Dumouriez

Dumouriez, Charles Francois, was born of a good Provencal family in 1739, and when eighteen accompanied his father, a commissary of the army that invaded Hanover during the Seven Years' war. He distinguished himself, and won a captaincy, but on the reduction of the strength had to retire, when he was employed in secret, having a decided bent for diplomacy. In Corsica, Poland, Sweden, and elsewhere, he was engaged in intrigues not only for the French Government, but on his own account, and as a consequence passed the last years of Louis XIV.'s reign in prison. On his release he pointed out the value of Cherbourg as a harbour, and in 1778 was made governor there. An advocate of reform without abrogation of the monarchy, he was' looked upon with high favour by the Girondists in 1788; and having for a brief period acted as a Minister for Foreign Affairs and for War, he was sent under Marshal Luckner to command the Army of the North. His success over the Allies at Valmy (1792) was followed up by a brilliant campaign in the Austrian Netherlands. Early in 1793 he was defeated by Coburg at Neerwinden, and being accused of treachery by the agents of the Convention, from whom the execution of the king had alienated him, he went over to the Austrian camp. After many wanderings he settled in England in 1804, and enjoyed a pension from Government. At the Restoration he was slighted by the Bourbons, nor did he ever return to France, dying at his own house near Henley-on-Thames in 1823.