FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   >>  
generally provides for, by putting into requisition some great heiress. After the Peace of Campo Formio, Bonaparte arrived at Paris, where he demanded in marriage for his aide-de-camp Marmont, Mademoiselle Perregeaux, the sole child of the first banker in France, a well-educated and accomplished young lady, who would be much more agreeable did not her continual smiles and laughing indicate a degree of self-satisfaction and complacency which may be felt, but ought never to be published. The banker, Perregeaux, is one of those fortunate beings who, by drudgery and assiduity, has succeeded in some few years to make an ample fortune. A Swiss by birth, like Necker, he also, like him, after gratifying the passion of avidity, showed an ambition to shine in other places than in the counting-house and upon the exchange. Under La Fayette, in 1790, he was the chief of a battalion of the Parisian National Guards; under Robespierre, a commissioner for purchasing provisions; and under Bonaparte he is become a Senator and a commander of the Legion of Honour. I am told that he has made all his money by his connection with your country; but I know that the favourite of Napoleon can never be the friend of Great Britain. He is a widower; but Mademoiselle Mars, of the Emperor's theatre, consoles him for the loss of his wife. General Marmont accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt, and distinguished himself at the capture of Malta, and when, in the following year, the siege of St. Jean d'Acre was undertaken, he was ordered to extend the fortifications of Alexandria; and if, in 1801, they retarded your progress, it was owing to his abilities, being an officer of engineers as well as of the artillery. He returned with Bonaparte to Europe, and was, after his usurpation, made a Counsellor of State. At the battle of Marengo he commanded the artillery, and signed afterwards, with the Austrian general, Count Hohenzollern, the Armistice of Treviso, which preceded shortly the Peace of Luneville. Nothing has abated Bonaparte's attachment to this officer, whom he appointed a commander-in-chief in Holland, when a change of Government was intended there, and whom he will entrust everywhere else, where sovereignty is to be abolished, or thrones and dynasties subverted. LETTER XXXVII. PARIS, October, 1805. MY LORD:--Many wise people are of the opinion that the revolution of another great Empire is necessary to combat or oppose the great impul
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   >>  



Top keywords:

Bonaparte

 

commander

 
artillery
 

officer

 

Marmont

 
Mademoiselle
 

Perregeaux

 

banker

 

retarded

 
progress

Alexandria

 
engineers
 

widower

 

returned

 

Emperor

 
fortifications
 

abilities

 

consoles

 

Europe

 

General


accompanied
 

distinguished

 
capture
 

undertaken

 

ordered

 

extend

 

theatre

 
dynasties
 

thrones

 

combat


subverted
 
LETTER
 

abolished

 
sovereignty
 

entrust

 

XXXVII

 

people

 

opinion

 
Empire
 
October

intended

 

Government

 

Austrian

 

revolution

 
general
 

Hohenzollern

 

signed

 

commanded

 
Counsellor
 

battle