Apr 15, 2023
“The young Duphot was a general of the most beautiful hope. He was virtue itself.”
Napoleon on the 28 December 1797 assassination in Rome of Léonard Duphot (28), poet and brigadier general in the army of Italy.
Duphot was the same age as Napoleon, and was engaged to marry Désirée Clary, Napoleon’s first fiancée. His most beloved poem was Ode aux mânes des héros morts pour la liberté, or Ode to the ghosts of heroes who died for liberty.