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Updated: May 13, 2025
This corps d'élite was intended to be the nucleus of the so-called army of Portugal, which Bernadotte was destined to command. The general had to move his headquarters to Tours; to where had to be sent all his horses and equipment, as well all that was required for the officers attached to his service.
An answer was presented him by an officer of Bonaparte's Gendarmes d'Elite, in which he was forbidden to quit Italy, and ordered to return with the officer to Milan, and there occupy his office of Arch-Chancellor to which he had been nominated. Enraged at such treatment, he endeavoured to kill himself with a dose of poison, but his attempt did not succeed.
"Colonel, you must explain to the marshal how stands this matter; and he is too kind of heart and too noble of soul to think the worse of any of us for our obstinacy. And now, my young friend, make your arrangements to join the compagnie d'élite; they march to-morrow afternoon, and this is a service you cannot decline.
Such were the names we heard following in quick succession; when suddenly an avenue was opened by a master of the ceremonies before me, who read from my card the words, "Le Capitaine Burke, officier d'élite; le Chevalier Duchesne, présenté par lui."
He enjoyed the privilege of constant companionship with one of the warmest hearts and finest intellects which I have ever known in a woman, the 'ame d'elite' which has passed beyond this earth. The gracious sentiment with which the Queen sought to express her sense of what Holland owed him would have been deeply felt even had her personal friendship been less dear to us all.
"Spare your sorrows on that score, my young friends," said a colonel, who listened patiently to the complaints around him; "we shall not see the dome of the Invalides for some time yet. Except the compagnie d'élite, I fancy few of us will figure on the Boulevards."
We have presented a feeble sketch of a century that stands out from its fellows, not as a mere continuation, or even intensification, of them a hundred annual circuits of the earth in its orbit as little distinguished by intellectual or material achievement as those repetitions of the old beaten track through space are by astronomical incident but as an epoch sui generis, a century d'elite, picked out from the long ranks of time for special service, charged by Fate with an extraordinary duty, and decorated for its successful performance.
This son of a Swiss porter is now one of Bonaparte's adjutants-general, a colonel of the Gendarmes d'Elite, a general of brigade in the army, and a commander of the Legion of Honour; all these places he owes, not to valour or merit, but to abjectness, immorality, and servility.
"Burke, his Majesty has most graciously permitted me to include your name in the compagnie d'élite, a testimony of his satisfaction you've every reason to be proud of. And just at the moment I was about to communicate the fact to you, I have received a message from Marshal Murat, requesting that I may permit you to serve on his own staff."
There was nothing offensive in their remarks; neither was there any emotion or sympathy. The magnificence of the equipages and the costumes, the beauty of the military uniforms, particularly of the CORPS D'ELITE, such as the Hundred Swiss and the body-guard, were the only things spoken of. The spectators sought to guess and name to each other the prominent persons."
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