al of division, commanding in 1859 at Lyons. His success in the war
with Italy was only second to that of MacMahon, and in 1862 he was
proposed as a candidate for the vacant Greek throne, but declined the
proffered honour. In 1870 the emperor entrusted him with the command of
the Imperial Guard, and he played an important part in the fighting
round Metz.

A curious incident of the siege of Metz is connected with Bourbaki's
name. A man who called himself Regnier,[1] about the 21st of September,
appeared at Hastings, to seek an interview with the refugee empress
Eugenie, and failing to obtain this he managed to get from the young
prince imperial a signed photograph with a message to the emperor
Napoleon. This he used, by means of a safe-conduct from Bismarck, as
credentials to Marshal Bazaine, to whom he presented himself at Metz,
telling him on the empress's alleged authority that peace was about to
be signed and that either Marshal Canrobert or General Bourbaki was to
go to Hastings for the purpose. Bourbaki at once went to England, with
Prussian connivance, as though he had a recognized mission, only to
discover from the empress at Hastings that a trick had been played on
him; and as soon as he could manage he returned to France. He offered
his services to Gambetta and received the command of the Northern Army,
but was recalled on the 19th of November and transferred to the Army of
the Loire. In command of the hastily-trained and ill-equipped Army of
the East, Bourbaki made the attempt to raise the siege of Belfort,
which, after the victory of Villersexel, ended in the repulse of the
French in the three days' battle of the Lisaine. Other German forces
under Manteuffel now closed upon Bourbaki, and he was eventually driven
over the Swiss frontier with the remnant of his forces (see
FRANCO-GERMAN WAR). His troops were in the most desperate condition,
owing to lack of food; and out of 150,000 men under him when he started,
only 84,000 escaped from the Germans into Swiss territory. Bourbaki
himself, rather than submit to the humiliation of a probable surrender,
on the 26th of January 1871 delegated his functions to General
Clinchant, and in the night fired a pistol at his own head, but the
bullet, owing to a deviation of the weapon, was flattened against his
skull and his life was saved. General Clinchant carried Bourbaki into
Switzerland, and he recovered sufficiently to return to France. In July
1871 he again took the co