Brune put on his first regimentals as an aide-decamp to General Santerre in December, 1792, after having given proofs of his military prowess the preceding September, in the massacre of the prisoners in the Abbey.  In 1793 he was appointed a colonel in the revolutionary army, which, during the Reign of Terror, laid waste the departments of the Gironde, where he was often seen commanding his corps, with a human head fixed on his sword.  On the day when he entered Bordeaux with his troops, a new-born child occupied the same place, to the great horror of the inhabitants.  During this brilliant expedition he laid the first foundation of his present fortune, having pillaged in a most unmerciful manner, and arrested or shot every suspected person who could not, or would not, exchange property for life.  On his return to Paris, his patriotism was recompensed with a commission of a general of brigade.  On the death of Robespierre, he was arrested as a terrorist, but, after some months’ imprisonment, again released.

In October, 1795, he assisted Napoleon Bonaparte in the massacre of the Parisians, and obtained for it, from the director Barras, the rank of a general of division.  Though occupying, in time of war, such a high military rank, he had hitherto never seen an enemy, or witnessed an engagement.

After Bonaparte had planned the invasion and pillage of Switzerland, Brune was charged to execute this unjust outrage against the law of nations.  His capacity to intrigue procured him this distinction, and he did honour to the choice of his employers.  You have no doubt read that, after lulling the Government of Berne into security by repeated proposals of accommodation, he attacked the Swiss and Bernese troops during a truce, and obtained by treachery successes which his valour did not promise him.  The pillage, robberies, and devastations in Helvetia added several more millions to his previously great riches.

It was after his campaign in Holland, during the autumn of 1799, that he first began to claim some military glory.  He owed, however, his successes to the superior number of his troops, and to the talents of the generals and officers serving under him.  Being made a Counsellor of State by Bonaparte, he was entrusted with the command of the army against the Chouans.  Here he again seduced by his promises, and duped by his intrigues, acted infamously—­but was successful.

LETTER XXXIX.

Paris, September, 1805.

My lord:—­Three months before Brune set out on his embassy to Constantinople, Talleyrand and Fouche were collecting together all the desperadoes of our Revolution, and all the Italian, Corsican, Greek, and Arabian renegadoes and vagabonds in our country, to form him a set of attendants agreeable to the real object of his mission.