As a traveler in Spain, Italy, and Russia, the Frenchman Marquis de Custine said in his widely read book Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia that, inside, Nicholas was a good person, and behaved as he did only because he believed he had to.

Custine had prophesised that the command of an army would be “ an evil present ” to him, " Custine certainly could judge men, and he was right in this case, for all who knew the worthy old Houchard considered him as lost when given a charge so much beyond his powers ”.

Paris was in the grip of the Reign of Terror, hanging over him was the spectre of suspicion, Custine himself was under arrest for failing in the field and would shortly die on the scaffold.

Transferred to the army on the Moselle, Kellermann was accused by General Custine of neglecting to support his operations on the Rhine ; but he was acquitted at the bar of the National Convention in Paris, and placed at the head of the army of the Alps and of Italy, in which position he showed himself a careful commander and excellent administrator.

Another French success was the daring expedition into Germany made by Custine from Alsace.

In 1792 he was chosen a captain in a volunteer battalion, and served on the staff of General Custine.

Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine ( February 4, 1740 – August 28, 1793 ) was a French general.

His son was guillotined for attempting to defend him, and his daughter-in-law nearly shared the same fate, but survived, as did his grandson, Astolphe-Louis-Léonor, marquis de Custine.

Astolphe-Louis-Léonor, Marquis de Custine ( March 18, 1790 – October 18, 1857 ) was a French aristocrat and writer who is best known for his travel writing, in particular his account of his visit to Russia in 1839 Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia.

Astolphe de Custine was born in Niderviller, Lorraine, of French nobility.

It was to be the beginning of a difficult life for Astolphe Custine.

Custine was raised by his strong-willed mother and saw a lot of the writer Chateaubriand, who was his mother's lover.

Custine was given an excellent education and seemed to be headed towards a life in society.

Custine eventually discovered that his knack was for travel writing.

Most of Custine's mocking was reserved for the Russian nobility and Nicholas I. Custine said Russia's aristocracy had " just enough of the gloss of European civilization to be ' spoiled as savages ' but not enough to become cultivated men.

Custine had more than one conversation with the Tsar and concluded it was possible that the Tsar only behaved as he did because he felt he had to.

His first campaign was that waged by General Custine against the retreating forces of the duke of Brunswick in 1792.

The fall of de Dampierre and the arrestment of Custine acted fatally on the army of the North, which was now reduced to about thirty thousand rank and file, and these remained in a disorderly state, without a proper chief, and without aim or object, its manoeuvrings committed to chance or directed by ignorance, for with the exception of Kilmaine, its leaders were destitute of skill, experience,

I answered, that in Ireland we had no great confidence in the officers of the old Irish Brigade, so many of them had either deserted, or betrayed the French cause, that, as to Jennings, he had had the unfortunate misfortune to command after Custine, and had been obliged to break up the famous " Camp de Caesar ", that, though this might probably have been no fault of his, it had made an impression, and, as he was at any rate not a fortunate general but a typical Irish soldier of fortune, I thought it would maybe better to have a Frenchman.

Three of his predecessors, Nicolas Luckner, Adam Philippe, comte de Custine, and Jean Nicolas Houchard were under arrest and later executed by guillotine.

Comte de Custine, portrait by Joseph-Désiré Court

In the early 1820s, Custine went along with a marriage arranged by his mother.

The attack had been carried out by a group of soldiers with one of whom Custine allegedly had attempted to have a sexual encounter.

Several Russian authors published works critical on Custine's La Russie en 1839, among them Un mot sur l ' ouvrage de M. de Custine, intitulé: La Russie en 1839 by Xavier Labensky ( Jean Polonius ) and Examen de l ' ouvrage de M. le marquis de Custine intitulé " La Russie en 1839 " ( Paris, 1844 ) by Nicolas Gretch.

When the novel opens, Floyd and Custine are hired by a concerned landlord to investigate the death of one of his tenants.

* Béatrix Cenci, by Astolphe de Custine

* August 28 – Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine, French general ( executed ) ( b. 1740 )

* March 18-Marquis de Custine, French aristocrat and travel writer ( died 1857 )

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* Irena Grudzinska Gross, The Scar of Revolution, Custine, Tocqueville, and the Romantic Imagination, Berkeley 1991.