Further Reminiscences of M. Laroche

[[GG]AndrewKent]

Well.... in going through the tattered and musty old letters of M. Laroche, I found that there was quite a gap in their account of the 1815 campaign. Apparently many of the documents were lost.

But I have found later letters and journals that described his participation in the campaigns of 1816 to 1818, those of France against the Great Eastern Alliance. He seems to have been in the middle of most of the fighting...if you can believe all he says. It does seem odd that he could participate in one battle one day and then appear at another a few days later and several hundred miles away. Must have been quite a rider.... or?

If I can just find time to translate these, I'll post what I can on this thread. The old parchments are crumbling and since many were written by Laroche in his old age, the script is quite unsteady and difficult to read.

I'll see what I can do.

By way of preface, I have translated this short letter, which precedes his personal history of the campaign:

-------------------------------------

l'emporer a besoin de moi, ainsi je servirai!

Dear Madam Trifecta,

So kind of you to inquire about your old 'acquaintance' (let us be discreet in our old age, eh?).

Yes, I am quite well, except that I am not. How, after all the narrow escapes, wounds and drubbings I have had over the course of my life...how is it I am still be standing (if this warped figure can be said to be 'standing').

Well, I'm not standing much anymore, truth be told. I hobble down to the Cafe du Guarde each day for lunch (and only lunch, that being all I can afford now...No Pension! A disgrace!). There are scant few of my old comrades surviving, but those few of us still clinging to this world still meet there to relive old memories. No one else can understand, I assure you, what we lived through. A fellow soldier from those long forgotten campaigns can simply look in your eye and know all in silent understanding. Not that we neglect to exercise our tongues. After all, little else about our aged bodies can bear such strenuous exercise, so the tongue wags. And a glass of wine or two...or three...maybe a bottle; it helps to raise the spirits and refresh the memory.

So that is the highlight of my waning days...a few friends, some wine and a meager lunch at the Cafe du Guarde. How little France remembers; how little she seems to care. The younger set at the Cafe see us as ancient curiosities, of little interest. Oh! but if they could have seen me astride my horse, dashing young Hussar that I was. Ah, but you remember, my dear.

Well, I will try, if God grants me a few more months, to write down some kind of account of the campaign against the Eastern Alliance. You seemed to have enjoyed my recollections of the 1815 campaign. (Remember our first meeting at Joilet? When I managed to rescue you from the clutches of that old ogre, General Kent? Fancy that he thought a sweet young thing like you could look on him with favor. I still chuckle when I think of him cooing your name and tapping at your door, while we were slipping out the window. Ah, youth!)

We had such plans back then, you and I. When we parted in Lyon, little did I imagine that it would be almost four years before we met again and that events would have forclosed our happy dreams. But, when the Emperor called me (personally!) to serve him, I could not refuse.

Well, I'll get this letter posted before the mail goes out and then begin on my recollections of that glorious earlier time.

Until then, remember your dashing young Hussar.

With deep affection,

M. Laroche