During his different campaigns, and particularly during his glorious campaign in Hanover, he has collected property to the amount of seven millions of livres, laid out in estates and lands.  He is considered by other generals as a brave captain, but an indifferent chief; and among our fashionables and our courtiers he is held up as a model of connubial fidelity—­satisfying himself with keeping three mistresses only.

There was no truth in the report that his recall from Hanover was in consequence of any disgrace; on the contrary, it was a new proof of Bonaparte’s confidence and attachment.  He was recalled to take the command of the artillery of Bonaparte’s, household troops the moment Pichegru, George, and Moreau were arrested, and when the Imperial tide had been resolved on.  More resistance against this innovation was at that time expected than experienced.

Bernadotte, who succeeded Mortier in the command of our army in Hanover, is a man of a different stamp.  His father was a chair-man, and he was born at Paris in 1763.  In 1779 he enlisted in the regiment called La Vieille Harine, where the Revolution found him a sergeant.  This regiment was then quartered at Toulon, and the emissaries of anarchy and licentiousness engaged him as one of their agents.  His activity soon destroyed all discipline, and the troops, instead of attending to their military duty, followed him to the debates and discussions of the Jacobin clubs.  Being arrested and ordered to be tried for his mutinous, scandalous behaviour, an insurrection liberated him, and forced his accusers to save their lives by flight.  In April, 1790, he headed the banditti who murdered the Governor of the Fort St. Jean at Marseilles, and who afterwards occasioned the Civil War in Comtat Venaigin, where he served under Jourdan, known by the name of Coup-tell, or cut-throat, who made him a colonel and his aide-de-camp.  In 1794, he was employed, as a general of brigade, in the army of the Sambre and Meuse; and during the campaigns of 1795 and 1796, he served under another Jourdan, the general, without much distinction,—­except that he was accused by him of being the cause of all the disasters of the last campaign, by the complete rout he suffered near Neumark on the 23d of August, 1796.  His division was ordered to Italy in 1797, where, against the laws of nations, he arrested M. d’ Antraigues, who was attached to the Russian legation.  When the Russian Ambassador tried to dissuade him from committing this injustice, and this violation of the rights of privileged persons, he replied:  “There is no question here of any other right or justice than the right and justice of power, and I am here the strongest.  M. d’Antraigues is our enemy; were he victorious, he would cause us all to be shot.  I repeat, I am here the strongest, ’et nous verrons’.”