No.  LIX.

GENERAL FOY.

The military career of this hero was one of singular activity.  Foy was born in 1775, and educated in the military school of La Fere, and made sub-lieutenant of artillery in 1792.  He was present at the battles of Valmy and Jemappe, and in 1793 obtained a company—­promotion was rapid in those days.  In all the subsequent campaigns he was actively employed under Dumourier, Pichegru, Moreau, Massena, &c.  In 1803, he was colonel of the 5th regiment of horse artillery, and refused, from political principles, the appointment of aide-de-camp on Napoleon’s assumption of the imperial throne; but was still employed, and shared in the victories of the short but brilliant campaign of Germany in 1804.  In 1806 he commanded the artillery of the army stationed in Friuli, for the purpose of occupying the Venetian territory incorporated by the treaty of Presburg with the kingdom of Italy.  In 1807 he was sent to Constantinople to introduce European tactics in the Turkish service—­but this object was defeated by the death of Selim, and the opposition of the Janissaries.  On Foy’s return, the expedition against Portugal was preparing, and he received a command in the artillery under Junot, during the occupation of Portugal, and filled the post of inspector of forts and fortresses.  He was severely wounded at the battle of Vimiera.  On the capitulation he returned to France, and with the same army proceeded to Spain; and, subsequently, under the command of Soult, again went into Portugal.  When commanded to summon the Bishop of Oporto to open its gates, he was seized and stript by the populace, and thrown into prison, and escaped with difficulty.  The same year he was made general of brigade.  In 1810, he made a skilful retreat at the head of 600 men, in the face of 6,000 Spaniards, across the Sierra de Caceres; and at the head of his brigade was wounded in the battle of Busaco.  Early in 1811 he was selected by Massena to convey to the emperor the critical state of the French army before the lines of Torres Vedras.  This commission, though one of great peril—­the country being in a complete state of insurrection—­he successfully accomplished, and brought back the emperor’s instructions, for which service he was made general of division.  In July 1812, Foy was in the battle of Salamanca, and was one of those who, when Lord Wellington raised the siege of Burgos and retreated to the Douro, hung upon his rear, and took some prisoners and artillery.

On the news of the disasters in Russia, and Lord Wellington’s consequent resumption of offensive movements, Foy was sent with his division beyond Vittoria to keep the different parties in check; and after the battle of Vittoria, at which he was not present, he collected at Bergana 20,000 troops, of different divisions, and had some success in skirmishes with the Spanish corps forming the left wing of the allied army.  He arrived at Tolosa about the same time with Lord