From The Athenæum.

Memoirs of the Duke of Ragusa from 1792 to 1832-[Mémoires du Duc de Raguse, &c.]. Printed from the Original Manuscript. Vol. I. Paris, Perrotin.

the young general would not long be content to act as a subordinate of the Directory.

The Duke of Ragusa, whose more familiar and more illustrious appellation, Marshal Marmont, will always be revived in the

THE Duke of Ragusa began the composi-story of the Napoleonic Campaigns, is caretion of these Memoirs in 1828, and wrote a ful to begin, after a lofty protestation of his continuous narrative which, with the cor- patriotism and integrity, with a recapitularespondence interspersed, will occupy eight tion of the family annals. "My name," he octavo volumes. It was obviously his inten- says, "is Viesse. My family is ancient and tion to place on record a series of deliberate honorable." It was Low Country by origin, views, in connection with the history of but became Burgundian by three centuries France under the Empire and the Restora- of settlement. From immemorial time it tion, and especially in connection with the had been devoted to the military profession. character of Napoleon Bonaparte. The There were Viesses in the armies of Louis "devoted hands" to which, before his the Twelfth, and of the Great Condé; a death, he consigned the manuscript, were Viesse was among the heroes of Fribourg. charged "to publish it without making the The father of the Marshal won and wore, at slightest alteration, even under pretence of eighteen years of age, the chivalrous Cross improving the style, and without suffering of St. Louis. This glorious genealogy, of any additions, abridgments, or suppressions course, inspired with military predilections of the text.' These instructions, the anony- the youth who was born at Chatillon-surmous editor assures us, have been fulfilled Seine in July, 1774. The elder Viesse, in with literal precision. The Memoirs are the laurel shade of a cynical retirement, published exactly as they were dictated. undertook the intellectual culture of his son. We are, therefore, in possession of the Marshal's sentiments, expressed in the form elected by himself. Whatever reserve may be remarked in the Memoirs is his own; whatever is freely stated was written for publicity. In fact, the editor's responsibility is limited by the sense of the note dated from Venice, in November, 1851, which enjoined him to assume to himself no discretion whatever in the publication of the manuscript. "I intend," said the Duke, "to write of that which I have done, of that which I have seen, and of that I have been in a position to understand better than others; and I shall not trespass beyond the limits indicated by my reason and my feelings."

The first volume contains three "books," relating to the writer's lineage and early life, the youthful career of Bonaparte, the siege of Toulon, the Reign of Terror, the Italian campaign, resulting in the peace of Campo-Formio; Napoleon's initiatory political movements in France, and the Egyptian expedition-military subjects, of course, predominating. It is important to study the opinions of Napoleon's comrade, counsellor, and friend, the Marshal, who understood his character, and who foresaw, or affects to have foreseen, that, after Lodi and Arcola,

"From the day of my birth to my fifteenth, year, my father did not lose sight of me for a single day." The course of education adopted at Chatillon had two objects—to give the boy a good constitution, and to render him ambitious. The plan succeeded, and the vigorous son of soldiers was tempted towards a military life-a temptation which his father at first resisted. In his fifteenth year, however, he wore epaulettes and a sword, and, while at the Abbé Rousselot's school at Dijon, first saw the young artillery officer, Bonaparte. It became at once his desire to enter the same regiment; but an examination was necessary, and the ordeal took place at Chalons.

the

The celebrated Laplace, then examiner in the Artillery School, was a man of the most serious appearance; his sad and severe face, his black dress, his fringed ruffles, the state of his sight-gave him a very imshade over his eyes-rendered necessary by posing air. If we add the importance and solemnity of the occasion to the reflections natural to the candidate as to the consequences of success or failure, it may be imagined with what anxiety, disquietude, Examiner's table. I experienced those senand sinking of the heart we approached the sations to a degree quite extraordinary, even so much so as to suspend the activity of my mind; it was the first time in my life that I

had been agitated by the consciousness of an because he thought the time inopportune all-important interest at stake. In the for change." course of my career I have undergone many trials, but my faculties have never deserted me; on the contrary, they have generally he would have modified his policy, re-estab "If Robespierre had remained in power, been quickened in proportion to the danger lished order, and governed by law; we or the importance of the occasion; but in this instance it was otherwise: my brain wandered, and I could not tell M. Laplace what my name was when he asked me!"

harnais a passion to which Marmont alBonaparte, enamored of Madame Beauludes with some contempt-lost no opportuBonaparte was now general of a brigade, nity of making himself agreeable to the and second in command of the Italian artil- general body of the Directory, and to Barras lery. Then came the fall of Robespierre, in particular. But the great Italian camthe accusation and arrest of the young Cor-paign was in preparation, and he and his sican commander, "eight or ten days of aide-de-camp were parted from this fascinatanguish," an acquittal, and the utterance by Bonaparte to Marmont of his opinion concerning the astonishing intelligence from