The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Metz, in France, 1775. Killed at Wagram, in Austria, 1809. Aged 34.] A famous officer in the wars of Napoleon. Served with the revolutionary army in 1793, on the Rhone and Moselle. Accompanied Kellermann as Aide-de-Camp into Italy, and there was made prisoner. When taken before the veteran and war-tried field-marshal Wurmser, and asked the age of Buonaparte, he replied, “Of the age of Scipio when he conquered Hannibal.” At a later period with Napoleon in Egypt. In 1801, in Italy, where at the battle of Caldiero he had three horses killed under him. His later services were unremitting, and always brilliant. He fell mortally wounded at the battle of Wagram, July 6, 1809. On the eve of the battle he had a singular presentiment of his coming death. He rose in the night for the express purpose of inditing a letter to the Emperor, praying his consideration on behalf of his wife and children. The letter was placed the next morning in the hands of the Emperor at the very moment when news also came of the hero’s death. A dauntless soldier, and of spotless fidelity to his chief. [From the marble in the Tuileries by Delaistre.]