Cuvier's Biographical Memoir of M. de Lamartic, 3 



the service ; and the moment when France was so actively en- 

 gaged in the dismal struggle begun in 1756, was not one fitted 

 to discourage a young man of spirit from following such exam- 

 ples. His father, however, opposed this desire ; but the good old 

 man having died in 1760, no consideration could prevail on the 

 youthful abbe to adhere to his profession. He set out for the 

 army of Germany on a wretched horse, followed by a poor youth 

 from his village, provided with no other passport than a letter 

 from one of his neighbours, a Madame Lameth, directed to M. 

 de Lastic, colonel of the regiment of Beaujolois. It is easy to 

 conceive the annoyance of this officer at finding himself embar 

 rassed with a boy, whose puny appearance caused him to be 

 thought younger than he really was ; he ordered him, however, 

 to his quarters, and continued his duties. The moment in fact 

 was a critical one. It was the 14th of July 1761, when the 

 Marshal de Broglie, having united his army to that of the 

 Prince of Soubise, designed next day to attack the allied army, 

 commanded by Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. At the dawn 

 of day, M. de Lastic inspected his troops, and the first person 

 whom he saw was the young stranger, who, without saying a 

 word, had placed himself in the first rank of a company of gre- 

 nadiers, and nothing could induce him to quit his station. 



It is well known that this battle, which bears the name of 

 the little village of Fissingshausen, between Ham and Lipp- 

 stadt, was lost by the French, and that their two generals, mu- 

 tually accusing each other of the defeat, immediately separated, 

 and undertook no important measure during the rest of the cam- 

 paign. In the vicissitudes of the contest, the company to 

 which M. de Lamarck had attached himself was placed in a si- 

 tuation which exposed it to the whole fire of the enemy's artil- 

 lery : in the confusion of the retreat it was forgotten and left 

 there. Already all the officers were killed, and only fourteen 

 men remaining, when the oldest grenadier perceiving that there 

 were no longer any French within sight, proposed to the young 

 volunteer so speedily become commander, to withdraw this little 

 troop. **• This post has been assigned us," replied the boy ; 

 " we must not quit it unless we are relieved ;"" and, in fact, he 

 caused them to remain till the colonel, seeing that this company 

 was wanting, sent an order, which could now reach its destination 



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