The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England. volume 3 (of 6): Mémoires d'outre-tombe volume 3Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de
History
The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England. volume 3 (of 6): Mémoires d'outre-tombe volume 3
Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de
Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de, 1768-1848
[243] Marshal Masséna, on the evening of the 3rd of March, sent to the
Minister of War, from Marseilles, the dispatch announcing Bonaparte's
landing at the Golfe Jouan. In 1815, the aerial telegraph stopped at
Lyons. The message was therefore carried by a courier as far as Lyons,
and did not reach Paris until mid-day on the 5th of March. Impressed by
the gravity of the news, M. Chappe, the Director-General of Telegraphs
(brother of the inventor), took upon himself to take the message to
M. de Vitrolles, in the King's closet, instead of transmitting it to
Marshal Soult. Vitrolles handed the despatch, sealed as it was, to
Louis XVIII., who read it several times over and threw it on the table,
saying with the greatest calm:
"It is to say that Bonaparte has landed on the coast of Provence. This
letter must be taken to the Minister of War. He will see what is to be
done."
The Government kept the news secret for two days, and it was only on
the 7th of March that it was officially announced in the _Moniteur._--B.
[244] The Comte d'Artois, the King's brother, became "Monsieur" on the
latter's accession.--T.
[245] Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke, Maréchal Comte d'Hunebourg, Duc
de Feltre (1765-1818), descended from an Irish family, had been one
of Napoleon's generals, and Minister of War from 1807. After rallying
to the Bourbons, he managed the War Office at a time of the greatest
difficulty, and was created a marshal of France after the Second
Restoration, in 1816. The Duc de Feltre retired in 1817, a year before
his death.--T.
[246] Caius Valerius Jovius Aulerius Diocletianus (245-313), Roman
Emperor, was born at Dioclea, near Salona. Diocletian's mind became
weakened in 304, and in 305 he abdicated and retired to Salona, where
he cultivated his garden with his own hands.--T.
[247] Camille Hyacinthe Odilon Barrot (1791-1873) became a prominent
leader of the Opposition under Louis-Philippe, and was Prime Minister
and Minister of Justice in 1848 to 1849.--T.
[248] The battalion of the pupils of the School of Law was formed on
the 14th of March 1815; its effective force amounted to 1200 men. After
being drilled at Vincennes, the Volunteers, to the number of about
700, joined the Body-guards at Beauvais on Easter Sunday, the 26th of
March; they crossed the frontier and were cantoned at Ypres. On the
30th of July, the battalion returned to Paris, amid the cheers of an
immense multitude which had come out to greet it. The professors of the
school, prevented by their age from leaving France, at least refused to
wait upon Napoleon, and it was only at the express invitation of the
Minister of the Interior that they went so far as to send an address in
which they expressed their gratitude at seeing the Emperor renounce all
spirit of conquest.--B.
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