Pierre Daumesnil

Vincennes was then an arsenal containing 52,000 new muskets, more than 100 cannon and many tons of powder, bullets and cannonballs—a tempting prize for the Sixth Coalition when it marched on Paris in 1814 in the aftermath of the Battle of the Nations.

However Daumesnil faced down the allies with the famous words "I shall surrender Vincennes when I get my leg back" (Je rendrai Vincennes quand on me rendra ma jambe, with a sort of polysemic pun in French on two possible meanings of rendre - "surrender" and "give back" - that is lost in translation).

At age seventeen, he killed an artilleryman in a duel and was forced to flee Périgueux, walking to Toulouse to join his brother, who was a cavalry trooper in the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees.

He started his military career as a regimental trooper and rose up the ranks on his merits, before becoming a senior officer in the elite Régiment de chasseurs à cheval.

When he had recovered, he joined his regiment in Italy, was promoted, with the rank of brigadier, to the guides of General Bonaparte, and became a "maréchal-des-logis" on 28 October 1797.

He was created Baron of the Empire and was wounded in the left leg on the battlefield of Wagram on 6 July, barely having recovered from a spear that pierced his body at the start of the campaign.

However, Daumesnil, the same night, sortied from the château with 250 horsemen, captured and brought in large quantities of cannon, rifles and ammunition.

He defended the building with the greatest courage against the Allied troops, refusing to surrender it after Napoleon's abdication on 6 April, stating that the contents of the arsenal belonged to France.

With fewer than 200 men, he refused to surrender, insensitive to pressures and attempts at bribery, braving the siege of the fort for more than five months.

[1] After the restoration of the monarchy he was relieved of his position as governor of Vincennes, but his loyalty and diligence was rewarded by being given the Order of Saint Louis and the Château de Condé on 17 January 1815.

Baron Daumesnil was living in retirement when the revolution of July 1830 broke out: one of the government's first acts was to give him back the command of Vincennes, of which the Restoration had stripped him.

When a crowd of enthusiastic revolutionaries demanded the heads of ministers under the walls of Vincennes, Daumesnil replied: "They only belong to the law, you will only have them with my life", and his energy was enough to calm the rioters.

Daumesnil, in full uniform, placed him at his side, in his carriage, and passed through the silent and threatening crowd that blocked his path.