r. He was the son of a Breton lawyer and rose to notice both as a
local politician, and as a volunteer captain in the Breton struggles
for independence with which he had no sympathy. As a great soldier he
ranks with Hoche after Napoleon in the revolutionary time. Hoche was
younger still, having been born in 1768. In 1784 he enlisted as a
common soldier and rose from the ranks by sheer ability. He died at
the age of thirty, but as a politician and strategist he was already
famous. Kleber was an Alsatian who had been educated in the military
school at Munich and was already forty-one years old. Having enlisted
under the Revolution as a volunteer, he so distinguished himself on
the Rhine that he was swiftly promoted; but, thwarted in his ambition
to have an independent command, he lost his ardor and did not again
distinguish himself until he secured service under Napoleon in Egypt.
There he exhibited such capacity that he was regarded as one of
Bonaparte's rivals. He was assassinated by an Oriental in Cairo.
Bernadotte was four years the senior of Bonaparte, the son of a lawyer
in Paris. He too enlisted in the ranks, as a royal marine, and rose by
his own merits. He was a rude radical whose military ability was
paralleled by his skill in diplomacy. His swift promotion was obtained
in the Rhenish campaigns. Gouvion Saint-Cyr was also born in 1764 at
Toul. He was a marquis but an ardent reformer, and a born soldier. He
began as a volunteer captain on the staff of Custine, and rising like
the others mentioned became an excellent general, though his chances
for distinction were few. Jourdan was likewise a nobleman, born at
Limoges to the rank of count in 1762. His long career was solid rather
than brilliant, though he gained great distinction in the northern
campaigns and ended as a marshal, the military adviser of Joseph
Bonaparte in Naples and Madrid.

The record of military energy put forth by the liberated nation under
Jacobin rule stands, as Fox declared in the House of Commons,
absolutely unique. Twenty-seven victories, eight in pitched battle;
one hundred and twenty fights; ninety thousand prisoners; one hundred
and sixteen towns and important places captured; two hundred and
thirty forts or redoubts taken; three thousand eight hundred pieces of
ordnance, seventy thousand muskets, one thousand tons of powder, and
ninety standards fallen into French hands--such is the incredible
tale. Moreover, the army had been purged w