YOUNG TONE JOINS THE ARMY.

327

the gifts of foreign despotism. And within the last year some of the most eminent men of Hungary have become citizens of this New Free World.

To America then the exiles turned.-*

* The

anchor is up; the sail is set; the wind blows fair. At last the shores of Europe fade from sight.

The family of Tone remained in France until the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815.

After the death of Tone, his widow fixed her residence in Paris to attend to the education of her children. She remembered the dying charge of her husband, "You are now their only parent," and she devoted herself to them as one who was executing a sacred trust. The fate of Tone excited universal interest in Paris. Lucien Bonaparte was deeply affected by the story, and upon his speech in the Council of Five Hundred, Mrs. Tone was taken under the protection of the French government, and her children adopted by the nation. Two of them died in early years. Her only surviving son Talleyrand had proposed to adopt upon the death of Tone. But his mother preferred to have him under her own eye. She placed him in the University of Paris, and removed to the Latin Quarter, that she might be always near him. Here he pursued his studies eleven years. He then entered as a cadet in the School of Cavalry at St. Germain, under the special patronage of the Emperor. In 1813 he entered the army as Sub-Lieutenant. of Chasseurs. He led a detachment into Germany to join the Grand Army, with which, after the retreat from Russia, Napoleon tried to beat back the allied armies

from France. It was the most stupendous campaign of the Great Captain. All Europe was pressing upon him. Our young soldier was thrown into the midst of this scene of war, incessantly on the march or in battle-at one time away in Silesia, then riding in the squadrons that are "pouring in hot haste" across the bridge of Dresden, while the battle is raging on the surrounding heights, and next fighting among the mountains of Bohemia, with "the enemy's bivouacs at night forming a complete circle of fire all around the horizon." We see him, now fighting hand to hand with Cossacks, and now charging under the furious Murat-then, when the bloody day is done, and the last volley has echoed among the hills, sitting around the campfires, listening by the ruddy light to the wild and stirring tales of war. Just before he set off for the army his mother had bought him a little Arabian horse, swift and full of fire, yet so gentle that it would eat bread out of her hand. This gallant little steed proved the best horse in the brigade, and three times saved his master's life, at last by the sacrifice of his own. Young Tone had already been wounded by a grape-shot at Goldberg, and received three saber thrusts at Muhlberg In the latter action he was surrounded by Cossacks. "The speed and ferocity of my Solyman," he said, "saved me; he flung and kicked about, and how I clung to him I know not, but he carried me off like a flash of lightning." At Leipsic he was pierced with six lance wounds, and owed his life to his horse being killed under him, and falling upon his rider. He was left upon the ground for dead.

When he awoke, the French and Austrian cavalry were

BATTLE OF LEIPSIC.

329

gone. The hurricane of battle had swept by. He was lying on the cold ground, in the midst of the unburied slain. By degrees the blood flowed through his stiffened limbs, and he was able to crawl back to the camp.

On

He was faint with loss of blood. "Two days he lay in a kind of stupor, stretched on the straw of the bivouacs, in the rear of the army, in the midst of the cannonade which thundered all around. Every now and then he would raise himself to inquire of the passing events." the fourth day he was able to stir. Scarcely had the day broken, when bombs burst over the city and crashed through the houses. Napoleon had ordered a retreat, and the allies were endeavoring to carry the city by storm. The Imperial Guard held the rampart, while the rest of the army defiled out of the gates. The young wounded officer rushed forth into the street, and, carried forward in the current, crossed the bridge over the Elster a little before it was blown up.

The seat of war now approached the frontiers of France. Lieut. Tone was one of the garrison left to hold the strong fortress of Erfurt, which was bravely defended against the allies for seven months, and surrendered only when Napoleon had abdicated, and Louis XVIII. was on the throne of France. Then Tone was sent to Paris to signify its submission. The garrison felt not a little pride in being the last that yielded. Tone had risen to the rank of captain, and received the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

He remained in the army, and on the return of Napoleon from Elba, again took the field in support of his old

commander. His military career was closed by the battle of Waterloo.

In Tone's last letter to his wife there was a postscript: -"I think you have a friend in Wilson who will not desert you." This was a Scotch gentleman of the purest and noblest character. Since the death of Tone he had proved a friend indeed. He had purchased a large sum in the French funds, and left it in the hands of a banker in Paris for her to draw upon whenever she had need. And now that the fall of Napoleon had deprived her of her protector, he came over to France, and offered her his hand and fortune. The case was a difficult one. He was her best friend on earth. But, like the intended bride of Robert Emmet, she had once loved another, and

"Her heart in the grave of her hero was lying."

But he had her esteem, and now sought her hand that he · might have a right to be her companion and protector. She yielded, and they were privately married in the chapel of the British Embassy. They left shortly after for America, and settled in Washington.

CHAPTER XXX.

CAREER OF EMMET IN AMERICA.-ADMITTED TO THE BAR.-IMMEDIATE SUCCESS.-CHARACTER OF HIS ELOQUENCE.--APPEARS BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT AT WASHINGTON.-DESCRIBED BY JUDGE STORY.-HIS HOME.-HIS DEATH.

WHEN Emmet landed at New York, he was about forty years of age. He had lost six years of the prime of manhood in imprisonments and in exile. His fortune was reduced, and he had a large family to support. At first he was in doubt whether to commence the practice of law or medicine. He had long been broken off from his legal studies, and he was equally qualified to enter either profession. When he had decided upon the bar, he proposed to remove to Ohio, thinking that a new country would be better for his children.

As it happened, a man of Irish descent was then governor of the State of New York. It was the venerable George Clinton, who the next year became vice-president of the United States. De Witt Clinton had just resigned a seat in the Senate, and was then mayor of the city. Both these gentlemen sent for Mr. Emmet and told him to remain in New York. His great talents must command patronage. General Hamilton, who had been at the head of the bar, had been killed in a duel by Aaron Burr, and