All the military world being stirred to activity for this war, I regretted that I could not take a share in it, and I understood what a false position I should be placed in at the renewal of hostilities. For, destined as I was to convey to my regiment the instruction which I had acquired in the cavalry school, I saw myself condemned to pass years at a depot, whip in hand, making recruits trot on old horses, while my comrades were serving at the head of the troopers whom I had trained. The prospect was not very agreeable; but how was I to change? A regiment must always be supplied by recruits, and it was certain that my colonel, having sent me to the cavalry school in order to learn to drill recruits, would not deprive himself of the services which I could render in this kind, and would exclude me from his fighting squadrons. I was in this perplexity, when one day, as I was walking at the end of the Avenue of Paris with a book on the Theory in my hand, a bright idea occurred to me which totally changed my destiny and aided vastly to raise me to the rank which I hold.

I had just learnt that the First Consul, having fault to find with the Court of Lisbon, had given orders to form at Bayonne an army corps which was intended to enter Portugal under Augereau as commander-in-chief. I knew that this general owed his promotion partly to my father, under whom he had served at the camp of Toulon and in the Pyrenees; and although the experience which I had gained at Genoa after my father's death was not calculated to give me a good opinion of man's gratitude, I resolved to write to Augereau informing him of my position, and begging him to deliver me from it by taking me for one of his aides-de-camp. I wrote my letter and sent it to my mother to obtain her approval. She not only assented, but, knowing that Augereau was in Paris, kindly took it to him herself. Augereau received the widow of his friend with the utmost courtesy; he at once drove off to the Minister of War, and that very evening brought to my mother my appointment as aide-de-camp. Thus was fulfilled the wish which four- and-twenty hours before I had considered a dream. The next day I hastened to thank the general; he received me most kindly, and ordered me to come and join him as soon as possible at Bayonne, whither he was proceeding immediately. It was the month of October, so that I had finished the first course at the cavalry school; and, having little curiosity to pursue the second, I left Versailles with joy. I had a presentiment that I was starting in a new direction, and one much more profitable than that of regimental instructor; nor was I deceived, for nine years later I was colonel, while my comrades whom I had left at the school had scarcely got their troops.

I repaired promptly to Bayonne, where I took up my duty as aide-de-camp to the commander-in-chief. He was occupying the fine chateau of Marac, not far from the town, where some years afterwards the Emperor resided. I was well received by the general and by my new comrades his aides-de-camp, who had nearly all served under my father. This staff, although it did not give so many general officers to the army as that of Bernadotte, was very well composed. General Donzelot, chief of the staff, was a very capable man, and afterwards became governor of the Ionian Islands, and then of Martinique. The deputy chief of the staff was named Colonel Albert; he died a general, and aide-de-camp to the Duke of Orleans. The aides were Colonel Sicard, who was killed at Heilsberg, Major Brame, and Major Massy, who was killed when colonel at the Moskowa; Captain Chévetel, and Lieutenant Mainvielle; I was the sixth and the junior. The staff was completed by Dr. Raymond, an excellent practitioner and a most honourable man, who was of great assistance to me at the battle of Eylau. The marshal's half-brother, Colonel Augereau, accompanied the staff. He was a kindly man, who afterwards became lieutenant-general.

I must now give some account of Marshal Augereau's history. Most of the generals who became celebrated in the early wars of the Revolution rose from the lower ranks of society; but it is wrong to imagine, as some have done, that they were without education and owed their success to nothing but their brilliant courage. Augereau especially has been much misjudged. People have thought fit to represent him as a kind of rough, noisy, ill-conditioned swashbuckler. This is a mistake; for, although his youth was pretty stormy, and though he fell into sundry errors in politics, he was kind, well- mannered, and affectionate. I can assert that of the five marshals under whom I served he was distinctly the one who did most to alleviate the evils of war, who showed most kindness to non-combatants, and treated his officers the best, living with them like a father among his children. He had an extremely disturbed life, but before judging him one must consider the manners and customs of the period.

Pierre Augereau was born in Paris in 1757. His father did a large business as a fruiterer, and had amassed a sufficient fortune to enable him to educate his children well. His mother was a native of Munich, and she had the good sense always to speak German to her son, so that he spoke it perfectly, which both in his travels and in war was of great use to him. Augereau was a handsome man, tall and well built. He was fond of all physical exercises, and a proficient at them: a good rider, and an excellent swordsman. At the age of seventeen he lost his mother, and her brother, who was one of the secretaries of 'Monsieur,' obtained his enlistment in the carabineers, of which that prince was proprietary colonel. He passed some years at Saumur, the regular garrison of the carabineers. His attention to duty and his good conduct soon raised him to the rank of non-commissioned officer. Unfortunately, at that time there was a craze for duelling, and Augereau's reputation as an excellent fencer compelled him to fight often, for among the garrison it was the correct thing to allow no superior. Noblemen, officers, soldiers, used to fight on the most futile grounds. Thus it happened that on one occasion, when Augereau was on a long leave in Paris, the celebrated fencing-master Saint-Georges, seeing him pass, said in the presence of several swordsmen that 'there went one of the best blades in France.' Thereupon a sergeant of dragoons named Belair, who claimed to be the next best to Saint-Georges, wrote to Augereau that he should like to fight him unless the other would admit his superiority. Augereau answered that he would do nothing of the sort, so they met in the Champs Elysées, and Belair got a thrust right through the body. He recovered, and, having left the service, married and became father of eight children. In the early days of the Empire, being at a loss how to feed them, it occurred to him to apply to his old adversary, now become a marshal. I knew the man, he was witty and gay in a very original fashion. He called upon Augereau with a fiddle under his arm, and said that, having nothing to give his eight children for dinner, he was going to make them dance to keep up their spirits unless the marshal would kindly give him the means of supplying them with more substantial nourishment. Augereau recognised Belair, asked him to dinner, gave him money, and in a few days obtained him a very good post in the Government Parcels Office, and got two of his sons into a lycée. This conduct needs no remark.

All Augereau's duels did not end thus. According to a most absurd usage, ancient feuds existed between certain regiments, the cause of which was often pretty much forgotten, but which were handed down from one generation to another, and gave rise to duels whenever those corps met. Thus the Luneville gendarmes and the carabineers had been at war for more than half a century, although in all this period they had not seen each other. At last, at the beginning of Louis XVI.'s reign, these two bodies were summoned to the camp at Compiègne; so to show that they were no less brave than their predecessors, carabineers and gendarmes resolved to fight, and the custom was of such ancient date that the chiefs felt bound to wink at it. However, in order to avoid too great bloodshed, they contrived to make a regulation that there should be only one duel. Each corps was to appoint a combatant to represent it, and after that there should be a truce. As the self-esteem of each side required that the selected champion should be victorious, the carabineers picked out their twelve best swordsmen, Augereau being among them, and it was agreed to choose by lot the one to whom the honour of the regiment should be entrusted. The lot was that day even blinder than usual, for it fell upon a sergeant named Donnadieu who had five children. Augereau remarked that they ought not to have put among the papers one bearing the name of a father of a family, and demanded to act as his substitute. Donnadieu declared that as the lot had fallen on him he would go out; Augereau insisted. At last the generous contest was terminated by the meeting accepting Augereau's proposal. They soon learnt who was the combatant chosen by the gendarmes, and it only remained to bring the adversaries together, so that a shadow of a quarrel might furnish a pretext for the meeting.

Augereau's adversary was a terrible man, an excellent swordsman and a professional duellist, who, to keep his hand in while waiting, had in the previous days killed two sergeants of the Garde Française. Augereau, without letting himself be frightened by this bully's reputation, went off to the cafe, where he knew that he would come, and sat down at a table to wait for him. The gendarme entered, and as soon as the carabineers' champion was pointed out to him he turned up his coat-tails and sat down insolently on the table with his hind-quarters a foot from Augereau's face. The latter was at this moment taking a cup of very hot coffee; he gently opened the slit which in those days existed in the waistband of the leather breeches worn by the cavalry, and poured the scalding liquid upon the person of the impertinent gendarme. The man turned round in a fury. The quarrel was started, and they went off to the ground, followed by a crowd of carabineers and gendarmes. On the way the gendarme, by way of a ferocious raillery of his intended victim, asked Augereau in a jeering tone, 'Would you rather be buried in the town or in the country?' Augereau replied, 'I prefer the country, I have always liked the open air.' 'Very good,' said the gendarme, turning to his second, 'you may put him beside the two whom I packed off yesterday and the day before.' This was not very encouraging, and might have shaken the nerves of another than Augereau. It was not so with him. Resolved to defend his life to the best of his power, he played so close and so well that his adversary, enraged at being unable to touch him, lost his temper and blundered. Augereau, always calm, profited by this to run him through, remarking, 'You shall be buried in the country.'

When the camp was broken up the carabineers returned to Saumur, where Augereau continued to serve quietly until a disastrous event drove him into a life of adventure. A young officer of high birth and very hasty temper, happening to find some fault with the manner in which the horses were groomed, fell foul of Augereau, and in a fit of anger offered to strike him with his whip in presence of the whole squadron. Augereau replied to the insult by sending the imprudent officer's whip flying from his hand. In a rage he drew his sword and attacked Augereau, saying, 'Defend yourself!' Augereau at first confined himself to parrying, but, having been wounded, he at length returned a thrust, and the officer fell dead. General Count de Malseigne, who commanded the carabineers as deputy for 'Monsieur,' was soon informed of this affair; and although the eye- witnesses with one accord testified that Augereau had been most unjustly provoked, and that it was a case of lawful self-defence, the interest which he took in Augereau led him to think it advisable to get him out of the way. He therefore summoned a soldier named Papon, a native of Geneva, whose time expired in a few days, and asked him to let Augereau have his paper of discharge, promising him another shortly. Papon agreed, for which Augereau was always most grateful to him. Having reached Geneva, he learnt that in spite of the evidence a court-martial had condemned him to death for having drawn his sword on an officer.

The Papon family exported watches largely to the East. Augereau resolved to accompany the clerk who was sent in charge of them, and thus visited Greece, the Ionian Islands, Constantinople, and the shores of the Black Sea. When he was in the Crimea a Russian colonel, judging from his fine bearing that he had been a soldier, offered him the rank of sergeant. Augereau accepted, and passed some years in the Russian army, serving under Souvaroff against the Turks, and being wounded at the assault on Ismail. Peace having been made between Russia and the Porte, Augereau's regiment was ordered to Poland; but, not caring to stay longer among the Russians, half-barbarous as they were, he deserted and reached Prussia. There he took service, at first in Prince Henry's regiment; later on his stature and his pleasing countenance gained him admission into Frederick the Great's celebrated regiment of guards. He was there for two years, and his captain held out hopes of promotion to him, when one day the King, reviewing his guards, stopped in front of Augereau 'There is a fine grenadier: what countryman is he?' said the King. 'A Frenchman, sir.' 'So much the worse,' replied Frederick, who had come to hate the French as much as he once liked them; 'so much the worse. If he had been a Swiss or a German, we might have made something of him.'

After this assurance from the King's mouth that he would never come to anything in Prussia he decided to leave the country: not an easy thing to do, for every desertion was signalled by a cannon-shot, and the populace at once pursued in order to get the reward, while the deserter when taken was shot. To avoid this misfortune and regain his liberty, Augereau, knowing well that a good third of the guards who were foreigners like himself longed for nothing better than to get out of Prussia, got speech of some sixty of the boldest, and pointed out that if they deserted individually they were lost, as two or three men were quite able to arrest one. The right thing was for them all to go off together with arms and ammunition, so as to be able to defend themselves. They acted accordingly, Augereau taking command. Though attacked on the road by the peasants, and even by a detachment of soldiers, these determined men, with loss of some of their numbers, but with greater loss to their assailants, reached in one night a small place belonging to Saxony, not more than ten leagues from Potsdam. 2Augereau went on to Dresden, where he gave dancing and fencing lessons until the birth of Louis XVI.'s eldest son. The French Government celebrated this event by an amnesty to all deserters, which enabled Augereau not only to return to Paris, but also to re-enter the carabineers. His sentence was quashed, and General de Malseigne claimed him back as one of the best sergeants in the regiment. Augereau thus recovered his rank and his position. In 1788 the King of Naples, feeling the necessity of reform in his army, asked the King of France to send him as instructors some officers and non-commissioned officers, promising them an advance in rank. Augereau was among those selected, and on arriving at Naples received the rank of sub-lieutenant. He served there several years, and had just become lieutenant, when he fell in love with the daughter of a Greek merchant. The father being unwilling to agree to his proposal, they got secretly married; then, going on board the first ship that they found starting, they went to Lisbon, where they lived quietly for some time.

By the end of 1792 the French Revolution had made great progress, and all the sovereigns of Europe, dreading to see the new principles introduced into their states, began to take severe measures towards Frenchmen. Augereau has often told me that during his stay in Portugal he had never said or done anything which could alarm the Government nevertheless he was arrested and imprisoned by the Inquisition. He had lain some months in prison, when Madame Augereau saw one day a ship enter the port with a tricolour flag; she went on board and handed to the captain a letter informing the French Government of her husband's arbitrary arrest. The French skipper did not belong to the navy, but nevertheless he went boldly to the Portuguese Ministers, claimed his compatriot who was detained by the Inquisition, and on their refusal to give him up declared war upon them in the name of France. Whether it was that the Portuguese were frightened or that they understood the injustice of their action, Augereau was released, and with his wife returned to Havre in the brave skipper's vessel.

On arriving in Paris Augereau was promoted captain and sent to La Vendee. There, by his advice and his courage, he saved the army of the incapable General Ronsin, earning thereby the rank of major. Sick of fighting against Frenchmen, he asked permission to go to the Pyrenees, and was sent to the camp at Toulouse, then commanded by my father, who, struck with the way in which he performed his duty, got him the post of divisional-adjutant with colonel's rank and showed him much kindness, which Augereau never forgot. As general he distinguished himself in the wars in Spain and in Italy, especially at Castiglione. On the eve of this battle the French army was surrounded on all sides, and in a very critical position. Bonaparte, who was commanding in chief, summoned a council of war, for the only time in his life. All the generals, even Masséna, were in favour of retreating until Augereau, pointing out the way of escaping from the difficulty, ended by saying: 'Were you all to go, I shall remain, and with my division shall attack the enemy at daybreak.' Bonaparte, struck by Augereau's arguments, said, very well, I will stay with you.' After that there was no more talk of retreat, and on the morrow a brilliant victory, due in great part to the valour and the fine tactics of Augereau, assured the position of the French army in Italy for a long time. So it was that when certain jealous tongues thought fit to slander Augereau in the presence of the Emperor, he answered, 'Let us not forget that he saved us at Castiglione,' and when he created his new nobility he named Augereau Duke of Castiglione.

On the death of General Hoche Augereau took his place with the Army of the Rhine, and after the establishment of the Consulate he was put in command of the Gallo- Batavian Army, composed of French and Dutch troops, with which he fought the campaign of 1800 in Franconia, and won the battle of Burg-Eberach. After the Peace he bought the estate and chateau of La Houssaye. With reference to this purchase, I may say that there has been much exaggeration of the fortunes made by some generals of the Army of Italy. After drawing for twenty years the pay of commander-in-chief or marshal, and enjoying for seven years an annuity of 200,000 francs, and a salary of 25,000 francs with the Legion of Honour, Augereau left at his death only the capital of 48,000 francs a year. Never was man more generous, more disinterested, more ready to do a kindness. I could quote many instances of it, but I will confine myself to two.

After his elevation to the Consulate General Bonaparte formed a numerous guard, the infantry of which he placed under the command of General Lannes. He, though a most distinguished soldier, had no idea of administration; so, instead of keeping to the established rate for the purchase of cloth, linen, and such-like, thought that nothing could be good enough for his men. Consequently the officials of the clothing department, delighted at being able to deal with the purveyors by private contract in order to obtain their commissions, and further, thinking that the name of General Lannes, friend of the First Consul, would cover any amount of plundering, designed the uniforms in such luxurious style that when it came to paying the bills they were found to be 300,000 francs in excess of the sum allowed by the official regulations. The First Consul, who had resolved to bring the finances into order, and to compel the commanders of regiments not to exceed the credits sanctioned, was determined to make an example. Fond as he was of Lannes, and though convinced that not a centime had got into his pocket, he declared him responsible for the deficit of 300,000 francs, and allowed him only eight days to pay this sum into the regimental chest, under pain of being brought before a court-martial. This severe decision produced an excellent effect, putting a stop to the waste which had been going on in regimental expenditure. But Lannes, although recently married to the daughter of Senator Guéhéneuc, found it impossible to pay. Then Augereau, learning his friend's awkward position, hurried to his solicitor, got 300,000 francs, and told his secretary to pay them in the name of General Lannes into the regimental chest of the Guard. The First Consul, when he heard of this, was most grateful to Augereau, and in order to put Lannes in a position to be able to discharge his debt he gave him the very well-paid embassy to Lisbon.

Another instance of Augereau's generosity was the following. Bernadotte, with whom he was not very intimate, had bought the estate of Lagrange. He had reckoned on paying it out of his wife's dowry; but there was some delay in obtaining this in full, and the vendors pressed for payment. He therefore asked Augereau to lend him 200,000 francs for five years, which Augereau agreed to do. Madame Bernadotte bethought her of asking what interest he would require. 'Madam,' answered Augereau, 'bankers and moneylenders, no doubt quite rightly, draw profit from the money which they lend; but when a marshal is fortunate enough to be able to oblige a comrade, the pleasure of doing him a service is interest enough for him.' That was the man who has been represented as hard and grasping. I will not at the present moment relate any more of his life; the rest of his career will be told as I go along; and having made know his good qualities, I shall not conceal his faults.