Born the 17th of December, 1763, M. de Riviere had been the
companion and servitor of the princes in exile and misfortune, and
they had confided to him the most difficult and dangerous
missions. He was secretly in France in 1794, and was arrested and
condemned to death as implicated in the Cadoudal case. At his
trial, he was shown, at a distance, the portrait of the Count
d'Artois, and asked if he recognized it. He asked to see it
nearer, and then having it in his hands, he said, looking at the
president: "Do you suppose that even from afar I did not recognize
it? But I wished to see it nearer once more before I die." And the
martyr of royalty religiously kissed the image of his dear prince.
Josephine intervened, and secured the commutation of the sentence,
as well as that of the Duke Armand de Polignac. Napoleon, who
admired men of force, caused to be offered to M. de Riviere his
complete pardon, and a regiment or a diplomatic post, at choice.
The inflexible royalist preferred to be sent to the fort of Joux,
where Toussaint Louverture had died, and remained a prisoner up to
the time of the marriage of the Empress Marie Louise.
Under the Restoration, M. de Riviere, who was Marquis and was made
Duke only in 1825, became lieutenant-general, Peer of France,
ambassador at Constantinople, captain of the body-guards of
Monsieur. At the time of his accession, Charles X.
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