THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN '/ ABRAHAM FABERT. r MARSHAL PABERT l-miii a prim in the U>itish Mint inn. PAINTED BY L.FERDINAND ENORAVfcD BY C F. POILLY. ABRAHAM FABERT GOVERNOR OF SEDAN: MARSHAL OF FRANCE THE FIRST WHO ROSE FROM THE RANKS nm LIFE AND TIMES 1599—1662 By GEORGE HOOPER AUTHOR OP 'WATKRLOO: THE DOWNFALL OF THE FIRST NAPOLEON," " THB CAMPAIGN OF SKDAN, "WELLINGTON," ETC. " His name <a great example stands, to show How strangely high endeavours may be blessed, Where Piety and Valour jointly go."— Dryden ^ith It Portrait LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST IGth STREET 1892 [All riyltts j-csirved] Richard Clay & Sons, Limitkp, London & Bitnqay. AUTHOE'8 PIIEFACE. Who was Abraham Fabert, and why should an account of him be written in English ? The biography now offered to the public had this natural origin. Many years ago, while travelling for rest and recre- ation, the author picked up at an Edinburgh book-stall a copy of the Vie de Fahert par le Pere Barre, and read it for amusement. Until then he knew no more of Fabert than this—that he was a Marshal of France whose statue he had seen at Metz, that his name figures in the Appendix to Voltaire's Steele de Louis XIV., and that it was mentioned here and there by other historians. The two little brown volumes of the Canon of St. Genevieve, however, disclosed the character of a man, so difteront in many respects from that of the French soldiers of his time, that the author was led to push his inquiries farther and deeper ; and thus he came to admire, and felt constrained to write out his estimate of the adventures, attainments, and high qualities of this Fabert. Some progress had been made, in hours of leisure, a new French life of his hero was announced and when ; then, thinking it would be needless, the work was laid aside. The new Life, by Colonel Bourelly, is full, complete, based on profound researches, a genuine example of exhaustive investigation and conscientious labour ; but it is not suitable to the British public. In due time the desire to set forth the merits of the printer's son who became a Marshal, of the brave, faithful, and studious soldier, of the Governor who took his duties to heart, of the wise administrator and enlight- ened economist, sprang up afresh, and the result of yielding to temptation is contained in the following pages. The author trusts they will show, contrary to Voltaire's opinion, that there was something "extraordinary" in the man's career besides the fact that he succeeded " solely by his merit," and that he refused the Cordon Bleu rather than vi PREFACE. forge evidence of noble birth for three generations. He was, indeed, ahnost au unique figure in a tumultuous and " times," which dramatic period ; and the sketches of his beo-an with Henry IV. and ended with the death of Mazarin, are essential as indications of the environment in which he lived. The events and the characters of that sixty-two years attempt have furnished themes for many pens ; this humble follows the course of one who was not in the front rank, but who, on that account, is no less worthy of remembrance and for itself. lionour. Enough ; the book must now speak G. H. Kensington, February, 1890. EDITOE'S PREFACE. In publishing this Life of Marshal Fabert the nearest relatives of the late George Hooper are actuated by a desire to carry out what they know to have been his wishes. Shortly before his sudden death in May, 1890, my father had revised the manuscript of this his latest and, as it unhappily proved, his last work, and prepared it for the press. Perhaps some further alterations in the text would have been made by the author before he actually placed it in the printers' hands, but whatever his intentions in this respect may have been, the book must now appear sub- stantially as he left it two years ago. A few obvious and trifling verbal errors have been corrected, and an Index has been added, but no material changes have been made in the work itself. The index has been constructed on the plan of including, so far as possible, only subjects having a direct bearing on Fabert himself, but some departures from this rule have been judged expedient. The portrait of the Marshal prefixed to the volume is copied by the Autotype Company from a print in the British Museum. Wynnard Hoopkr. May, 1892. CONTENTS. INTKODUCTION ... ... ... ... ... 1 CHAP. I. YOUTH OF FABERT ... ... ... ... 9 II. THE FRANCE OF FABERt's YOUTH ... ... 19 III. FABERT's EARLY TROUBLES ... ... ... 34 IV. FABERT BECOMES A CAPTAIN ... ... ... 51 V. THE IRON-MASTER ... ... ... ... 78 VI. THE STAFF OFFICER ... ... ... ... 96 VII. HIS WORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1637 ... ... 123 VIII. FAMINE IN THE MESSIN ... ... ... 144 IX. CAMPAIGNING IN ITALY ... ... ... 149 X. FABERT WORKS WITH THE KING AND RICHELIEU ... 161 XI. THE TRAGEDY OF CINQ MARS ... ... ... 172 XII. LOUIS AND RICHELIEU ... ... ... 184 XIIL GOVERNOR OF SEDAN ... ... ... ... 193 XIV. DURING THE FRONDE ... ... ... ... 205 XV. AFTER MAZARIN's TRIUMPH ... ... ... 221 XVI. ADMINISTRATOR AND ECONOMIST ... ... 229 XVII. MARSHAL OF FRANCE ... ... ... ... 235 XVIII. THE END ... ... ... ... ... 253 ; ABRAHAM FABERT. INTRODUCTION. Abraham, son of Abraham Fabert, was born at Metz on October 11, 1599. The interest which he inspires is grounded on his exceptional career and character. He came of a family of printers and booksellers ; he was renowned as a brave soldier in a jDeriod conspicuous for reckless personal valour he was an able and honest man of business, a disinterested public servant, a statesman whose administrative and econo- mical ideas were in advance of his time ; and finally, he rose from the ranks by hard work and sheer merit to the dignity of Marshal of France,—he was, indeed, the first French soldier, not belonging to the noblesse of the sword or the gown, who, to use a modern phrase, found a Marshal's baton in his knapsack. He did not, like some of the Napoleonic Marshals, start from the lowest rung of the social ladder, but he was without those conventional qualifications, whicli, in his day, and long after, were regarded as the conditions precedent to the highest promotion ; and his sense of honour was so refined that he would not stoop to invent or purchase a pedigree from obliging heralds. That was not a common virtue. Witty Madame Cornuel said of Louis XIV. in his prime, tliat she did not know why folks thought the King did not love Paris, seeing that he had made such a number of B 2 ABRAHAM FABERT. her burghers Knights of his Orders; and when an Archbishop of Sens, because he knew he was not, and that the statutes required that he should be a noble of three descents, refused the Cordon Bleu, St. Simon scornfully exclaimed, "He imitated M. de Fabert. These two stand alone." The others complied with an easy custom winked at by the King. Fabert, like the prelate, was more fastidious. He had his faults, but baseness was not among them ; and even with the frailties he had, he may fairly stand as a representative of courage, perseverance, tolerance, industry, and probity, in a selfish, bigoted, and venal age. His earliest recorded ancestor is a certain Isaiah, an Alsatian, who dwelt in Strasburg and had property in Lorraine, which entitled him to be called seigneur of Xonville, a village near Metz not far from the battle-field of Mars la Tour, He had a son named ^langin, and this Fabert accepted from Charles III., Duke of Lorraine, the post of Master and Director of the Ducal Printing Establishment at Nancy, at a salary of two thousand crowns, high pay for that period. Three facts are known of Mangin, printer to the generous Duke—his marriage at his father's clidtel in 1551, his subsequent removal from Nancy to Metz, and his purchase of the castle and lands of Moulins, three miles from the city, to this day the property of his descendants. He is said to liavo been ennobled by the Duke, but the fact is doubtful. If little is known of the founder of the Fabert family, his son Abraham has had better fortune. He also was a printer ; he fought for Henry IV. against the League ; aided in the capture of Mars la Toui", then written Malatour, and of Conflans; served many years os " MccUre Uchevin," or High Sheriff of Metz, printed books, and prospered in many ways. When ciiiioblcd by Henry, in 1 00.*], he was styled " commissaire ordinaire do noire AriiUcric ds gouvernemcnt de Metz, Thoul, Verdun." " JiqnUd yssu de nolle race" he is made and de- INTRODUCTION. 3 clared to be a " gcntilhomme" witli the title of " Ecuyer." He had ten children, three of whom only survived, Frangois, Abraham, and Anne. He may be said to have built up the house on the foundations laid by his father ; and it was his services to Henry IV. and to the famous Duke of Epernon, a favourite, but, as St. Simon asserts, never a " mignon " of Henry III., which created those opportunities of earning distinction so eagerly and resolutely seized by Abraham the Younger. His father's reputation in Lorraine rested upon the excellence of the works which came from his printing office ; works even now coveted by collectors as specimens of typography ; but most upon his tact and judgment as an administrator. Thus he was a country squire by virtue* of his little seignory outside Metz on the " road to France," a sort of chief Magistrate in the city ; a renowned printer, an artillerist, and, as we shall see, an enterprising speculator, who ventured to lease the iron works at Moyoeuvi-e on the Orne.