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Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"


[62] Marshal Marmont, "M?moires." At nine years of age he rode on
horseback and hunted daily with his father.
[63] Among other manuscript documents, a letter of M. Symn de
Carneville, March II, 1781. (On the families of Carneville and
Montmorin-Saint-Herem, in 1789.) The latter family remains in France;
two of its members are massacred, two executed, a fifth "escaped the
scaffold by forestalling the justice of the people;" the sixth,
enlisted in the revolutionary armies, received a shot at nineteen
years of age which made him blind. The other family emigrated, and
its chiefs, the count and viscount Carneville commanded, one, a free
company in the Austrian service, and the other, a regiment of hussars
in Conde's army. Twelve officers of these two corps were brothers-in-
law, nephews, first-cousins and cousins of the two commanders, the
first of whom entered the service at fifteen, and the second at
eleven. - Cf. "M?moires du Prince de Ligne." At seven or eight years
of age I had already witnessed the din of battle, I had been in a
besieged town, and saw three sieges from a window. A little older, I
was surrounded by soldiers; old retired officers belonging to various
services, and living in the neighborhood fed my passion.


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