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LAFAY ETTE
An Original History
By Bernard Vincent McMahon
THE PONCHATOULA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 5, 1985, PAGE TWEL
beginning at Cannes and ending at Waterloo. I wrote to an old friend the prince, I
Henin: Napoleon is a Republican in Provence, semi-republican in Lyon Abs0
Emperor in Paris, has realized his only salvation lay in becoming a constitutionalM
His mind and his character are like two opposed currents; we see a bizarre
of imperial, terrorist, and liberal measures; but public opinion is stronger
and since he is prodigiously talented he gives into what he cannot
cleverness that the others (Bourbons) can never hope to equal."
Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte offered me a seat in the new
"The story of America's French friend as Lafayette might have told
it" . Copyrighted 19. Peers. I told him I preferred to be elected to the Chamber of Deputies. Both
\\;'George and I were elected on May 10, 1815, me by only 56 votes out
(universal sufferage still hadn't arrived) I bumped into Napoleon in the Chambe
Anyone reading this account of my life must be struck by the fact that l wavered James Monroe gave Adrienne a passport to the United States. She used it to
between great fortune and great misfortune; the next episode in my life is an travel to Hamburg and Vienna. In Vienna she obtained an audience with the
illustration of this fact. Remember Major Benjamin Huger, at whose house I stayed emperor whom she conned into permitting her ancl my two daughters to live with
when I first landed in South Carolina? He had a son Francis who had a good friend,
Justus Erich Bollman. These two Americans plotted to free me from prison. Bribing
guards and townspeople, they procured a horse and brought it to the prison during
my exercise period. I mounted it and rode down the road that had a fork in it.
Guess which fork [ took? The wron¢l one.
[00[00Goodrich
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me in prison. I was so maltreated they scarcely recognized me when they arrived•
They were placed in individual cells and forced to eat with their fingers, as their
guards stole their silverware. They were housed next to a foul stinking latrine whose
stench kept them awake nights. If anyone tells you that the Austrians are happy,
friendly, compassionate people, don't believe it. My family was not allowed to
attend Sunday Mass and Adrienne smuggled letters out to her numerous relatives
telling of her plight• President Washington again wroter the emperor on my behalf
but at that time in history the United States was a fifth-rate power, "'a banana
republic/'
There was a new government in France. The beginning of the end of the old one
was the devouring of the executionaries by their own bloodthirsty crew. Robespierre
guillotined. Marat stabbed to death by a woman in his bathtub. The "Directoire" it
was called and it ended the Bloody Regime. One of its generals, Napoleon. was
defeating Austrian armies in Italy with the result the emperor freed me in December
1797. In hamburg I astounded the French consul by requesting a permit to return
home, but he said one of the conditions of my release was that I stay out of France.
"I don't care," I said. "I want to go home."
I was cursing the Directoire for blocking my return until they explained to me it
was Napoleon's fault. He said. "One French hero was enough." I leased a house in
Wittmold in the agriculture province of Holstein. We were joined by MME. de
Simiane, my faithful mistress who was now bankrupt, but so was my wife's health.
In May 1798 Charles de Latour-Nauborg and my daughter Anastasie were
married.
And in February 1799 my son returned from the United States. I wrote
Washington that I would like to visit him but Washington dissuaded me. saying
this was not the time or the hour.
In 1799 1 moved to Holland near Utrecht where I was welcomed by the Dutch
people. Napoleon was now home from Egypt and had taken over the government,
the man of horseback had arrived. I wrote him: "Citizen General, I only needed to
love liberty for your arrival to fill me with joy and hope." etc. etc. Still no invitation
to return; I came home anyway to Paris on a forged passport. I sent a note to
Bonaparte announcing my arrival. He blew up and, as the say in Western America
"I hightailed it out of Paris" to the chateau that my wife was renovating. Arriving in
December 1799, I was notified that George Washington had died, throwing me
into a blue funk. They held a memorial service for him in Paris with Napoleon as
the chief speaker but I was not invited, nor did the great one mention me in his
speech. He must have had a change of heart, as he returned me to full French
citizenship in 1800. Arriving in Paris to sign the documents, Napoleon asked to see
me and we had a friendly conversation giving my son a lieutenant's commission in
the army, at my request.
The real genius of Napoleon was that he appointed men from diverse and
opposite positions and induced them to work together. He offered me a Sehate
seat but I declined, saying I would use it to criticize his government. Tallyrand next
offered me the French embassy in Washington but I said no, as I had citizenship in
American and it would be at cross purposes. In April 1802 they retired me from the
army with a generous pension. Napoleon created the famous Legion of Honor with
my name at the top of the list but l reused the honor, saying it was undemocratic.
Now he asked the assembly to appoint himself First Consul for life and I wrote and
told him he was crazy. Mutual friends now informed me I was a persona non grata
to the emperor, who crowned himself in 1807 and restored the aristocracy. I
personally protested to him and, in spite, he took away my son's army commission.
On December 1807 my wife, who was in poor health, died. Prior to this my son
George had married Emulir de Tracy and my daughter Virginnie wed the Comte
Louis de Lasteyrie.
Many of my relatives and best friends were casualties in Napoleon's disasterous
Russian invasion. When the allied armies occupied Paris on March 31, 1814 1
retired to my room and cried. Tallyrand "now brought to the French throne a
Bourbon, Louis XVIII who promised all the reforms I had long advocated. In March
1815 we were stunned by the news Napoleon had escaped from Elba and had
landecT at Cannes on the French Riviera. Now beqan the so-called Hundred Days
386-4303 ,,S W. .,.e S,.
7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. 'Ponchatou|a
Deputies and he said, "It has been 12 years since we met."
June 18, 1815 Wellington and the allied armies defeated Napoleon at
Belgium. He now announced he would dissolve the Chamber and take
government and continue the war. I sent him a message-resign or I will ask
vote demanding your abdication in the Chamber of Deputies. He
resigned, appointing his son to succeed to the throne. Again I was or
by Joseph Fouche, Minister of Police, who took over the government. The
marched into Paris and sent the deputies home. Louis XVIl'managed to
ultra-conservatives by giving more power to the Chamber of Deputies but that
nullified by depriving most of the population the voting franchise. France
representative goverment in the modern sense.
I was defeated for re-election in 1817 but the next year was elected a
from Le Mans, one of the king's courtiers told me his majesty was pained
election. After my wife's death my personal finances were in a shambles due
generous donations to liberal causes. I announced to my family that I had to
family estate to pay expenses. This announcement caused a big row as most
offspring never did an honest day's work in their life.
k
The Gardenettes hosted the quarter- Wilma Lamp.
ly meeting of The Greater Tangi Pictured are Mrs. Vicky
Council of the Garden Club at the Presenting a certificate
Ponchatoula Community Center appreciation to Mrs. Wilma
Wednesday. After business a Dried and Ms. Donna Corkern.
Flower Picture Workshop was
presented by Ponchatoula's Mrs.
• Shrimp FROM PAGE FIVE
changed. Currently fisherman may not
use trawls or butterfly nets with a mesh
less than five-eighths (5/8) of an inch
square or one and one-fourth (I I/4)
inches stretched.
Fisherman using double butterfly nets
may not have individual net frames
more than twelve (12) feet measured
either horizontally or vertically,
whichever distance is greater, except
fisherman on a vassel may use double
butterfly net frames not more than six-
teen feet measured horizontally or
tw,lve feet measured vertically.
(Photo by Terry Ann
Fisherman using trawls in
waters are limited to a single trawl
greater than fifty (50) feet
along the corkline except a test
may be used in conjunction with
main net and fisherman fishing
Breton and Chandeleur Sound may 1
two trawls which do not exceed
five (6,5) feet measured along the
line plus one test trawl.
Fisherman in outside waters can
no more than four trawls and one
trawl.
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