Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/317

Rh ing had been wasted upon him, was given a commission in the Consular Guards. A quarrel and a duel, with the son of General Davout, caused him to quit the army and join the navy. In 1803 he visited the United States, where he married Miss Patterson, but the marriage was declared null and void by the Emperor.

After seeing some naval service, he returned to France and was eventually received into the favour of his elder brother, given the command of an army corps, and eventually created king of Westphalia and married the Princess Catharine of Wurtemberg. He was a mere "Carnival King," and indulged in every sort of dissipation, took baths of Bordeaux wine, bestowed enormous gifts of money on his male and female favourites, and wasted nearly a quarter of the revenues of his extensive kingdom in vice and debauchery.

When the fall of the Empire seemed imminent, he at first thought of joining his brother's enemies, but finding that such a step would bring him nothing but disgrace, retired first to France, and then to Trieste, with his wife, who still refused to leave him.

After Napoleon's escape from Elba, Jerome again rejoined his brother, and fought gallantly at Charleroi, Quatre-Bras and Water-