When the revolution burst forth, the young Marquis de Grouchy was a subaltern in the gardes-du-corps. After some hesitation whether he should emigrate or abide in France, he decided for the republican service, and commenced his career in it as colonel of dragoons. He had served scarcely a year when the decree against all of noble birth banished him from the army. He retired into the country; but such was his impatience of inactivity, that he ere long enrolled himself as a private among the national guards, and marched against the royalists of La Vendée; where he exhibited so much of zeal and ferocity, that in 1795 he was made general of division.
Hoche, the general-in-chief of the armies of the west, had long wished to head an expedition to Ireland. In 1796-7 the directory gratified him by fitting out a considerable armament at Brest; and Grouchy was appointed his second in command. The fleet was dispersed in a storm, and this latter general arrived in Bantry Bay with a portion only of the armament. Instead of making a descent on the coast, he precipitately returned to France. The admiral feared, and with reason, that he should be followed by an English squadron, and compelled to surrender his whole fleet. Hoche himself, on contemplating the means of defence, was not resolute enough to land; and as he stood in the same fear of our cruisers as Grouchy had done, he also quietly returned home.
During the next four years Grouchy was employed in superintending the execution of the Chouans of La Vendée and the rebels -- that is, the patriots -- of Piedmont. Subsequently he greatly distinguished himself in Italy, under his friend Moreau. At the peace he returned to Paris, and was named Inspector General of the Cavalry. He might have had other and even better posts had he not mortally offended the First Consul by loudly asserting the innocence of Moreau. The fidelity with which he adhered to his friend on that trying occasion did him great honour; but it was a fatal blow to his future prospects. The Legion of Honour was for a time closed to him, though open to every one else; for him was no marshal's baton, though the feeble Perignon, the stupid Serrurier, the slow, indecisive Kellerman, were favoured with it. But this was not all: he was thenceforth employed by the revengeful Corsican in none but the most perilous expeditions; , or in missions which could not fail to cover him with odium.
In the Austrian and Prussian wars (1805-6-7), Grouchy exhibited reckless valour; but his bloody spirit was most apparent at Madrid on the terrible second of May. He it was who, when the inhabitants rose against their perfidious oppressors, caused the doors of the houses to be burst open, and every one found with arms -- man, woman, or child, -- to be massacred. Great as was this slaughter, it did not satisfy either him or Murat*; the work of death was continued in cool blood. His celebrity as a manager of military tribunals was not forgotten: one was formed in Madrid.
* See the Life of the personage.
----"And the Spaniards who were brought before it were sent away to be slaughtered with little inquiry whether they had taken part in the struggle or not. Three groups of forty each were successively shot in the Prado, the great public walk of Madrid. Others, in like manner, were put to death near the Puerta del Sol, and the Puerta. del S. Vicente, and by the church of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, one of the most sacred places in the city. In this manner was the evening of that second of May employed by the French at Madrid. The inhabitants were ordered to illuminate their houses, a necessary means of safety for their invaders, in a city not otherwise lighted; and through the whole night the dead and the dying might be seen distinctly as in broad noon day, lying upon the bloody pavement. When morning came, the same mockery of justice was continued, and fresh murders were committed deliberately with the forms of military execution during several succeeding days*."
* Southey's Peninsular War, i. 316.
This acceptable service, and his brilliant valour in the campaign of 1809, so far mitigated the imperial ill-will, that after the peace of Presburg he was made Count of the Empire, Colonel-general of the Chasseurs, Commander of the Iron Crown, &c.; but not even his still more eminent services in the Russian expedition could procure him the rank of marshal. He retired from the service in disgust. After the first abdication, Louis confirmed him in his dignities, but incurred his resentment by depriving him of his command of the Chasseurs. He therefore hastened to Buonaparte as soon as he was once more established in the Tuileries; and was rewarded with the government of Lyons, and three military divisions.
When Grouchy arrived at Lyons, he issued a proclamation to the soldiers and inhabitants, calling on the former to join the great military family, and on both to oppose the approach of the Duke d'Angoulême. He went out to meet his Royal Highness, but before he met him, the duke had been compelled to capitulate, on the condition that he should be allowed to embark at Cette for Spain. Grouchy sent for Damas, the prince's aide-de-camp, and declared that he could not ratify Gilly's convention; adding, that his own head must answer for his obedience to the orders he had received. What those orders were he did not explain, but he took care that the prince should be rigorously guarded. The house was surrounded by a numerous party; an officer of gensdarmes was placed in the duke's own chamber; and the very roof was occupied. He naturally thought that his doom was sealed, and to be assured of the circumstance, he sent Damas to Grouchy. Scarcely had the messenger delivered his errand, when the general exclaimed: "What! is my name associated with a Caulaincourt's?" Damas asked, if such were his sentiments, why had he accepted the odious trust? "I refused it twice," replied he, "but the third time I dared not;" -- adding, "besides, I have a large family, and my income is only 20,000 francs." He tore his hair, and lamented sorely, that Monseigneur had not escaped. He now asserted that he had received no instructions respecting his illustrious prisoner; but his agitation shewed that he feared the purport of those which must be on their way to him. He denied that the officer of gensdarmes had been placed in the prince's chamber by him, and promised to remove that subject of complaint. When pressed to declare how he would act if orders for the Duke's execution should arrive from Paris, he at first replied that he would obey them; but after a little conversation he engaged to suffer the prisoner to escape, or even to escape with him, rather than shed his blood. The convention was at length ratified, though the intervention of Maret*, and the royal prisoner allowed to embark.
* See his Memoir.
Having received his long-expected brevet, Marshal Grouchy accompanied the emperor into Belgium. June. 16th he commanded the French right wing at the battle of Ligny, and was left with a corps 32,000 strong to watch the motions of the Prussians.
On the 17th he received orders to attack Blucher, and prevent that general from joining Wellington on the plains of Waterloo. While he was engaged with a single division only, Blucher contrived to give him the slip, and to reach the field in time to assist in the pursuit of the French. He has been severely blamed for suffering the Prussian to depart; but was he aware of the circumstance? He perceived a considerable body of the enemy before him; he believed the whole Prussian army to be there, and consequently that, by preventing its junction with the English, he was rendering the most essential of services to his master. He led back his army to Paris, with the intention of supporting the claims of young Napoleon; but the popular current could not be stemmed; Louis was restored; and Grouchy was exiled by that monarch. He spent several years in the United States, but was at length (we believe in 1819) permitted to return to France.