"Monsieur Henri": A Foot-Note to French HistoryGuiney, Louise Imogen
History
"Monsieur Henri": A Foot-Note to French History
Guiney, Louise Imogen
France -- History -- Wars of the Vendée, 1793-1832; La Rochejaquelein, Henri du Vergier, comte de, 1772-1794
The legend of Henri de La Rochejaquelein did not end with his life.
Says the Count of C----, an emigrant (author of the graphic and erratic
pamphlet entitled _Un Séjour de Dix Mois en France_): “It was in a
prosperous hour, and shortly after the fortunate expedition of which
I have been speaking, that I had the pleasure of joining the Royalist
army. On every side I saw tears only, and I heard but sighs: Henri had
lately perished on the field of honor.” From this anonymous gentleman
comes fragmentary testimony on a subject once of some mystery and
conjecture. He had embraced, or helped to create, a rumor that a
woman headed the young chief’s troops as soon as he had fallen. He
declares that, unwilling to survive him, yet burning to avenge him,
she flung herself upon the advancing Blues, and so expired. And he
lends her, moreover, the soldierly distinction of reposing by her hero
henceforward. Now, as the Count of C---- is the only one in the world
to print this story, it may be worth while to quote, for the sake of
contradicting it, a passage of that cloying racial eloquence which
has never the Saxon shame of speaking a little more than it feels:
“And thou, O La Rochejaquelein, thou the Rinaldo of the new Crusade,
the terror of infidels and the hope of Christians, thou whom nature
had dowered with so much worth and so much charm! look down upon the
tears of thy brethren-in-arms; listen to the sorrowings of the whole
army; see the glorious tomb raised to thy memory; bid thy spirit hover
nigh among the cypresses, to count the trophies which thy victorious
comrades hang there day by day, the garlands which thy countrywomen,
fair and sad, wreathe there forever; hear the hymns sung for thy sake;
watch the young and buoyant legion sworn to perpetuate thy name and
to accomplish thy vengeance; read the inscriptions which passers-by
grave on the trees in memory of thee; rejoice to know that thy sweet
friend sleeps at thy side, wept, cherished, reverenced, less because
she was lovely, good, and bright than because she was once thy heart’s
happiness and thy triumph’s pulse and centre; ah! behold and consider
all these things at once, and let the palm which is thine in Heaven
be set about and made fairer, if that can be, with all the bays won
well of old of earth.” The soft music of this extract, crossed with
appeals to the super-mundane vanity of the most modest of mortals, is
a sufficient voucher that with the real La Rochejaquelein it has no
commerce whatever. It was indeed true that some martial girl, leading a
company during the winter, received her death-blow in the neighborhood
of Trémentines. The nonsense of her being Henri’s sweetheart probably
owed its origin to the same singular Republican inventiveness which,
long after the fight of Vrine which laid Jeanne Robin low, continued to
call her Jeanne de Lescure and sister of her commander, who might have
wished any sister of his, did such exist, to be as pure and as brave.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account