XXIX
GENERAL DE BOURMONT
The new Secretary of War awoke no less lively anger than the
Prince de Polignac. He was a general of great merit, bold to
temerity, brave to heroism, and a tactician of the first order.
But his career had felt the vicissitudes of politics, and like so
many of his contemporaries,--more, perhaps, than any of them,--he
had played the most contradictory parts. Equally intrepid in the
army of Conde, in the Vendean army, and in the Grand Army of
Napoleon, he had won as much distinction under the white flag as
under the tricolor. The Emperor, who was an expert in military
talent, having recognized in him a superior military man, had
rewarded his services brilliantly. But it is difficult to escape
from the memories of one's childhood and first youth.
General Count de Bourmont, born September 2, 1773, at the Chateau
of Bourmont (Maine-et-Loire), amid the "Chouans," had shared their
religious and monarchical passions. Officer of the French Guards
at sixteen, and dismissed by the Revolution, he followed his
father at the beginning of the Emigration, lost him at Turin, then
went to join the Count d'Artois at Coblenz. He took part in the
campaign of 1792, until the disbandment of the Prince's army,
served as a simple cavalryman in the army of Conde, then threw
himself into La Vendee in the month of October, 1794. He was
second in command of the troops of Scepeaux.
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