iy)

296

g/OME French genealogists have traced

the pedigree of Marin Edmond Patrick

Maurice MacMahon up to the last

independent king of Ireland, and

when a not very cordial feeling was excited be-

tween France and England, owing to the aunexa-

tion of Savoy and Nice, and the Fenian agitation

was just commencing, one of those celebrated

anonymous pamphlets was published by Dentu, in

Paris (whose real author was Martin, editor of the

Constitutionnel), which designated the hero of

Magenta as the lawful and future king of a free
and independent Ireland.

MARSHAL MACMAAON.

introduce him to the poor and the sick, interest
him in their wants and in their suftierings,,
and then send him to distribute alms and food.
among them. His frail and delicate health did not at
first appear to favour the wishes of his father and
uncle, that he should embrace the profession of
arms, His mother, who desired that he should
enter an ecclesiastical college, used to say to her
‘husband, “ Our second son, Joseph, is strong and.
| vigorous, make a soldier of him; of Maurice I wish
to make a priest.”

But after a few years’ sojourn at the seminary of
;Autun, Maurice became quite robust, and all
anxiety with regard to his health disappeared. As
he did not seem to show any positive vocaticn for

The MacMahons, a noble Irish family, devoted the priesthood, his father sent him to Versailles.

to the cause of the Stuarts, emigrated to France at)
the fall of James II. Colonel Count Patrick!
MacMahon remained faithfully, till his death, with |
his dethroned sovereign in St. Germain. The
family afterwards settled in Burgundy. The
present marshal, who is the direct descendant of
the colonel, was born at the castle Sully, near
Autun, on 13th July, 1808.

His mother, who was a fervent Catholic, implanted
in the soul of her gon the purest and_ holiest
principles of faith. She would take the boy with

In 1825 he entered the military college of St. Cyr,
at the age of seventeen. Here he displayed an
extreme devotion to work, marvellous talents,
a gentle and sympathetic character, and an entire
submission to discipline, which won for him the
goodwill of his masters and the affection of his
comrades. In 1827 he passed a brilliant examina-
tion, and was made second lieutenant of the staff.
In 1830 he was promoted to be first lieutenant,
and started for Africa, when, at the taking of
Algiers, he received the cross of honour for his

her into the cottages of the neighbourhood,

bravery. On his return from Algeria, Maurice