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The burning of ships, the explosion of magazines, the roar of artillery, and the cries of these fugitives, filled up many hours. At last the men-of-war were followed by a flotilla bearing those miserable exiles; the walls were abandoned; and Dugommier took possession of the place.
The fact is, no one ever knew how many hundreds or thousands of the Toulon Girondists were swept together and destroyed by the fire of cannon and musketry. Fréron, one of the commissioners, desired to leave not a single rebel alive. Dugommier would listen to no such proposition for a holocaust. Marmont declares that Buonaparte and his artillerymen pleaded for mercy, but in vain.
The movement on which he had set his heart was successful in every portion; the enemy was not only driven within the interior works, but by the fall of Little Gibraltar his communication with the sea was endangered. The whole peninsula, the fort itself, the point and the neighboring heights were captured. Victor, Muiron, Buonaparte, and Dugommier led the storming columns.
The successor of Carteaux, the old General Dugommier, recognizing the superior mind of the young chief of battalion, willingly followed his plans, and was readily guided and led by the surer insight of the young man. The position of new Gibraltar had to be conquered so as to secure the fall of Toulon; such was, such remained Napoleon's unswerving judgment.
To these he added warlike heroes Dampierre, Dugommier, Joubert to prove that, while he did not fear the memory of a Bourbon in the great Conde, neither was he jealous of his brothers-in-arms, the victims of a cause already no longer his. Matters were in this state at the period of which we are now speaking; that is, the last of February, 1800.
Go; but first tell me your name, that when you return I may tell General Dugommier what name he has to inscribe in his papers of recommendation for officers; that will be the reward for your message." "My name is Junot, citizen-officer," exclaimed the young man as, swinging the paper in his hand, he darted away eagerly.
Finally, the names of Dugommier, Dampierre, and Joubert were intended to bear evidence of the high esteem which Bonaparte cherished for his old comrades, those illustrious victims to a cause which had now ceased to be his.
"Campagnes de la Revolution Francaise dans les Pyrenees-Orientales," by Fervel, II., 36 and following pages. General Dugommier, after the capture of Toulouse, spared the English general O'Hara, taken prisoner in spite of the orders of the Convention. and received the following letter from the committee of Public Safety. "The Committee accepts your victory and your wound as compensations."
A few days later the tall soldierly Dugommier took the command: reinforcements began to pour in, finally raising the strength of the besiegers to 37,000 men. Above all, the new commander gave Buonaparte carte blanche for the direction of the artillery.
One fine morning, my father received the order to strike his camp at Miral and to lead his division to join the army corps of General Dugommier, which was laying siege to Toulon, which the English had captured in a surprise attack.
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