468 Count de Stgur. 



The earliest events of the French revolution recalled him to 

 France ; and he was then appointed ambassador to the Papal court ; 

 but the progress of political changes was so rapid that his destiny 

 was changed : he was despatched to Berlin, in order to try to pre- 

 vent Prussia from a declaration of war against France ; and his efforts 

 met with a temporary success. On his return to Paris in 1792 he 

 had the extraordinary good fortune of escaping the notice of the 

 rabid terrorists; and he employed the leisure of his obscure station 

 in the cultivation of literature. 



When he declared himself a supporter of the first consul Bona- 

 parte, fortune once more smiled on him. He was elected member 

 of the National Institute; and in 1804 the Emperor Napoleon gave 

 him the post of grand-master of the ceremonies. He subsequently 

 became a senator and one of the most supple and obliging servants 

 of the Imperial pleasure. Louis XVIII. who found Segur not less 

 zealous in his service than he had been in that of the enemy raised 

 him to the peerage; and in 1815, on the return of the banished 

 Emperor, he quietly resumed his post about his old master's person : 

 in short by his adroit suppleness in politics he forcibly reminds us 

 of a very popular song 



" J'ai toujours dans ma pouche 

 L'aigle et la fleur de lis." 



The second restoration damaged him a little ; but he contrived 

 very soon to get again into favour, and in 1818 he resumed his seat 

 among the peers in that house which might be considered as a kind 

 of hospital of political invalids, especially distinguished, as it was, for 

 its readiness to reverse all their decrees passed during a previous 

 government. In 1816 Segur was enrolled as a member of the newly 

 organized Institute, and in 1824 he came before the public as the 

 author of the Memoires, which already in 18'27 had reached a fourth 

 edition. His entire works are comprised in thirty-three volumes, 

 8vo. His History of France, of which nine volumes are published, is 

 still incomplete as it closes with the reign of Louis XI. 



His Universal History (ten volumes, 8vo., with an Atlas in 4to), 

 is an abridgment of ancient history down to the times of the lower 

 empire. His other works are less important; and their interest has 

 ceased. In all his writings a correct and brilliant style is seen united 

 with sound reasoning and a clear intelligence ; but they have no 

 right to a place by the side of the brilliant writers of the new school 

 of historians in France, nor do they properly belong to the literature 

 of the present century. They bear the stamp of the period, when 

 Marmontel and La Harpe were the literary oracles of France. 



Having thus briefly sketched the history of the Segur family, we 

 proceed to notice some points in the life of him, who forms the pro- 

 per subject of this memoir. GENERAL PHILIPPE COMTE DE SEGUR, 

 author of the celebrated work on Napoleon's unfortunate Russian 

 campaign, is the son of him last mentioned ; and many points of his 

 character bear a close resemblance to his father's. Like him he had 

 sufficient tact to retain under Louis XVIII. the places and pensions 

 which had been bestowed by the Emperor: his military honours 

 were, like his father's, won not in the camp but at court, not by the 



