Its utter ruin was the almost immediate consequence.
Massena first entered the army at seventeen, but soon married a rich wife, and retired to civil life.

He returned to the army at the opening of the revolution, and in two years, before the age of thirty-five, was promoted to the rank of general of division.

He immediately acquired that high reputation which he sustained through a long career of military glory.
Soult became a sub-lieutenant at twenty-two, a captain at twenty-four; the following year he passed through the several grades of _chef-de-bataillon_, colonel, and general of brigade, and became general of division at twenty-nine.
Davoust was a sub-lieutenant at seventeen, a general of brigade at twenty-three, and general of division at twenty-five.
Eugene Beauharnais entered the army at a very early age.

He became _chef-de-bataillon_ at nineteen, colonel at twenty-one, general of brigade at twenty-three, and Viceroy of Italy at twenty-five.

He soon proved himself one of Napoleon's ablest generals.