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Ay, ay, the gates of pearl are crumbling Peaceful and wide its spaces lie,

LARGE loom the cattle in the misty vale, Wan leaves fall idly; droops the splendor tall

Of each gay sunflower. To the gabled wall

The creeper clings with dying hands and

From the Scottish Review. THE REMINISCENCES OF MARSHAL

ons in arms.

MACDONALD.'

on the

XVIII., after the return from Elba; and he always boldly spoke out his mind, with a republican freedom which beTHE author of this valuable and atcame him, and that, too, sometimes at active work was a prominent figure in the risk of disgrace, whether in the tent the grand procession of warriors, who of his imperial master, or in the closet pheld the arms of France, from 1792 to of the head of the Bourbons. This vol1814. Macdonald was one of that school ume contains the reminiscences of the of soldiers of whom Hoche and Mo- life of the marshal, written by himself read were the highest types, men borne in a series of papers addressed to his son; dloft by the revolutionary wave, who and though he did not intend that they defended the natal soil against enor- should be published, and he expressly odds, rolled back the invasion of denies them the rank of memoirs, they Europe, and remained true to their re- form an autobiography of no common publican faith, through the Reign of interest. Their chief and peculiar merit Terror, and the reaction that followed. is, that they bring out naturally, but in Unlike Kléber and Desaix, who died in clear relief, the noble character of Mactheir prime, Macdonald became one of donald himself; and they illustrate and Napoleon's marshals, winning his staff confirm the judgment of history on his the well-fought field of Wagram, remarkable qualities. They abound, though never one of the emperor's favor- however, in information, occasionally of ; but he had little in common with importance and value on the Revoluthe Napoleonic chiefs; and he adhered tionary and Napoleonic wars, on the through life to the patriotic creed, the incidents of that wonderful.epoch, and proud traditions, nay, the habits and personages who are conspicuous ways, that distinguished his old compan-in it; and they unfold in many passages It cannot be said that he what may be called the unheroic parts as a great captain, though in this re- of Napoleon's nature, though here the pect he was not inferior to his brother author betrays a somewhat adverse bias. arshals, with but few exceptions; but The book has been described as a kind be was a capable, skilful, and bold sol- of pendant to Marbot's brilliant and der; and if somewhat wanting in read- charming volumes; but it is a work of ess and resource, a wise, judicious, quite a different type, of a more sober ad experienced leader; and, especially, and sadder cast of thought, and not so most of the generals of his school, attractive as a picture of war, but more al to face dangers, to meet grave profound, and of almost equal interest. es, and to take the initiative on his An introductory chapter, we may add, judgment, not, as the Grouchys from the accomplished pen of M. Cand Victors, the mere puppets of a mas-mille Rousset, forms an excellent comwho bowed their wills to his own.mentary on the volume, and M. Thiers, The military career of Macdonald, how- we believe, must have read the manuever, scarcely exhibits the finest side of script; as in the case of other memoirs character. Unsullied honor, devoted of the time, parts of it seem fused into alty, and a frank, fearless, and in- his great history. pendent spirit, were the distinctive inues of this eminent man; and the ense of the Revolution and the base vility of the Empire did not impair ir lustre. Macdonald, though owing emperor little, was the only marshal ho stood to the last to Napoleon in the r of misfortune; he was almost the marshal who did not desert Louis Duc de

ke

Souvenirs du Maréchal Macdonald. te. Paris. 1892.

James Stephen Macdonald, the future marshal of France, was born at Sedan in 1765. The family of the child was a stray offset of the great clan of the Lord of the Isles, which had sent several members to the French army; and Neil Macdonald, the warrior's father, was brought up at Douai, at a training college established for the sons of Scottish gentlemen. Neil Macdonald was "out in the 45," and, Lord Stanhope tells us,

was the first of the name to declare for is it?" "I worship the Revolution." Charles Edward, when the prince un- Monseigneur made a gesture of surfurled the standard of the Stuarts on prise, and changed color-I hastened the shores of Moidart. He was at Cul- to add, "I hate its leaders, and its loden, and, after that fatal day, wan- crimes; the army had no share in these, dered from place to place in the West- it never looked behind; it stood face to ern Islands, attending upon the royal face with the enemy; it lamented the fugitive; and, after many adventures, excesses committed at home. But why he returned to France and became should I not venerate the Revolution? attached to one of the "Scottish" It raised me, and gave me rank; withregiments, which retained the name out its aid I should not be to-day at in the French service. His son, from breakfast with your Royal Highness, at earliest boyhood, showed a love for the table of the king." Monsieur, who arms; he treasured all that he heard had got over his vexation, and recovered of Turenne at Sedan, the birthplace of his good temper, tapped me on the that illustrious chief; and Homer, he shoulder, and exclaimed, “ Well, you tells us, taught him to dream of a career have done rightly, I like this franklike that of the Divine Achilles. After ness. a short apprenticeship in the "Dutch Legion," an irregular body raised in France for the Republic, in one of its disputes with Austria, the youth became a cadet in Dillon's regiment, one of the corps of the famous Irish Brigade; and he had reached the grade of lieutenant when the Revolution broke out. The sons of the Irish exiles of the Boyne and Aghrim had been always devoted to the house of Bourbon; they had just received from the ill-fated Louis XVI., a flag bearing the proud device, "at all times, and in all places, true;" they were deeply attached to the Catholic faith; and when Jacobinism had begun to shake the throne and the altar, the officers, for the most part, became émigrés, and carried their swords into the camp of Condé. This was a turningpoint in Macdonald's life. Of an independent and manly nature he had learned to detest the harsh Prussian discipline, introduced of late into the French army; he inclined to the new ideas that were stirring France; he had married, and was about to become a father; and he refused to leave the natal soil with his comrades, and threw in his lot with the Revolution and its cause, at this moment threatened by old feudal Europe. Many years afterwards, with characteristic frankness, he explained the motives of his conduct to the Comte d'Artois, the Coryphæus of the émigré faction: "I must make a confession to your Royal Highness." "Well, what

Macdonald became aide-de-camp of Beurnonville, one of the obscure men who contrived to rise to high place, under successive governments in France, from 1792 to 1815, and afterwards of the most famous Dumouriez. His aptitude as a soldier was soon made manifest; he greatly distinguished himself at Jemmapes, and in other engagements along the northern frontier; and in the strange chances of that tremendous crisis, when, deserted by most of the chiefs of her armies, and struggling against the coalition of Europe, France was compelled to find her commanders in the ranks, he rapidly attained welldeserved promotion, and was made a general of division in less than four years. Advancement, however, in his case, as indeed in many instances, was as dangerous as it was often wonderful. The Terrorists in Paris ruled the nation: the Jacobin Republic fought for exist ence; its multitudinous levies rolled over the border battling with "York Cobourg, and the hordes of tyranny,' and woe betide the general who was not successful, or officers suspected o "want of civism;" the delegates of the Committee of Public Safety and the guil lotine made short work of such obstacles Macdonald, as one of Dumouriez's aides de-camp, inevitably became a marked man, when the defection of his chie had transpired, and he was haled befor the conventional judges at Lille to ac count for an imaginary military fault

At this time, soon after the defeat of In this emergency Macdonald apNeerwinden, he was colonel of one of pealed to a former commissioner, who the "old" regiments of the fallen mon- called himself a friend. The conversaarchy, as they had been called, and tion that followed shows what was the "Picardy" had still a strong Royalist terrorism of the time and the meanness spirit: "A voice from within the gates and baseness that generally prevailed: of the town cried that the colonel of "Faith,' he said, 'do you wish me to Picardy should attend the Council; my speak out, you are not a republican, and grenadiers mutinied, and said either he I will have nothing to do with you.' should not, or they would go with me, 'Still,' I replied, 'I have not changed but this had been forbidden. I had since we met on the frontier in the afnothing to blame myself for, so I re- fair at Commines, and there you told me solved to go alone. The soldiers mut-in public-' "I know what you tered threatening language; among mean,' he answered with an interrupother words, they exclaimed, these tion, 'times are changed,' and he turned had caused the death of their poor his back on me." Capet, and others of his kin, and they The fearless soldier stood firm and cried out, Long live the king.' fortunately escaped: "I repeated this Macdonald escaped the inquisitors of conversation to Souham, and he urged Lille, but as often happened at that ter- me to make up my mind what to do. rible time, he very nearly became the 'I have done so,' I replied, 'if it must victim of an incapable soldier, who had a be, I shall be one of the many victims udge against him, and summoned him immolated, day after day, but I shall before another set of commissioners: stay.' 'But have you considered and "Two new commissioners extraordi- weighed the consequences?' 'Yes.' nary arrived with largely extended pow- I did well. The commissioners exers. I was denounced, and their first traordinary were ordered to Paris from act was to have been to dismiss me from Dunkirk, and I was sent back to my army, to order my arrest, and to post. So I was passed over." hand me over to the revolutionary tri- Macdonald narrowly escaped for the bunal of Arras, which let no one escape. third time, having been summoned "as I had made a republican general and an a noble " by sansculotte patriots. His extravagant revolutionist a mortal en-services, however, had been recognized, ny, for I had ridiculed his cowardice at and in the memorable campaign of 1794, the assault of Ménin; he had become a he played a considerable part in the -word and the laughing-stock of the conquest of Holland. The Republic Toops, even of those of the same mind had by this time triumphed; the league himself. He had denounced and of all Europe had been defeated; the aused the death of General Lamarliere, civil war which was tearing France to poor fellow; but it was the will of di- pieces had been put down with remorseine justice that he should lose his life less cruelty, and the Revolutionary and by the same punishment." armies were overrunning the region beOne of Macdonald's comrades, Gen-tween the Meuse and the Rhine, like al Souham, a republican of the most the lava floods of a raging volcano. treme type, and well known many ears afterwards as the principal author the defection of the corps of Marmont 1814, urged his friend to avoid cerdeath by flight: "The general sent message to inform me of what had arred." He added, "Well, you are m; see what you have to do, for will be deprived of your command. advised me to elude the order, which ad been postponed."

the

Macdonald, availing himself of the winter's frost, effected the passage of the Wahal on the ice, and soon reduced the important fortress of Naarden, which had baffled the arms of Condé and Turenne. The exultation of Pichegru and his troops was at its highest pitch: "I went to Amsterdam with the capitulation of Naarden and to receive new orders. On entering the quarters of the general-in-chief, I handed him the arti