Philippe, who was tired of school,
wanted to serve under the Emperor; he saw a review at the Tuileries,
--the last Napoleon ever held,--and he became infatuated with the idea
of a soldier's life. In those days military splendor, the show of
uniforms, the authority of epaulets, offered irresistible seductions
to a certain style of youth. Philippe thought he had the same vocation
for the army that his brother Joseph showed for art. Without his
mother's knowledge, he wrote a petition to the Emperor, which read as
follows:--
Sire,--I am the son of your Bridau; eighteen years of age, five
feet six inches; I have good legs, a good constitution, and wish
to be one of your soldiers. I ask you to let me enter the army,
etc.
Within twenty-four hours, the Emperor had sent Philippe to the
Imperial Lyceum at Saint-Cyr, and six months later, in November, 1813,
he appointed him sub-lieutenant in a regiment of cavalry. Philippe
spent the greater part of that winter in cantonments, but as soon as
he knew how to ride a horse he was dispatched to the front, and went
eagerly. During the campaign in France he was made a lieutenant, after
an affair at the outposts where his bravery had saved his colonel's
life. The Emperor named him captain at the battle of La
Fere-Champenoise, and took him on his staff. Inspired by such
promotion, Philippe won the cross at Montereau. He witnessed Napoleon's
farewell at Fontainebleau, raved at the sight, and refused to serve the
Bourbons.
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