The National Register. — London, England, 1808-09-19 00:00:00

594 tion, " upon the field of glory, my feet inundated with the blood of traitors, I announce to You, with a heart heating with joy, that your orders are executed, and France avenged." In the following autumn 175% when Napoleon was confined in the south a- a terrorist, after the death of Robespierre, Junot ,hared the fate of his patron ; hut a general amnesty having opened their prison, these Iwo friends repaired to the capital, where their ta!ents soon procured them employment in their own way. When the contest took place hetween the Convention and the Sections of Paris, respecting the new Constitution, he joined his dear friends Bonaparte and Loison, particularly in the massacre on the night of the •Ith of October, 1795, in which Bonaparte, with his artillery, syv. - pt the streets in all directions, Unite; and wounding, ss ithout mercy or distinction, moil upwards of 8000 of both sexes, and of all ages, were left weltering in their blood. When the !howler of tbe cannon had ceased, the horrid perpe trators spread themselves through the streets to enjoy the bloody scene ; a ‘s minded mother, whose infant lay in her arms, crying in vain for the nourislonent of the hreast, attracted the attention of these savages, when danot stabbing the child, tore it from its mother's bosom, and throwing it to some distance, tauntingly told the wounded and disabled parent to seek it, and hush its cries ! This equality of disposition endeared him more and more to his patron, who on beim , elevated to the rank of Commander in Chief of the Army of Italy, in 174 It's, chose Junot as one of his Aids-de-('amp; throughout the whole of this campaign he acquitted hi tow'? so as to pre s erve the confidence of his General, particularly at Moodoyi. at Lodi, Milan, and Padua, where by his cru e l atrocities and skill in plundering, he proved his capa bility of cionmanding, and was promoted to the rank of colonel. At 'formai, after encouraging the soldiers in every excess, and joining in it himself, it was thought necessary to make an ex ample, and the immaculate Junco was the commanding officer superintending, the execution of a poor devil L.atouche, of the sth battalion, w In; the moment before be was shot, exclaimed, " You see, comrades, the fate await leg me—and you, commander of the detachment, if you had prohibited me front going to ma raud, I would not have been condemned to this ignominious death !" Such is the qualified detail, given even by one of their own historians. Ilk revolutionary flealc was highly gratified by his being introduced by Bonaparte into the elevated societies into which he intruded by force of artns, and here he took every opportunity of insulting fallen greatness, particularly whilst aecompanying his General to dinner with the Grand Duke at Florence', whose territories were then ravaged by the French troops. When a courier brought intelligence of the capture of Milan, Junot, turning round from the perusal of the dispatch, rudely exclaimed, " Citizen Grand Duke. tyranny. vi ill soon he crushed, Milan has fallen ! - -A fier the battle of Castigliona, this disgrace to humanity had nearly paid the forfeit of his crimes, for being detached by Bonaparte, at the head of the Corps of Guides to occupy Desentano, and annoy the A ostrians. be was opposed by Colonel Bender with a small detachment of Hulans, and so roughly handled, that he himself received six sabre wounds, and was thrown ieto a ditch, ss here he would have perished, but for the attention ur some of his routed party. At the battle of Sean), where he commanded the 7th regiment of Hussars, under General Victor, this humane officer displayed his bravery, and love for the Church, by cutting down a Capu chin Friar, who had encouraged his countrymen to resist these invaders; and at Loretto (where Augereau robbed the famous Chapel, and after taking down the sacred image, in order to send it to Pittis, placed a common strumpet on the pedestal, obliging even the female pilgrims of the highest rank to how down before her,) Citizen Junot was also a principal actor, and shessed himself a worthy disciple of the new philosophy. On the sailing of the expedition to Egypt, he embarked as Aid-de- Camp, - tod was au active assistant in that country and in Ss ria, in fraternizing with the inhabitants ; particularly at Coin), where le. took possession of a rich Mussulman's house for his own quarters, and not only obliged the unfortunate owner to maid,: his table for himself and friends, bat not content with the iun of the house, insisted on having the run of the haram ! also. Here he shared Bonaparte's most secret confidence along with Duroc, now Grand Ma-ter of the Ceremonies at Paris, with whom he officiated as Deputy Grand Master of the Cere monies to t unfortunate Turks, who were massacred at Jaffa; but owing to some unaccountable accident, he was not one of those who slyly P ^ ' " :g . upt, when be ran aw a ,00king after him, but af ,herefore, he remained ul " covered with glory, lrymen, by one of the tlt; on his SEPTEMBER 19. arrival he found his friend First Consul, and IV ,15 diately appointed a General of Division, and soon after yvai nominated Governor of Paris, where his despotic and cruel disposition made him an able supporter of Fourt', yy he rivalled in cruelty and extortion, and was strongly suspected of being, as well asFoucht, the private encourager of a daring rang of housebreakers and footpath, who were the terr or of the capital in the winter of 1803, and of whom. the few that were detected and brought to justice, were invariably screened by some invi.ible power, and permitted to elude all punklunci.t. To relate all the anecdotes current of him, whilst Go:et-nor of Paris, would require a volume; but of hi: , honour, th e f.,11,,, v . ing one is told, which we believe to be correct, though we do not vouch for its authenticity. He was in the habit of fie quenting the public gambling-houses, in his private capacity, and one evening at Frescati, being in plain clothes, mil accom panied by a young man in the sarre costume, he stood near nue of the tables w here this young man staked routeaux, app.irently of fifty tools irors,'at rouge et noir ; when the young man lost, he always took up his stake, and laid down 'mother in its wad, but when at last he won, he exultingly told the Banker to count the stake in his rouqau, when it was found to contain hank notes to the amount of one hundred thousand Byres, Lhuut 4,5001.! A demand so extraordinary induced the Banl.ers to refer it to the company. when Junot immediately interfered, and swore if they did not pay bim instantly, that Ile wouto confiscate the Bank, and arrest every individual of the com pany. Not intimidated by this threat, they refused padncert, when this virtuous _Republican asked the Bankers " if they " knew who he was ?" and immediately exclaimed " I am the " Governor of Paris, this is my Aid-de-Camp, and 1 insist " that you pay him this instant." As they still hesitated, he added, " you are a gang of sharpers and illains ! and I shall " soon do your business," then seizing the minify ss hieh %vas on the table, a scuffle entned, and the noise having brought in the guard, he ordered sixteen of them to be taken to pri,on, where they were detained until they could sOtte the busille,s, whilst Junot and his Aid-de-Camp, quietly pocketed all the cash they had laid huld of; and then returned to their usual Scat vf Justice! _ . . . . . This mode of raising the supplies, by imprisoning people on trifling causes was often resorted tn, and once in the cane of a Mr. Campbell, an American, on pretence of his having lent an old English Newspaper to a friend to read : he was arrested, confined to the Temple for ten weeks, and only released on pav ing down a handsome sum, when he was sent to Havre escorted by ; Tens (fames and put on hoard a neutral vessel on the putt of sailing, with a caution never to chew himself in France again. As the system of EspionaoT. is now so extensive in France, that every man in o ffi ce has h is ' regular set of spies, the (invert:or of Paris deemed it necessary to follow the fashion, hut he found at last that these gentry might push their enquiries farther Orin was convenient. In one of the streets near his head-qtua tot s, re-bled a ei-dream noble, who had a handsome wire, and the spies reported to Jonot that a stranger, wrapped up in a great coat, and otherwise apparently disgni-ed, had often been traced to this house, and that of course he must be some person danacrons to the state ; repeated reports were made before the Governor condescended to notice them, but in the mean titre the spies of the civil police had made the same report to Foneh, w ho immediately ordered some gems Warms to make t he aecessary inquiries: this was done, and they arrested—the Governor! who, of course, had gone there merelq to examine into the rc- Fitts of his own spies. In 1805, General Junot resigned the command of Paris to our Imperial Brother Murat ; and we be lieve that it was shortly after this he married na ei/aaniatt Pr:ti ff-7T. When Lasnes had completed his fortune in Portugal, or when he was wanted for some other purpose, Junot superseded him at Lisbon, where his conduct was as oppressive and in s " l ' ir e; as that of his predecessor, though marked oith more dissimida• tinn; and on the retreat of the Royal Family to Brazil, ile took the command of the army which occupied Portugal; now shelved his character in its real colours, by insulting every form of religi.ca, by seqttestrating the property of the church, and by encouraging every revolutionary meanness and atrocity o Aro so long stigmatized the arms of France. Our limits will nit allow us to enter into a more minute detail of his cruelty, dis simulation, and more recent robberies; they are fresh in t he memory of all ; as well as his boasting about the rece p tion he would give the British troops, who have alrea d y g iven him a lesson; though we eaanot help regretting that the late unex pected occurrences should have permitted him to carry away such an addition to his former property, v. hie k, includini, his lands in Poland ) is said to amount to near W,OOOl. per annum so slyly accompanied the Corqueror of F; Iv not only fronnfitts4iitish'ihn were lo ~ , also from , ~.4 ... • .:' i n ~ ypt, th anti! 1:4 „ , iiiv, . "France /dou afti, - . ii. 1, ' al ' • 0 s rl • , ~ " , count 1 ! bl •._ ; ' : -.. .r . ' 4 "1 .1 , ` e . 1 mart li.;ifp<;-4 , ;... —:-./........ •%- 4,) •: ow THE NATIONAL REGISTER. -...m••