This letter was of use. Marks of regard that had escaped the Monarch kept malevolence within bounds. I passed some months at Paris without being disturbed; but the race of emigrants had filled the chambers and harangued at the tribune. Their vociferations against all the men distinguished for their talent and courage whom France can boast of, gave me such a disgust that I withdrew. I went into Switzerland, where at least aristocracy did not present the scandalous spectacle of the rage of the present time combined with the meanness of the past. The ordinance of the 5th of September was issued a short time afterwards: I returned to Paris, where I live quietly in the bosom of my family, and where I have experienced happiness which till then was unknown to me.
Here the Memoirs terminate. We will only add a few words.
Become a member of the House of Peers, the General was called into the presence of the King. This favour did not make him unfaithful to old recollections. So many immortal days were too deeply engraved in his mind! He could not forget our victories, or him who had conducted them, or those who had obtained them! He had often taken so glorious a part in them! Courage does not disinherit herself. In like manner the brave soldiers who were persecuted by men whom they had eclipsed on the field of battle always found in their General a devoted protector. His purse, his credit were open to them. Never did he repel the unfortunate. Those who had none of the privileges which the standard gives, participated in his benefits; it was sufficient if they were in distress. Misfortune was something sacred in his eyes.
The state of inactivity into which on a sudden he had fallen, after a life of alarms and fatigue, hastened to a fatal termination the wounds with which he was covered. His health was gone; he soon ended the term assigned him by Nature. He beheld death without emotion, ordered himself to be put in a position so as to front the enemy, whom he had always looked in the face, and expired, offering up his prayers for France and his family.
DOCUMENTS
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE MEMOIRS.