Gaston, Marquis de Galliffet

[2] During the French intervention in Mexico, Galliffet displayed great gallantry in 1863 as a captain at the siege and storming of Puebla, when he was severely wounded.

When he returned to France to recover from his wounds, he was entrusted with the task of presenting the captured standards and colours to the emperor, and was promoted chef d'escadron.

At the Battle of Sedan, which marked the defeat of Napoleon III and the subsequent collapse of the Second French Empire, he led the brigade of Chasseurs d'Afrique in the heroic charge of General Margueritte's cavalry division, which earned him the admiration of the old king of Prussia.

[3] To the desperate entreaties of one woman, who threw herself on her knees begging for mercy, he replied'Madame, I have frequented every theatre in Paris; your acting will have no effect on me.

'[4]In the suppression of the Paris Commune, he did his duty, as he saw it, rigorously and inflexibly, and earned a reputation for severity, which, throughout his later career, made him the object of unceasing attacks in the press and the chamber of deputies.

[2] Later, he took an important part in French politics, as war minister (June 1899 to May 1900) in Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet, and distinguished himself by the firmness with which he dealt with cases of unrest in the army in the midst of the Dreyfus affair.