#joseph masclet

[nordleuchten]

I love him with too much tenderness to make any distinction between his desires and mine; and I am too great an enemy to oppression of every description to place a restraint on the wishes of a beloved son nearly twenty years of age.

La Fayette about his son Georges in a letter to his friend Joseph Masclet.

Jules Germain Cloquet, Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette, Baldwin and Cradock, London, 1835, p. 131.

[thinkingimages]

NUS ? 11 VOLUMES - NUS LA BEAUTÉ DE LA FEMME, Daniel Masclet, 1933. Rousseurs. Un classique illustré par Man Ray, Drtikol, Boucher, Moholy-Nagy, Platt Lynes. - NUS, Pierre-Jean Amar, Nathan Images, 1990. Ex n°20/100 accompagné d'un tirage signé. - NAISSANCE D'APHRODITE, Lucien Clergue, 1966. Version américaine de Brussel & Brussel, sans la jaquette. On joint: NUS D'AUTREFOIS 1850-1900, Marcel Bovis, 1953; MEN / WOMEN, Herb Ritts, 1989. 2ème édition; DUO, Herb Ritts, 1991; MEN, Joseph Caprio, 1986; MORCEAUX CHOISIS, Pierre Jahan, 1955; CUIR & FANTASMES, Michel Guillot, 1982; PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE NUDE,...

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Musical "Elisabeth" at Festival Bruxellons - "Deux bateaux seuls dans la nuit (Boote in der Nacht)"

Marie Pierre de Brienne as Elisabeth, Arnaud Masclet as Franz Joseph

Attempt at a lyric transcription and translation under the cut

Thank you to @lesmiserabelles for her help!!

Elisabeth : L’amour est fort, oui Mais parfois l’amour ne suffit pas Et nos espoirs bien souvent hélas restent là Aucun miracle n’a voulu se produire Il est temps ce soir d’oser enfin le dire

Nous sommes deux bateaux seuls dans la nuit Qui se croisent au gré des vents Que leur impose la vie Nous nous saluons sur la mer L’émotion est toujours sincère Pourtant chacun repart vers d’autres nuits

Franz Joseph : Ne crois-tu pas qu’il faut savoir se contenter de peu ?

Elisabeth : Ton rêve m’emprisonne

Franz Joseph : La chaleur l’un de l’autre pourrait nous rendre heureux

Elisabeth : Je ne suis l’ombre de personne

Les deux / Both : Si par mes yeux tu pouvais voir ce qu’est ma vie Tu parviendrais à comprendre qui je suis

Nous sommes deux bateaux seuls dans la nuit Qui se croisent au gré des vents Que leur impose la vie Nous nous saluons sur la mer L’émotion est toujours sincère Pourtant chacun repart vers d’autres nuits

Elisabeth : Toi et moi sommes deux bateaux seuls dans la nuit Qui se croisent au gré des vents Que leur impose la vie

Franz Joseph : Reprends-moi Ne me laisse pas Je t’aime tant Prends-moi enfin la main Reprends-moi Ne me laisse pas Je t’aime tant Prenons le même chemin

Les deux / Both : Nous nous saluons sur la mer L’émotion peut sembler sincère Fait le bonheur depuis toujours nous fuir

Franz Joseph : Je t’aime tant

Elisabeth : C’est la vie qui a choisi pour nous deux

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

Elisabeth: Love is strong, yes But sometimes love is not enough And our hopes often stay as hopes No miracle wanted to happen Tonight it’s time to finally dare to say it

We are two boats alone in the night That cross at the whim of the winds Which life pushes towards them We salute each other at sea The feeling is always sincere However each goes off into different nights

Franz Joseph: Don’t you think we should learn to settle for less?

Elisabeth: Your dream is my prison

Franz Joseph: The heat between us could make us happy

Elisabeth: I am no one’s shadow

Both: If you could see in my eyes what my life is You would come to understand who I am

We are two boats alone in the night That cross at the whim of the winds Which life pushes towards them We salute each other at sea The feeling is always sincere However each goes off into different nights

Elisabeth: You and I are two boats alone in the night That cross at the whim of the winds Which life pushes towards them

Franz Joseph: Take me back Don’t leave me I love you so much Take my hand finally Take me back Don’t leave me I love you so much Let’s take the same path

Both: We salute each other at sea The feeling can seem sincere Happiness always makes us run away

Franz Joseph: I love you so much

Elisabeth: Life chose for us both

[nordleuchten]

georges was really badly wounded during his military time, what was the injury??

Dear Anon,

Georges was indeed wounded during the first Battle of the Mincio River, also known as the Battle of Pozzolo on December 25 and 26, 1800. He was hit by three bullets and while this at first seems like grievous injuries, they really were not. La Fayette said so himself and he was not in the habit of making light of his children’s health. He wrote in a letter to his friend Joseph Masclet on February 17, 1801:

I have not this long while heard from you, my Masclet: sure I am, nevertheless, that you do not your friend, and that you have been pleased with George’s good fortune on the Mincio. He was in the wing, and under the general who fought and won the action. The eleventh regiment of hussars was the most distinguished. My son had for his share three bullets, but slight wounds. General Dupont tells me he had named him in the account of the battle. George insisted on the suppression of the mention made of him, unless the same was done in favour of his wounded comrades. His wounds would have been sooner cured, had he not remained with the regiment as long as there was something to do, which caused an inflammation and a dépôt in his arm. But when the eleventh hussars made the blockade of the forts of Verona, which put them out of the way of danger, George got into the city, where he was very well taken care of. When General Dupont saw him last he was in good train of recovery, although he yet wore a scarf. His side was still less damaged than the arm So that the danger of the battle, which has been great, being over we have had nothing to fear. and much to rejoice at. I give you those details as I know you will enjoy them. Here is a good, honourable, solid peace.

Jules Germain Cloquet, Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette, Baldwin and Cradock, London, 1835, pp. 229-230.

Georges had injuries to his arm and side, followed by an inflammation and swelling – nothing too pleasant but also nothing that put him in great danger. There is no mentioning of any permanent damage to his arm or upper body.

I hope I could help you and I hope you have/had a great day!

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also, you were talking about georges' feats in the military; could you share those stories if ya have 'em? i don't think I've ever read any of them before

thank youu :))

Dear @msrandonstuff,

of course I can!

Many of the sources I am going to rely upon are La Fayette’s letters to friends and family members. Because like every proud Papa, La Fayette liked to tell everybody what his son did and accomplished.

Georges was a good officer who took his role very serious and who not only freely choose this occupation for himself and enjoyed it, but who also understood how his military conduct was connected to his and his family’s honour. Here is a description of Georges’ military qualities from an undated letter La Fayette wrote his friend Amé Thérèse Joseph Masclet:

The fact is, that George, who is a republican patriot, -- and I have met with few such in my lifetime, -- has, besides a passion for the military profession, for which I think him adapted, as he possesses a sound and calm judgment, a just perception, a strong local memory, and will be equally beloved his superiors, his comrades, and his subordinates. I love him with too much tenderness to make any distinction between his desires and mine; and I am great an enemy to oppression of every description place a restraint on the wishes of a beloved son twenty years of age. I could joyfully see him with honourable scars, but beyond that supposition have not the courage to contemplate existence.

Jules Germain Cloquet, Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette, Baldwin and Cradock, London, 1835, p. 131.

While, as La Fayette wrote, he thought Georges very much suited for the military and although he liked the idea of Georges following in his steps, he was above forcing his son to follow a certain path. La Fayette believed children should make their way, independent of their parents’ wishes – although the parents should support and guide their child because a father for example knows his son differently than the child knows itself.

Georges joined the military and was made a sous-lieutenant around the time of the Battle of Marengo. He served in succession as an aide-de-camp to the Generals Canclaux, Dupont and Grouchy. Towards the end of Georges’ military career, Marshal Joachim Murat wanted to appoint Georges as his officier d’ordonnance but Napoléon was against it and the appointment never came to pass.

Georges was wounded in the Battle of Minico/Battle of Pozzolo on December 25, 1800. La Fayette wrote the following about his son’s injuries and conduct to Masclet on 28 Pluviôse [February 17] [1801]:

I have not this long while heard from you my dear Masclet: sure I am, nevertheless, that you do not forget your friend, and that you have been pleased with George’s good fortune on the Mincio. He was in the wing and under the general who fought and won the action. The eleventh regiment of hussars was the most distinguished. My son had for his share three bullets, but slight wounds. General Dupont tells me he had named him in the account of the battle. George insisted on the suppression of the mention made of him, unless the same was done in favour of his wounded comrades. His wounds would have been sooner cured, had he not remained with the regiment as long as there was something to do which caused an inflammation and a dépôt in his arm. But when the eleventh hussars made the blockade of the forts of Verona, which put them out of the way of danger, George got into the city, where he was very well taken care of. When General Dupont saw him last, he was in good train of recovery, although he yet wore a scarf. His side was still less damaged than the arm. So that the danger of the battle, which has been great, being over, we have had nothing to fear, and much to rejoice at. I give you those details as I know you will enjoy them. Here is a good honourable solid peace.

Jules Germain Cloquet, Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette, Baldwin and Cradock, London, 1835, pp. 229-230.

Georges wounds were without serious consequences, and he fully recovered. He next distinguished himself during the Battle of Eylau on February 7-8, 1807. La Fayette again wrote to Masclet:

George was on the eve being appointed to the rank of captain, and even the Emperor, before he went to Italy. had promised his promotion to Generals Grouchy and Canclaux and to M de Tracy [Georges’ father-in-law]. Since that period, my son has served as volunteer aide de camp at the embarkation at Helder, at Ulm, at Udine, and in the new war at Prenzlaw, at Lubeck, at Eylau, where he had the good fortune to save his general; and at Friedland, where Grouchy commanded the wing of the cavalry which routed the Russians only at the seventh charge. The promotion promised before all these events, and for which several applications had been made by the principal ministers and general officers, has been constantly refused, so that George, although the senior lieutenant of the division, has abandoned all idea of advancement. The peace will bring him back to us, as he is a volunteer: we expect him immediately.

Jules Germain Cloquet, Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette, Baldwin and Cradock, London, 1835, p. 106.

La Fayette also wrote to his friend Thomas Jefferson regarding Georges’ conduct at Eylau. The Marquis wrote on April 29, 1807:

My Son and Son in Law are in the Army of Poland under the Emperor’s Command, the one as a Volunteer Aid de Camp to General Grouchy, the other as an Aid de Camp to General Beker, Both my personal friends—George Had the Happiness at the Bloody Battle of Eylaw to save the Life of His General Whose Horse Had been killed and fell on His Bruised thigh, at a Moment when our troops were Overpowered and the Russians Giving No Quarter—My Son Lept down, disengaged Grouchy from Under His Horse, Gave Him His own, and so Both Got of. Since which time, and probably on that Account, there Has been a new Manifestation of a Sentiment already and I may say officially Expressed after the Affair of Prentzlaw when George Had the Good fortune to be Approved for His Conduct—it is that not only He Never Has Any promotion to Expect from the Emperor But that His Zeal in the Active Army is so far displeasing as to put Him in immediate danger to be sent, in His Rank of Lieutenant, to Some Remote Regimen—He Has Consequently determined to Return to Us, either to Serve in an interior Staff, or to Rest Himself at La Grange, as Soon as the Circumstances of the Army will permit His Leaving the division to which He is Attached, unless a proper Explanation Speedily takes place.

“To Thomas Jefferson from Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 29 April 1807,” Founders Online, National Archives, [This is an Early Access document from The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. It is not an authoritative final version.] (05/24/2023)

To top the list off, La Fayette also wrote to James Madison on June 10, 1807:

My Son and Younger Son in Law are in the Grand Army, The later an aid de Camp to our friend Gnl. Becker Now Chef d’Etat Major to the Wing Under Mal. Massena, George a Volonteer aid de Camp to Gnl. Grouchy. In that Independant Situation He Has determined to Go on, Very Happy in the Esteem and Kindness of our Numerous friends at the Army and Among its Chiefs, But Having Had Strong Reasons Not to Expect Even the Usual and Common Course of promotion. It Has been His fortunate lot, at the Bloody Battle of Eylaw, to Save the life of His Beloved General, Brother in law to Mr. Cabanis.

“To James Madison from Marie-Adrienne-Françoise de Noailles, marquise de Lafayette, 10 June 1807,” Founders Online, National Archives, [This is an Early Access document from The Papers of James Madison. It is not an authoritative final version.] (05/24/2023)

Georges had put himself in great danger during the Battle of Eylau and his courage was noted. Even beside that, Georges had done very well in the past and was respected by his superiors – the only problem; he was a La Fayette and Napoléon was petty. He and his brother-in-law (the husband of his younger sister Virginie) therefore quitted the military after the end of the military season in 1807 – to the infinite joy of his mother Adrienne.

She [Adrienne] bore with gentle fortitude the anxieties of which my brother and my husband were the object during the campaigns of 1805 and 1806. She heard with joy of George’s good fortune when he saved his general’s life at the battle of Eylau. The peace which followed brought on for her a period of unmingled happiness. I [Virginie] shall not attempt to describe it to you. I have scarcely dwelt upon those peaceful years we passed at Lagrange, although, during that whole period, I was my mother's daily companion. But I could only repeat to you that we were happy. At the end of the spring of 1807, it seemed that God had accomplished all my mother’s desires in this world. As for myself I cannot fancy it possible to be happier than I was during the period which elapsed from the peace and my eldest daughter’s birth up to the beginning of the fatal malady.

Mme de Lasteyrie, Life of Madame de Lafayette, L. Techener, London, 1872, pp. 391-392.

This is pure speculation on my part, but I could imagine that Georges’ leave from the military could also have been influenced by family reasons. In the above quoted letter to Madison, La Fayette mentioned that Georges’ little daughter of four weeks had just died and I could imagine that, just like Henriette’s death was a waking-call for a Fayette, Georges’ wanted to be closer to his wife, children and family.

Adrienne also was not the only one who was frequently anxious for Georges and Louis (Virginie’s husband). La Fayette wrote on October 16, 1805 to James Madison:

My Son Serves in the Grand Army as an Aid de Camp to General Grouchy—My Son in Law Louïs Lasteyrie Serves there also as an officer of dragoons—two Young Wives, a Sister, and Mother Are With Me at La Grange—and While I Consider their Anxiety and My Own for the Sake of our Young Soldiers, I am inclined to feel Less Regret, and I know You Will find More Cause to Approve me for Having Yelded to the Opinion of the Ambassadors and Mine Respecting the present obstacles to An immediate Voyage (…).

“To James Madison from Lafayette, 16 October 1805,” Founders Online, National Archives, . [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State Series, vol. 10, 1 July 1805–31 December 1805, ed. Mary A. Hackett, J. C. A. Stagg, Mary Parke Johnson, Anne Mandeville Colony, and Katherine E. Harbury. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2014, pp. 434–436.] (05/24/2023)

I hope I could answer your question and I hope you have/had a wonderful day!

[nordleuchten]

La Fayette to Joseph Masclet

The Marquis de La Fayette to Joseph Masclet on March 8, 1798:

Jules Germain Cloquet, Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette, Baldwin and Cradock, London, 1835, p. 62.

Does Georges’ behaviour already qualify as extortion? :-)

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How La Fayette broke his femur-bone

During the cold season we are all advised to be careful. Freezing temperatures, ice on lakes that will not support you sufficiently, slippery roads and pavements – that was no different in the 18th and early 19th century. To his great misery, La Fayette learned this lesson through first-hand experience. On February 23, 1803 he slipped on an icy street in Paris and broke his femur-bone close to the hip joint.

In his autobiography he retells the event:

„Soon after bidding farewell to his English friends, Lafayette was leaving the building of the Ministry of Marine, when his foot slipped on the ice, and he fell heavily on the pavement, breaking his hip - bone. He was assisted into a carriage, and taken to the house of M. and Mme. de Tessé, where his wife soon arrived.“

Two little notes. First, the Ministry of Marine was located near the modern Place de la Concorde. Second, he did not actually break the hip-bone itself … that would have been far, far worse.

A friend of La Fayette referenced his accident in a letter to Thomas Jefferson on Febuary 15, 1803:

“bien peu de jours apres la lettre que vous m’avez ecrit et a laquelle je me fesois un grand plaisir de repondre, jay eprouvé un cruel accident c’est une chutte qui ma cassé los du femeur de la Cuisse juste le même malheur que m de la fayette(…)“

[Just a few days after receiving your letter, which I looked forward to answering, I had a terrible accident, a fall that broke my hip bone, exactly the same misfortune as Monsieur de Lafayette.]

 La Fayette himself wrote on March 31, 1803 in a letter to Thomas Jefferson:

“(...) and I my dear Sir I am dependent upon an accident which has rendered it impossible to write myself, and not very easy amidst my sufferings, and the attendance of surgeons to direct a correspondence. I have already been for five and fifty days under the pains of a broken Phémurés-neck and the operation of a new invented machine, I have still three weeks to remain uncomfortably on my back, but I now am sure to recover the use of my thigh without any lameness. as to the particulars of my misfortune and treatment, nobody can better give them than General Bernadotte who has been a most friendly visitor at my bedside. (…)“

 He further wrote to Jefferson on May 17, 1803:

„I have met with a Sad accident, the breaking of my Thigh, at the Col du femur it has been more compleatly mended than perhaps any fracture of the Kind, but I have paid it dear—the application of a new machine has left me very deep Wounds, besides the great sufferings I have undergone—My Situation does not yet allow much writing—But I wanted to express to you my Joy on the grand affair and my Gratitude, both to Congress and to you, for the honourable bountiful mark of Kindness I have received—“

 A day later on May 18, 1803, Richard Peters wrote to James Madison, also relating La Fayette’s accident:

“After describing the Situation of another worthy old Officer who has a Provision in their War Department he mentions Mr la fayette as one who alone is under a Necessity of looking to this Country for Assistance. “Our Friend la Fayette who in a Fall, had, some time ago the upper Part or Neck of the Femur fractured, begins to do well.”

Jefferson also received a letter from London from his friend James Monroe, dated September 20, 1803, who had just been in Paris and had met La Fayette there.

„I saw Genls. La Fayette & Kusciusko often. They are the men you always knew them to be. La Fayette has the same ardor that he had when he began the French revolution while you were in France. He had unfortunately dislocated his thigh in its junction with the hip, & experienced unexampled sufferings by the application of a new invented machine, wh. the surgeons thot. necessary to his cure. The prospect, tho’ doubtful when I came away, was in favor of his perfect recovery. I have not heard from him since.“

La Fayette was treated by two surgeons and the procedure of his treatment is what really makes the story worth telling. Again turning to the Marquis’ autobiography, we can read there that:

“The character of the fracture led the physicians to expect a shortening of the leg and a permanently crippled condition. To avoid this result, they offered Lafayette the only alternative of undergoing the confinement of his leg in a newly invented machine, which might preserve its length, but would necessitate forty days of ceaseless pain. Lafayette resolved on this course, and for six weeks suffered excessive torture. The uncomplaining patience with which he bore the pain deceived the physicians. The bandages were too tight, and when they were removed the leg presented a sight which terrified the physicians and gave them little hope of saving the patient without amputation of the limb. The tension of the bandages had been so great that the flesh was deeply cut and part of the calf had to be removed. The physicians were greatly mortified at their error, and this experience modified the future use of the new instrument. But Lafayette, notwithstanding the permanent injuries caused to him by the treatment, was well satisfied to have endured it, as his leg was not shortened, and a gradual improvement enabled him to take his usual daily exercise. This accident and the sufferings entailed by it aroused much public interest, and gave Lafayette an opportunity to estimate the value of his friends' attachment. Many generals, senators, and councillors visited him openly and in uniform. Among these, Moreau, Joseph Bonaparte, and Bernadotte were unremitting in their attentions. Some only ventured to inquire for news, others to ask their friends, and others again only to listen to such accounts as they heard given in public. Bonaparte's change of feeling was now shown. Having inquired the name of an officer at a parade, and being told that it was the young Lafayette, he exclaimed, “It is his son”, and passed on.”

 La Fayettes personal physician, Jules Germain Cloquet also relates the incident in his book “Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette, etc.”

“Few possessed the virtues of patience and resignation in a higher degree than Lafayette. During his last illness, he acquainted us with the nature of the medical treatment which he had undergone in 1803 for a fracture of the thigh, occasioned by a fall on a slippery pavement. Deschamp and Boyer, whose memory I respect, and whom I am proud to have had for my masters, were summoned in their professional capacity to his assistance. The fractured limb was enclosed in a machine, which kept it in a constant state of tension; and as Lafayette had promised those skilful surgeons to support the pain with patience as long as they might judge it necessary for his cure, he uttered not a single complaint for the fifteen or twenty days during which the apparatus was applied. When it was removed, the surgeons were unable to conceal the annoyance they felt at the effect produced by the bandages. Deschamp turned pale; Boyer was stupified: the upper bandages had, by their pressure, cut deeply into the muscles of the inside of the thigh, and laid bare the femoral artery; the action of the lower ones had been less violent, but they had produced a mortification of the skin at the back part of the foot and laid bare the tendons of the toes. In consequence of Lafayette's stoical fortitude, the vigilance of his surgeons was completely at fault. Deep scars bore evidence of the truth of one of his observations to us, uttered, however, in confidence, through an apprehension of injuring, not the interests but the memory of two individuals for whom he felt gratitude, although their exertions on his behalf had been unsuccessful. A length of time elapsed before he recovered from the lamentable consequences which resulted from his medical treatment, and which were followed by an almost complete anchylosis and lameness of the hip - joint.”

Cloquet also re-printed a letter in his book that La Fayette wrote to a close friend.

 “You are pleased to ask for a line of my hand writing, dear Masclet, and I employ the first moments I am able to scribble it. The fracture of my thigh is perfectly mended, better, indeed, than could be expected under such circumstances. But the extending machine has left deep and painful wounds, which cannot be healed within five weeks.”

La Fayette remained limp until the end of his life.

What does this story teach us? Always be careful when walking outside in the winter.