Book Description

Excerpt from Memoirs of the Count De Rochechouart, 1788-1822, in France, Southern Russia, in the Napoleonic Wars, and as Commandant of Paris Born in 1788, that is to say, on the eve of the Great Revolution, I was exposed, from my earliest childhood, to hunger, cold, and all the miseries of humanity. Left an orphan when very young, without friend or fortune, I found in the Duc de Richelieu a protector who gave me shelter, and helped me up the first steps of my military career, a second father, who never ceased to show me the most tender affection. I shall ever feel the deepest gratitude to him, and this is my reason for publishing this book. I wish to make known the private life of this eminent statesman, his kindness, simplicity, charity, integrity, his love of duty and of his country. Nearly every town in France has raised a statue in honour of some man of greater or less celebrity; not one has remembered the Minister who was at the head of affairs from 1815 to 1819, who freed France from the Armies of Occupation, and restored her credit to such a degree that whereas the rente was valueless in 1816, it had risen to seventy-five francs in 1818; the Minister who made over to the sick poor the sum voted to him by the Chamber. Not one historian has been attracted by this noble figure. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.