Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/69

 ii. JULY 16, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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mistake. He was appointed a sub-lieutenant " au regiment d'Angoumois - infanterie," 1 September, 1767 (see p. 48 of M. Derou- lede's book), after having served about five months in the Mousquetaires Noirs, in which corps no one could serve who was not by birth a "gentilhomme " (ibid., p. 46). In 1782 he applied, in vain, for an appointment as aide-de-camp in the island of Minorca (ibid., p. 127). On 29 October, 1784, he became by seniority " capitaine en second," i.e., after seventeen years' service as a lieutenant (ibid., p. 136).

In 1792, after the Revolution, he was a captain of grenadiers (ibid., p. 170), appa- rently of the 148 e demi - brigade, formerly called the " Regiment d'Angoumois " (ibid., p. 172). In June, 1793, the grade of general de brigade was offered him, which he refused, but General Servan formed all the grenadiers into one corps, consisting of 6,000 to 7,000 men, arid gave him the command, so that as a captain he was practically a general of brigade. This corps was named the "division d 'avant- garde," and soon bore the sobriquet of "la colonne infernale" (ibid., pp. 182, 200-1, 242). He was a captain before the Revolution and remained a captain, refusing any higher grade, as he also refused the place in the Corps Legislatif offered to him by the Senate after the coup d'Jtot of the 18 Brumaire, 1799 (ibid., p. 237).

In his last three campaigns he appears to have served in the ranks. When he was nearly fifty-four years old, he served as a substitute for the last remaining son of his friend Le Brigant, who had been drawn for the conscription. He served, apparently as a private soldier, but with the title of capitaine volontaire, always by the side of the titular captain of his old company in the 46 e demi- brigade in 1797 with the army of the Rhine (ibid., p. 232).

Again as substitute for the young Le Brigant he served in Massena's army in Switzerland in 1799, and was present at the battle of Zurich, being among the first to enter the town (ibid., p. 236).

In Carnot's letter to him dated 5 floreal, an VIII., is the following :

" II vole h, 1'armee du Rhin, remplace le fils de son ami, et, pendant deux campagnes, le sac sur le dps, toujours an premier rang, il est a toutes les affaires, et anime les grenadiers par ses discours et par son exemple." Ibid., p. 242.

This was the letter in which was given to him, by order of the First Consul, the title of "Premier Grenadier des Arme'es de la .Rrpublique." His last campaign of all, his third as sub-

stitute for the young Le Brigant, was in 1800. Besides being a substitute he was specially requested by Carnot, the Minister for War, to rejoin the army (ibid., pp. 253-4).

On 21 June, 1800, a little more than a month after having been named " First Grenadier," he rejoined the army of the Rhine com- manded by Moreau, and at his own request was placed in the 46 e demi-brigade. On the 27th he was killed near Neubourg (ibid.,, pp. 253, 257, 258, 261).

That he was not then serving as an officer appears from M. Deroulede's account (p. 261) : "La Tour d'Auvergne, au premier rang des grenadiers, croise la baionnette contre les cavaliers autrichiens." That he was by rank an officer is plain, not only from the inscription on the guard of his sword, but also from a letter of his to Le Coz, in which, speaking of his leaving Bpdmin, where he had been confined as a prisoner of war, he speaks of his exchange for an English officer of equal rank (ibid., p. 225). In the preface (p. 14) M. Deroulede writes: "Je le revis debout, au premier rang de la bataille, rem- plissant toujours et partout, avec trop d "abnegation peut-etre, son r6le d'officier- soldat."

The Hotel Carnavalet, where Madame de Sevigne lived for twenty years, contains most interesting and beautiful collections.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

MR. H. G. HOPE is wrong in believing La Tour d'Auvergne to have been always a private. He was an officer of the ancien regime. Passing through the Royal College of La Fleche, he became a sous-lieutenant in the Mousquetaires Noirs, a most aristocratic body, part of the Maison Rouge (the " Noir " referring to the horses, and the "Rouge" to the coat). He then passed into the line, and became lieutenant and, in 1784, captain. In 1791 he received the Cross of St. Louis. From 1784 until his death he served as captain, his refusal of higher promotion being by no means an isolated case. He was not descended legitimately from the illustrious family whose name he took. See 4 Le Capitaine la Tour d'Auvergne,' par Simond (Perrin, 1895). R. PHIPPS, Colonel late R.A.

MARK HILDESLEY (10 th S. i. 344,414,475). My inquiries on the subject of this gentle- man have resulted in the discovery at the British Museum of a book which is evidently entirely in his own handwriting. It is a small octavo volume (Harl. MSS. 4726) of about 150 pages, mainly containing short ' Essays by a Jurisprudent ' on various points of morals, religion, and occasionally politics.