Richard Hammond-Chambers-Borgnis

This diplomatic transcription follows three overlapping top-to-bottom readings of the photographed sheet. Original abbreviations and line-end hyphenation are retained where legible. Square brackets are editorial; cropped or unclear wording has not been silently completed.

CLARKE (Henri Jacques Guillaume)
Comte d'Hunebourg et duc de Feltre, Marechal de France.
Born at Landrecies, le 17 Oct. 1765; died at Neuviller, 28 Oct 1818.
Orphan from an early age, looked after by M. Shee, then secretery
to the duc d'Orléans, entered as a cadet to the Ecole Militaire
(17 Sept. 1781) then sub.lieut. in the Berwick regiment (11Nov 1782).
He received the “Cornette blanche” in the “5th regiment hussards”
with the rank of captain (5 Sept. 1784) Having left the service,
1790, he went to England in the employment of the ambassador and
stayed there until 1791. He then returned to France where he ob-
tained the ranks of captain 1st class in the “4th regiment de
dragons” and lieut. colonel in the “2nd regiment de cavalerie” (1792).
In the army of the Rhine he distinguished himself at the fall of
Spire, where, at the head of the cavalry he took a large number of
prisoners in the defence of the [unclear: “Nalse”] passage against forces num-
erically much superior and, finally, in the battle of [unclear: “Ercheim”] he
was promoted to brigadier general by the peoples representatives
near the Rhine army. Suspended, as a suspect (12 Oct. 1793), of
the duties of “chef d'etat-major” general of this army, the sus-
pension was not lifted finally but he did not return to his former
rank until the following March, with the help of Carnot, who made
him “chef du bureau topographique” to the war ministry. The big
part he played in drawing up plans the execution of which has
thrown such great glory on the French armies, earned him the rank
of general of the division (7Dec. 1795).

Charged the next year, by the Directoire, with a secret mission
near the Viennese cabinet, Clarke showed a lot of talent by ob-
taining a second, even more delicate, mission, that of surveying
the projects of the Italian conqueror, whose successes frightened
the Directoire. The real aim of this mission, of which the pre-
text appeared to be the liberation of Lafayette, de Latour-Maubourg
and the Bureau de Pusy, prisoners [unclear: “of”] at Olmutz, did not escape
Napoleon, who, pretending not to be in doubt, seemed to fall into
the trap.

Soon, fascinated as much by the friendly welcome of the general-in-
chief as impressed by his victories, Clarke, forgetting the chief
reason for his mission, attached himself to Bonaparte and helped
with the conclusion of the famous Treaty of Campo-Formio. Recalle[cropped]
to France by the Directoire, who considered they had been cheated
by their messenger, he was immediately deprived of his rank of
general and of his place as “chef du bureau topographique” in whic[cropped]
he was not re-instated until after the Revolution (9 Nov. 1799).

Called to the command of Luneville and of all the Dept. de la
Meurthe (1800) he was ordered after the Peace Treaty signed in
Paris between France and Russia, to return to their country the
Russian prisoners taken by the French. The respect that Clarke
had for them earned him a sword enriched with diamonds and pres-
ented by the Russian Emperor.