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LAS CASES, EMMANUEL AUGUSTIN

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 233 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LAS CASES, See also:EMMANUEL AUGUSTIN DIEUDONN$ MARIN See also:JOSEPH, MARQI IS (1766-1842), See also:French See also:official, was See also:born at the See also:castle of Las Cases near Revel in See also:Languedoc. He was educated at the military See also:schools of See also:Vendome and See also:Paris; he entered the See also:navy and took See also:part in various engagements of the years 1781-1782. The outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 caused him to " emigrate," and he spent some years in See also:Germany and See also:England, sharing in the disastrous See also:Quiberon expedition (1795). He was one of the few survivors and returned to See also:London, where he lived in poverty. He returned to See also:France during the Consulate with other royalists who rallied to the See also:side of See also:Napoleon, and stated afterwards to the See also:emperor that he was " conquered by his See also:glory." Not until 1810 did he receive much See also:notice from Napoleon, who then made him a See also:chamberlain and created him a See also:count of the See also:empire (he was See also:marquis by hereditary right). After the first See also:abdication of the emperor (11th of See also:April 1814), Las Cases retired to England, but returned to serve Napoleon during the See also:Hundred Days. The second abdication opened up for Las Cases the most noteworthy part of his career. He withdrew with the ex-emperor and a few other trusty followers to See also:Rochefort; and it was Las Cases who first proposed and strongly urged the emperor to throw himself on the generosity of the See also:British nation. Las Cases made the first overtures to See also:Captain See also:Maitland of H.M.S. " See also:Bellerophon " and received a guarded reply, the nature of which he afterwards misrepresented. Las Cases accompanied the ex-emperor to St See also:Helena and acted informally but very assiduously as his secretary, taking down numerous notes of his conversations which thereafter took See also:form in the famous Memorial de Ste Helene. The limits of this See also:article preclude an See also:attempt at assessing the value of this See also:work.

It should be read with See also:

great caution, as the compiler did not See also:scruple to insert his own thoughts and to See also:colour the expressions of his See also:master. In some cases he misstated facts and even fabricated documents. It is far less trustworthy than the See also:record penned by See also:Gourgaud in his See also:Journal. Disliked by See also:Montholon and Gourgaud, Las Cases seems to have sought an opportunity to leave the See also:island when he had accumulated sufficient See also:literary material. However that may be, he infringed the British regulations in such a way as to See also:lead to his See also:expulsion by the See also:governor, See also:Sir See also:Hudson See also:Lowe (See also:November, 1816). He was sent first to the Cape of See also:Good See also:Hope and thence to See also:Europe, but was not at first allowed by the See also:government of See also:Louis XVIII. to enter France. He resided at See also:Brussels; but, gaining per-See also:mission to come to Paris after the See also:death of Napoleon, he took up his See also:residence there, published the Memorial, and soon gained an enormous sum from it. He died in 1842 at Passy. See Memoires de E A. D., comie de Las Cases (Brussels, 1818) ; Memorial de Ste Helene (4 vols., London and Paris, 1823; often republished and translated) ; See also:Suite au memorial de Ste Helene, ou observations critiques, bc. (2 vols., Paris, 1824), See also:anonymous, but known to be by See also:Grille and See also:Musset-Pathay. See too GOURGAUD, MONTHOLON, and LowE, SIR HUDSON.

(J. HL.

End of Article: LAS CASES, EMMANUEL AUGUSTIN

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