In the heyday of his youth his high spirits and passion for adventure enabled him to surmount every obstacle with elan.
He was present at the engagements of Hort and Hatvan, converted the doubtful fight of Tap16-Bicsk into a victory, and fought with irresistible elan at the bloody battle of Isaszeg.
The three reservoirs on the Elan were completed in 1904.
But the great reservoir known as Lake Vyrnwy, which supplies Liverpool with water, is equal in size to Bala; and the chain of four artificial lakes constructed by the Birmingham corporation in the valleys of the Elan and Claerwen covers a large area in west Radnorshire.
He was born at St Germain, entered the priesthood and was successively cure of Elan near Mezieres, vicar-general of Pontoise (1747), bishop of Evreux (1753) and archbishop of Toulouse (1758), archbishop of Narbonne in 1763, and in that capacity, president of the estates of Languedoc. He devoted himself much less to the spiritual direction of his diocese than to its temporal welfare, carrying out many works of public utility, bridges, canals, roads, harbours, &c.; had chairs of chemistry and of physics created at Montpellier and at Toulouse, and tried to reduce the poverty, especially in Narbonne.
