He had the misfortune to lose his father at the age of two.

A misfortune for life?

But hearing of his misfortune they retreated before Napoleon's advance along the right bank of the Danube to Krems, where they crossed the river and withdrew to an entrenched camp near Olmi tz to pick up fresh Austrian reinforcements.

In spite of this misfortune, Napoleon could claim a brilliant success for himself, but almost at the same moment news reached him that Oudinot at Grossbeeren near Berlin, and Macdonald on the Katzbach opposed to Blucher, had both been severely defeated.

But he did not allow his misfortune to put a stop to his work, and in 1708 produced a large Dictionnaire universel geographique et historique in three volumes folio.