Page:A French volunteer of the war of independence (the chevalier de Pontgibaud).djvu/227

Rh 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, Jérôme again rejoined his brother, and fought gallantly at Charleroi, Quatre-Bras and Waterloo. Imprisoned along with his wife by the Allies, he was after a few months set free, and went to reside first at Naples, then at Trieste, Rome, and Florence. In 1847 he was permitted to return to France. He took no part in the Revolution of 1848 beyond giving it his "moral support," but favoured the ambitious views of his nephew, who, in return created him Governor of the Invalides, a Marshal of France, and after the Coup d'Etat, President of the Senate. He took little or no part in politics, however, and was almost forgotten by the public when he died in 1860.