Part 27

Mouge received an order to proceed to Italy to value, collect, and attempt to preserve, those works of Italian art it was proposed to remove to France. He received the warmest greeting from Bonaparte, who gave him every token of friendship.

Mouge was despatched by Bonaparte in 1797 to Rome--when the Pope was forced to fly and the Roman Republic established--with the order to bring statues and pictures from the Vatican to Paris.

He accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, together with many other men of science, to bring back the spoils of that country, in the same way they had removed those of ancient Rome. While the French occupation of Egypt continued, Mouge made many discoveries there, and explored the Temples of the Nile, travelling as far as the Second Cataract. He followed Bonaparte to Syria, and was his constant companion during that disastrous expedition. When Napoleon quitted Egypt surreptitiously for France, August 22, 1799, Mouge was one of the passengers on board the small frigate which carried General Bonaparte and his destiny.

On his return to France, Mouge continued his scientific work. After the establishment of the Empire, he was appointed Governor and Director of the _École Polytechnique_, Senator, and given the title of Comte de Peluse. He retained these honours until the second Restoration, when Louis XVIII. erased his name from the list of the Institute, besides depriving him of the Directorship of the _Polytechnique_, which he (Mouge) had founded.

Mouge felt this deprivation deeply, and the last three years of his life were passed in melancholy depression and regret. He died in 1818, at the age of seventy-two.

MOITTE, PIERRE-ETIENNE.

Born, 1722; died, 1780.

A celebrated French engraver. His works are now of high commercial value.

NECKER, SUZANNE CURCHOD.

Born at Crassier in the Canton of Vaud, 1739; died at Lauzanne, 1794.

Her father was a Protestant pastor, who educated her. At the age of twenty she had a perfect and intimate knowledge of modern and classical literature. She was tall and handsome, her manners amiable and dignified. Her parents were poor; she was therefore obliged to give private lessons in families. Gibbon, the historian, knew and admired, and even desired to marry her. His father, however, absolutely refused his consent on account of Mdlle. Curchod’s want of means.

Having lost both her parents she went to Paris as the companion of a Mdme. de Verenenon, a rich widow. Mdme. Verenenon possessed a suitor, one Monsieur Necker, a wealthy banker of about thirty-two years of age.

When M. Necker met the young companion he transferred his affections to her, and they were married in 1764. Their union was a very happy one.

Mdme. Necker’s salon was one of the most agreeable and cultured in Paris, her _habitués_ being Buffon, Thomas, St. Lambert, Suard, Marmontel, Saurin, Duclosé, Diderot, D’Alembert, De la Harpe, Guibert, Abbé Delille, Abbé Arnaud, Abbé Morellet, Comte de Creutz, Duc d’Azeu, Marquis de Caraccioli. Her greatest friends were Buffon and Thomas.

During her husband’s first Ministry, Mdme. Necker occupied herself particularly with the Paris Hospitals, then in a deplorable condition, and at the moment when the Revolution drove her from France, she was busy arranging a model hospital she had founded at her own expense.

She died, aged fifty-four, at Lausanne.

She had an only daughter, the celebrated Madame de Staël, born in 1766. The relations of mother and child were, unfortunately, never happy, as the amiable, pious, but rigid Calvinist mother could in no way understand the character or disposition of her brilliant daughter. M. Necker, on the contrary, made his child his friend and companion from her early girlhood, and in consequence a violent jealousy existed between the mother and daughter, which as years went on embittered both their lives, and continued until Mdme. Necker’s death. M. Necker died ten years later, in 1804.

NEUFCHÂTEAU, NICHOLAS FRANÇOIS, COMTE DE.

Born, 1750; died, 1828.

Son of a schoolmaster in Lorraine, Nicholas François was educated at a Jesuit College, where he was known as “the Infant Prodigy.” At the age of fourteen he published a volume of poems and fables, imitations of Ovid, Horace, and Virgil; and was crowned by the Academy of Dijon. Voltaire, then seventy-two years of age, invited the youthful genius to Ferney, and wished to make him his private secretary (1767), but the Comte de Henin, who was the patron of François, insisted upon his _protégé_ leaving Ferney and accepting a post in the magistracy. The town of Neufchâteau solemnly adopted their illustrious young citizen, who from thenceforward added the name of Neufchâteau to that of François.

He was brought under the notice of Maréchal de Costires, then Minister of Marine, who appointed François Procurator to the General Council in the Colony of St. Domingo, now the Island of Hayti.

After spending five years in the West Indies, the young magistrate obtained leave of absence, and started for France, bringing with him the literary work of five years, including a complete translation of the works of Ariosto. His ship was wrecked, and he was cast on a desert island; all his manuscripts going down with the ill-fated vessel. François Neufchâteau considered this loss to be the great catastrophe of his life. He was finally rescued, reaching France in safety, and receiving a pension of 3000 livres (£120), proposed to devote his life to literature and poetry.

The events of 1789 altered the current of his existence. He was elected a member of the Assembly, and the following year sent as Commissionary to the Vosges for the organisation of that new Department.

He was eventually appointed President of the first Legislative Assembly.

He refused the Ministry of Justice, choosing instead the humbler but safer position of _juge de paix_ in the Department of Vosges.

His friends persuaded him to return to Paris to superintend the rehearsal of his play “Pamela” (translated from one of Goldoni’s comedies) at the Théâtre Français. Produced on August 1, 1793, this innocent and simple drama achieved an immense success, and was played for eight consecutive nights. The curtain was just about to rise upon the ninth performance, when a message from the Committee of Public Safety arrived to stop the play, the author was summoned before the Committee the same evening, and ordered to bring with him the manuscript of the piece. Neufchâteau submitted humbly to all demands as to corrections and excisions, altered, as desired, the fourth and fifth acts of the play, and even gave it a different ending. Robespierre and his Council permitted the performance of the revised play. It was reproduced September 1, and again ran for eight nights; upon the ninth evening this verse was applauded:--

Ah! les persécuteurs sont les seuls condamnable, Et les plus tolérants sont les plus raisonnable.

Before the play was finished, the Committee of Public Safety served the following order at the Théâtre Français:

“The _Théâtre Français_ is to be immediately closed, the actors, actresses, and _employées_ arrested, together with the author of ‘Pamela,’ and conveyed to the Prison of La Force.”

In this prison Neufchâteau remained eleven months, until August 4, 1794, when he was released, and shortly afterwards appointed Judge of the High Court during the Directorate, after being Governmental Commissionary for some time in the district of the Vosges. He became Minister of the Interior in 1797. In all these appointments he gave many proofs of capacity, judgment, moderation, and kindliness of heart.

When the Consulate was established he was not only made a Senator, but occupied the Presidential Chair of the Senate until 1808, when he abandoned politics for scientific and literary pursuits. He was deprived of his peerage (Napoleon had made him a Count of the Empire) at the Restoration, but allowed to retain his membership of the Academy.

Although married four times, he left only one surviving son. A painful malady rendered Neufchâteau a helpless invalid for the last ten years of his life, but he retained his lively philosophic character to the last, and was constantly surrounded by friends and admirers, who enjoyed his witty as well as learned conversation. He continued his literary work until his death.

His moral tales, poems, and philosophical and historical treatises are now forgotten; but his writings upon scientific agriculture are still consulted by experts in that science.

LE NÔTRE, ANDRÉ.

A celebrated designer of gardens. Born, 1613; died, 1700.

Louis XIV. commissioned him to lay out the park and gardens of Versailles, and gave him entire control over the royal gardens of France. The geographical situation of Versailles made any arrangements for gardens, fountains, and terraces extremely difficult, but Le Nôtre overcame all difficulties, and fed the fountains by constructing a canal to carry off the waters of a neighbouring marsh, which was thus rendered a fertile and cultivated spot.

Le Nôtre created the gardens of Marly, and also constructed the splendid terrace at St. Germain. He laid out the gardens of Chantilly for the Prince de Condé of the day. Those at Fontainebleau and St. Cloud were also designed by him. Proceeding to England in the reign of Charles II., he laid out and arranged the present Parks of Greenwich and St. James. The lake in the latter was constructed by Le Nôtre.

Le Nôtre was a man of the most simple and natural nature, and for that very reason was probably one of the greatest favourites, among his servants, of Louis XIV. This anecdote, which is historically true, describes the character of the man: In 1678 he made a visit to Italy to study the beautiful gardens which surround the great villas of that country. He was received in audience by Pope Innocent XI., who treated him with much distinction, and Le Nôtre, as he was taking leave, remarked: “I have now nothing more to desire; I have seen the two greatest men in the world--your Holiness and the King of France.” “There is a great difference between us,” replied the Pope; “the King of France is a great and victorious Prince, I am but a poor priest, the servant of the servants of God.” Le Nôtre, delighted with this reply, slapped the Pope familiarly on the back, saying, “Holy Father, do not be despondent; you look in perfect health, and may live to bury every present member of your sacred College.” Innocent XI. burst into a fit of laughter, and Le Nôtre threw himself on the Pope’s neck, kissing him affectionately. Le Nôtre retired, delighted with his interview, and proceeded to write full details of it to Bontemps, the confidential valet of Louis XIV.; this letter was read aloud at the Petit Levée of the King. Several courtiers doubted the truth of its contents, but the King said, “Why not? Whenever I return from a campaign and give Le Nôtre an audience he always embraces me, so he most likely embraces the Pope also.”

At the age of eighty, when he wished to retire, Le Nôtre only obtained permission to do so on the condition he would pay a weekly visit to the King. He died at eighty-seven, and was buried in the church of St. Roch in Paris, in a chapel he had founded.

He refused armorial bearings when offered a patent of nobility, declaring his only crest was a spade.

D’ORLÉANS, LOUIS PHILIPPE JOSEPH, DUC (PHILIPPE EGALITÉ).

Born at St. Cloud, April 13, 1747. Guillotined in Paris, November 6, 1793.

His tutor was the Comte St. Meurice, and great pains were taken with his education.

He appears to have inherited the character and disposition of his great grandfather, the Regent, without the firmness of disposition and great natural intelligence and perspicuity possessed by that Prince.

In 1769 he married Louise de Bourbon, only daughter of the Duke de Penthièvre. At the wedding he greatly scandalised the Court by his behaviour, although his offence was only that natural to a lively young man. Being accidentally placed on the left, instead of the right, of the bride, he took a running leap and jumped over her train to reach the other side.

Soon after his marriage, he entered on a life of wild dissipation, became a Freemason, declared his admiration for everything English, and imported horses and jockeys from the other side of the Channel. He also made every effort to gain popularity with the people. In 1771 he opposed the decree by which, in the last years of the reign of Louis XV., the Chancellor Maupeon had suppressed the provincial Parliaments of France, and was in consequence exiled to his country seat during the remainder of that King’s reign. Immediately on his accession, Louis XVI. re-established these Parliaments, and the Duc de Chartres (as he then was) returned to Court.

When the war broke out between France and England, the young Duke petitioned that he might act for his father-in-law, the Duke de Penthièvre, who was Grand Admiral of France. This was refused; he was, however, given a nominal command in the fleet of Admiral d’Orvilliers. He was present at the battle of Onessant, where he commanded the squadron of the blue, under the surveillance of Admiral Lamotte Picquet, who was really in charge of this portion of the fleet. The admiral gave an excellent account of the courage and coolness shown by the Prince when under fire.

The French were victorious, but, owing to the incompetency of d’Orvilliers, gained no real advantage from the combat.

The fleet returned to Brest, August 2, 1778, and when the Duc de Chartres reached Paris he was received with so much enthusiasm by the populace as to excite the apprehension of the Court party and to evoke an indignant hostility from the Queen.

Shortly afterwards the Duke returned to his duties on the fleet, and his enemies at Court took the opportunity of his absence to spread against him the most scandalous libels--amongst others that the Duke de Penthièvre was persuaded that his son-in-law desired to supplant him in the post of Grand Admiral, whereas he only desired to act as his deputy. So well did his enemies work, that when Chartres returned after a few months’ absence, he was as coldly received by the populace as by the courtiers. More than this, when he wished to return to the fleet, his command was taken from him and he was compelled to leave the Navy. This treatment was rendered the more bitter, as the first intimation he received of it was in a letter from his avowed enemy the Queen.

From this moment the Duke avoided the Court, although he retained a friendship for the Comte d’Artois, and the two young Princes were companions in pleasure. The Queen, who was greatly attached to her young brother-in-law, used all her influence to draw him away from the “contagion” of Orleans. She persuaded the King to buy the Château de S. Cloud from the Duke (it was the favourite residence of the latter), and although d’Orléans was both furious and chagrined at being compelled to part with his _château_, he had no alternative but to obey the order of his sovereign. The huge sum raised to buy this palace was a serious drain on the exhausted Treasury, and the Queen lived to bitterly regret her imprudent action. A libel was freely circulated and believed all over France, on the occasion of the death of the Prince de Lamballe, only son of the Duke de Penthièvre. It was said that d’Orleans had poisoned his brother-in-law, in order that his wife might be sole heiress to the vast fortune of her father. The Queen went so far as to say publicly she feared a similar fate would soon befall the Comte d’Artois. Driven from the Court by these outrages, the Duke d’Orleans’ amiable and _débonnaire_ nature became utterly soured. In the first Assembly of Notables he became one of the leaders of the Opposition. On November 19, 1787, when the King proposed to this Assembly two edicts--one for the creation of a stamp duty, the other for a graduated loan of 440,000,000 francs--the Duke d’Orleans rose and boldly questioned the monarch, asking him whether this sitting was “a bed of justice” or “an open debate.” “It is a royal sitting,” the King replied. “If that is the case,” answered the Duke, “I protest against this measure; for I declare that the right of voting taxes only belongs to the States-General.” Only two other Councillors agreed with the Duke, and the edicts were immediately carried. Fréteau and Sabatier, the Councillors in question, were immediately exiled to Iles d’Hyères, the Duke of Orleans to Villers. This disgrace immensely increased the Duke’s popularity. He did not return to Paris for a year, and when the States-General was assembled he was elected deputy for Crespy. During the solemn procession at Versailles (May 4, 1789), before the opening of this Assembly, it was noticed with what affectation the Duke sought to mingle with the ranks of the Deputies of the _Tiers État_.

In the first sittings of the States-General, the Duke pronounced energetically in favour of the reunion of all the orders. On June 25 he, together with forty-six other noblemen, joined the _Tiers État_, now the National Assembly; on July 3 he was elected President, but refused the honour. On the 12th the people, exasperated by the fall of Necker, carried the busts of Necker and the Duke about Paris under the leadership of Legendre. It was from the gardens of the Duke’s house (the Palais Royal) that, two days later, the organised mob departed to take the Bastille.

Had d’Orléans possessed at this moment sufficient determination and intellectual force, he might easily have become Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, with Necker for his Prime Minister. But he had not enough courage, nor, possibly, enough ambition to carry out any definite project; and he drove his partisans, among whom was Mirabeau, to despair by his hesitating and undecided conduct. He remained a member of the Extreme Left of the Assembly, but scarcely ever made a public speech. In October of the same year, the Court party, and also the _bourgeois_, were so exasperated against the Duke of Orleans, that Lafayette himself was persuaded to order the Duke out of France. He was sent to London on an imaginary mission: returned the following summer, was acclaimed by the Assembly, and renewed his alliance with Mirabeau.

After the flight of Louis XVI., in June 1791, the throne was temporarily vacant; and again, had the Duke chosen to come forward, his advances would have been well received by the nation and the Assembly. He did not dare to do so, and so lost his last opportunity.

The next month the new Constitution ordained that French Princes could not be elected to any functions by the votes of the people; Orléans, therefore, publicly renounced all prerogatives or privileges accorded to Royalty, and declared himself a simple citizen.

At that time there was an attempted reconciliation between the King and the Duke, which was doubtless sincere on both sides. The new Minister of Marine, Bertrand de Motteville, arranged that the Duke of Orleans should be one of the Vice-Admirals in the reorganised fleet. The project was communicated to Louis XVI., who expressed himself satisfied, and the Duke was grateful. The King and he, by the medium of de Motteville, had a private interview, and parted on friendly terms. The following Sunday (January 1792) the new Admiral came to the Tuileries to pay homage to the King. It was the dinner-hour, the table for the King and Queen was already laid, and the room was full of courtiers. As soon as the Duke appeared, he became the object for the most opprobrious insults. “Take care of the dishes!” was shouted on all sides--the insinuation being he was about to put poison in them. He was pushed about, his feet were purposely trodden on, and as he descended the stairs several persons spat on his head and clothes. He left in a state of indescribable rage, believing that the King had enticed him to the Palace in order to insult him; the King was really innocent of the whole matter, but sent no message of apology or regret.

From that day Orléans threw himself with energy into the extreme revolutionary party, and by becoming Danton’s banker drew him away from the Court party, in whose pay that corrupt politician had for some time been.

Orléans became Deputy for Paris in the Convention, accepting the name of Philippe _Égalité_, which title was bestowed upon him on September 15, 1792. When the King’s trial took place, “_Egalité_” said Robespierre, “is the only member who has a right to refuse to vote.” But Orléans thought he would save his own head and his credit with the Jacobins by condemning his relative. When his name was called, he said: “Entirely preoccupied by a sense of duty, and convinced that all those who attempted to reign or have reigned as sovereigns over the people merit death--I vote for death.” This speech did not have the expected effect, those who were not indignant being disgusted at it.

On April 6 of the same year the Convention ordered that “all members of the Bourbon family be detained as hostages”; on the 7th, Orléans was arrested and conducted to Marseilles. He addressed petition after petition to the Convention without effect, and was removed to Paris and imprisoned at the Conciergerie on October 3. Both Queen Marie Antoinette and d’Orleans simultaneously occupied cells in this prison for a space of a few days. Two or three weeks after her execution the Duke was put upon his trial; he defended himself with courage and coolness, but his fate was sealed in advance. After condemnation he asked to be executed without delay; and on the same afternoon, four hours after the trial, he was conducted to the scaffold with five Deputies, condemned, like himself, as Girondists. He passed by his former palace on the way to execution, and, pointing to it, exclaimed, with a gesture of contempt, “How they applauded me once!” When he had left the cart and mounted the plank of the guillotine he said to the executioner, “Do not let your fellows pull off my boots until I am dead, they will come off easier then; make haste! make haste!” These were his last words.

PAINE, THOMAS.

Born at Thetford, Norfolk, in 1737; died at New York, 1809.

Paine was the son of a Quaker staymaker. He learnt to read, write, and cypher at a free school, and at the age of sixteen worked at his father’s trade. He twice ran away from home to go to sea; but married in 1759 and settled in Sandwich, still working as a staymaker. His wife dying two years later, he went to London, and obtained a situation as schoolmaster in an elementary school, and toiled hard for two years at his own self-education.

In 1771 he married the daughter of a tobacconist, and joined his father-in-law in trade. His affairs did not prosper, and three years later he became bankrupt. He decided to emigrate to America; having made the acquaintance of Franklin (at that time in London), the latter, as a fellow Quaker, gave him letters of recommendation. Paine was thirty-seven when he embarked for America; on his arrival in Philadelphia he was engaged as editor for a periodical called the _Philadelphian Magazine_. His articles began to excite attention, particularly several against slavery.

He took the most ardent interest in the struggle between England and America. After the battle of Bunker Hill it was still undecided whether the colonists would demand complete independence and separation, or be satisfied with certain concessions on the part of the mother country. It was then Paine published his famous pamphlet “Common Sense,” which produced a tremendous impression, more than 100,000 copies being sold. From an obscure individual he became a celebrity. During the remainder of his life Paine invariably signed himself “Common Sense,” and was convinced that had he not written the work in question the United States, as a nation, would never have come into existence.