Insolent, overbearing, truculent to all the world, to Parma he was ever docile, affectionate, watchful, obsequious.

A man who knew not fatigue, nor fear, nor remorse, nor natural affection, who could patiently superintend all the details of a great military work, or manage a vast political intrigue by alternations of browbeating and bribery, or lead a forlorn hope, or murder a prisoner in cold blood, or leap into the blazing crater of what seemed a marine volcano, the Marquis of Richebourg had ever made himself most actively and unscrupulously useful to his master.

Especially had he rendered invaluable services in the reduction, of the Walloon Provinces, and in the bridging of the Scheldt, the two crowning triumphs of Alexander's life.

He had now passed from the scene where he had played so energetic and dazzling a part, and lay doubled round an iron cable beneath the current of the restless river.
And in this eventful night, Parma, as always, had been true to himself and to his sovereign.

"We expected," said he, "that the rebels would instantly attack us on all sides after the explosion.