The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-06-05


tire paper, yellow with age, on whicf
the records of the Revolution are writ.
Item he SAYS: while studying them
was strongly tempted to speak to these
heroes as though they were alive. Or
1.-THE walls of the old building where tbs
lMarshaIs last days were spent many
lrelfcs OF his glorious adventures were
Iarrayed in rather disordorly fashion
On one side swords hung from the wall
near a set OF engravings of famous bat
Itlefieids; here and there were portraits
of the Marshal himself. of the First
Consul, of the Emperor and of some oil
his close associates. including Ney, who
acted as witness at the time OF his mar
rfage A portrait of the Marshafs
wife, a fragile lady. wearing rich
court dress, was also there. 1t was
painted by Gerard, and the attitude was
the same as that in the celebrated por-
IL ait of the Duchess of Rovigo, who
Is represented as leaning on support
(which is ornamented with shields and
helmets. She had survived her hus-
band forty years, and to her esteem
for him, which endured during her en-
tire wfdowhood. was due the preser-
lvation of this old home, to which the
son and heir did not return until 1878.
after he had resigned from the army,
lwhere his rank was merely that of
Lieutenant Colonel. His long absence
result, for during all this time no sac
Iri1egious hand touched the relics OF
the famous warrior. over which the
grs n.snother watched with such jeal-
Gus care.
Meanwhile. that is to say, during the
monarchy of July and the Second EN-
pire, the Predicts lived in Paris. the sec
ond as peer of France and subsequent
" as Senator. the third and reigning
prince as an officer on the stan of Ma
poleon Ill. The latter was in build
and appearance the living image of
his illustrious grandfather. He had
his leonine aspect, his calm impress
i've countenance. his grave eyes. his Sc
ricus mouth and also his strong muscles,
| large shoulders and powerful body.
| There the resemblance ceased. Was
1t education that was lacking or was
the princes environment the cause:
May we assume that. so far as his NOR
ais were concerned, some ancestor on
his mothers side was reproduced In
him? His father had married a girl OF
noble birth. but her family was one of
| those whose entire property consists of
land and whose sole occupation for cen
turtles has been hunting. 1t was. there
| fore, no wonder that the heir of this
| Industrious name. as he grew older,
Host all his ambition and interested him
self in nothing but sport.
Alfred Boyer remembered how
strangely he was impressed during his
first weeks in the castle at sight Of
the Prince starting out az dawn with
his huntsmen and dogs and not return
ing until nightfall when he would
come in all covered with dust or mud
and either sunburned or soaked with
| rain, according to the season, and with
his bag filled with game, for which
he had hunted all day To his Ave
daughters, who lived in tho castle un-
der tho care of an elderly cousin, who
acted ss housekeeper, this taciturn and
surly sportsman never seemed TO give
a moments thought Yet they were
pretty and refined, and Boyer's position
in this lonely country place. where ne
was constantly brought in contact with
these five young girls. was not with
out danger Alfred. however was one
OF those timid students who do not re-
quire and disenchanting experiences in
| order to appreciate the wisdom of the
humousous advice which the Venetian
woman gave to Rousseau: Leave the
girls alone and study mathematics"
Knowing well that he was neither
handy nor good looking. he had early
| in life turned to intellectual pursuits
with that feverfsh ardor which youths
| of his age generally manifest solely
in their love affairs. Good luck, ac-
cordlng to his ideas. consisted In dis
| covering hitherto unpublished manu-
scripts. in forming ingenious hypotha-
| ses on obscure points of history and
| In winning a professors chair at the
university by means of patiently edited
works. The Marshars memoirs were
in harmony with his program, and,
moreover. they possessed a distinct
| charm OF their own, since in them the
| NJ
epoch was represented in the person
| of one of it's most famous heroes. That
| is how Alfred Boyer, after he had COM
menced his task as an ordinary COM
piler, continued It as a visionary, iden-
| tifying himself with his hero through
| out all the episodes of his daring ca
reer. collecting even the most trifiing
anecdotes about him, claiming for him
the leading place in all the Affairs in
which he had taken part and doing hts
utmost to confer still greater glory on
this man. already 80 glorious; and the
simple reason was because he was i'm
PEELED by that Retrospective idolatry. at
which one does not smile. so disinter-
| ested and pathetic is 1t when Il is
| evoked by a glorious career, which has
ended in gloom and disaster, as was the
case with this great soldier, who died
of a broken heart at the knowledge
| tHdt MS ieduSE anu FRANCE uao SuL
fered defeat.
How difflcult II was to decipher tho
mass of notes and documents which the
Marshal had left behind him, and then
to select and complete them by means
OF commentaries which would cast a
GOOD of light on the various obscure
points! In time, however, the work
was complete, and seeing how bril-.
llantly the striking characteristics OF
this noble figure shone forth in them
the compiler of this work. in which
posthumous justice was done to a grea,
man. could not refrain from contem
plating the printed words, soon to b.