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CHAPTER XXI. 



THE LATE DUKE DE ST. SIMON. 



MY dear old friend the Due de St. Simon 

 lived to a great age, and died, a liale, 

 hearty old man, some three or four years 

 ago, and I don't think it amiss to record 

 here a passage of his life well deserving his 

 country's gratitude, and one or two anecdotes 

 connected with him. In the autumn of 1815 a 

 large portion of the Prussian army was quartered 

 in Normandy, with the intention of occupying 

 (Cherbourg, then very slenderly garrisoned. 

 Bliicher, with his staff, was at Caen, the head- 

 quarters of the French military division com- 

 manded by St. Simon, then a young general of 

 brigade. The Prussians, on their entry into 

 Caen, demanded that the small force under his 

 orders should lay down its arms. To such an 

 unprovoked indignity — for this was in Sep- 

 tember, long after all hostilities had ceased — 

 the man who had been Key's aide-de-camp not 



