In 1790, at the age of forty-six, Moncey was but a sub-lieutenant of dragoons. Fortunately for him, however, when the Revolution opened, he was draughted into a battalion of light infantry; and thenceforth his promotion was rapid beyond his hopes. In 1791 he was captain, in 1794 chief of battalion; and in the course of the next two years, he had risen to be general of division, and received the command of the Eleventh Military Division at Bayonne. On the formation of the consular government, he was transferred to the Fifteenth Division at Lyons; where his moderation was such as to draw on him the ill-will of the Jacobins. But he soon left that city, at the head of 20,000 men, to join in the war of Italy. He passed Mount St. Gothard, seized on Bellinzona and Placentia, and fought at Marengo, Monzabano, and Roveredo.

During the next five years the life of Moncey contains nothing remarkable. His promotion, however, was not the less rapid. In 1801 he was placed over the gensdarmerie; in 1804 he became marshal of the empire; and subsequently president of the Electoral College of Doubs (his native department), and Duke of Cornegliano. With all our respect for this officer, it would be difficult to say what were the services which merited such splendid rewards.

1808-9.] The marshal was now recalled to the dangers of active warfare; but his operations in Spain were not brilliant. He defeated the inhabitants in three partial actions, but was repulsed before Valencia, and compelled to retreat. Some time afterwards he besieged Zaragoza, with no better success; and was in consequence recalled to France.

Few French generals, during the revolutionary and imperial sway, have passed through the world with as little notice as Moncey. Humane by nature, he is unstained by the horrible crimes of his period: honourable in his principles and upright in conduct, he carefully abstained from every species of rapacity or oppression, and aimed only at doing his duty in an unostentatious manner. The chief reason why he was not more frequently or prominently employed may, perhaps, be found in his sense of justice. But Moncey was, in truth, a cautious rather than a bold general; and therefore not well adapted for Napoleon's rapid and audacious system of warfare.

The Duke of Cornegliano was present in the Russian expedition, and in the following campaigns in Germany. In 1814 he was left at Paris with the National Guard, to watch over the public tranquillity. When Napoleon abdicated, he sent in his adhesion to the royal government, by which he was continued in his post of inspector-general of the gensdarmes, and was made peer of France and minister of state. On the return of the emperor, however, who nominated him member of the New Chamber, he did not refuse the honour, for which reason he was excluded when the House of Peers was re-modelled by Louis. His refusal to preside over the trial of Marshal Ney was still more resented by the court: he was degraded from his honours, and confined. But it was remembered that he had also refused to serve under Napoleon during the Hundred Days, and that whatever might be his errors of the understanding, he had evinced none of the heart; and in three months he procured not only his enlargement, but the restoration of all his dignities.

In 1823 the marshal was intrusted with an important command under the Duke of Angoulême in the invasion of Spain. As nothing but treachery, imbecility, and cowardice was exhibited by the constitutional generals, the progress of the French resembled a triumphant march rather than a warlike expedition; but of the little honour that was to be won, the aged Moncey merited and received his full share.