At a very early period Junot enlisted into the army, some accounts say in consequence of disputes with his father, whom he insulted and plundered. Of his military exploits nothing is known until the siege of Toulon, when he was a simple grenadier. Here he was fortunate to attract the notice of the young commandant of the artillery. During a heavy cannonade, Buonaparte, having occasion to dictate a despatch inquired if any one near him could write. Junot stepped out of the ranks, and while penning the despatch, a shot struck the ground close by his side, and covered both with dust. "This is fortunate, Sir," observed the grenadier, laughing, "I was in want of sand." "You are a brave fellow," said Buonaparte; how can I serve you?" "Give me promotion; I will not disgrace it!" He was immediately made a serjeant; not long afterwards he obtained a commission; and in 1796 was nominated aide-de-camp to his benefactor.

In the campaign of Italy this officer exhibited daring courage, and it is said unequalled rapacity: the former brought him the grade of colonel; the latter enabled him to indulge in his habits of dissipation. In Egypt, too, he served with distinction as general of brigade, and soon after his return was placed over a division. Into the Legion of Honour he entered as a matter of course; but to the particular favour of Napoleon he owed the governorship of Paris, and the embassy to Lisbon, the latter of which was it most lucrative mission. Having forced the feeble Don John to purchase peace at a high price, he returned to Paris, as if the object of his embassy were fully accomplished, and permanent concord was thenceforth to reign between the two courts; but scarcely had he passed through the German campaign, than he again returned to Lisbon, extorted another large sum from the besotted government, and insisted that every British resident should be arrested, and all British property confiscated. Though Don John was weak, even to helplessness, he was an honest man, and he disdained to make such an ungrateful return to his best allies. He advised the English to wind up their accounts, and leave the country with all possible expedition; and owing to this timely notice, most of them escaped with whatever property their hurry would permit them to collect. But no concessions would have satisfied the tyrant: long before the result of his demands could be known, he had entered into a treaty with the despicable court of Spain for the dismemberment of the kingdom; and forthwith Junot, whom he knew to be unprincipled enough for any enterprise, received orders once more to enter Portugal at the head of a powerful army, to make prisoners of the royal family, and to seize the principal towns and fortresses.

Had Junot been an honest man, he would have indignantly spurned this commission; but he was as little swayed by moral principle or humane feeling as the veriest leader of banditti. He entered this ill-fated kingdom in November, 1807, and though his first act was a proclamation in which he expressed the utmost friendship to the nation, and averred that he came as the ally of Don John, his subsequent ones were uniformly fiendish. On the march from Alcantara to Lisbon, his soldiers seized cattle, provisions, money -- very thing they could carry away. "They pillaged as they went (says Southey), and the very officers robbed the houses in which they were quartered: olive and other fruit-trees were cut down for fuel, or to form temporary barracks; houses and churches were plundered. They burnt or mutilated the images in the churches, and threw the wafer to be trodden under foot." When they entered Abrantes, they drove before them all the cattle they had been able to collect; they had more than sufficient for their wants, and they sold the remainder in open market. Their general-in-chief ordered twelve thousand pair of shoes to be -- gratuitously of course -- provided for them; but the poor inhabitants could only furnish between two and three thousand. "These exactions were less intolerable to the Portuguese than the insults and irreligion with which they were accompanied. A colonel who was quartered in a capuchin convent made the guardian pull off his boots, and after robbing the convent of the few valuables which it possessed, threatened to fusillade him if he did not bring him money; the friar had no other resource but that of feigning to seek it, and taking flight. In the church of St. Antonio the altars were used as mangers for the horses*."

* Southey's Peninsular War, vol. i. p. 105.

In this way Junot marched on to the capital, but before he reached it the royal family had embarked for the Brazils. His rage was great at finding his prey had escaped him. He put down the regency which Don John had appointed, levied oppressive contributions, severely punished all who ventured to speak against his measures, allayed partial revolts by the bloodiest executions, -- in short, he held unbounded and unbridled sway over the lives and fortunes of the inhabitants. The dreadful state to which he reduced Lisbon, formerly so flourishing, cannot be better described than in the words of the same historian:--

"The situation of Lisbon, at this time, is one to which history affords no parallel: it suffered neither war, nor pestilence, nor famine, yet these visitations could scarcely have produced a greater degree of misery; and the calamity did not admit of hope; for whither at this time could Portugal look for deliverance? As the government was now effectually converted into a military usurpation, it became easy to simplify its operations; and most of the persons formerly employed in civil departments were dismissed from office. Some were at once turned off; others had documents given them, entitling them to be reinstated upon vacancies; a few had some trifling pension promised. All who had depended for employment and subsistence upon foreign trade were now destitute. Whole families were thus suddenly reduced to poverty and actual want. Their trinkets went first, whatever was saleable followed: things offered for sale at such a time were sold at half their price, while the price of food was daily augmenting. It was a dismal thing to see the Mint beset with persons who carried thither the few articles of plate with which they had formerly set forth a comfortable board, and the ornaments which they had worn in happier days. It was a dismal thing to see men pale with anxiety, passing through crowds who were on the same miserable errand, and women weeping as they offered their little treasure to the scales. Persons who had lived in plenty and respectability were seen publicly asking alms -- for thousands were at once reduced to the alternative of begging or stealing: and women of unblemished virtue till this fatal season, walked the streets, offering themselves to prostitution, that the mother might obtain bread for her hungry children -- the daughter for her starving parents: such was the state to which one of the most flourishing cities in Europe was reduced!"

Junot had sent divisions of his troops throughout the whole country to take possession of the fortresses, so that the kingdom lay for a time at his feet. Created Duke of Abrantes by the emperor, his ambitious aspirings looked to a much higher elevation: he considered the Lusitanian crown within his reach. Some accounts say, that he had derived well-founded hopes of such a dignity from the tenor of his master's conversation: however this may be, certain it is that he endeavoured to prevail on the nobles and clergy to solicit a king from Napoleon, that king to be himself. But he was soon rudely awakened from his dreams of royalty. His lieutenants, whom he had placed over the great towns, and who equalled himself in rapacity and cruelty, were not always able to quell the insurrections which desperation daily produced: many of his troops were cut off in straggling parties. Meanwhile an English force, under Sir Arthur Wellesley, had landed on the coast, and was advancing to drive him from the country. He assembled his generals, with their respective divisions, and hastened to oppose the enemy. The battle of Vimeiro was so decisive, that he was compelled to enter into a convention for the evacuation of Portugal. Before he left Lisbon, however, he and his soldiers plundered to such purpose, that he declared five ships would be necessary for the conveyance of his baggage; in which were included many valuable pictures, fifty-three casks of indigo, some excellent studs of horses, a great number of manuscripts and curiosities from the national museum, and an amazing quantity of specie. To his sore mortification, Junot was compelled to disgorge most of this booty; but still he escaped with sufficient to render him affluent for the remainder of his days. He returned to France, followed by the curses of the Portuguese, and to meet an incensed master, who was little wont to make allowances for miscarriage in any of his generals. From this time until 1812 he remained in complete disgrace.

In the Russian campaign, Junot headed a division, but he gathered no new laurels, and consequently could not obtain the marshal's truncheon*. On his return he was sent to protect the Illyrian provinces against an invasion of the Austrians; but he was now become equally miserable in mind and body: a fever of long duration ended in settled derangement. For some time his freaks caused the amusement of his domestics, but at length he became a mere idiot, and was conveyed to the retirement of his father's house at Montbard, where he arrived July 22, 1813. He had not been in the house more than two hours when he arose from his seat, leaped through a high window, and broke his thigh. The limb was amputated, but an inflammation succeeded, and occasioned his death on the sixth day after his arrival.

* See the Life of Murat.

In his person Junot was eminently handsome; in his manners coarse and brutal; in his character unprincipled, rapacious, and cruel. But he had a considerable share of moral as well as physical energy, and few men could obey orders better than he. This praise is due to the earlier part of his career; after his disgrace he appeared a different man. Of all men, however, be was one of the least fit to direct a whole army, and it is not easy to imagine why he was ever intrusted with the chief command. As we have been compelled to say so much ill of him, it gives us pleasure to conclude this sketch with an anecdote which does him honour.

When the general returned from the Egyptian expedition, he went into Burgundy to see his relatives and friends, and to shew them that prosperity had not altered his sentiments towards them. At Montbard, where he had received what little education he possessed, he called on his schoolfellows, whom he saluted with great cordiality; but his emotion was much greater when he met with his former preceptor, whom he had believed to be dead. He threw his arms around the old man's neck, and kissed him. Surprised to receive such testimonies of regard from a stranger, especially from one so richly habited, the schoolmaster looked foolish, and was unable to utter a word. "Do you not know me?" inquired the young officer, "I have not that honour, Sir." "What! not know the idlest, the most dissolute, and worthless of your scholars?" "Am I speaking to M. Junot?" inquired the old man, with the utmost naïveté. The general laughed, again embraced his tutor, and on going away, settled on him an annual pension.