will continue to overwhelm France; but when peace is restored we shall see if it is impossible to force Bonaparte to restore republican institutions, and meanwhile we are overcome by grief and despair.  The brave chief of the ‘Philadelphi’, the pure Oudet, has been assassinated, and who is worthy to take his place?  Poor Oudet! never was one braver or more eloquent than he!  With a noble haughtiness and an immovable firmness of character, he possessed an excellent heart.  His first battle showed his intrepid spirit.  When cut down at Saint Bartholomew by a ball, his comrades wished to bear him away, “No, no,” cried he; “don’t waste time over me.  The Spaniards! the Spaniards!”—­ “Shall we leave you to the enemy?” said one of those who had advanced towards him.  “Well, drive them back if you do not wish me to be left with them.”  At the beginning of the campaign of Wagram, he was colonel of the Ninth regiment of the line, and was made general of brigade on the evening before the battle, his corps forming part of the left wing commanded by Massena.  Our line was broken on this side for a moment, and Oudet made heroic efforts to reform it; and after he had been wounded by three bayonet strokes, with the loss of much blood, and dragged away by those of us who were forced to fall back, still had himself fastened on his horse in order that he might not be forced to leave the battlefield.

“After the battle, he received orders to advance to the front, and to place himself with his regiment in an advantageous position for observation, and then return immediately to headquarters, with a certain number of his officers, to receive new orders.  He executed these orders, and was returning in the night, when a discharge of musketry was suddenly heard, and he fell into an ambush; he fought furiously in the darkness, knowing neither the number nor character of his adversaries, and at break of day was found, covered with wounds, in the midst of twenty officers who had been slain around him.  He was still breathing, and lived three days; but the only words he pronounced were those of commiseration for the fate of his country.  When his body was taken from the hospital to prepare it for burial, several of the wounded in their despair tore the bandages from their wounds, a sergeant-major threw himself on his sword near the grave, and a lieutenant there blew out his brains.  Behold,’ said F——­, ‘a death that plunges us into the deepest despair!’ I tried to prove to him that he was mistaken, and that the plans of the ‘Philadelphi’ were mad, but succeeded very imperfectly; and though he listened to my advice, he again earnestly recommended secrecy.”