François de Kellermann

“ He kept his eyes on Italy and France alternately, and divided his small army into two corps, leaving one under General Brunet's command, and leading the other up to the walls of Lyon himself.
Directly the Piedmontese discovered Kellermann's departure, they took advantage of the reduced numbers of the French troops, and fell upon them with 25,000 men. For eighteen days that handful of brave men fought incessantly, only falling back step by step, losing but a matter of twenty leagues of ground, and saving all their magazines. ”

“ About six o'clock the next morning, the Prussians marched for the same point, and were not a little astonished to find Kellermann's army drawn up in line of battle on the heights of Dampierre, in a position which rendered it impracticable to attack. They immediately retreated, and their retiring columns suffered severely from a fire opened by the French artillery. This operation raised the reputation of Kellermann to an exalted height. The allies soon afterward retreated from France, and Kellermann desired to attack their rear; but Dumouriez would not allow the movement to be made. ”

“ But it is rather a caricature [Pg xlviii] of the present than a Utopia of the future, and the idea of the novel is lost in the abundance of individual motifs. It is to be hoped that this alienation is not symptomatic in the development either of the gifted author or of German literature as a whole. National questions will in the coming years summon Germany from fantastic world problems back to consciousness of herself.
The technical possibility of the Atlantic tunnel, upon which Kellermann has founded his novel, is questioned by engineering experts. ”

“ General Montesquiou was proscribed by the Convention, but succeeded in escaping to Switzerland, where he found refuge. Anselme was arrested and beheaded for the conquest of Nice. Biron took his place, and followed him to the scaffold. Finally Kellermann, whom my father was to succeed, took a turn as commander-in-chief in a post known to be under suspicion, and more dangerous than grapeshot; but Kellermann soon found himself between the Piedmontese army, eager to assume the offensive, and Lyon, which was in a state of revolt. ”

“ Daisy.
Yes, mother, dear. (Goes out, left.)
Frau Mulbridge.
Now that the child isn't here--tell me, Herr Kellermann, do you know anything about the cause of the duel? We're all groping in the dark here at the house.
Kellermann.
Well, they're saying all sorts of things. But the dead are my friends. I never say anything against them. It's a business principle with me. ”

“ Beyond these muddy streamlets and quagmires arose a solid and narrow piece of ground, admirably adapted for the station of a second camp; and here the general intended that Kellermann's division should be placed, then commanding the two routes of Rheims and Châlons. Dumouriez had studied this position during his leisure hours at Grandpré, and took up [Pg 257] his quarters with the confidence of a man who knows his ground and seizes on success with certain hand. ”

“ However, General Brunet could not hold out much longer, and he notified his position to Kellermann. Kellermann immediately raised the siege of Lyon, and joined the army with a reinforcement of three thousand men, bringing up the total of his forces to eight thousand men. He placed three hundred of the National Guards in the second line, and with these trifling numbers he began the attack on 13th September 1793. ”

“ Kellermann said:
"What the devil—the bronze manufacturing business seems to be booming all of a sudden. Our Mr. Dehnicke can't give me enough orders. He's up here every day to see how things are progressing."
Something in Mr. Kellermann's manner of blinking at her made Lilly blush, and disquieted her, though at the same time it filled her with a degree of satisfaction. ”

“ After weeding out undesirables and drafting reinforcements into his most reliable regiments, in three weeks he evolved a force of twenty thousand men capable of taking the field. While thus engaged he was ordered to join Dumouriez, who had been holding the Prussians in check at the defiles of the Argonne. On the evening of September 19th Kellermann effected his junction with Dumouriez near St. Menehould, and was attacked early next morning by the enemy under the Duke of Brunswick. The morning was wet and foggy, and the Prussians surprised the French and cut them off from the road to Paris. ”

“ The first was called something which made Lilly turn a shocked look of inquiry at her guide. Whereupon he replied, smiling:
"That's nothing, merely a beginning for flappers and afternoon-tea souls like you. What do you say to this, now?" he added, pointing to the placard over the next arbour.
"Dreadfully wicked!" she exclaimed, really scandalised, and Kellermann shook with laughter. He read aloud to her the inscriptions over four more arbours, and at every one Lilly's cheeks grew hotter. "Worse and worse," she thought, but said nothing. ”

“ In addition to the ladies' legitimate escorts were a large number of gentlemen, who came every evening to fish in troubled waters. These gentlemen constituted the real enlivening element, and among them was the Dr. Salmoni who had wielded "the big stick" at Mr. Kellermann's carnival while smiling a mournful smile. In his company, Lilly felt, she always grew embarrassed and reticent, although it seemed to her a secret bond united them. As at the carnival, he exercised his caustic wit upon every person who crossed his path, with the exception of herself, whom he passed by considerately. ”

“ Men of party seldom escape the fate they have made others undergo.
The executive council, directed, as to military operations by general Servan, advanced the newly-levied battalions towards the frontier. As a man of judgment, he was desirous of placing a general at the threatened point; but the choice was difficult. Among the generals who had declared in favour of the late political events, Kellermann seemed only adapted for a subordinate command, and the authorities had therefore merely placed him in the room of the vacillative and incompetent Luckner. ”

“ There he fell; but his death, instead of diminishing the ardor of his men, redoubled it, and they charged with their bayonets upon the column of General Zach.
At that moment Kellermann, who had broken through both of the enemy’s lines, saw Desaix’s division struggling with a compact, immovable mass. He charged in flank, forced his way into a gap, widened it, broke the square, quartered it, and in less than fifteen minutes the five thousand Austrian grenadiers who formed the mass were overthrown, dispersed, crushed, annihilated. They disappeared like smoke. ”

“ For his conduct that day Kellermann was named a marshal of the Empire and duke of Valmy; but the whole world was aware that the event was due to the brain of the man in the background. When the French had lost 300 men without wavering, the Prussians ceased firing, and broke off the engagement. Their loss was only 184. Yet this third-rate and mediocre action is counted, with Waterloo and Gettysburg, among the decisive battles of history; and Goethe was not the only man there who knew that the scene before him was the beginning of a new epoch for mankind. ”

“ H'm!--love never dies, they say. Ah, the captain was no saint, I can tell you!
Frau Mulbridge.
What do you know about it?
Kellermann.
Oh, well, there's a lot of talk about the veiled figures that used to go in and out of here at twilight. And if these mirrors could speak--! That reminds me--I'd almost forgotten--we must cover the mirrors. (Daisy appears in front of the curtain. She is staring into space.)
Frau Mulbridge.
But since the casket is to be taken away in less than an hour--what's the use?
Kellermann.
That doesn't make any difference. The mirrors have got to be draped. ”

“ The Austrians, strongly reinforced, attacked this line, and carried the heights of Mont Saint Jacques; and Kellermann, after a vain attempt to regain that point of his position, retreated to the line of defence more westward, which rests on Borghetto. ”

“ Kellermann.
Yes, that's the way with these fine folks. They fall upon one another like highwaymen. Your honour or your life! The man who survives can laugh. The man who falls--well, he falls into my arms. But, see here, getting into a duel with that fellow, that Baron Renoir--why it was nothing short of suicide! I tell you, where that man goes, no grass grows! On the turf, at the card-table, with the women--always the same story. That man shot him down like a rabbit. Oh, of course, it's always a fine thing to lay down your life for a woman. That's a phrase that---- ”

“ At the news of the retreat of Grandpré, Kellermann, believing Dumouriez defeated, and fearful of falling himself among the Prussian forces, whom he supposed to be at the extremity of the defile of Argonne, had retreated as far as Vitry. Couriers from Dumouriez reassuring him, he again advanced, but with the slowness of a man who fears an ambush at every step. He hesitated while he obeyed. On the other side, Beurnonville, the friend and confidant of Dumouriez, had met the fugitives of Chazot's corps. ”

“ The district electors of Arcis-sur-Aube kept him in the legislature during that long period. Francois Keller had, by his marriage with Mademoiselle de Gondreville, one son, Charles, who died before his parents in the spring of 1839. As deputy, Francois Keller became one of the most noted orators of the Left Centre. He shone as a member of the opposition, especially from 1819 to 1825. Adroitly he drew about himself the robe of philanthropy. Politics never turned his attention from finance. ”

“ Kellerman, he told me that he had lived with him for seven years; that he was one of eight assistants whom he kept for the purpose of superintending his crucibles, two at a time relieving each other every six hours; that he had exposed some preparations to intense heat for many months at a time, but that all except one crucible had burst, and that he called on him to observe, that it contained the true "blacker than black." The man protested, however, that no gold had ever been made, and that no mercury had ever been fixed ”

“ Serving under Kellerman on that day was one who experienced, perhaps the most deeply of all men, the changes for good and for evil which the French Revolution has produced. He who, in his second exile, bore the name of the Count de Neuilly in this country, and who lately was Louis Philippe King of the French, figured in the French lines at Valmy as a young and gallant officer, cool and sagacious beyond his years, and trusted accordingly by Kellerman and Dumouriez with an important station in the national army. ”

“ Both as a man and as an author, Keller is distinctly a lover of fresh air, and for that reason he keeps all genuine townsmen at a suitable distance. It is true that they snuffle round him and become intoxicated with the strong scent of the woods and meadows, but it is just this exaggerated enthusiasm which forms as it were a Chinese wall between him and them. Keller needs to be passively enjoyed, in a waking sleep, like the peasant following his plough, or a person wandering in the mid-day sunshine, or a child resting in the arms of its mother. ”

“ If we cannot understand what manner of man Kelley was, it is through no fault of his, for in his voluminous writings his personality is reflected with all the clear outlines of reality. We see him first as a serious- minded boy of studious and pious habits of thought ”

“ Brachtmann.
Well, we'll hope for the best. Kellinghausen's personal popularity has secured a conservative majority till now; but now that he has withdrawn in favour of another man--even though that man is Völkerlingk--the result is more than doubtful.
Baron Ludwig.
I confess, Countess, that even if Kellinghausen looked upon his politics merely as a branch of sport, I don't quite understand his sacrificing his career to my brother.
Beata.
My husband is very easy-going. He has no ambition. ”

“ He retired from the public service in 1876 and employed his leisure in the production of Züricher Novellen (1878) , Das Sinngedicht, a collection of short stories (1881) , and a novel, Martin Salander (Berlin, 1886) . He died on the 15th of July 1890 at Hottingen. Keller’s place among German novelists is very high. Few have united such fancy and imagination to such uncompromising realism, or such tragic earnestness to such abounding humour. As a lyric poet, his genius is no less original; he takes rank with the best German poets of this class in the second half of the 19th century. ”

“ KELLER, ALBERT (1845– ) , German painter, was born at Gais, in Switzerland; he studied at the Munich Academy under Lenbach and Ramberg, and must be counted among the leading colourists of the modern German school. Travels in Italy, France, England and Holland, and a prolonged sojourn in Paris, helped to develop his style, which is marked by a sense of elegance and refinement all too rare in German art. ”

“ Keller will find his keys,” said Janet, as she got out her doll with the shoe-button eyes. “And maybe his wife will find her ring. I hope so.”
“I hope so, too,” said Mrs. Martin.
“Why is Mr. Keller so worried about his keys?” asked Ted. “Would that man he works for discharge him just for losing a bunch of keys?”
“I’m afraid so, my dear,” answered his mother. “Mrs. Keller told me something about this Mr. Narr. He is very rich, it seems, and owns a summer home on one of the islands in the bay. Being very rich, he thinks, I suppose, that he can have nearly everything his own way. ”

“ Miss Keller stands forth as a shining example of overcoming almost insurmountable obstacles. To-day she is a well-educated, keen-minded, cultured woman, equally enthusiastic over a walk in the woods or a sail on the water as over the treasures of Homer and Shakespeare. ”