FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1630   1631   1632   1633   1634   1635   1636   1637   1638   1639   1640   1641   1642   1643   1644   1645   1646   1647   1648   1649   1650   1651   1652   1653   1654  
1655   1656   1657   1658   1659   1660   1661   1662   1663   1664   1665   1666   1667   1668   1669   1670   1671   1672   1673   1674   1675   1676   1677   1678   1679   >>   >|  
. Nevertheless, he was not as ill as M. de Segur states. He had had for some time a severe cold that he had somewhat neglected, and which was so much increased by the fatigue of this memorable day that he lost his voice almost entirely. He treated this with the soldier's prescription, and drank light punch during the whole night, which he spent working in his cabinet without being able to speak. This inconvenience lasted two days; but on the 9th he was well, and his hoarseness almost gone. After the battle, of every six corpses found, one would be French and five Russian. At noon an aide-de-camp came to inform the Emperor that Count Auguste de Caulaincourt, brother of the Duke of Vicenza, had been struck by a ball. The Emperor drew a deep sigh, but said not a word; for he well knew that his heart would most likely be saddened more, than once that day. After the battle, he expressed his condolences to the Duke of Vicenza in the most touching manner. Count Auguste de Caulaincourt was a young man full of courage, who had left his young wife a few hours after his marriage to follow the French army, and to find a glorious death at the battle of La Moskwa. He was governor of the pages of the Emperor, and had married the sister of one of his charges. This charming person was so young that her parents preferred that the marriage should not take place until he returned from the campaign, being influenced in this decision by the fate of Prince Aldobrandini after his marriage with Mademoiselle de la Rochefoucault before the campaign of Wagram. General Auguste de Caulaincourt was killed in a redoubt to which he had led the cuirassiers of General Montbrun, who had just been fatally wounded by a cannon-ball in the attack on this same redoubt. The Emperor often said, in speaking of generals killed in the army, "Such an one is happy in having died on the field of honor, while I shall perhaps be so unfortunate as to die in my bed." He was less philosophical on the occasion of Marshal Lannes's death, when I saw him, while at breakfast, weeping such large tears that they rolled over his cheeks, and fell into his plate. He mourned deeply for Desaix, Poniatowski, and Bessieres, but most of all for Lannes, and next to him Duroc. During the whole of the battle of the Moskwa the Emperor had attacks resembling stone in the bladder. He had been often threatened with this disease unless he was more prudent in his diet, and suffered much,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1630   1631   1632   1633   1634   1635   1636   1637   1638   1639   1640   1641   1642   1643   1644   1645   1646   1647   1648   1649   1650   1651   1652   1653   1654  
1655   1656   1657   1658   1659   1660   1661   1662   1663   1664   1665   1666   1667   1668   1669   1670   1671   1672   1673   1674   1675   1676   1677   1678   1679   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Emperor
 

battle

 

marriage

 

Caulaincourt

 

Auguste

 

French

 
Vicenza
 
redoubt
 

Lannes

 
killed

General

 

Moskwa

 
campaign
 

speaking

 

influenced

 

Aldobrandini

 

generals

 

Prince

 
Montbrun
 
decision

returned

 

cuirassiers

 
Wagram
 
cannon
 

attack

 

Mademoiselle

 

Rochefoucault

 
fatally
 

wounded

 

mourned


deeply

 

Desaix

 

Poniatowski

 

rolled

 
cheeks
 

prudent

 
Bessieres
 

bladder

 
During
 

attacks


threatened

 

disease

 

unfortunate

 
resembling
 

suffered

 

preferred

 

weeping

 

breakfast

 

philosophical

 
occasion