Page:A French volunteer of the war of independence (the chevalier de Pontgibaud).djvu/14

VI Pontgibaud married— 31 July 1789 — a daughter of Marechal de Vaux, and the widow of Comte de Fougieres, marechal de camp. He was deeply attached to her, and only survived her a few months. She died in 1836 and he in 1837. From the time of his return to France (18 14) till his wife's death, he resided at 6, Place Royale, Paris, but afterwards removed to the residence of his nephew, Comte de Pontgibaud, 32, Rue des Tournelles, where he died.

He was a genial, kind-hearted man, and it is related of him that in his later days he never left home without a pocketful of five-francs pieces, one of which coins he would bestow on each poor person he met. " As I want for nothing myself," he said, "let me do all I can for poor people who do want." Indeed had it not been for his charitable disposition he would never in all likelihood have written his book. His cousin, Mme de Lavau, who was interested in many charitable works, said to him one day, " My dear cousin, you have had such an adventurous career that an account of the principal events of your life would make a most interesting book. I would give away the copies as prizes in a lottery, and I warrant we should get a large sum for one of my charities." The proposal was perhaps hardly flattering to the author, but he was too kind-hearted to refuse, and the book was duly written. He even permitted a relative to pad out the volume by the addition of some singularly dull letters, which, being devoid of all interest, have been omitted from the present translation.

The Memoires du Comte de M (the writer was then known as the Comte de More) has become a rare book, and appears to have been unknown to many of the historians and biographers whose writings relate to the War of Independence and the actors concerned in it.