most shabby. He must have man, she relented, and broke into a loud taken a great deal of wear out of all his laugh. But the affair ended badly, for the overcoats and hats, for the three of each footman -a new servant probably-be- that used to be exhibited in the Musée gan to laugh too, upon which the emperor des Souverains were all in sorry condimade an angry sign to the majordomo, and tion, the coats very greasy about the colthe fellow was shoved out of the room, lars and cuffs, the felt hats all scabbed by never to appear in it again. Lefèbvre's marks of sun and rain. speech was not so uncouth as his wife's, for he was naturally taciturn; but he was a man of very simple tastes, who could never accommodate himself comfortably to the luxuries of a high position. Madame Récamier said that he smelt horribly of garlic. At the emperor's coronation, having to wait for about an hour in the cathedral before the court arrived, he drew a hunk of bread with a slice of cheese from the pocket of his gold-laced coat, and offered to share these dainties with the other marshals. The popular account of the incident which reached Napoleon's ears was that the marshal had regaled himself with onions. Once Lefebvre fell ill of ague, and his servant, an old soldier, caught the malady at the same time. The servant was quickly cured; but the fever clung to the marshal till it occurred to his energetic duchess that the doctor had blundered comme un âne by giving to a marshal the same doses as to a private soldier. She rapidly counted on her fingers the different rungs of the military fadder. "Tiens, bois! en voilà pour ton grade," she said, putting a full tumbler to her husband's lips, and the duke having swallowed a dozen doses at one gulp, was soon on his legs again. "T'as beaucoup à apprendre, mon garçon," was the lady's subsequent remark to the astonished doc tor. A marshal, however, had no excuse for being untidy. Davoust had been at Brienne with Bonaparte, and had thus a longer experience of his master's character than any of the other marshals. Had he been wise he would have turned it to account, not only by cultivating the graces, but by giving the emperor that ungrudging, demonstrative loyalty which Napoleon valued above all things, and rewarded by constant favor. But Davoust was a caballer, a grievance-monger, and a grognard; and it must have been rather diverting to see him aping the manners of a master at whom he was always carping in holes and corners. On the other hand, it must be said that Davoust proved faithful in the hour of misfortune, and did not rally to the Bourbons till 1818; that is, when all chances of an imperial restoration were gone; moreover, every time he held an important command he did his duty with courage, talent, and fidelity. His affected brusqueness of speech was an unfortunate mannerism, for it made him many enemies, and sometimes exposed him to odd reprisals. Whilst he was governor of Poland he once flew into a temper with a young officer of the Polish Legion, Ladislas Czartoriski, abusing him and his forefathers for several generations up: "Your father must have been a mule, your grand The uniform which Napoleon habitually wore was that of colonel of the Foot Chasseurs-a green tailcoat, with red facings, cut away in front so as to show a white vest. His cocked hat, which Béranger mentions as a petit chapeau, was really an enormous head Napoleon was a great stickler for appearances, and for this reason loathed the dirtiness and slovenliness of Davoust. Madame Junot in her amusing "Me-dress-as large as a court footman's. |