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

From the Scottish Review. THE REMINISCENCES OF MARSHAL

MACDONALD,1

THE author of this valuable and at

tractive work was a prominent figure in the grand procession of warriors, who upheld the arms of France, from 1792 to

1814. Macdonald was one of that school

XVIII., after the return from Elba; and he always boldly spoke out his mind, with a republican freedom which became him, and that, too, sometimes at the risk of disgrace, whether in the tent of his imperial master, or in the closet of the head of the Bourbons. This volume contains the reminiscences of the

life of the marshal, written by himself in a series of papers addressed to his son; and though he did not intend that they should be published, and he expressly denies them the rank of memoirs, they form an autobiography of no common interest. Their chief and peculiar merit is, that they bring out naturally, but in clear relief, the noble character of Macdonald himself; and they illustrate and confirm the judgment of history on his remarkable qualities. They abound, however, in information, occasionally of importance and value on the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, on the incidents of that wonderful epoch, and on the personages who are conspicuous

of soldiers of whom Hoche and Moreau were the highest types, men borne aloft by the revolutionary wave, who defended the natal soil against enormous odds, rolled back the invasion of Europe, and remained true to their republican faith, through the Reign of Terror, and the reaction that followed. Unlike Kléber and Desaix, who died in their prime, Macdonald became one of Napoleon's marshals, winning his staff on the well-fought field of Wagram, though never one of the emperor's favorites; but he had little in common with the Napoleonic chiefs; and he adhered through life to the patriotic creed, the proud traditions, nay, the habits and ways, that distinguished his old compan-in it; and they unfold in many passages ions in arms. It cannot be said that he what may be called the unheroic parts was a great captain, though in this re- of Napoleon's nature, though here the spect he was not inferior to his brother author betrays a somewhat adverse bias. marshals, with but few exceptions; but The book has been described as a kind he was a capable, skilful, and bold sol- of pendant to Marbot's brilliant and dier; and if somewhat wanting in read- charming volumes; but it is a work of iness and resource, a wise, judicious, quite a different type, of a more sober and experienced leader; and, especially, and sadder cast of thought, and not so like most of the generals of his school, attractive as a picture of war, but more equal to face dangers, to meet grave profound, and of almost equal interest. crises, and to take the initiative on his An introductory chapter, we may add, own judgment, not, as the Grouchys from the accomplished pen of M. Caand Victors, the mere puppets of a mas-mille Rousset, forms an excellent comter who 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 his character. Unsullied honor, devoted of the time, parts of it seem fused into loyalty, and a frank, fearless, and in- his great history. dependent spirit, were the distinctive virtues of this eminent man; and the license of the Revolution and the base servility of the Empire did not impair their lustre. Macdonald, though owing the emperor little, was the only marshal who stood to the last to Napoleon in the hour of misfortune; he was almost the only marshal who did not desert Louis 1 Souvenirs du Maréchal Macdonald. Duc de gentlemen.

Tarente. 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

Neil Macdonald was 66 out in the 45," and, Lord Stanhope tells us,

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 Jem

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 mapes, and in other engagements along and Aghrim had been always devoted the northern frontier; and in the to the house of Bourbon; they had just strange chances of that tremendous received from the ill-fated Louis XVI., crisis, when, deserted by most of the a flag bearing the proud device, "at all chiefs of her armies, and struggling times, and in all places, true;" they against the coalition of Europe, France were deeply attached to the Catholic was compelled to find her commanders faith; and when Jacobinism had begun in the ranks, he rapidly attained wellto shake the throne and the altar, the deserved promotion, and was made a officers, for the most part, became émi- general of division in less than four grés, and carried their swords into the years. Advancement, however, in his camp of Condé. This was a turning- case, as indeed in many instances, was point in Macdonald's life. Of an in- as dangerous as it was often wonderful. dependent and manly nature he had The Terrorists in Paris ruled the nation; learned to detest the harsh Prussian the Jacobin Republic fought for existdiscipline, introduced of late into the ence; its multitudinous levies rolled French army; he inclined to the new over the border battling with "York, ideas that were stirring France; he had Cobourg, and the hordes of tyranny," married, and was about to become a and woe betide the general who was father; and he refused to leave the natal not successful, or officers suspected of soil with his comrades, and threw in his "want of civism;" the delegates of the lot with the Revolution and its cause, at Committee of Public Safety and the guilthis moment threatened by old feudal lotine made short work of such obstacles. Europe. Many years afterwards, with Macdonald, as one of Dumouriez's aidescharacteristic frankness, he explained de-camp, inevitably became a marked the motives of his conduct to the Comte man, when the defection of his chief d'Artois, the Coryphæus of the émigré had transpired, and he was haled before faction: "I must make a confession to the conventional judges at Lille to acyour Royal Highness." "Well, what count for an imaginary military fault.

the

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 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 cried out,Long live the king.'

The fearless soldier stood firm and 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 grudge 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 the army, to order my arrest, and to post. So I was passed over.” hand me over to the revolutionary tribunal of Arras, which let no one escape. I had made a republican general and an extravagant revolutionist a mortal enemy, for I had ridiculed his cowardice at the assault of Ménin; he had become a by-word and the laughing-stock of the troops, even of those of the same mind as himself. He had denounced and caused the death of General Lamarliere, poor fellow; but it was the will of divine justice that he should lose his life and by the same punishment."

One of Macdonald's comrades, General Souham, a republican of the most extreme type, and well known many years afterwards as the principal author of the defection of the corps of Marmont in 1814, urged his friend to avoid certain death by flight: "The general sent a message to inform me of what had occurred." He added, "Well, you are J-m; see what you have to do, for you will be deprived of your command. He advised me to elude the order, which had been postponed."

Macdonald narrowly escaped for the third time, having been summoned "as a noble" by sansculotte patriots. His services, however, had been recognized, and in the memorable campaign of 1794, he played a considerable part in the conquest of Holland. The Republic had by this time triumphed; the league of all Europe had been defeated; the civil war which was tearing France to pieces had been put down with remorseless cruelty, and the Revolutionary armies were overrunning the region between the Meuse and the Rhine, like the lava floods of a raging volcano. 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