#general duroc

[empirearchives]

Vest of Géraud Duroc, Grand Marshal of the Palace / Gilet dit du grand maréchal du palais

According to tradition, this vest was worn by General Duroc during the coronation of Emperor Napoleon.

In silver laminated, bordered by golden embroidery, with a palm tree pattern. Buttons covered with embroidered laminated. Back and lining in white canvas and soue.

Early 19th century, France

(Source)

[diagnosed-anxiety-disorder]

so apparently my girlfriend's favorite Napoleonic Era guy is Duroc just because she likes his death because the cannon ball bounced off of a tree and another guy before killing him 💀 well i did introduce him to her by saying that he was Napoleon's malewife so maybe this is my fault

[sunsolii]

Traditional piece of our precious Duroc

I had fun drawing the silver embroidery on his clothes and cloak

[askgeraudduroc]

We are running away!!! >:(

[josefavomjaaga]

Eugène about Duroc

I understand there's some interest in Duroc, about whom there is just not enough information out there, period. This is rather random but maybe it will be helpful to somebody. From Eugène's correspondence I already had the impression that he and Duroc had been very close. Eugène mentions Duroc in his memoirs for the first time during the Egyptian campaign.

Around this time, I began to form a friendship with Duroc which continued to grow right up to the time of his death. At that time he did me a service that I shall never forget. The day after we entered Gaza, and after a most exhausting journey, General Bonaparte gave me the order to leave at midnight to bring movement orders to General Kléber, who was a few leagues ahead, in the direction of Ramleh. In such a case, the brigadier of the post, whose duty kept him on his feet at all hours of the night, had orders to wake the aide-de-camp who was due to leave. He did so, but no sooner had he left than I fell back asleep. Those who have served at an early age know how powerful sleep can be at the age I was at the time [...].

That age being 17.

[...], it is irresistible and capable of making us forget both danger and duty. Duroc, who was older and more experienced than I, realising that I had not left, shook me forcefully and urged me to get up. I resisted, telling him that I couldn't take it any more and that it was impossible for me to move. But he only redoubled his entreaties, adding in the end, with a sort of anger, that this was not the way to serve and that I was going to dishonour myself. This word made me blush and shook me out of my grogginess. I left without an escort, as no one dared to take one unless expressly ordered to do so by the general-in-chief, and, after meandering for nearly five or six hours, I arrived at the very moment set for General Kléber to set his division in motion.

Kléber: Yeah, sorry for being late, Bonaparte. But your aide was asleep in the saddle, and it took his horse a while to find the way...

I love Eugène in this a) because he admits his own weakness and b) because he reminds me a lot of my brother who, at the same age, managed to sleep through an alarm that woke me up in my room on another floor...

[armagnac-army]

Lannes!!! Help me!!! D':

I'm being threatened throught letters by Murat's doppenganger!!!

What should I do??? Q-Q

-@askgeneralduroc

LET US HAVE A LOOK-

…

WELL THATS FUCKED

DUROC MON AMI DONT FEEL OBLIGED TO RESPOND OR READ THAT SHIT BECAUSE THATS NOT ON YOU BUDDY, GET YOUR VALET TO BLOCK THAT SHIT OR TURN OFF ANONYME SUBMISSIONS

AND TO FHE DOPPLRGANGER CONNARD MASQUERADING AS MURAT

THATS NOT HOW THE FIRST HORSEMAN OF FRANCE WOULD BEHAVE

HE HAS MORE CLASS THAN THAT PISS POOR SHOWIGN

SHAME ON YOU

[cadmusfly]

Tag Yourself: Unabridged Shitty Drawing Marshal of the Empire Edition

Yes All 26 Of Them + Bonus 2

drawn and compiled by yours truly, initial and probably inaccurate research assisted by Chet Jean-Paul Tee, additional research from Napoleon and his Marshals by A G MacDonnell, Swords Around A Throne by John R Elting and a bunch of other books and Wikipedia pages

captions under images

mike (Michel Ney)

- full of every emotion

- always has ur back

joe (Joachim Murat)

- it's called fashion sweetheart

- will not stop flirting

lens (Jean Lannes)

- bestie who will call u out on ur shit

- does not like their photo taken

bessie (Jean-Baptiste Bessieres)

- actually nice under the ice

- was born in the wrong generation

dave (Louis-Nicolas Davout)

- overachiever

- 20 year old boomer

salt (Jean-de-Dieu Soult)

- people think ur up to no good

- doesn’t cope with sudden changes 2 plans

andrew (Andre Massena)

- actually up to no good

- sleepy until special interest is activated

bertie (Louis-Alexandre Berthier)

- carries the group project

- voted most likely to make a stalker shrine

auggie (Pierre Augereau)

- shady past full of batshit stories

- will not stop swearing in the christian minecraft server

lefrank (François Joseph Lefebvre)

- dad friend

- in my day we walked to school uphill both ways

big mac (Étienne Macdonald)

- brutally honest

- won't let you borrow their charger even if they have 100%

gill (Guillaume Brune)

- love-hate relationship with group chats

- pretends not to care, checks social media every 2 minutes

ouchie (Nicholas Oudinot)

- needs to buy bandages in bulk

- a little aggro

pony (Józef Antoni Poniatowski)

- can't swim

- tries 2 hard to fit in, everyone secretly loves them anyway

grumpy (Emmanuel de Grouchy)

- can't find them when u need them

- complains about the music, never suggests alternatives

bernie (Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte)

- always talks about their other friendship group

- most successful, nobody knows how

monty (Auguste de Marmont)

- does not save u a seat

- causes drama and then lurks in the background

monch (Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey)

- last to leave the party

- dependable

morty (Édouard Mortier)

- everyone looks up 2 them literally and figuratively

- golden retriever friend

jordan (Jean-Baptiste Jourdan)

- volunteers other people for things

- has 20+ alarms but still oversleeps

kelly (François Christophe de Kellermann)

- old as balls but still got it

- waiting in the wings

gov (Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr)

- infuriatingly modest about their art skills

- thinks too much before they speak

perry (Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon)

- low-key rich, only buys things on sale

- “let’s order pizza” solution to everything

sachet (Louis-Gabriel Suchet)

- dependable friend who always brings snacks

- lowkey keeps the group together

cereal (Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier)

- unnervingly methodical and precise about fun

- will delete your social media after u die

vic (Claude Victor-Perrin)

- loves spicy food but can’t handle it

- says they're fine, not actually fine

Bonus!

june (Jean Andoche Junot)

- chaotic disaster bisexual

- will kill a man 4 their bestie

the rock (Géraud Duroc)

- keeps a tidy house

- mom friend with snacks

[napoleonic-sexyman-tournament]

Friends, enemies, comrades, Jacobins, Monarchist, Bonapartists, gather round. We have an important announcement:

The continent is beset with war. A tenacious general from Corsica has ignited conflict from Madrid to Moscow and made ancient dynasties tremble. Depending on your particular political leanings, this is either the triumph of a great man out of the chaos of The Terror, a betrayal of the values of the French Revolution, or the rule of the greatest upstart tyrant since Caesar.

But, our grand tournament is here to ask the most important question: Now that the flower of European nobility is arrayed on the battlefield in the sexiest uniforms that European history has yet produced (or indeed, may ever produce), who is the most fuckable?

The bracket is here: full bracket and just quadrant I

Want to nominate someone from the Western Hemisphere who was involved in the ever so sexy dismantling of the Spanish empire? (or the Portuguese or French American colonies as well) You can do it here

The People have created this list of nominees:

France:

Jean Lannes

Josephine de Beauharnais

Thérésa Tallien

Jean-Andoche Junot

Joseph Fouché

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

Joachim Murat

Michel Ney

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (Charles XIV of Sweden)

Louis-Francois Lejeune

Pierre Jacques Étienne Cambrinne

Napoleon I

Marshal Louis-Gabriel Suchet

Jacques de Trobriand

Jean de dieu soult.

François-Étienne-Christophe Kellermann

17.Louis Davout

Pauline Bonaparte, Duchess of Guastalla

Eugène de Beauharnais

Jean-Baptiste Bessières

Antoine-Jean Gros

Jérôme Bonaparte

Andrea Masséna

Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle

Germaine de Staël

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas

René de Traviere (The Purple Mask)

Claude Victor Perrin

Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr

François Joseph Lefebvre

Major Andre Cotard (Hornblower Series)

Edouard Mortier

Hippolyte Charles

Nicolas Charles Oudinot

Emmanuel de Grouchy

Pierre-Charles Villeneuve

Géraud Duroc

Georges Pontmercy (Les Mis)

Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont

Juliette Récamier

Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey

Louis-Alexandre Berthier

Étienne Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre Macdonald

Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier

Catherine Dominique de Pérignon

Guillaume Marie-Anne Brune

Jean-Baptiste Jourdan

Charles-Pierre Augereau

Auguste François-Marie de Colbert-Chabanais

England:

Richard Sharpe (The Sharpe Series)

Tom Pullings (Master and Commander)

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Jonathan Strange (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell)

Captain Jack Aubrey (Aubrey/Maturin books)

Horatio Hornblower (the Hornblower Books)

William Laurence (The Temeraire Series)

Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey

Beau Brummell

Emma, Lady Hamilton

Benjamin Bathurst

Horatio Nelson

Admiral Edward Pellew

Sir Philip Bowes Vere Broke

Sidney Smith

Percy Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford

George IV

Capt. Anthony Trumbull (The Pride and the Passion)

Barbara Childe (An Infamous Army)

Doctor Maturin (Aubrey/Maturin books)

William Pitt the Younger

Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry (Lord Castlereagh)

George Canning

Scotland:

Thomas Cochrane

Colquhoun Grant

Ireland:

Arthur O'Connor

Thomas Russell

Robert Emmet

Austria:

Klemens von Metternich

Friedrich Bianchi, Duke of Casalanza

Franz I/II

Archduke Karl

Marie Louise

Franz Grillparzer

Wilhelmine von Biron

Poland:

Wincenty Krasiński

Józef Antoni Poniatowski

Józef Zajączek

Maria Walewska

Władysław Franciszek Jabłonowski

Adam Jerzy Czartoryski

Antoni Amilkar Kosiński

Zofia Czartoryska-Zamoyska

Stanislaw Kurcyusz

Russia:

Alexander I Pavlovich

Alexander Andreevich Durov

Prince Andrei (War and Peace)

Pyotr Bagration

Mikhail Miloradovich

Levin August von Bennigsen

Pavel Stroganov

Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna

Karl Wilhelm von Toll

Dmitri Kuruta

Alexander Alexeevich Tuchkov

Barclay de Tolly

Fyodor Grigorevich Gogel

Ekaterina Pavlovna Bagration

Ippolit Kuragin (War and Peace)

Prussia:

Louise von Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Gebard von Blücher

Carl von Clausewitz

Frederick William III

Gerhard von Scharnhorst

Louis Ferdinand of Prussia

Friederike of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Alexander von Humboldt

Dorothea von Biron

The Netherlands:

Ida St Elme

Wiliam, Prince of Orange

The Papal States:

Pius VII

Portugal:

João Severiano Maciel da Costa

Spain:

Juan Martín Díez

José de Palafox

Inês Bilbatua (Goya's Ghosts)

Haiti:

Alexandre Pétion

Sardinia:

Vittorio Emanuele I

Lombardy:

Alessandro Manzoni

Denmark:

Frederik VI

Sweden:

Gustav IV Adolph

[le-brave-des-braves]

Bienvenue

you have reached my communication channel. I shall read through the letters as soon as one of my ADCs brings them to me, which might depend on the situation in the field.

You are welcome to submit any question, please be brief and go straight to the point. The love letters will be rejected.

If anyone has seen my family, please let me know.

Ney.

Prince de la Moskowa, Duc d’Elchingen, Maréchal d’Empire

The marshal is a busy man, and some inquiries might be answered by us, his staff:

General Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini, chief of staff of Marshal Ney and the strategy expert. and a traitor who should not even be here Author of multiple best-selling books on the matter.

Captain Octave Levavasseur, the most heroic aide-de-camp of Marshal Ney and author of the bestselling book of simping about Ney Memoir!

Colonel Pierre-Agathe Heymes, the adult one

Tags:

Les proclamations du Maréchal: announcements and official letter responses

Communication personnelle du Maréchal: Private communication

Les portraits du Maréchal: related art done either by @neylo or associates

Meine Adjutanten sind Idioten: The Aides-de-camp are responsible and upstanding officers except for the time when they aren’t

Disclaimer: This is rp/ask blog created for fun by @neylo. Please note that I am no Napoleonic historian and my only qualification might be that I also happen to be a redhead disaster with no concept of patience.

Didn't you have enough? Time to get to know the rest of the dead French squad!

@armagnac-army - Jean Lannes (he still didn't learn to spell)

@askgeneralduroc - Geraud Duroc and family (although he might be very busy since he is apparently a proud dad now)

@murillo-enthusiast - Jean de Dieu Soult (That loser who thinks he should be the king of Portugal. He should not.)

@your-dandy-king - Joachim Murat (and his terrible taste) - the KING OF ITALY

@chicksncash - André Masséna (you might miss your wallet after the conversation)

@general-junot - Jean-Andoche Junot (not even a marshal. He needs a therapist)

@trauma-and-truffles - Dominique Jean Larrey - Medical attention (More like amputation station)

@your-staff-wizard - Louis-Alexandre Berthier - The Prince of Paperwork

[your-dandy-king]

Greetings my loyal subjects and, ahem, others!

It is I, your Dandy King, Joachim Murat! I have finally decided to make -- what is this called again -- a blog for myself. Isn't it lovely? Lannes seemed to be having so much fun, I just couldn't sit by. Even Soult is enjoying this far more than he lets on. I think you call it FOMO, these days, right?

Anyhow, I've decided to change my mind and opened my inbox for your questions and queries. I was, I admit, a little uncertain of this place when I first arrived but, by the by, but I shall deal with it as it comes! Please drop your questions into "The Royal Inbox." I cannot guarantee I can or will answer everything, but I will try.

I will be making my appearances on the blogs of my friends and colleagues as well, so I shall be seeing you around. Ta!

Here's a handy guide to some of those friends, colleagues, and more.

@armagnac-army: Jean Lannes, Duke of Montebello, my buddy Gascon, the Greatest Gascon, that sheep guy

@askgeraudduroc: Geraud Christophe Michel Duroc, Grand Marshal of the Palace, beloved, Duke of Frioul, and Jean-Baptiste Bessières, also beloved, Duke of Istria, hunnybunkins

@le-brave-des-braves: Michel Ney, Duke of Elchingen, that ginger cannonball, do not taunt happy fun Ney

@murillo-enthusiast: Jean de Dieu Soult, Duke of Dalmatia, don't call him Nicolas, master of baked goods, has nothing to do with spotted dogs

@general-junot: Jean Andoche Junot, Duke of Abrantes, unhinged homewrecker

@chicksncash: André Masséna, Duke of Rivoli, Dear Child of Five-Fingered Discounts

@your-staff-wizard: Louis-Alexandre Berthier, Prince of Neuchatel, eternity's paper pusher

@trauma-and-truffles: Dominique-Jean Larrey, who knew that a doctor is still useful when you're dead

@askjackiedavid: Jacques Louis David, painter, mostly harmless

@carolinemurat: Caroline Murat, loving wife and beloved partner, the Queen of Naples

@generaldesaix: Louis Desaix, the prankster of the Grand Armée

@messenger-of-the-battlefield: Marceillin Marbot, one of Lannes' ADCs with uh, interesting perspectives

@perdicinae-observer: Louis-Nicolas Davout, Duke of Auerstadt, the Iron Marshal

@frencheaglet: Napoleon II, the boy!

@alexanderfanboy: 🤨

Jean-Baptiste Bessières occasionally wanders over from @askgeraudduroc, and his text will appear in green. Like this!

This is a joke RP account run by @phatburd for one of Napoleon's marshals and brother-in-law, Joachim Murat. He's not the only Murat out there in Tumblr RP land, and (I think) he peacefully co-exists with them all. All of them are simply facets and mirrors of Joachim Murat, and he loves nothing better to have more of himself around. We are all Murat.

This blog should be considered a 0% source of historical accuracy.

User icon art by @cadmusfly: Murat striking a Barbie pose on his trusty horse!

Also, if you’re going to do anything, just be warned:

[microcosme11]

An Austrian noble feels conspicuous

Prince Charles de Clary-et-Aldringen was assigned to deliver a letter from Francis II confirming the proxy marriage of his daughter. The prince was ordered to Compiègne and then to a hunt, but he didn't have the right outfit with him so he had to borrow from French generals.

At the hunting rendezvous, another meal: it was the only time that I found myself at table with the Emperor. It was for me the strangest feeling in the world to be almost next to him, dressed the same as Savary, as Davout, as Duroc. I was wondering if it was really me. Lunch was a ten-minute affair. I was quietly having coffee when, looking up, I noticed that I was the only one there; I even thought I saw the Emperor smile with one of these gentlemen at the fact that the Austrian chamberlain was so leisurely; and at the moment I put down my cup in fear, we all got up.

[Following this is a hilarious description of the hunt. Napoleon kills a deer after many attempts and then asks the prince if he's ever seen such a lovely hunt. "Jamais, Sire!"]

(Souvenirs du prince Charles de Clary-et-Aldringen: Trois mois a Paris...) google books but it's only in French.

[empirearchives]

“The only person Napoleon seems to have really wanted to be buried by his side was Duroc.” 

“Since the siege of Toulon in 1793, he had never really left Bonaparte.”

“Napoleon had complete confidence in him; he esteemed the servant and loved the man.”

As Duroc was dying at Bautzen in 1813 after getting hit by a cannon ball, “Napoleon went to his bedside, where the dying man, terribly mutilated, was strong enough to ask him to leave. The Emperor held his hand. As he left, Caulaincourt tells us, Napoleon wept, something no one had ever seen.”

Napoleon returned to the farm where Duroc had died three months later and bought the land on the spot, permitting the farmer to continue to live there. His intention for buying the farm was to erect a monument for Duroc.

It was instructed to say: “Here General Duroc, Duke of Friuli, grand marshal of the palace of Emperor Napoleon, struck by a cannon ball, expired in the arms of his emperor and friend.”

This monument was never built because the Russians soon occupied the region and refused to permit it. Duroc’s remains were moved to Les Invalides in 1847, over 30 years after he died. There, he rests in the same location as Napoleon.

I’m crying reading this

Source: Napoleon and de Gaulle by Patrice Gueniffey

[captainknell]

Happy birthday General Duroc! October 25, 1772

[sunsolii]

Finally got the chance to make a Duroc poster.

I think it's safe to say that Duroc is starting to become my favorite person of Napoleon's circle

[askgeraudduroc]

Hi there!

I'm Geraud Christophe Michel Duroc, but call me just Duroc!

I was one of Napoleon's loyal generals, and he told me about this site, so, i'm here to answer any correspondence i might have!

In the past, I still mantained contact with the Emperor... But now that has changed. I apologise but... I don't have hold anymore of his correspondensce.

((This is a joke RP account of Duroc, which isn't fully historical accurate, and It is just the interpretation of me, the one behind him))

((Aside from Duroc, other people might appear, like Bessieres, his husband, who speak in a more serious and greenish way, and Also the Emperor in the past but... Things happened))

((You are also free to ask them stuff!))

[josefavomjaaga]

Duroc the mediator

Which, I believe, Duroc often was. This particular occasion however took place in 1809, and he acted as a go-between with Napoleon and Eugène, in April and May 1809, after Eugène’s defeat in his very first attempt as commander-in-chief, on April 16, at Sacile. Eugène was heartbroken over it and very afraid of Napoleon’s reaction to the news. Napoleon – full credit to him for once – originally kept his cool and in his first answer was not even very severe. He only became angry when Eugène’s reports, in his opinion, did not give him enough information on the situation.

And as usual, when he was really angry, he deemed the culprit unworthy of receiving a direct message. Or perhaps Duroc intervened voluntarily, in order to soften the blow? In any case, it was he who wrote the following missive:

Duroc to Eugène, Landshut, 26 April 1809 My Lord, the Emperor, who is extremely busy, is unable to reply at the moment to the two letters from Your Imperial Highness. - These two letters have not satisfied His Majesty, in that they do not give him any details of what has happened to your army, of its position, of its losses, so that he cannot give you any advice on the best course of action for Your Highness to take. The Emperor says: It is nothing but a lost battle, and there is a remedy for that; but he cannot tell you what that remedy is, because he does not know where you are or what forces you have. His Majesty knows Italy and all the positions so well that from here he could tell you the best position you could take for your army.

I am not entirely sure if Eugène really did not know how to write a proper battle/situation report, or if he was being evasive on purpose. I kinda suspect the latter, and so do apparently most historians, assuming that Eugène did not want to admit what mistakes he had made. That may very well be the case, but, Eugène being Eugène, I could also imagine two more reasons: a) he wanted to protect his subordinates and not give Napoleon the opportunity to look for somebody to put the blame on (as Napoleon later would start to do with general Sahuc) and b) he on pupose gave away as few details as possible because he did not want Napoleon to start micromanaging the Army of Italy from his headquarters in Germany. After all, it was he, Eugène, who had created this mess. It was up to him now to sort things out.

In a circumstance such as the one in which you find yourself, and in general in all circumstances of war, it would have been preferable if you had sent an officer who had seen everything clearly and who could have given an account of everything to His Majesty. A courier says nothing, not even the little he is told. His Majesty would therefore have liked a detailed report, he would have liked Your Imperial Highness to have had General Caffarelli write at the same time. His Majesty sees with sorrow that you are concerned with the Tyrol, where there are only a few troops who have fomented insurrections; but all these insurrections will subside, and the troops who have entered there are turned and taken, if they do not evacuate, as soon as the Emperor's army arrives in Salzburg, which cannot be far off. Here, matters are still going well. [...]

Followed by lots of reports about Napoleon beating the Austrians at every occasion. Thanks for rubbing it in, Duroc! - So, just to summarize, Eugène’s greatest fault in Napoleon’s eyes was not the fact that he had lost the battle but that he was sending his reports about it via courrier or by the army post office, instead of sending one of the officers.

As to Tyrol, that part of the letter will not age well…

With no better information incoming over the next days, or rather, as a matter of fact, with pretty much no information reaching Napoleon, despite Eugène writing every second or third day – which may in part very well be because the insurrection in Tyrol had interrupted communications – His Imperial Impatience was fuming. And it showed in his letters. In the last (that luckily only reached Eugène when it didn’t matter anymore), he openly praised both Masséna (whom Eugène despised) and Murat (whom he possibly despised even more) to the skies, going so far as to order Eugène to call Murat from Naples and to cede supreme command to Murat. The ultimate humiliation!

At that time, however, the situation in Italy had already changed completely. After Napoleon had beaten the Austrians in Germany, the Austrian archduke Johann had been recalled by his brother. The Austrians were retreating from Italy rather hastily, and the Army of Italy was pursuing them. In this situation, Napoleon’s brutal missives were not helpful at all.

At least that was what the above mentioned general Caffarelli thought, the minister of war of the Kingdom of Italy. And because he thought so, he wrote to … nah, not to Napoleon, of course. You can’t just write to a monarch, after all. He wrote to - Duroc. And after a short description of the situation and the difficulties they had overcome, he states:

Caffarelli to Duroc, Venice, 7 May 1809 […] His Imperial Highness appeared to me to be greatly affected by the Emperor's discontent; he is extremely worried about it, the Prince suffers from it, and I could see that his grief comes more from his heart than from regret at having experienced an ill-fated affair. He needs to be reassured, because if he continues to believe that the Emperor is dissatisfied, he will suffer even more, he will torment himself and, despite the fine state in which His Majesty's victories have put matters, he might not be able to benefit as much as he could from the fine prospects open to him. He is in a position to repair, with interest, the harm he has suffered. […]

Ey! Can you not get him to back off a little? We’re in a good position and we need the boy functional, okay?

(Just to bring the story to an end: by the time Eugène had led his army through the Alps and reached Napoleon, his stepfather had already lost the battle of Aspern-Essling and had seen Lannes mortally wounded. Morale in his army was extremely low, and Napoleon’s tone when welcoming the Army of Italy was much different from that of his letters to Eugène.)