Pierre Augereau

“ But Barras, Rewbell, and La Reveillière-Lepaux stand firm for the Republic and the Constitution of the Year III., and they have us behind them."
"I thought," said Augereau, "that they had thrown themselves into Hoche's arms."
"Yes; but it will not do to leave them there. There must be no arms in the country that are longer than ours; and ours must reach beyond the Alps, and if necessary bring about another 13th Vendémiaire at Paris." ”

“ The reputation which Augereau had as an excellent swordsman compelled him to engage in several, for it was a great point among duelists not to accept that anyone was their superior; gentlemen, officers and soldiers fought for the most futile of reasons. It so happened that when Augereau was on leave in Paris, the celebrated fencing master Saint-George, seeing him pass, said, in the presence of several swordsmen, there is one of the finest blades in France. ”

“ Augereau, who was to start the next day with full authority from Bonaparte, raised his glass and said:
"To the union of all French Republicans! To the destruction of the Clichy Club! Let the conspirators tremble! From the Adige and the Rhine to the Seine is but a step. Let them tremble! Their iniquities are known, and the price is at the end of our bayonets!"
As he uttered the last words, trumpets and drums sounded the charge. Each soldier sprang to his gun, as if he were obliged to start on the instant; and the men could scarcely be induced to resume their places at the tables. ”

“ Augereau exactly suited Barras, who, always ready to mount his horse and summon the Jacobins and the people of the faubourgs to his assistance, considered him the man for the situation. Rewbell and La Reveillière, whose characters were cool and evenly balanced, wanted a general who was as cool and as evenly balanced as themselves. As for Carnot and Barthélemy, it is needless to say that Augereau could in no wise accord with their plans. ”

“ Charles had need of a good night's rest to prepare for such a fatiguing journey. And it was to secure an uninterrupted sleep that Madame Teutch advised the boys to look over their papers and to pack their trunks before supper.
In the meantime Augereau went to the barracks to leave word that, as he was to sup in the city, he did not know when he would return that evening, if he returned at all. As fencing-master he enjoyed many advantages over the other volunteers of Paris, who in their turn possessed immunities which the soldiers of the country were not allowed. ”

“ When peace had been declared, he bought the estate and chateau of La Houssaye. I may say, in regard to this purchase, that there has been much exaggeration of the fortunes of some generals of the army of Italy. Augereau, after having held for twenty years the rank of commander-in-chief, or of marshal, and having enjoyed for seven years a salary of two hundred thousand francs, and an award of twenty-five thousand francs, due to his Legion of Honour, left at his death an income of no more than forty-eight thousand francs.
There was never a man more generous, unselfish and obliging. ”

“ A long rest having been ordered for the cure of Marshal Augereau's wound, the Emperor wrote to bid him return for treatment to France, and sent to Italy for Masséna, to whom my brother, Bro, and several of my comrades were attached. Augereau took me with him, as well as Dr. Raymond and his secretary. I had to be lifted in and out of the carriage; otherwise I found my health coming back as I got away from those icy regions towards a milder climate. My mare passed the winter in the stables of M. de Launay, head of the forage department. Our road lay through Silesia. ”

“ The new tyrants at Paris withheld all news of the coup d'état until they could override the policy of the French plenipotentiaries at Lille. There it seemed probable that peace might ensue, when, on 9th September, the first authentic news of Augereau's violence arrived. Even so, Pitt hoped that the triumphant faction would be inclined to enjoy their success in peace. ”

“ The augite exists as a finely granular pale green substance, which might at first be taken for a glass, but it gives the characteristic action of augite with polarized light. It is intimately mixed through the clear glass of the groundmass, which it far exceeds in quantity. ”

“ He left behind him at Paris at least one person who would watch his career with lively interest. In 1718, in the salon of Madame de Lambert, he had been introduced to a man, whose recent expulsion from the [Pg 41] French Academy for some shrewd criticisms of the late reign had given him credit among the younger spirits—the Abbé de St. Pierre. [113] We can easily imagine how d'Argenson must have been attracted to a man, who had his own breadth and generosity of mind, and who was crippled like himself by the lack of those social arts which would have secured for his opinions a perilous respect. ”

“ But think of workers on the land, like Groult, who has lost a hand, and Lerondeau, with his useless leg!... That's really terrible!"
Auger rolls his r's in a way that gives piquancy and vigour to his conversation. He talks of others with a natural magnanimity which comes from the heart, like the expression of his eyes, and rings true, like the sound of his voice. And then again, he really need not envy any one. ”

“ Whether the latter are a mineral of the spinel-group or belong to perovskite, with which they accord in color, could not be decided.
Augite occurs in only one generation; phenocrysts of augite are wanting. In the rather coarse-grained groundmass, it becomes the most abundant constituent. The mineral shows a grayish-brown color, common to basaltic augite, sometimes with a tint of violet. It generally forms well-shaped crystals, rarely irregular grains, and bears inclusions of magnetite and glass. ”

“ Microscopic examination shows it to be essentially a granulitic mixture of augite and plagioclase with a considerable amount of magnetite, and a little hornblende. All the minerals are of remarkable freshness, in rounded grains about a tenth of a millimetre in diameter. The augite, which forms about half the rock, is of a very pale green colour, sometimes showing faint traces of pleochroism with the same pinkish tints as hypersthene, from which, however, it is easily distinguished by its high extinction angles. ”

“ Such crystals, of short prismatic habit and black in colour, are common as phenocrysts in many basalts, and are hence known as “basaltic augite”; when the containing rock weathers to a clayey material the augite is left as black isolated crystals, and such specimens, usually from Bohemia, are represented in all mineral collections. Though typical of basaltic rocks, augite is also an important constituent of many other kinds of igneous rocks, and a rock composed almost wholly of augite is known as augitite. ”

“ The augite varies a good deal in character, being green, brown or violet, but aegirine (the dark green pleochroic soda-iron-augite) is seldom present. Among the accessory minerals biotite, brown hornblende, hauyne, iron oxides and apatite are the commonest; melanite and nepheline may also occur. The ground mass of these rocks is only occasionally rich in glass. The leucite-tephrites and leucite-basanites of Vesuvius and Somma are familiar examples of this class of rocks. They are black or ashy-grey in colour, often vesicular, and may contain many large grey phenocysts of leucite. ”

“ Although this material is very dark greenish brown and not commonly thought of as a gemstone, lapidaries have used it to fashion black faceted stones and cabochons that resemble obsidian. Most of the augite occurs as loose pieces and crystal fragments that have weathered out of nearby igneous rocks; the augite can also be found in situ in the igneous rocks.
Specimens and pieces of cutting quality 1 inch in diameter are common, and fragments over 2 inches in diameter have been found. The augite is associated with black spinel and some dark gray to black pieces of natural glass. ”

“ The beautifully complete crystals of augite found in the old tuffs of Vesuvius and on the flanks of Stromboli may be paralleled among Palæozoic tuffs and agglomerates in Britain. Thus the necks belonging to the Arenig and Llandeilo volcanoes of southern Scotland are sometimes crowded with augite, varying from minute seed-like grains up to perfectly formed crystals as large as hazel nuts. The conditions under which such well-shaped idiomorphic minerals were formed were probably different from those that governed the cooling and consolidation of the ordinary lavas. ”

“ Augite is somewhat less abundant than the hornblende, with which it is intergrown, in pale pinkish-brown crystals, slightly pleochroic, with very distinct vertical cleavage and irregular cracks. Twinning is not very frequent. The extinction angles are usually under 30°. A few crystals which show slightly stronger pleochroism (pinkish-brown to very pale green) than the ordinary augite, and straight extinction, are probably hypersthene. Olivine is present in about equal quantity with the augite, in large irregular grains, much cracked, but otherwise fairly fresh, polarising in brilliant colours ”

“ In some layers the long black prisms of augite are ranged in a general parallelism with the banding.
A specimen selected as typical of the ordinary coarse-grained amorphous rock was sliced and placed in Mr. Harker's for microscopic examination, and he has supplied the following observations regarding it: "The gabbro from Eilean Mhuire [7110] is a crystalline rock showing to the eye lustrous black augites, half an inch long, and (predominating) felspar. The microscope reveals, in addition, irregular grains of black iron-ore and little hexagonal prisms of apatite. No olivine is to be detected. ”

“ Among the alchymists who were born in the fifteenth, and distinguished themselves in the sixteenth century, the first, in point of date, is John Aurelio Augurello. He was born at Rimini in 1441, and became Professor of the belles lettres at Venice and Trevisa. He was early convinced of the truth of the hermetic science, and used to pray to God that he might be happy enough to discover the philosopher's stone. He was continually surrounded by the paraphernalia of chemistry, and expended all his wealth in the purchase of drugs and metals. He was also a poet, but of less merit than pretensions. ”

“ Say only thou wilt trust me, and safety lies before us. The fiends hold not their hellish court to-night; and the arch-fiend himself is far distant, on a sudden summons from the King, which, though the grand Inquisitor might scorn, Don Luis will obey. Wilt come with me, my child?"
"Ay, any where! That voice could not deceive: but 'tis all vain," she continued, the first accents of awakened hope lost in despondency—"I cannot rise."
"It needs not. Do thou hold the lantern, Marie; utter not a word—check even thy breath—and the God of thy fathers shall save thee yet." ”

“ Whilst fine granular augite prevails, semi-ophitic coarser augites are not uncommon, and prismatic pyroxene, sometimes of the rhombic form, is represented in the groundmass of the rocks composing the agglomerates of Mount Thambeyu and of the Sokena Cliffs. In some localities, as on the south-west slopes of the Korotini Range, rocks of the basic pitchstone kind are predominant. ”

“ Viaram is an Augurium; when a man or a bird in his journey, or flying passeth before thee, coming from the right side of thee, and bending toward the left, goeth out of thy sight, that is a good sign concerning thy business. Confernova is an Augurium; when thou dost first find a man, or a bird going, or flying, and then he rest himself before thee on thy right side, thou seeing of it, that is a good sign concerning thy business; Confervetus is an Augurium; when first thou findest, or seest a man, or a bird bending from thy right side, it is an ill sign concerning thy business. ”

“ The species are also exceedingly numerous, but we may note here only a few of the more important. They are composed of silica and various bases, such as lime, potash, magnesia, soda, alumina, &c. Augite or pyroxene is a black or greenish-black mineral, found, either as crystals, which are generally small, or as rounded grains and angular fragments, in basaltic and volcanic rocks. It never occurs in granite rocks. It is brittle, and has a vitreous or resinous lustre. There are a number of varieties or sub-species of augite. Hornblende, like augite, also includes a great many minerals. ”

“ In most slides occur a few small augites of prism-form, two or three times the size of the granules, which give extinctions of over 30°. Where the phenocrysts of augite are very scanty or absent, there exist large grains (·1 mm.) of an intermediate size. The magnetite is often abundant, occurring in crystals, rods, and irregular masses, the last associated often with the interstitial glass which is present in small quantities in most rocks, being greenish or brownish and showing fibrous devitrification. ”

“ Augite phenocrysts are usually scanty and small. The felspar-lathes, which are more or less in flow-arrangement, are rather stout, and range in average length in different rocks from ·23 to ·35 mm. They often show a few twin-lamellæ which yield extinctions of medium and basic andesine (15-28°) . The augite granules are large (·03 mm.) in the Ndriti rocks. Magnetites, usually corresponding in size to the augite granules, are abundant. Interstitial glass occurs often in fair quantity and is dark and semi-opaque. ”