United States or Algeria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


Much acrimony arose on both sides in consequence of this interference. I remember once hearing the marshal refer to a controversy that was then going on between himself and the Emperor with regard to prisoners taken by him at Oajaca, and who, he felt, should be exiled.

I would have given the whole empire of Austria to have rested another hour; but notwithstanding this, I carried his Majesty the punch, which I made by the bivouac fire, and the Emperor insisted that Marshal Berthier should also partake of it; the remainder I divided with the attendants.

As it happened, he decided to send us to the Provost Marshal. I was not greatly put out by that command, for I remembered the officer in question, or thought I did, and felt convinced that everything would speedily be set right. We started off in the charge of a brigadier-otherwise a corporal of Gendarmes, and four men, our denouncer following closely at our heels.

In the name of the Emperor Alexander, the Prince of Wurtemberg who commanded the siege had acknowledged and guaranteed to General Rapp and the troops placed under his command the right to return to France, which agreement was no more respected than had been a few months before that made with Marshal Saint-Cyr by the Prince of Schwarzenberg; thus the garrison of Dantzic were made prisoners with the same bad faith as that of Dresden had been.

They set forward on this crusade in weather which would have rendered any other troops incapable of marching, but which in reality gave these active mountaineers advantages over a less hardy enemy. In defiance of a superior army lying upon the Borders, under Field Marshal Wade, they besieged and took Carlisle, and soon afterwards prosecuted their daring march to the southward.

P returned at one, and told us, that he called at the guard-room, and, making the harbour-master his marshal and interpreter, had hunted up the officer so civil to us last night; and expressed our gratitude for the favour which we had received. To every one who travels inconveniences must occur, or else travelling loses half its excitement.

The President, Marshal MacMahon, was living at the Prefecture at Versailles and received every Thursday evening. We went there several times it was my first introduction to the official world. One didn't care to drive through the Park of St. Cloud at night it was very lonely and dark.

"But in order to avoid compromising the department, the deputation, and, indeed, in order to avoid compromising yourself, you would perhaps do well " the Marshal hesitated. "I will do well?" demanded the Colonel. "Perhaps to withdraw without making any display"

When he entered he was scarcely recognisable: he had a beard of eight days' growth; the greatcoat which covered his uniform was in tatters, and he was blackened with powder from head to foot. We considered what was best to be done, and all insisted on the necessity of signing a capitulation. The Marshal must recollect that the exclamation of every one about him was, "France must be saved."

During the Hundred Days, General de Bourmont, guilty as was Marshal Ney, abandoned the cause of Napoleon as the Marshal had that of Louis XVIII. But there were attenuating circumstances for their conduct. One could not resist the prestige of the Emperor, nor the other that of the King.