The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-08-24
Count Marchaud.

AMONG the most OF misleading max !
inns, which, sounding well, and having
got credit by reason of their contain
ing grain of truth, have gained cur
rency in the world, not the least er-
roneous is the one which tells us that
mo man is hero to his valet" The
insinuatiOn is, that men, appearing
abroad in society and among their fell
lows, are so many bundles of pretense
that they pad and rouge their manners
appear what they are not: and that
when, at night, they retire to their
chambers, the padding is loosened, the
rouge is washed off, and the valet sees
HIS master III ali Ills mdktu uLlItItSS
and wrinkles. In truth, every true
man is hero to his valet; not only to
the visible and paid valet who does his
toilet for him, but to those attending
spirits who are said to watch over
each Of us, and may be called the val
cts of our spiritual existence. 1t is
only the hypocrite and the pretender
who exposes to his valet a second and
inferior nature in the familiarity of
the diShabille.
We know well, for instance, that
the great Napoleon, with his many
weaknesses and frailties, was hero
to his Wallets one and all. At least old
Count Marchaud, who died recently in
Paris, would have told us that the
Emperor was man to be regarded as
heroic, whether he stood in imperial
regalia above his cohorts on the
Champs de Mars, or whether he wan
dered, with his broad-brimmed hat
and loose, hOmely sack, through the
solitary valley of St. Helena. Old
Count Marchaud had seen Napoleon in
both guises; had, indeed, aided him to
assume his robes of velvet and ermine,
and had also assisted him to put on the
plain garments of his island prison.
Marchaud was the last survivor of
those who were engaged Familiarity
about the eX-Emperor's person, and
probably the last who saw that stormy
spirit pass from the world amid whirl- |
wind, thunder and lightning. He sue
ceeded Constant as Napoleon's valet
Constant, whose name seems a stand |
ing satire on his historic Inconsistency. |
For Constant was faithful to Napoleon
just so long as Napoleon was power
full; and deserted him, and went over
to be petted, then neglected, and left |
to die, by his enemies, after Waterloo. |
1t was Marchaud's boast that in Ma
poleon's humiliation and helplessness
he chung to him the closer. No one |
could have known the "Corsican Ogre
more Familiarity; for he pulled off his
boots, buckled his cravat, gartered his
hose, lathered his face for shaving,
kept his own Marseilles waistcoat full
of snuff wherewith to help Napoleon
when he needed that stimulant, held |
his coat for him to put on, and handed |
to him his sword and hat. Had Mar
chaud only affected little of the man
of letters, had he been a humber Bos-
well, and jotted down what he heard
Napoleon say and saw him do, what
an interesting chronicle, more minute
and more vivid than O'Meara's OF Las
Cases, it would have been.
We like to dwell on such a character
as old Marchaud; he represents an al
most extinct era of devoted and self
sacrificing servitors of greatness. So
entire, indeed, was his devotedness,
that Napoleon speaks of him in his
will as his FRIEND" and shows that
he means it by leaving the worthy
valet the goodly sum of $4,000. There
was no more pleasant gentleman to
talk with living in Paris in our days
than Count Marchaud. Happily he
had no crutch to shoulder; he was a
hale, hearty, happy old man; but he
loved to fight over again the battles be-
tween Napoleon and Sir Hudson Lowe,
and to describe with simple eloquence
the grand qualities of "le maitre."
told Marchaud to marry a
widow or daughter of soldier of the
Old Guard; and the faithful fellow
hurried to France to obey the injunc-
ton as eagerly as if the unknown bride
were already his dearest love. The
title of Count Marchaud was got from
Louis Philippe, who had generous
way of treating Napoleon's memory,
which was an example for later French
politicians to follow. Indeed, there
are few characters of the Napoleonic
times better worth honoring than this
good old servant, whose title was