My Memoirs

The translator has, in the main, followed the edition published at Brussels in 1852-56, in the Preface to which the publishers state that they have printed from "le manuscrit autographe" of the author. They furthermore print a letter from Dumas, dated Brussels, 23rd December 1851, in which Dumas says:

"Je vous offre donc, mon cher Meline, de revoir moi-même les épreuves de votre réimpression, et de faire de votre édition de Bruxelles la seule édition complète qui paraîtra à l'étranger."

The translation has been collated (a) with the current edition, and (b) with the original edition published in Paris in 1852-55, and certain omitted passages have been restored. Dumas' spelling of proper names has been followed save in a few cases deemed to be misprints.

THESE MEMOIRS ARE DEDICATED TO

THE HONOURABLE

COUNT ALFRED D'ORSAY

MY FELLOW-CRAFTSMAN

AND MY BOSOM FRIEND

ALEXANDRE DUMAS

CONTENTS

BOOK I

CHAPTER I

My birth--My name is disputed--Extracts from the official registers of Villers-Cotterets--Corbeil Club--My father's marriage certificate--My mother--My maternal grandfather--Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, father of Philippe-Égalité--Madame de Montesson--M. de Noailles and the Academy--A morganatic marriage

CHAPTER II

My father--His birth--The arms of the family--The serpents of Jamaica--The alligators of St. Domingo--My grandfather--A young man's adventure--A first duel--M. le duc de Richelieu acts as second for my father--My father enlists as a private soldier--He changes his name--Death of my grandfather--His death certificate

CHAPTER III

My father rejoins his regiment--His portrait--His strength--His skill--The Nile serpent--The regiment of the King and the regiment of the Queen--Early days of the Revolution--Declaration of Pilnitz--The camp at Maulde--The thirteen Tyrolean chasseurs--My father's name is mentioned in the order of the day--France under Providence--Voluntary enlistments--St.-Georges and Boyer--My father lieutenant-colonel--The camp of the Madeleine--The pistols of Lepage--My father General of Brigade in the Army of the North

CHAPTER IV

My father is sent to join Kléber--He is nominated General-in-Chief in the Western Pyrenees--Bouchotte's letters--Instructions of the Convention--The Representatives of the People who sat at Bayonne--Their proclamation--In spite of this proclamation my father remains at Bayonne--Monsieur de l'Humanité

CHAPTER V

My father is appointed General-in-Chief of the Army of the West--His report on the state of La Vendée--My father is sent to the Army of the Alps as General-in-Chief--State of the army--Capture of Mont Valaisan and of the Little Saint-Bernard--Capture of Mont Cenis--My father is recalled to render an account of his conduct--What he had done--He is acquitted

CHAPTER VI

The result of a sword-stroke across the head--St. Georges and the remounts--The quarrel he sought with my father--My father is transferred to the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse--He hands in his resignation and returns to Villers-Cotterets--A retrospect over what had happened at home and abroad during the four years that had just elapsed

CHAPTER VII

My father at Villers-Cotterets--He is called to Paris to carry out the 13th Vendémiaire--Bonaparte takes his place--He arrives the next day--Buonaparte's attestation--My father is sent into the district of Bouillon--He goes to the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse and to the Army of the Rhine, and is appointed Commandant at Landau--He returns as Divisional General in the Army of the Alps, of which he had been Commander-in-Chief--English blood and honour--Bonaparte's plan--Bonaparte appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Italy--The campaign of 1796